Can Stevie break the trend?

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by TerraRhiannon

Oh I know. I definitely know. I got a signed copy by Ann & Nancy at the concert last week.

Pertaining to the topic, this a quote that Ann said during their performance on the 3rd in Halifax:

"You know, we've had maybe 13 albums, our new album marks the 13th album we've made....and none of those albums have been hit albums, if you know what I mean. Some of them sort of under the radar, some of them made simply because we felt like it, without any expectations. This next song, is a title song to an album that we made because we were crazy, crazy with desire....to make music. This is called Desire Walks On." ----and then they performed Desire Walks On.

So, I think it's great when artists keep making music, even if none of it's a hit.... Stevie needs to make music, it's what she does and is passionate about, like the Wilson sistas. And no matter what I will always think it's fabulous.

Stevie said the reason why she made this album was to be creative. She bucked advice and made it.

[TerraRhiannon]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

Stevie said the reason why she made this album was to be creative. She bucked advice and made it.

Yeah exactly, and if no one buys it, she said at least she did it for herself, because she needs to, I think she said.

[Hartbreakkid]

Originally Posted by Artemis

How did Heart's Red Velvet Car do, sales-wise? I'd imagine Stevie's album to do about the same as that, if not a little bit better.

Did your hear Heart's CD? I bought it and it's un-listenable. Red Velvet Car didn't sell because it was awful, not that it wasn't marketed correctly. I bet a lot of die hard Heart fans didn't even put down the ten bucks.

I think we all know by know the Stevie CD is going to be good. I think it will sell.

[Hawkeye]

I really dont care if Stevie breaks this trend you speak of, other then wanting her to remain driven to make more music, but I think with new best friend Dave Stewart in her ear, she is going to have motivation. Hell the one thing we know for a fact is she will outsell Dave' album by about 10 times what he sells. So he can always turn to her and go, you see what my album did, I don't give a ****, yours did 10 times better, make another album bitch!!!

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by chiliD

10 years between albums....that's insane. Artists used to release two (sometimes three) albums A YEAR! (Beatles, Stones, Elton John, as examples)...one album would knock their previous album out of the charts. They would consistently have an album in the TOP 10, or in the Beatles' case, multiple albums. Now if an artist releases an album within two years of the previous one, it's considered "flooding the market". I call it lack of creativity. I'd like to see the trend move back to artists having to release multiple albums per year...we'll see who stays & who goes.

I know somebody who will release at least five this year, one being a double album...

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

I know somebody who will release at least five this year, one being a double album...

Robert Pollard.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

I know somebody who will release at least five this year, one being a double album...

I wouldn't even want my favorite artist to do this. To me, it cheapens the output. Just like a baseball legend flooding the market with too many autographed rookie cards. Once every year or two is great, but FIVE? How can you maintain artistic merit doing that?

Michele

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

And as far as her making a bunch of cheap little garage-tape recordings just for kicks and putting them out on an indie, don't you think that defeats the purpose of being a Stevie fan? Say what you will about her songs and her voice, but one thing you cannot deny is the fact that her albums are produced and polished to perfection- there is nothing raw or edgy about them. She doesn't go about anything half-assed, and that's something she can always be proud of.

This reminds me of that Australian interview she did after Tusk where she said:

"If Lindsey had his way we'd be back to the garage anyway with nothing but garbage cans and worse yet full of garbage and four track recorders, so he's very in to that. I personally, myself, don't want to go back and use garbage cans. I personally like the new recording technique because I like to sound good . . ."

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by markolas

I still don't understand why people are so hung up on "hit singles" and "gold albums." Those are not indicators of anything worth caring about. For IYD to do as well as TISL is about as close to "hit status" as she can be expected to get. She's almost 63 years old, and people over 30 (especially women) simply do not get played on the radio, or have hit singles or albums. Again, those are not indicators of good music. The fact that a song referencing plastic bags in the wind went to #1 kinda says it all to me.

I not sure characterizing people as "so hung up" really is fair regarding our speculation on how IYD will do in this new music marketplace. It's been a long 10 years and there is nothing obsessive about us debating where Stevie will land in this new landscape. This is new territory not only at this stage in her career, but also because of her unusually long absence from recording new music! I'm sure the majority of us who visit this board want to see Stevie recognized and have another success.

That being said success is so subjective. For some it will only be achieved if she has a "gold" selling album, for others it will take having rave critical reviews & Grammy nominations, and for some it's all of the above. But past indicators are that Stevie has had a pretty spotless history marred occasionally by a bad song or production here and there - However Stevie has really only had one all out FLOP - both creatively (by her own admission) & commercially in Street Angel. I for one don't expect Stevie to burn up the charts anymore and having a hit single will be a fluke at this point. Stevie's iconic status alone will garner a lot of attention when this new record drops. But I suspect IYD will follow the same TISL trajectory...debuting somewhere in the Top 10 album charts followed by a fast decline after a month or two.

So I believe most of us just simply wish for Stevie to be celebrated and have a flawless album mostly. But also want it to be a positive enough experience for Stevie to feel rejuvenated and motivated to at the very least want to record one more great FM record.

**It is important to keep things in perspective though**. With statistics such as the highest selling album of 2000 being 9.9 million, and in 2010 a mere 3.4 million-that's an astonishing@60% decline in overall sales industry wide in the last 10 years. TISL had 1st week sales of over 109K, so to match that by todays measure Stevie would have to nab 1st week sales @4oK. So once you accept the music industry's new reality, if IYD sells over 200k by year end, that would really be acceptable & equivalent to TISL sales. Furthermore if Stevie breaks this trend of older artists and IYD is certified "gold", that would be considered a runaway success!

[jellyman10]

I agree with the view that I want IYD to fulfil whatever are the criteria for success that will encourage Stevie to keep working through what is, by any objective measure, the last decade/half-decade of her career.

It's also hard to imagine any way in which more units shifted, more downloads, more clicks-to-view and more radio plays are not better than fewer. You don't have to worship at the shrine of social media to know that it is part of the overall marketing picture now. Twitter is used by people well into middle-age (viz, yours truly), many of whom still pay for music.

Btw, who are 'Heart'?

[amberlemegan]

Originally Posted by jellyman10

Btw, who are 'Heart'?

They are a band led by sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson. They've been around since the 70s. Three songs by them that come to mind that I hear all the time are Barracuda, Crazy on You, and Magic Man. Ask TerraRhiannon from what I see she probably knows a ton about Heart. I'm a fan of them, but I don't know much. Hope that helps.

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by amberlemegan

They are a band led by sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson. They've been around since the 70s. Three songs by them that come to mind that I hear all the time are Barracuda, Crazy on You, and Magic Man. Ask TerraRhiannon from what I see she probably knows a ton about Heart. I'm a fan of them, but I don't know much. Hope that helps.

They also had a string of even bigger, although in many ways artistically bankrupt singles written for hire in the mid 1980s when after a career nosedive they metamorphasized into an El Lay hair band. These songs include"What About Love" "Alone" "These Dreams" (rejected by La Nicks for obvious reasons) and "Never".

[jellyman10]

^^^^ Thanks, Amberlemegan and BombaySapphires, for the info.

I do vaguely remember 'Alone', if it's the one I'm thinking of. I don't think they made much of an impact in the UK, I'm afraid. Will head over to YouTube to see what's what, tho!

Loz

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

They also had a string of even bigger, although in many ways artistically bankrupt singles written for hire in the mid 1980s when after a career nosedive they metamorphasized into an El Lay hair band. These songs include"What About Love" "Alone" "These Dreams" (rejected by La Nicks for obvious reasons) and "Never".

Brilliant summation.

[amberlemegan]

Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3

They also had a string of even bigger, although in many ways artistically bankrupt singles written for hire in the mid 1980s when after a career nosedive they metamorphasized into an El Lay hair band. These songs include"What About Love" "Alone" "These Dreams" (rejected by La Nicks for obvious reasons) and "Never".

I always forget about all of the 80s songs. What About Love is one of my favorite Hearts songs and I literally heard it a minute before I posted my response on the Swiffer commercial.