fanguts

Whichever PR employee convinced them to do that god awful Instagram kiss video should have been fired on the spot. I think that alone put off a hell of a lot of people, not just from the relationship but from Shawn and Camila as individuals. Especially for Shawn, after years of being very private and talking extensively about his struggles with anxiety brought on by so much attention, a sudden display of over the top PDA likely alienated a lot of fans. That video will haunt them both for a very long time, I feel. And it doesn't help that even though there's no song with Camila on the album, she's still been overly present in the whole promotional process than Shawn was for Romance. I respect that they're in love and want to share that, but they could have done it in a way that wasn't so clumsy and forced. Where they both go from here is anyone's guess. The perception of the relationship is clearly affecting their reputations in the public arena, and they should probably work on scaling it back. If they're both as genuine as they say about privacy, they should be able to do that. Shawn was probably never going to have a massive Thank U Next/Purpose style era; I always imagined him having the longevity of someone like Pink who never really reached the superstar status of Britney or Xtina, but stayed true to herself and her music and ended up being a lasting hit maker. I think Shawn could still be like that, but I can't help but think he maybe needs to take a year or two properly away to sort himself out and really perfect his craft and work on his public image. Not too long obviously - 2022/2023 at the latest. He has the potential but his team have seriously fumbled his image in the last 18 months.

I wonder (haha) what's going on behind the scenes, if anything, because despite getting the #1 in the US/Canada the album has still subsequently gone into freefall there too and the singles are not really taking off either. I know Shawn himself has said he's stopped caring as much about commercial success but he's still a major pop star tied to a major label with major stakes and frankly too many outside interests invested in his success for them to just take this level of underperformance on the chin. I'm not saying there's panic talks going on but.....something needs to happen to turn the era around a little. And I do wonder where a lot of the support from his last cycle as gone; and I wouldn't be surprised if it's down to things like the fact he's grown his hair out and is a bit less of the teen idol now. He gets constant hate tweets that do pretty big numbers about how boring people find him etc. He's definitely on the "and then we tear them down" stage of his career. So, are they going to push a third single? Will we get a random re-issue in like 9 months time lead by a song that's much more commercial than Wonder or Monster? Or are they just going to take the slight L here and change direction for the next album? Interesting times.

A major f*** up has been made somewhere, I wonder how many sales he lost out on this week?

Very surprised at how badly he's doing! I thought he'd struggle for Top 5 but would be safely Top 10 and now it's looking like that's at risk too. Where did his support go?

I expected a lot better from this. This era's really not doing much for me so far, hopefully something will kick into gear soon and click with me. I've tried to force myself to like Wonder and I've still not got there and I don't expect this to be any different.

Imagine telling someone a year ago Cher and KSI were going to be on a charity single together

You forget how many big hits Ellie had

2019/2020 update!

I do appreciate the fact they made sure to put a shower scene in there

Whoever said if Fight Song was your actual Fight Song you'd be bound to lose was on to something. Just ask Hillary Clinton.

Without Me feels overly high here, though it doesn't feel as odd as its placing as the 12th biggest song of the entire decade in the US!

Born This Way not making #1 honestly shocked me at the time because Gaga was the biggest act on the planet and it seemed so assured. Not that I was too disappointed as I never warmed to the single at all, and still don't S&M was a moment. Rihanna seemed unable to do wrong back then, heavily censored as it was, I'm sure she was still the only person at the time who could have made something that explicit a hit. Rather like Miley, it all seems quite tame in hindsight.

A mention of Justin Bieber has me interested to see what the male equivalent of this thread would look like. That said I'm sure Ed Sheeran and Drake would take up about 60% of it.

I get Miley regretting the Wrecking Ball video but at the same time, in the era of WAP we're currently in, it all seems remarkably tame and everyone losing their minds over it feels like an overreaction. Also the song itself is nothing special so I don't think it would have done as well without it. Never Enough is memorable to me only because of the hilarious meta-narrative in The Greatest Showman that Ferguson is meant to be wowing them with a stunning opera performance when all we hear is essentially a forgettable Mariah album track. Royals, in hindsight, really set the tone of pop music for the rest of the decade. Not a song I love as much as one I appreciate. A crying shame Green Light won't be popping up here, one of the best songs of the decade.

She more or less released all the good songs as singles so I never really bothered with the rest of it after one initial listen.

I liked Sax at the time but it's not aged particularly well and the ASDA overexposure does not help. Let You Love Me is one of my favourite Rita singles! She was very consistent for a short time there.

Ciao Adios was the last decent thing Anne-Marie has released. Teenage Dream is one of the undisputed pop classics of the decade, have to wonder how many entries Katy has left? I can only think of 2 more that will have sold enough.

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, looking back, was the proud start of Taylor leading her album campaigns with one of its more mediocre offerings. Luckily, Red is a phenomenal album so WANEGBT is still pretty damn good.

Completely forgot Taylor and Jake were a ‘thing’. Luckily he found love with Tom Holland by decades end. Inflation is showing. Issues and Crying In The Club definitely don’t feel like they were this big, even if the latter is a bop, though I must say it’s opening is identical to Cheap Thrills.

Kind of shocked at how badly this is underperforming at the moment, not gonna lie. Senorita was an outlier but even so you'd think he'd be safe for a Top 20 debut. It's not even as if there's many shows on the air they can rush him on for a quick bit of promo either, not the greatest start to the era which is a shame because the song is great.

Easily Camila's weakest single so far. That nicotine-heroine-morphine bridge will haunt me until my dying days, I'm mildly concerned it will be playing as I die. Say Something was good, though I had completely forgotten it until now!

Definitely not. End Game is by far her worst song ever for me :puke2: I love Taylor to death but sometimes I wanna ask her wtf she's thinking with some of her single choies. LWYMMD when Getaway Car was sitting right there?! Me and You Need To Calm Down when Cruel Summer existed?

Very impressive that Ariana has the second highest number of entries. I would assume Rihanna has the most?

Let's be real, it'll be her only number one.

Very exciting! I remember reading your 80s, 90s and 00s threads years back - almost a decade ago themselves!