Was reading elsewhere a thread on a US chart forum about the biggest flop single ever in the US

Won by Christina Aguilera-Dirty

Her lead from her album 2 after her debut having three US #1s

The simble bombed there not even making the top 40

 

So what you reckon is the biggest uk single flop?

Something with big expectations that didnt perform?

I genuinely cannot think of anything obvious…

Recently I’d say Jess Glynne - Silly Me is probably the biggest?

The Lil Nas X one from last January?

 

 

Whale Whale Whale

I can’t believe how much that song flopped in the US it was huge here in the U.K, the double whammy of Dirrty then Beautiful made her a major star over here!

I can’t believe how much that song flopped in the US it was huge here in the U.K, the double whammy of Dirrty then Beautiful made her a major star over here!

 

Same in Australia, they were both very decent sized hits.

Dirrty flopped in the US because radio didn't want to play it. At the time sales were so low in general that no one got Hot 100 hits without good airplay. That's why Me Against the Music flopped as well. The album sales told the true popularity and Stripped opened with 330k in its first week.

Edited December 26, 2024Dec 26 by Sour Candy

I’ve also always found the US record sales really interesting too. 330k being deemed as high sales for an album in a country with a population of 335 million when acts in the U.K. could sell over 100k first week with a population of 60 million - sales always seemed a little low in USA really.

I’d Wait for Life - Take That

Not ever, but if we are talking 2024;

 

Talking about Madonna, I reckon that single with Nicki Minaj, Gimme all your loving that peaked at @37 could count as a big flop

Recently I’d say Jess Glynne - Silly Me is probably the biggest?

 

100%! Easily the flop of this decade, although 'How To Be Lonely' is also a good shout.

 

There's definitely a case for 'Well Well Well' being this century's greatest, like there's no way I would have imagined the lead single from her second album missing the top 40.

Jessie J - "Real Deal"

 

Lead single for her 4th album. Didn't chart after a relatively successful 3rd album for Jessie. The entire R.O.S.E. campaign pretty much killed her career.

A lot of them people who win big awards too early end up flopping. Alessio Caro or something like that maybe Raye recently. But hard to think of a specific thing

(Hopefully the first version of this post stays in buzzjack down jail)

 

I’ve also always found the US record sales really interesting too. 330k being deemed as high sales for an album in a country with a population of 335 million when acts in the U.K. could sell over 100k first week with a population of 60 million - sales always seemed a little low in USA really.

There's a couple of reasons for that. Think of the charts as a triangle where the higher you are, the higher your sales are. You need to have a 4 times bigger triangle to double the height while maintaining the same ratio

 

In general, America is a lot larger and the population is more spread out. It means for a lot more difference in collective interest, and it's a lot harder to quickly proliferate a hit song (or anything) across the whole population. No single station in America has the same proportional reach as the BBC does.

 

As for the OP question, I find it really difficult to figure out because when I look at these things in hindsight, I see a lot of failed hits that don't sound like they ever could have been hits. If I can notice it, I'm sure the artist and/or label can too. Not every song is designed to be a #1 smash, they can represent artistic freedom, make a statement, or be something other than an attempt to interest as many people as possible. Is "Perfect Illusion" by Lady Gaga a flop? Maybe, but it is Platinum in Australia and on its way there in the US, that's a pretty good innings for a song that sounds like that, even if it's not so good for a Lady Gaga lead single.

 

It gets more complicated in the streaming age because we're not really witnessing the apparent idea of people hearing a song and deciding whether or not to buy it. It's just a question of if they heard it or not. All the songs that are infamous duds of late are just songs that most people haven't heard, and haven't weighed in on or not. You can imagine a song with a lot of reach not getting bought and then it's a flop that no one likes, but now it's just a song that isn't getting heard and that doesn't say anything about how good it is, just how well it was marketed.

 

I also think about songs like "About Damn Time" by Lizzo, which plummeted down in the early days of its release but then got a second wind and soared back up. Does the early performance suggest that the song was destined to be a flop in a fair system and that it was bailed out by good marketing and luck, or was the song just an obvious smash that needed time to get going? If that's the case, then there are other flop songs that just never got that chance, and that can't be held against them. It feels like there are a small group of early tastemakers who decide these things and most people aren't really in a position to challenge it so they just go along with it. It's like on Reddit where whether or not a comment's first vote is up or down can decide where everyone else goes with it. Your sense of whether or not it's a good comment is influenced so strongly by what's already been decided that you just follow suit. Those new Lil Nas X songs can't be good because otherwise they'd have taken off by now, runs on the same logic.

As a huge Kylie fan - when her 97 single 'Some Kind Of Bliss', the lead from the IP era became her first single to chart outside the top20, that was a big flop. I still love it though.

Relative to BuzzJack expectations the one that always sticks in mind is 'Silly Boy' by Eva Simons, there was a pretty strong consensus on here that it was going to be a #1 or at least a big top 10 hit and it proceeded to miss the top 100 entirely. (Although Eva did eventually get a #1 ofc).

I’d Wait for Life - Take That

This is quite a good shout - obviously the album was selling big numbers anyway and that would've been a slight hindrance, but following two massive #1s and with another huge hit around the corner, it's surprising they didn't have enough fans to take I'd Wait for Life to the top 10 at least! A #17 peak with one week top 40 isn't a strong showing at all (and, having only heard the song recently, it's a baffling choice really). Follow Me Home by Sugababes feels like a similar example - late in the campaign of course, but even with two CD formats, it couldn't get higher than #32, making it the lowest peaking single of their heyday, ending a run of 7 top 10 hits (with 3 more to come following it).

 

I wouldn't say WOMAN'S WORLD myself - as much as it obviously had a very negative response online, I don't think its chart performance felt much out of line with where Katy left off with the Smile era, and to me, this kind of thing relies a lot on the context of the artist's track record at that moment. Jessie J and Jess Glynne's named tracks are both very strong suggestions, both following eras that contained #1 hits (albeit Jessie's was a collaboration with Ariana and Nicki which helped generate the buzz, but to go from that to no top 100 hits isn't great).

The online buzz for Katy was great until the world found out that she was working with Dr. Puke. In that sense, WW did about what was expected, but there was such a huge "what if" discourse too.

Various Artists - It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll

 

Chickenshed - I Am In Love With The World

 

George Michael & Whitney Houston - If I Told You That

 

Louisa Johnson - Forever Young

 

Most of these were hyped to the hilt and failed to perform, the first one was supposed to be the next Perfect Day and stiffed at No.19 - I cannot imagine the cost to put this together, and for charity too, for such a tiny return.

 

The second one was in memory of Princess Diana and was touted as a contender for Christmas No.1 that peaked at No.15, and the third was a superstar duet that I definitely thought would be a No.1 and it ended up at No.9. Even the follow up from Whitney, an Enrique collab, did better - I don’t really get what happened there.

 

Louisa - all those massive X Factor No.1s in a row and even Ben Haenow was pretty big the year before - there was nothing to suggest the bubble was about to burst in such dramatic fashion when this went in at No.9.

Edited December 27, 2024Dec 27 by gooddelta