http://www.billboard.com/photos/stylus/1076849-beyonce-lady-gaga-617-409.jpg

 

Lady Gaga and Beyoncé -- both have eagerly-awaited albums on the way, but their latest singles are getting a less-than-spectacular reaction on the charts. Is there cause for alarm?

 

First up is Lady Gaga's "Judas," which falls 6-19 in its third week on Digital Songs with 81,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan (down 48%). It's the second single from Gaga's third studio album, "Born This Way," due out May 23.

 

 

The set is easily one of the biggest releases of the year, not just for her label, Interscope, and its parent company Universal Music Group -- but for the entire industry. With 5.8 million albums sold in the U.S. since her "The Fame" debuted in August of 2008, all eyes and ears have been trained on Gaga and what "Born" may sell in its first week.

 

 

Could it possibly reach the magic 1 million sales mark in its debut? (A threshold that only 16 albums have achieved, debut or otherwise.)

 

Back in February, previous to the title track and lead single's unveiling on Feb. 11, that was a line of conversation in the industry -- and not a far-fetched one, either. While a 1 million-start was perhaps always a pie-in-the-sky figure -- even back in February -- a forecast of a 750,000-start was plausible. Now, three long months later -- with "Judas" cooling -- the album's first-week projections have certainly been lowered.

 

"Judas" launched with 162,000 after it bowed on Friday, April 15, with only three days of sales (SoundScan's tracking week ends on Sunday of each week). Though one would have suspected it would have grown in sales after it had a full week under its belt -- it actually declined, shifting 156,000 in its second week on the tally.

 

Compare that to the arrival of "Born This Way," which dropped on the morning of Friday, Feb. 11. It debuted with 448,000 downloads, logging the largest debut sum for a female artist. Then, in its second (and first full) week, it increased to 509,000 -- up 14% -- earning the fourth-largest week ever for a digital download and just the fifth song to shift more than 500,000 in a week.

 

Lady Gaga: The 'Born This Way' Billboard Cover Story

 

"Born This Way" -- which famously became the Billboard Hot 100's 1,000th No. 1 single when it debuted atop the list -- went on to become the year's third-biggest selling single, with 2.5 million downloads sold. Only Katy Perry's "E.T." (2.8 mil) and Cee Lo Green's "F**k You (Forget You)" (2.6 mil) have shifted more.

 

Keep in mind of course that "Born" was an incredibly anticipated song that was sure to be a blockbuster -- and thus apples-to-apples comparisons are unfair.

 

On the Hot 100 -- which combines sales, airplay and streaming data -- "Judas" debuted well at No. 10, but then fell to No. 12 in its second week and this week descends to No. 20. On its component Hot 100 Airplay chart, which monitors more than 1,200 radio stations, the song bowed at No. 48 three weeks ago with 26 million in audience impressions according to Nielsen BDS. However, its rise has been slow (if not at least steady). In week number two it moved up to No. 36 with 33.6 million and then this week it shuffles up three spots to No. 31 with 34.6 million.

 

Meanwhile, "Born This Way" exploded onto the Hot 100 Airplay chart at No. 6 with 78.6 million out of the gate, quickly rising to No. 4 the following week with 84.7 million. "Born" ultimately hit No. 1 on the Airplay list on the tally dated April 2, with a peak of 106 million. (Again, "Born This Way" was destined to be an out-of-the-box smash, as it had been hyped for months previous to it release, thus making it hard to compare it to "Judas," nor any other single's performance.)

 

Does any of this spell trouble for the "Born This Way" album? Certainly not. Gaga is cranking up the promotion for the set, and it's likely there won't be any music fans unaware that the album hits retail on the 23rd. This week already she performed on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and unveiled the music video for "Judas." Next week, she'll mentor the final four contestants on "American Idol." However, it's hard to argue with the notion that a blockbuster second single would have pushed the album even further into the sales stratosphere.

 

Lady Gaga to Mentor 'American Idol' Finalists

 

Another diva, Beyoncé, has quickly run aground with her new single "Run the World (Girls)." It slips 23-39 on Digital Songs with 47,000 (down 39%) in its second week and 65-71 on Hot 100 Airplay (16.2 million in audience, down 11%). The tune is the lead single from B's as-yet-untitled fourth solo album, expected later this year.

 

Beyoncé's last effort, 2008's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," was ushered in by two lead singles: the ballad "If I Were a Boy" and the dance number "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)."

 

Both songs bowed at No. 1 on the Digital chart, with the former shifting 190,000 in its first week while the latter sizzled with 204,000. (The songs were released commercially at different times, though both were promoted to radio outlets concurrently.) "Boy" hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Single" spent a month lodged at No. 1. Both were smash radio hits, too: "Boy" climbed to No. 6 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart while "Single" topped the list for five weeks.

 

Beyonce's 'Girls' vs. Lady Gaga's 'Judas': Which Single Is Better?

 

"Fierce" ultimately arrived No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 482,000 and has since sold 2.9 million copies in the U.S.

 

The stylistic curveball "Run the World (Girls)" is -- so far -- not performing comparably to either of "Fierce's" first singles. In fact, it's behaving more like the lead-off track from B's 2006 sophomore album "B'Day" -- "Deja Vu."

 

"Deja Vu" started at No. 3 on the Digital Songs chart with 75,000 (back when that number was a fairly handsome sum in the early days of digital sales). However, it quickly fell down the list, dropping to No. 4 in its second week with 66,000 and then tumbling out of the top 10 in its fourth frame on the list. On the Airplay chart, it spent five weeks in the top 10, topping out at No. 7.

 

"Deja Vu" peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending just two weeks in the top 10. "B'Day's" second single, "Ring the Alarm," faired about as well, never moving more than 56,000 downloads in a week, and peaking at No. 13 on the Airplay chart and at No. 11 on the Hot 100.

 

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Weirdly, even though both "Deja Vu" and "Alarm" were received somewhat cooly, "B'Day" still exploded at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 541,000 sold in its first week. (Perhaps, one could surmise, its handsome debut was generated by goodwill earned from the performance of her smash first album "Dangerously in Love.")

 

It wasn't until "Irreplaceable" -- released four months after "Deja Vu" -- did Beyonce find a certifiable smash hit from "B'Day." The track spent a whopping 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, 11 weeks atop the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and four weeks leading Digital Songs. In turn, it helped lift the "B'Day" back into the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and propelled it to a cumulative 3.3 million albums sold.

 

So, while "Run the World" isn't setting the charts on fire -- it's not the end of the world for Beyoncé -- nor for Lady Gaga. "B'Day" still blew up without a blockbuster lead track, and, once "Irreplaceable" hit, the album found an extended life. As for Gaga -- never underestimate the buying power of her legions of little monsters and her ability to capture the public's attention as we inch closer to the release of "Born This Way."

 

 

What are your thoughts on this?

 

I can see where they are coming from on Beyonce... but idk about 'Judas'...

'Run The World (Girls)' is complete and utter crap - where exactly is the "song"? It's just 3 minutes of noises which hardly constitutes what I consider to be music.

 

'Born This Way' is therefore a million times better (well, there's just no comparison imo) and whilst 'BTW' has a tedious rap and a cringefest of a "don't be a drag" tagline but at least there's a tune there.

 

'Judas' could've exploded had they marketed the song correctly. Instead, they've delayed releasing the video which has resulted in sales of 'Judas' plummeting - not just in USA but it's evident in all European countries charts this week. Had the video been released during Easter week, 'Judas' would be selling much better now than what it currently is.

I agree that quality plays a part here. "Girls Who Run The World" isn't a good song. I like Beyonce but this, to quote Hitastic is, "...just 3 minutes of noises which hardly constitutes what I consider to be music."

 

The "airplay-to-download" approach doesn't seem to be working for the big artists. Judas needed much more promo, a "normal" release date i.e. a Monday in the UK and the video needed to debut on a Monday too to get that whole week's worth of sales in before the chart on Sunday. Neither release has been handled well in terms of gaining maxium sales and chart positions imo.

I really don't understand the hatred for Girls. I mean, yes of course it's very bad, but it sounds exactly like Single Ladies to me (which was horrific as well). I don't understand why one is good and the other isn't. Must be my ears...

Maybe it further proves that some major record lables are just clueless when it comes to marketing new releases.

 

Just because 'Born This Way' did extremely well upon its release, the record company perhaps just assumed 'Judas' would do the same thing hence also releasing on a Friday.

 

Releasing a track on a Thursday with no promotion is just plain silly. Beyonce was lucky to enter at #18 in the UK that week and she still missed the UK top 10 despite being low top 10 on iTunes earlier in the week last Sunday. Now the track is slipping down again and even when the music video is released, I'll be gobsmacked if the track eventually hit #1.

 

Maybe we should be thankful that people are no longer being fooled by lazy music. Release a slice of $h!te, don't start crying when the song bombs. Do what Adele has done and actually spend time working on an excellent album with so many brilliant tracsk, sit back and reap the rewards. :D

I'm not quite sure what people are trying to say here.

 

The US has always done on air, on sale. I don't understand why people are saying it's "not working" for Beyonce, when it's worked for her for like the past 10 years.

 

As for Girls, I think it's a good song. I can see why people like it. I think it's quite different to Single Ladies, so I can see why people might like one, and hate the other. True though, both are very noisy, and can sound very messy, but they're definitely some of the catchiest songs. I preferred Single Ladies, but Girls is decent too.

Radio just aren't playing these two songs in America, which is the cold hard fact. To be fair to Judas however, it got massive updates for it's first few days and reached 38 odd million impressions very quickly. The rolling effect hit and it never really recovered, but if you look back to Born This Way; a 106 million peak for such an initially heavily rotated song is rather subdued compared to the 128 million and 147 million (so far) peaks for S&M and ET. GaGa has never done exceptionally well on radio, BTW being the exception; her biggest radio hit remains Paparazzi, and not even Bad Romance got phenomenal impresssions. She never was as big on radio as she is in sales.

 

As for iTunes; Judas has been lingering in the Top 20 since it experienced its sharp decline from the Top 10, and has since moved back up to #11 after the video release. Plus, Born This Way has been in the Top 20/15 since it fell from the Top 10 on iTunes aswell, and is currently #15. People are still buying her music, regardless of radio plays. Her performance digitally has been nowhere near as dreadful as Beyonce's new single, which has plummeted and is currently #88 (Keri Hilson's Pretty Girl Rock is still higher than her).

 

The Judas video also seems to have been better recieved than the darker and longer Born This Way video was, and if it still shown on AI, then streaming should be great aswell. There's still time yet, and if after her AI performance her sales increase, then radio will cave and start playing Judas more again: On the Floor style. It's got off to a very shaky start, due to reasons I think Hitstastic has already explained, but it could yet stabalise. Or if worse comes to worse, she can always release a remix :kink:

 

As for Beyonce, the article is right in saying this could follow a B-Day pattern, the release date for her next single is reportedly being brought forward (the snippet does sound more radio friendly) and there are talks of further iTunes singles to promote the album.

 

Moving onto album sales, I'm sure both will do fantasically. One dodgy single doesn't undermine their overall selling power or their mega fanbases. The night is still young.

Edited May 7, 201114 yr by Daniel II

^ I'm pretty sure she'll release remixes to Judas anyway. Infact, I can't imagine her not doing it.

He meant a high-profile remix with a featured artist adding a verse, I assume. ;)

He meant a high-profile remix with a featured artist adding a verse, I assume. ;)

 

Oh right. :lol: Yeah, I doubt it. I read somewhere that Lady Gaga said in an interview that she doesn't want to do any more collabs with big artists.

He meant a high-profile remix with a featured artist adding a verse, I assume. ;)

Oh right. :lol: Yeah, I doubt it. I read somewhere that Lady Gaga said in an interview that she doesn't want to do any more collabs with big artists.

Yeah Theo got it right haha, and I meant it as a sarcastic little jibe to the recent trend of releasing high profile remixes to boost sales and airplay; ET, S&M, Till the World Ends and apparently now Sleazy.

Edited May 7, 201114 yr by Daniel II

Well, it's been happening for years tbh, waaay before E.T., etc, so I wouldn't say it's a recent trend.

 

Even Lady Gaga participated in one a couple of years ago, with, ironically Beyonce. Video Phone was originally just a Beyonce solo track, as you can find on her album, but they added Lady Gaga to it for the single remix (I guess it was in return for Beyonce being on Telephone).

Edited May 7, 201114 yr by Eric_Blob

Well, it's been happening for years tbh, waaay before E.T., etc, so I wouldn't say it's a recent trend.

 

Even Lady Gaga participated in one a couple of years ago, with, ironically Beyonce. Video Phone was originally just a Beyonce solo track, as you can find on her album, but they added Lady Gaga to it for the single remix (I guess it was in return for Beyonce being on Telephone).

 

You're still missing the point a bit, Kanye was added to E.T. specifically for the single release whereas with Rihanna/Britney and Britney/Nicki/Ke$ha the original version was already being promoted as the single then a remix with a high profile artist added on was released to boost sales.

You're still missing the point a bit, Kanye was added to E.T. specifically for the single release whereas with Rihanna/Britney and Britney/Nicki/Ke$ha the original version was already being promoted as the single then a remix with a high profile artist added on was released to boost sales.

 

That is true. Although, to be fair, they did promote the remixes a little bit. :lol:

The reason Run The World (Girls) is flopping is that it's an awful song. I'm sorry, it really is. I gave it time to grow and I just can't enjoy listening to it.

 

Judas, on the other hand; not only is it not flopping HORRIBLY (continuing Gaga's top 10 streak), it's actually a good song. It's increasing again due to music video hype, anyway. I feel like we haven't seen the last of Judas, chart-wise.

 

As well, the albums will both be fine. They still have the reputation to manage a high debut.

Edited May 8, 201114 yr by MANIAC

Run the World is better than Judas imo.

 

But I agree with you. I think Judas will do quite a bit more to do in the charts, both in the US and the UK.

Run the World is better than Judas imo.

 

Just curious, why do you say that? Honestly asking. It might be my own personal bias because I love Pon De Floor, so I just want to see why other people like that song.

Just curious, why do you say that? Honestly asking. It might be my own personal bias because I love Pon De Floor, so I just want to see why other people like that song.

 

Surely if you love Pon De Floor, you would love Run the World, since both songs are rather similar?!!! :lol:

 

For me, if a song that I love gets sampled, I also love the sampling track (not always, but the vast majority of the time).

 

Judas, however, I just find extremely boring. Especially the chorus.

Edited May 11, 201114 yr by Eric_Blob

Surely if you love Pon De Floor, you would love Run the World, since both songs are rather similar?!!! :lol:

They're pretty much the same song. I listened to 'Pon De Floor' a few weeks ago, and it's pretty much an instrumental version of 'Run the World (Girls)'.

Surely if you love Pon De Floor, you would love Run the World, since both songs are rather similar?!!! :lol:

 

I love Pon De Floor and hate Run The World. Yes they may be similar but Run The World has Beyonce's vocals on it and it just doesn't suit her :puke: :puke: