Messed Up Eras

[Au$tin]

There's been tons of times fans have been upset with the single selections from albums. I am no exception, and I'm sure most of you out there aren't either. So, what are some mistake singles or songs that should've been singles or whatever the case that you feel should've been dealt with in a different direction?

I definitely feel that Katy Perry's One of the Boys had a pretty screwy release. I love all the singles picked and I agree with them, but the order was really messed up. The fourth single was "Thinking of You." I really disagree with that. I mean, what were the first three singles? "Ur So Gay," "I Kissed a Girl," and "Hot N Cold." All three are upbeat electropop songs. "Ur So Gay" was a promotional single, and flopped of course, but "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot N Cold" were undoubtedly two mega hits. However, One of the Boys is very pop/rock, excluding those three songs. The step down from "Hot N Cold," extremely upbeat electropop, to "Thinking of You," slow pop/rock ballad, was too steep. People who didn't own the album knew Katy as an electropop artist, not as a pop/rock artist, of which she is. What they should've done is released "Waking Up In Vegas" before "Thinking of You," which is not as big of a difference. "Waking Up In Vegas" is still upbeat, like "Ur So Gay," "I Kissed a Girl," and "Hot N Cold," but is pure pop/rock, like "Thinking of You." The difference wouldn't be as shocking and people would've warmed up to it better than warming up to "Thinking of You." "Thinking of You" would've done a whole lot better after "Waking Up In Vegas," rather than following "Hot N Cold."

Miley's team also screwed up in the Meet Miley Cyrus album. No one really expected anything from it to blow up, but when "See You Again" did, what did they do about it? Nothing. They let it run its course with very little interference. They even tried to release another single, "Start All Over," while "See You Again" was still growing strength. They even went as far as recording an official video for "Start All Over," Miley's first official video. "See You Again" did not receive a video. It did get a live video, like "G.N.O. (Girl's Night Out)," and "I Miss You," but an official video would've done a whole lot better and maybe, just maybe, might have propelled it into the top five on the Hot 100, and the top three on CHR.

[when the pawn...]

Maroon 5's It Won't Be Soon Before Long - WGHWY should've been immediately after MMW
Alanis Morissette's Flavors of Entanglement - all wrong.
Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak
Michelle Branch's The Hotel Paper
Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics

[SPRΞΞ]

Madonna's "American Life" was handled pretty poorly, i'd say. Wrong everything.

[repentyourself]

kelly's 'my december' era.

eta: i'd like to add kelly's 'thankful' era, as well. 'the trouble with love is?' seriously?

[SPRΞΞ]

^totally

[Monroe]

Jul 25, 2009 17:35:15 GMT -5 SPRΞΞ said:

Madonna's "American Life" was handled pretty poorly, i'd say. Wrong everything.

She was never going to get by with the material on that album regardless. Radio simply wasn't ready for electrofied pop and sleepy acoustic ballads especially back in 2003. It's the same for her "Confessions" material.

[SPRΞΞ]

Jul 25, 2009 17:39:26 GMT -5 Monroe said:

Jul 25, 2009 17:35:15 GMT -5 SPRΞΞ said:

Madonna's "American Life" was handled pretty poorly, i'd say. Wrong everything.

She was never going to get by with the material on that album regardless. Radio simply wasn't ready for electrofied pop and sleepy acoustic ballads especially back in 2003. It's the same for her "Confessions" material.

yea, i'll give you that. Even worldwide it didn't do very well. But Confessions was a worldwide smash!

i'm still waiting for an album that entirely similar to Die Another Day ;)

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

Madonna's Hard Candy album era. Granted that it didn't have the best material. But it had a few songs which could have been better singles. "4 Minutes" was a smash. Now I know someone is going to chime in and say it was because Justin Timberlake was on it. Either way, it was a big digital seller and had decent airplay. I think it all went wrong after that when "Give It 2 Me" was released with that awful and cheap video. "Beat Goes On" was the perfect followup single. It could have kept the momentum going. "Miles Away" was another perfect followup single. It's a shame that there was no video released for it. Even though a video did leak way after the single had come and gone. "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" could have been a good 3rd or 4th single had the era worked out. And there were no promo appearances in the U.S. other than that one performance at Roseland which was televised on the internet. Even with the singles that were chosen, a little promo could have helped.

Mariah Carey's E=MC2. I thought it was a pretty good album. It had several single-worthy songs. I think "Bye Bye" really killed its momentum. "Migrate" or even "Side Effects" would have been perfect second singles in the U.S. while Europe would get "I'm That Chick." Even "I'm That Chick" could have been a single here, even if it was just a club release (they did end up missing that opportunity when it presented itself with those awesome Tony Moran and Craig C mixes). "For The Record" would have been a good 3rd single. The 4th single could have been "Love Story".

[SPRΞΞ]

the Hard Candy releases should've been:

4 Minutes
Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
Heartbeat
The Beat Goes On
Miles Away


as for Mariah, she should've released I'll Be Lovin' You Long Time as 2nd single. I'm really surprised it flopped.

[Diablo Cody™]

The "All I Ever Wanted" Era

[2smart4you]

FANTASY RIDE

[B-Boy]

These come to mind:

Mariah's E=MC² - "Bye Bye" was the last song I imagined being released as a single. It was all about "Migrate". How can you pass up a T-Pain song?

Ciara's Fantasy Ride - Leakage was the problem.

Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak - The album had it going with "Love Lockdown" and "Heartless". I guess deciding on a third single was the problem. The album did have songs with single potential.

[Taste It On My Tongue]

I think the lukewarm reception from E=MC2 started from the first single even. I know "Touch My Body" went to #1 but that song had absolutely no longevity and was just basically filling the void for "any Mariah song" to go to #1, whether it was good or bad. I'm sure the label thought "Since the first single is guaranteed to go to #1, lets release a mediocre one and save the real #1 worthy songs for later". But that completely backfired. "Touch My Body" had at best average reception and releasing a ballad afterwards was a horrible decision. And then to top it off they released "Lovin' You Long Time"? Everything was just so screwed up. Not one right singles. All the singles that should have gotten released didn't. The single order should have gone...

1st "Migrate"
2nd "Cruise Control"
3rd "Side Effects"
4th "I'm That Chick
5th "re-release single".

[switch]

E=MC2
My December

[Joe1240]

Kelly Clarkson-My December[The Album was pretty much done after the first single]

[Keelzit]

E=MC2
Migrate
Lovin' U Long Time
Side Effects
Re-release ballad
For The Record
I'm That Chick
(Touch My Body)

Oops!... I Did It Again
Oops!... I Did It Again
Lucky
What U See Is What U Get or Can't Make You Love Me
Don't Go Knockin' On My Door
Stronger

Britney
I'm A Slave 4 U
Cinderella
Lonely
Before The Goodbye
I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman

In The Zone
Toxic
(I Got That) Boom Boom
Everytime
Breathe On Me
Outrageous

Hard Candy
4 Minutes
Beat Goes On
Miles Away
Candy Shop

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

Basically those that have been mentioned, particularly Mariah, Madonna, Kelly.

Whilst I'm sure it doesn't bother her a whole lot at this stage, Madonna manages to kill an era stone dead with her lack of promotion and potentially dodgy single choices. I think 'Give It 2 Me' is a great song, but off the back of 4 Minutes, Heartbeat, Beat Goes On, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You and Miles Away (if actually promoted instead of just appearing) would have all fared better imo. If America can drop it's ageism. I mean, we could have essentially been at the tail-end of the era now and she would have been touring for its duration. The performance of Miles Away is laughable. Confessions on the other hand had worldwide success to back it up and keep it at a steadier pace, singles wise.

Same goes for E=MC2. It kind of just disappeared... Touch My Body was wasted hype. I doubt she'd even be releasing another album at the moment had she not let it sink. We can't say it enough times as far as I'm concerned. MIGRATE.

It really is such a shame knowing full well what certain albums have to offer and watching them fail, step by step.

[Baby In a New Dress]

Kanye West- EVERY era. He always has plenty of radio friendly material, but never has the sense to release them.

Backstreet Boys- Unbreakable: Yes, they wouldn't have gotten much ariplay, but they had some really catchy stuff- Something That I Already Know and Unmistakable were just begging to be singles. Instead, they released Inconsolable and Helples When She Smiles. Bad choices.

[Gravity.]

Doll Domination.

From the singles changing to the re-release fiasco...It's just been a mess.

[Keelzit]

Jul 26, 2009 11:36:03 GMT -5 Gravity. said:

Doll Domination.

From the singles changing to the re-release fiasco...It's just been a mess.

Had the following singles been released the album would fare much better

When I Grow Up
I Hate This Part
Re-release single (Painted Windows)
Bottle Pop (without Snoop)
Magic
Elevator

[Monroe]

Jul 25, 2009 17:59:28 GMT -5 Ezekiel 23:20–21 said:

I think it all went wrong after that when "Give It 2 Me" was released with that awful and cheap video. "Beat Goes On" was the perfect followup single. It could have kept the momentum going.

It would have been interesting to see if radio would have bit at a Kanye/Madonna collaboration, Kanye isn't really a radio staple on CHR which is Madonna's main format that she needs support from. But I do think radio would have warmed to that better then Give It 2 Me. However I think radio simply isn't receptive to Madonna anymore due to her age and we can see that America just isn't interested in new material from her as we can see by the sales of Hard Candy. I really don't think things would have changed much for her that era regardless. Madonna simply isn't interested in promoting stateside which is what is needed to maintain respectable sales. The only thing Madonna is interested in now a days is touring. Which is more about her re-performing her old hits rather then making new ones. Miles Away and Devil Wouldn't Recognize You probably wouldn't have done anything here either just because radio doesn't have confidence in playing her anymore. The collaborations could have been successful as they were pretty much heavily featured by Kanye and Justin who easily have more CHR influence then she does now a days.

4 Minutes -> Beat Goes On

Mariah Carey's E=MC2. I thought it was a pretty good album. It had several single-worthy songs. I think "Bye Bye" really killed its momentum. "Migrate" or even "Side Effects" would have been perfect second singles in the U.S.

I agree. I really think Def Jam missed out because E=MC2 should have reached atleast 3 million in sales coming off the huge blockbuster that was Emancipation. Side Effects and Migrate were the most obvious singles off the disc and yet they were ignored. I still believe someone should have been fired after the mess up that was E=MC2 really anything after those two singles could have been released and the era still would have been respectable. I'll Be Loving U Long Time probably would have done a lot better had it not followed a flop maybe even I Stay In Love could have done better, perhaps even Bye Bye as long as they released those two songs first.

Touch My Body -> Migrate -> Side Effects -> I'll Be Loving U Long Time -> Bye Bye -> I Stay In Love

[Nevermind]

Soon we'll be discussing Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel in this thread, as well E=MC².

*ducks*

[PaNdeM0niuM!]

i actually felt it was Mariah's MARRIAGE that f*cuked up e=mc2

E=MC2 started almost perfectly.
#1 album
#1 single with Touch My Body
HUGE First week sales 460,000
Record breaking 18th #1 single (Beating Elvis)
Oprah appearance
American Idol appearance
Empire State Building promo
The Hills appearance
SNL appearance

seriously, it couldn't have been more perfect.

Also remember Bye Bye was climbing the charts before the marriage.
It already made its debut at #23.

The marriage occurred during Bye Bye's chart run.
It wasn't bye bye's fault that e=mc2 flopped.

I'm still a little bitter about what happened. To this day, I still think Nick was selfish. If he really loved her, why couldn't he wait till after the era was over?

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

^^ that's a new one. ha.

Considering the video for Already Gone, we may soon be able to add KC's All I Ever Wanted to this thread, much to my dismay.

[Monroe]

I really don't think anything could have saved Kelly's AIEW's era I feel like it was doomed from the start due to a lack of good quality accessible material.

[repentyourself]

once again, how can a video completely end an era?
dear lord, i forget how dramatic pulse can be sometimes.

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

Theres a whole lot more than a dodgy video going on here.

[K.]

Katharine Mcphee - Katharine Mcphee
This Time - Jojo

[Taste It On My Tongue]

LOL @ "Oops!...I Did It Again," an album that went DIAMOND being a "messed up" era. Obviously it wasn't.

[Keelzit]

Jul 27, 2009 3:56:03 GMT -5 Taste It On My Tongue said:

LOL @ "Oops!...I Did It Again," an album that went DIAMOND being a "messed up" era. Obviously it wasn't.

its singles were kinda messed up so even if it went diamond, it only had 2 radio hits.