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Is American Life M's first real Flop Album?


mad4mad2

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Good post! I like your description about both albums and to be honest I have never thought about it that way but you do have a point. However I think that the general public simply thought "Ugh Madonna is still doing this crazy electro thing" and were kind of fed up with it. When I said that I feel that both albums belong together, I meant that you could nicely put all pure electronic tracks on a CD1 and all acoustic songs on CD2 and you would have a pretty cool double album. The songs are not that different from each other even though they are produced in a different way as you said.

Thank you :-)

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yes LAP is her first flop album and Oh Father her first flop single, unfortunately

But someone considered "The Look of Love" her first flop even if it charted in UK Top 10, but only for one week..

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I disagree.

Look at her career on the whole since 2003:

  • Four albums, with just one major international hit ("Confessions)
  • 14 or so singles, with just two major international hits ("Hung Up," "4 Minutes") and a few hits in specific markets (i.e. the remaining "Confessions" era singles in Europe)

I'm not saying that everything has been a failure since 2003 -- I'm saying that this is the first time decade of her career where flops outnumber hits. It's hard to look at the arc of her career and not trace her current sales difficulties back to "American Life."

I think bluejean said it best:

"Erotica" was a flop -- it's hard to deny that, considering the expectations it had at the time. But it was still heralded as an ambitious project. In fact, it's main criticism was that it was too ambitious and that it went too far in pushing the envelope.

"American Life" was a bigger flop because not only did it fail to sell but because it it also recast Madonna as a has-been in the eyes of many. (Especially the media.) She's never recovered from the "washed up" charge. If anything, her retreat to an all-dance album, then to Timabland, then to Nikki Minaj only seemed to reinforce the idea that she didn't have any more original ideas to offer.

I think I have been hit on the head and transported to Madonnatribe.

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I thought "Nothing Fails" was a single!

One of the problems with AL (the album) is that there aren't many potential singles on the album.I think "Nobody Knows Me" and "Love Profusion" had the best chance of reaching a major audience and becoming hits.

Nothing Fails absolutely was a single. We may be getting into different things for different countries but in USA it was a single. NKM was just tossed out after, not much promo for either, but they were still singles. They were pulled from the album and released as a separate product to promote that track. This is a single imo.

btw, I just used your quote, skyhigh, as a point of reference. This wasn't necessarily directed to you.

I disagree.

Look at her career on the whole since 2003:

  • Four albums, with just one major international hit ("Confessions)
  • 14 or so singles, with just two major international hits ("Hung Up," "4 Minutes") and a few hits in specific markets (i.e. the remaining "Confessions" era singles in Europe)

I'm not saying that everything has been a failure since 2003 -- I'm saying that this is the first time decade of her career where flops outnumber hits. It's hard to look at the arc of her career and not trace her current sales difficulties back to "American Life."

I think bluejean said it best:

"Erotica" was a flop -- it's hard to deny that, considering the expectations it had at the time. But it was still heralded as an ambitious project. In fact, it's main criticism was that it was too ambitious and that it went too far in pushing the envelope.

"American Life" was a bigger flop because not only did it fail to sell but because it it also recast Madonna as a has-been in the eyes of many. (Especially the media.) She's never recovered from the "washed up" charge. If anything, her retreat to an all-dance album, then to Timabland, then to Nikki Minaj only seemed to reinforce the idea that she didn't have any more original ideas to offer.

lol bullshit it's hard to deny it. I'm wondering how old some of the ppl are who declare Erotica a flop. It got a lot of grief from the press but was not a flop, no matter how hard they kept saying it was over and over. She was all over the place at the time, HARDLY irrelevant. I just don't understand why everything is ONLY about numbers. Yes they're important but there are other factors that constitute a flop. And her numbers for Erotica I'm sure weren't bad for the time. Singles were released all over the place for a loooooong ass time in multiple (TONS) of formats. They don't do that w/ flop records.

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Nothing Fails absolutely was a single. We may be getting into different things for different countries but in USA it was a single. NKM was just tossed out after, not much promo for either, but they were still singles. They were pulled from the album and released as a separate product to promote that track. This is a single imo.

btw, I just used your quote, skyhigh, as a point of reference. This wasn't necessarily directed to you.

lol bullshit it's hard to deny it. I'm wondering how old some of the ppl are who declare Erotica a flop. It got a lot of grief from the press but was not a flop, no matter how hard they kept saying it was over and over. She was all over the place at the time, HARDLY irrelevant. I just don't understand why everything is ONLY about numbers. Yes they're important but there are other factors that constitute a flop. And her numbers for Erotica I'm sure weren't bad for the time. Singles were released all over the place for a loooooong ass time in multiple (TONS) of formats. They don't do that w/ flop records.

Any of these bitches would shit themselves if they sold four millions albums. Let's not get things twisted. They're just sheep who've been fed their own brains because clearly they ain't using them! What a flop! Madonna is nothing! :doh:

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Erotica has sold over 6,000,000 , I don t consider it flop , but yes American life was a flop ..an álbum less than 5 m at that time was a flop , Hard Candy was decent , as well MDNA , considering the industry in 2008 and 2012

I consider American life , the only Madonna s flop

Madonna still has to put out a real FLOP of an album in terms of commercial reception. Erotica and AL were top 20 releases. HC was a top 15 worldwide release. And certainly not MDNA either, to have a #12 best-selling record of the year, 30 years on, wouldn't qualify as commercially underperforming on any planet

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What's surprising to me, in retrospect, is how close she came to being on the money with this album politically.

Spring of 2003 was too early -- the Bush war machine had revved Americans into a nationalist frenzy and bullied much of the rest of the world into submission.

But as the war unraveled later that year, anti-war sentiment spilled into the American mainstream. Howard Dean's anti-war campaign briefly made him the favorite for the White House, Bush's approval rating tanked, and Americans went from near-unanimous war support to a starkly divided country.

If "American Life" had been released just a few months later -- say, fall 2003 -- then a more political album may have captured people's imaginations.

I agree, I don't think Americans were thinking clearly.

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I believe Eroticas was a true flop, because prior to that Madonna was untouchable - Erotica has changed that. AL was a bigger flop in terms of numbers, but it was not quite shocking. MDNA could be considered a flop of the flops, but the truth is that albums do not make money anymore, so nowadays albums are not really that important.

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I believe Eroticas was a true flop, because prior to that Madonna was untouchable - Erotica has changed that. AL was a bigger flop in terms of numbers, but it was not quite shocking. MDNA could be considered a flop of the flops, but the truth is that albums do not make money anymore, so nowadays albums are not really that important.

Agreed. The albums market had completely collapsed by 2012. It's impossible to really compare "MDNA"'s sales to any other album of her career.

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  • 1 year later...

Erotica: 1,9 millions, charted for over a year on Billboard

Hard candy: 790.000, charted for 27 weeks

American life: 600.000, charted for only 14 weeks

American life also received the worst reviews of her career (60 on metacritic)

That being said, all of these album were some of the best sellers of their respective year, even Rebel heart will be a top 40 hit on the Year-End chart of Mediatraffic. People like Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and Carly Rae Jepsen would kill to have the sales of RH this year

Madonna has yet to release a REAL flop (Lotus, Me. I am Mariah, Britney Jean, AKA)

Edited by imgonnacarryon
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MDNA is probably the only album that didn't make any money. 1.8 million sold after a $17-20 million advance?

1.8 million COPIES x $16 (Average retail price for each copy) = 28.8 million

If not mistaken, she gets 5 million in advance, production cost is separated.

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American Life and Erotica are my favourite albums but were both considered flops. I think the biggest difference between these so called flops is that at the Erotica release interest in Madonna was still very intense even if it was negative by the time American Life came around people in general started to lose interest altogether hence why we got the Britney kiss to spice things up a bit

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Guest Pud Whacker

Erotica and American Life are what made her an interesting artist willing to take risks. Both brilliant albums.

Actually roland, they are her flops. Like a prayer, I'm Breathless and justify my love showed that she was an interesting artist who was willing to take risks, prior.

Some things work for the public and some things don't. Erotica was a bit long and incoherent. Bright moments, but not all that. American life one of my favorites but I understand why it didn't work for radio in 2003.

It's really that simple.

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American Life and Erotica are my favourite albums but were both considered flops. I think the biggest difference between these so called flops is that at the Erotica release interest in Madonna was still very intense even if it was negative by the time American Life came around people in general started to lose interest altogether hence why we got the Britney kiss to spice things up a bit

And why RIT ended up being a 'greatest hits' tour.

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i can't believe people are so easily manipulated from reviews. american life is a great album. nothing fails, intervention, easy ride, love profusion.. those songs are amazing. they would fit with rebel heart, devil pray, addicted & borrowed time, joan of arc, messiah, heartbreak city and bodyshop.

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