Why does no one hate Rumours?

[Villavic]

Ok, maybe the word “hate” is too extreme and I used to caught your attention, but in general that’s my perception. I don’t know anybody that has told me “I can’t stand the Rumours album” or the Fleetwood Mac band. Maybe there are those who just don’t like them, but that’s far from “Hey, change that radio that I can’t stand that Rumours song!”.

My point is, Rumours is considered one of the greatest albums of all time. By 1990 it had sold twenty million plus, and today it is reported 40 million copies have been sold. It was at the top of the Billboard 200 for 31 non-consecutive weeks, and within the top ten in dozen of countries.

But I’ve never heard people complaining about Rumours. Why should I? Well, If I recall other “phenomenal” successes, I know people that didn’t stand Saturday Night Fever and/or The Bee Gees. I know people that hated Michael Jackson, since Thriller appeared (they liked Off The Wall album and his previous works but stopped liking him after Thriller). Same with Madonna Whitney and many more.

Was Rumours a real phenomenon? Well the band thought so, and according to several sources, specially Lindsey thought so cause that was the main reason for Tusk to be what it was. Even Mick wrote that Lindsey was especially perturbed; he felt that with the success of Rumours, "the work" was being ignored in favor of "the phenomenon".

Today, even Gen Z people knows who Michael Jackson and Madonna are. But most of them don’t know or recognize a Fleetwood Mac song, except for Dreams but thanks to a tik tok viral video of a middle-aged man skateboarding to the song and lip-syncing Stevie's vocal.

So what kind of success had Rumours back in 1977 to stay on for 31 weeks? Definitely the sales volume. But compared to other top albums of all times, was it played quite a bit on the radios? And after its momentum, was it still played on the radio? Or was it sort of forgotten or skipped over by DJs, and that helped avoid the saturation?