Is Glory really dead? - Updated Sales

[Allmylife]

2 hours ago, iZacaree said:

Exactly. Britney definitely played it safe on this album. She's even stated, herself, that "Revival" by SG was her biggest inspiration - so she created an album that is very similar to it, sonically. ITZ was ground-breaking.

I don't think she played it safe at all, and ITZ wasn't groundbreaking as much as her fans like to think it is. Toxic BOM TOMH were groundbreaking. Most of the songs were also what was hot in 2003, R&b and hip hop tinged pop.

 

revival Britney said was an inspiration explicitly for invitation. Yes there are some songs on glory that are current but what song out there sounds like change your mind? Hard to forget ya? What you need? Coupure electrique? If I'm dancing? Just like me? 

[Hannah]

2 hours ago, badunkahunk said:

Still waiting for those receipts. 

 the receipts are already posted. MATM peaked at 35 on the Billboard 100 and it is her lowest peak for a lead single on any of her albums.

[TheLightningThief]

Britards, stop saying "ITZ flopped until Toxic happened" because it's a damn LIE. 

ITZ debuted with 609,000 copies in the US (source), and 1,110,000 in the world (source).
Before Toxic was released, ITZ was still Top 10 in the US (source) and Top 5 in the world (source) AFTER SIX WEEKS from its release.

"Me Againt The Music" charted in the Top 5 of 20 countries (including six #1s). The reason it flopped in the US is because Britney was under radio ban from Clear Channel. So basically, just like the singles from "Britney", MATM never had a chance in the US.

Britney got banned on radio from late 2001 because ClearChannel asked Jive to let them be a sponsor for the Dream Within A Dream Tour and Jive told them they were going with AEG. ClearChannel got pissed off and banned Britney from being played on the radio in retaliation. This lasted from 2001 to 2003, meaning that the singles from Overprotected to Me Against The Music weren't allowed to be played. Prior to the blacklist, ‘Slave’ was actually receiving a good amount of airplay, hitting top 15 on Pop, top 5 on Dance, and #85 on R&B (becoming her first entry on the chart.)

When the Onyx Hotel Tour was being planned, ClearChannel again approached Jive and offered its services, and Jive said yes. MATM was out by then and had a troubled run, stalling even lower than Slave, but once the tour started Britney had radio support again, AND her blockbuster Toxic was the first song to get the benefit of full radio support since, and the people LOVED the song too. Everytime also did well. The blacklist finally ended in November 2003, shortly after the release of ‘Me Against The Music.’ (source)

[UNX]

47 minutes ago, LionHeart said:

I'm happy with Glory!

Her album is awesome,

britney looks incredible,

She is promoting, performing better than ever!

she isn't promoting in US, 

she is almost 20 years old in her career, 

Stop being controlled by charts, is not time to be such insecure stans anymore, is not 2008-not 2000, it's 2016 and britney is not trending like she uses too in her young pop star years, she is doing pretty good.

Music Industry today works like this, the impact you get goes down quick!, it doesn't mean britney is floping, it means that the music industry is moving fast.

In asia happens the same way since many years and doesnt means artists are floping.

 

But without some good numbers, the era is over. RCA is bad, this label wants easy money. Britney had only two singles, Glory needs 4 or 5 singles, tbh. Without a good charting, it's difficult. I agree with you, but we need same numbers, Britney needs. And it is not about much bigger sales.

[troubleguy]

IT JUST DIDN'T WORK 

we need B10 ASAP 

[YoungOne]

35 minutes ago, UNX said:

But without some good numbers, the era is over. RCA is bad, this label wants easy money. Britney had only two singles, Glory needs 4 or 5 singles, tbh. Without a good charting, it's difficult. I agree with you, but we need same numbers, Britney needs. And it is not about much bigger sales.

sorry to disagree! but era ends if britney stops promoting it and doing stuff, she is doing it this days, the era lives and is happening right now. when she announces her last single and astoped promoting you can tell that Glory' era is over, and it ends today is >>> BO, Circus, FF, BJ. im ok with her not being number one if she stills going like she is doing with her stage performances and how great she looks

 

[BrittonJeanSpears]

4 hours ago, badunkahunk said:

yes hun. And so are you. Give Glory an honest listen. FABULOUS ALBUM. But is there a toxic on there? Make me? Slumber Party? Liar? Love Me Down? All good songs...but not the Grammy award winning, innovative, one of a kind global smash of toxic. Get real tbh 

I want your **** in me.

But yeah... Glory is dead and buried and the only reason people are talking about single 2 is why we were still talking about BJ Single 3 in February; DENIAL.

[Someone Who Knows]

The album is great but the rollout has been a mess. The promo performances were perfectly serviceable but they didn't come until nearly six weeks after the song was released. She tried to promote an album with a single that needed the support she never gave it until it was too late. It wouldn't have been such a problem, though, if it weren't for the fact that the video is just boring. It's such a missed opportunity and there is a lot of blame to go around. I have to ask myself, though: I'm a fan, and I find the Make Me performance boring and the video boring and the song to be just good. Why should I expect others to think it's amazing? She needs to release a big dance song again.

[MaPlayz]

Lotta things going on here.... so here's my two cents.

First off, it all depends on how Brit/her team wants her career to progress. The goals could be to

a) gain cultural momentum again and make her relevant to young people

b) keep promoting her as a legacy around and having her career as a current artist continue to fade out while raking in the cash through ads/tours etc.

If it's b), then no single 2, no other promo, no other performance is needed. However, if it's a) Britney and her team are after, then not releasing a second/third/maybe even fourth single could quite honestly be the stupidest thing they could do. How is she ever going to gain momentum again if all she does is release one single off an album?! If Adele does it, that's fine, because her album sold millions of copies. She has the exposure that Britney lacks. I think it's safe to say that most people buying the album were fans. Otherwise sales wouldn't be around 100k first week, then drop to 250 copies two months in (I'm exaggerating but you get the point.) It's not like millions of people listened to the album and came to the conclusion "It's bad and a flop, make it go away." Truth is, barely anyone has listened to the album and its respective songs aside from "Make Me" and no one ever will if she doesn't keep putting new singles out there. The sad thing about all this is that everyone who hears it loves it. The whole point now isn't even promoting Glory anymore - it's to make people realize she put new & fresh music out there AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO. If Brit doesn't put out a couple more singles, it's another "legacy" record for the fans, insignificant to the GP,  and come B10, the BJ cycle continues and the same thing will happen all over again, only on a worse scale.

The truth of the matter is that you can only rely on your past success so much to sell. And I think Britney and her team have realized it. It works as long as there isn't a generational shift because the people that grow up with you will undoubtedly always know your name and follow your stuff because of the nostalgia factor. But once a new generation doesn't listen to your stuff anymore because you're no longer a staple of their cultural zeitgeist, you're starting to run into trouble. Yes, there's exceptions and yes, there's the occasional success (Madonna's COADF, Mariah's TEOM album) - but even then, they sink back into generation xyz's cultural oblivion. Both Madonna and Mariah will keep her fans regardless, but they're not gonna have an impactful cultural movement again the way they did decades ago.

Look at how much she's promoting this time around - she's performing at festivals, she's giving interviews and is on pretty much every major cultural outlet as a guest.

Question - why doesn't it take??

Answer - because currently, she doesn't have the momentum for people to REALLY care. Yeah, it's great that she does all this promotion, but if it's not a continuous effort on her part, then there's no point in doing it in the first place (unless she really is doing it just for fun.) From a business/marketing perspective, what she needs now is continuous promotion. A dope-*** video for the best single choice and then go out there and keep promoting. Then single 3 + video, then single 4 + video. Throw in some controversy in one of the vids to actually make people watch the damn thing.

Having said all this - I'm perfectly happy with her taking it slower and releasing new albums here and there, so if that's what she wants, then I'm all for it. But again, if girl wants more, she gotta continue to give us moah.

 

[WootsWow]

5 hours ago, badunkahunk said:

I'm sorry I'm not sure what part you are disagreeing with, could you actually be specific? You can check the radio updates if you're that thirsty. MATM and Hey Ya were back to back for weeks going for the number 1 spot. 

I was applauding you.

[3Pney]

6 hours ago, Million Billion said:

That's probably because she hasn't actually performed her album 

 

its not just promo tho.
i mean look at womanizer. she did almost same promo or maybe less but the music video was mind blowing and enough to get GP's attention.
 

this era started with non-uptempo song with a disney-level basic music video that even her loyal fans dont watch. 

so its about the quality.

[TheCharmedTributes1]

I love the album and I really don't have a clue why it didn't click with the gp. I mean her promo performances for FF were worst and the album still smashed...

But it's funny tho - I feel like fans are only pushing this idea of her "caring" about this album much more than her previous ones and being involved with it, only because they actually like the material. Cause if you look at the interviews (avoiding talking about Glory at all) and performances-wise (almost all of MM and DYWCO performances were pretty much meh imo and again - completely ignoring other songs at Apple Festival, iHeart and so on), she doesn't really appear to care much for it than she did for FF or BJ. Plus - the 2nd single is long overdue and it looks almost like we aren't getting any (I'll cross my fingers I'm wrong, though)...

Idk... this era is everything we could ask for but at the same time it's the strangest one...

[3Pney]

3 minutes ago, TheCharmedTributes1 said:

I love the album and I really don't have a clue why it didn't click with the gp. I mean her promo performances for FF were worst and the album still smashed...

 

are you serious ?? LOL

TTWE, IWG > boring-basic make me.
TTWE,IWG's Music videos>> Disney-level make me MV
 

 u still wonder why FF were more succesfull? 

Tbh i only listened to Make me while i was watching her promo performances.
i stopped listening to it after a short time of its release. such a boring song.  

[S0ggyBiscuit]

#Justice4Glory.... I don't even see physical copies in stores, again did they even ship the fxxkin album?

[TheCharmedTributes1]

11 minutes ago, 3Pney said:

are you serious ?? LOL

TTWE, IWG > boring-basic make me.
TTWE,IWG's Music videos>> Disney-level make me MV
 

 u still wonder why FF were more succesfull? 

Tbh i only listened to Make me while i was watching her promo performances.
i stopped listening to it after a short time of its release. such a boring song.  

Everybody's entitled to their own opinion. I think Make Me is one of her best singles. Critics praised it too and a lot of people who usually hate on Britney, liked it. Which is a success in my book. I agree on the video, tho. I only watched MM like one or two times, while FF had amazing music videos

[517113]

6 hours ago, TheLightningThief said:

No. In the Zone sold 609,000 during its first week. MATM was a smash hit all over the world except the US because Britney was still banned from radio.

What caused Britney's music to be banned from radio at the time?

[CaliSky]

29 minutes ago, MaPlayz said:

Lotta things going on here.... so here's my two cents.

First off, it all depends on how Brit/her team wants her career to progress. The goals could be to

a) gain cultural momentum again and make her relevant to young people

b) keep promoting her as a legacy around and having her career as a current artist continue to fade out while raking in the cash through ads/tours etc.

If it's b), then no single 2, no other promo, no other performance is needed. However, if it's a) Britney and her team are after, then not releasing a second/third/maybe even fourth single could quite honestly be the stupidest thing they could do. How is she ever going to gain momentum again if all she does is release one single off an album?! If Adele does it, that's fine, because her album sold millions of copies. She has the exposure that Britney lacks. I think it's safe to say that most people buying the album were fans. Otherwise sales wouldn't be around 100k first week, then drop to 250 copies two months in (I'm exaggerating but you get the point.) It's not like millions of people listened to the album and came to the conclusion "It's bad and a flop, make it go away." Truth is, barely anyone has listened to the album and its respective songs aside from "Make Me" and no one ever will if she doesn't keep putting new singles out there. The sad thing about all this is that everyone who hears it loves it. The whole point now isn't even promoting Glory anymore - it's to make people realize she put new & fresh music out there AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO. If Brit doesn't put out a couple more singles, it's another "legacy" record for the fans, insignificant to the GP,  and come B10, the BJ cycle continues and the same thing will happen all over again, only on a worse scale.

The truth of the matter is that you can only rely on your past success so much to sell. And I think Britney and her team have realized it. It works as long as there isn't a generational shift because the people that grow up with you will undoubtedly always know your name and follow your stuff because of the nostalgia factor. But once a new generation doesn't listen to your stuff anymore because you're no longer a staple of their cultural zeitgeist, you're starting to run into trouble. Yes, there's exceptions and yes, there's the occasional success (Madonna's COADF, Mariah's TEOM album) - but even then, they sink back into generation xyz's cultural oblivion. Both Madonna and Mariah will keep her fans regardless, but they're not gonna have an impactful cultural movement again the way they did decades ago.

Look at how much she's promoting this time around - she's performing at festivals, she's giving interviews and is on pretty much every major cultural outlet as a guest.

Question - why doesn't it take??

Answer - because currently, she doesn't have the momentum for people to REALLY care. Yeah, it's great that she does all this promotion, but if it's not a continuous effort on her part, then there's no point in doing it in the first place (unless she really is doing it just for fun.) From a business/marketing perspective, what she needs now is continuous promotion. A dope-*** video for the best single choice and then go out there and keep promoting. Then single 3 + video, then single 4 + video. Throw in some controversy in one of the vids to actually make people watch the damn thing.

Having said all this - I'm perfectly happy with her taking it slower and releasing new albums here and there, so if that's what she wants, then I'm all for it. But again, if girl wants more, she gotta continue to give us moah.

 

Good thoughts. Totally agree. I think Britney, herself, possibly has no clue who she wants to be as an "artist." A total identity crisis. Unfortunately, its one she desperately needs to sort out rather quickly if she has any hopes of continuing to thrive in the industry. I don't know how honestly self-aware of a person she is. 

[CaliSky]

Unfortunately, albums that have flopped this hard don't come back from that in a significant way. The best case scenario for Britney this go around is a hit single. 

[ItsGodneyB**ch]

Dead and buried

[Scrappy]

I think Britney has lost her spark. She's watered down her routines, disappointing die-hard fans, and taken out heavy choreography altogether in favor of armography. Post breakdown, that was fine and acceptable because folks figured she'd need something easier. But seeing how healthy she is, it just comes across as lazy, uninspired, and talentless. If she doesn't sing and she doesn't dance, and her performances are mediocre at best, and all her noticeable facial features that made her cute and unique have been shaved off/botoxed to death, what exactly is her allure? A pretty, plastic-faced blonde who flails her arms around just doesn't cut it. I mean, that was basically her competition back in the day and look where they are now.

Glory didn't stand a chance, and I would argue it has nothing to do  with Piece of Me so much as Britney just isn't stepping up her routines and making them memorable as before. They're boring and one looks the same as every other. I mean, when the highlight of a performance is an assisted back walk-over, you know it's not a good day to be a Britney fan.  This Britney would never have made it back in the day and nostalgia will only keep her memory alive so long. By the GPs reaction, her star has already faded.