Stevie Nicks Disappointed With Sales Of Her Latest Album

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by mitzo

I have always been skeptical that she was persuaded by others not to record after TISL. I feel it was her own decision.... It took her eternity to get TISL out and I feel she dithered and coasted and suffered writer's block during the 2000's until she saw Lindsey pumping out material.

I want to know the names of the people telling her not to do it. Howard, Liz and Karen? Michele

[TerraRhiannon]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

Another thing -- I find it odd that her concept of promoting a new album is to tour under the name of the album, yet only perform a slim fraction of it in the show, then make TV appearances performing old songs, and promise a movie documentary that is delivered nearly two years after the album's release, and accessible in the most limiting way.

While I agree that it blows she performs mostly old songs like "Landslide," and "stand Back" on shows like Ellen, and such, during her actual show she displayed a lot of the album in her setlist, I think the majority of it was IYD songs, wasn't it? I'm not 100% on that because I wasn't able to go to any of the shows, but the setlists I've looked up show that, and at least she was playing those new songs at her concerts, showing she has some passion for them and actually likes them!!

[Macfanforever]

Radio did not give a sheet about IYD. I'm still waiting to hear it here in CT.

Let see it any of the tunes from the FM EP will hit the airwaves .

I doubt it.

[kak125]

Radio doesnt really play songs from any artist over 40 so it wouldnt have matter if it was the best record ever they werent going to play it.

[Macfanforever]

Originally Posted by kak125

Radio doesnt really play songs from any artist over 40 so it wouldnt have matter if it was the best record ever they werent going to play it.

I agree on that.

[Chris_Lover]

IMHO, I think Stevie is right when she says that music business has changed and "It's such a different age now". The problem is not that her album isn't good, but the fact that people nowadays (specially younger generations) listen to crappy music, as Chris already said almost 20 years ago: “Learn your instrument. Be honest. Don't do anything phony. There is so much crap floating around. There is plenty of room for a bit of honest writing.”. Stevie write and sing honest music, but how can she fight against all the contrived, noisy and often meaningless songs that radio and tv stations feed us today? There's a complete fall style that reflects our society, so, in order to have fame and make money, today's artists adapt themselves and eventually all the songs sound alike. If you want to stay true to yourself, these are the disadvantages you will face. She doesn't need to change the way she write or sings to please her fans though, she shouldn't forget that there's still plenty of people who love good music and love her, so at this point of her career she shouldn't care anymore about poor sales: if you survived to 40 years of musical changes and you still sell 300,000 records worldwide in this age of decay, well... it means you are still way better than any anonymous and untalented singer that released a big hit but will disappears in just 1 or 2 years. Therefore, poor sales are more than welcome!

[RickRobert]

She needs a reality check

[holidayroad]

I really think the long span between albums is the problem. We are major fans, so we are hoping and waiting for anything new by Stevie. Most casual fans are not going to wait around for 10 years. By then, they may have forgotten that they ever liked any Stevie material.

Also, would it hurt Stevie (or any member of FM) to come to somewhere like this board and answer questions once a year and interact with the faithful fans they do have??! Something to where they make themselves more acessible to the public would help.

[Macfanforever]

Originally Posted by Chris_Lover

IMHO, I think Stevie is right when she says that music business has changed and "It's such a different age now". The problem is not that her album isn't good, but the fact that people nowadays (specially younger generations) listen to crappy music, as Chris already said almost 20 years ago: “Learn your instrument. Be honest. Don't do anything phony. There is so much crap floating around. There is plenty of room for a bit of honest writing.”. Stevie write and sing honest music, but how can she fight against all the contrived, noisy and often meaningless songs that radio and tv stations feed us today? There's a complete fall style that reflects our society, so, in order to have fame and make money, today's artists adapt themselves and eventually all the songs sound alike. If you want to stay true to yourself, these are the disadvantages you will face. She doesn't need to change the way she write or sings to please her fans though, she shouldn't forget that there's still plenty of people who love good music and love her, so at this point of her career she shouldn't care anymore about poor sales: if you survived to 40 years of musical changes and you still sell 300,000 records worldwide in this age of decay, well... it means you are still way better than any anonymous and untalented singer that released a big hit but will disappears in just 1 or 2 years. Therefore, poor sales are more than welcome!

I agree on the crap that is produced today.It seems like most of the kids I know like the older music .then the current tunes.

Most are Autotuned since they cant sing for crap.

Stevie probably agrees with that but cant say it out in public.

I know a couple of older country music artists made statements that todays country music is not country music which I agree with them.

[TheSorcerer]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

But she is a big act. The fact that she participated in the best selling group studio album of all time is not to be taken lightly. The fact that her band can sell out 15,000-seat arenas means she's a "big act." No, she's no Taylor Swift or Beyonce in today's world, but if you use Stevie's own past accomplishments as a benchmark, she is a big act, and sales of IYD fell well short of that benchmark.

Rumours isn't the best selling group studio album of all time. Pink Floyd and AC/DC have both sold more copies of a studio album than Rumours.

Stevie's solo career has never really been as big outside of the US that it is (was?) inside. Her sales outside of the US aren't actually THAT impressive, especially when comparing them with other female rock singers like Tina Turner who has released a similar amount of albums to Stevie and is held in a similar regard by both critics and fans. Stevie has probably sold about 10 million records outside of the US, maybe a bit less than that. That isn't exactly bad going but it's also not amazing considering the level many of her fans place her on. I have to laugh when people in magazines and on TV claim she's sold 140 million albums worldwide. Fleetwood Mac's sales make up for about 120 million of that figure and shouldn't be counted towards Stevie's solo sales. Paul McCartney doesn't have the sales of The Beatles music added to his solo sales. I guess it sounds more impressive to say that Stevie has sold 140 million albums worldwide rather than 20 million. She also struggles to sell out a lot of big arenas she insists on playing in the US. This isn't a recent thing, this goes as far back as The Wild Heart Tour in 1983. She should swallow her pride and play smaller venues. Then there's the lack of touring in a lot of countries. Tina Turner did the right thing and made her presence known as a live act outside of the US and built up a strong following that way. Stevie has virtually ignored many places for the majority of her solo career and that's been a problem.

It's really Fleetwood Mac that has kept her in the public's consciousness for years now, especially in places like Europe where she's only really talked about when she's part of the group. She would have been old news years ago had it not been for the many FM reunion tours since the 1990s that she's participated in and which have upped her profile during the quieter periods of her solo career. Take Trouble in Shangri-La and Enchanted for example. I highly doubt either would have done as well as they did in the US had The Dance not happened in the late 1990s and reinvigorated interest in her. She's lucky the band didn't permanently disband. Let's be honest here, her solo success peaked with her first album and was pretty much dead for the most of the 1990s, plus the lack of new material between 2001 and 2011 has done her no favours. I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to belittle her career or attack her, it's just that a lot of her impact and what people make reference to nowadays seems to be the work she's done with Fleetwood Mac and not her actual solo career. Her big US hit singles aren't held in the same regard in many other countries outside of North America and also don't receive nearly as much radio play as they do on US stations. Stand Back has become more well known in countries where it wasn't a hit mainly due to its inclusion in FM shows since the late 1980s. How many people talk about Rock a Little or The Other Side of the Mirror or Street Angel nowadays? The only real lasting success in her solo career is Bella Donna. The majority of her other albums have long since left the public's consciousness and haven't been big catalogue sellers post 1980s. I read that Rock a Little has sold about 100,000 copies on CD since the early 1990s which isn't that great. Maybe if she reintroduced some of her other 1980s songs on tour then more people might seek out her other albums or finally buy the CDs after selling their original vinyl copies years ago or putting them in storage. She continues to ignore a good portion of her solo output (even big hits and well-known songs) when touring and that's been a problem. She needs to mix it up more and have more faith in her audience that they won't walk out if they hear a few more smaller hits or lesser-known album tracks instead of the usual mainstays that have rendered her set lists a little tired.

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

I honestly don't think she cares about the money. But she does care about sales because it is some kind of a metric on the quality of her album and the degree to which her fans did or did not embrace it. She wanted everyone to love it because she was so proud of it. Plus I'm sure there is a side of her that wishes she could go all in yer face to the naysayers who were telling her not to bother recording new music for the past ten years. Alas, the commercial reception of IYD only validated what they've been telling her; that has to sting.

You're crazy if you think Stevie doesn't care about the money. I highly doubt she continues to tour with Fleetwood Mac just for the fun of it.

[TheSorcerer]

Originally Posted by Chris_Lover

IMHO, I think Stevie is right when she says that music business has changed and "It's such a different age now". The problem is not that her album isn't good, but the fact that people nowadays (specially younger generations) listen to crappy music, as Chris already said almost 20 years ago: “Learn your instrument. Be honest. Don't do anything phony. There is so much crap floating around. There is plenty of room for a bit of honest writing.”. Stevie write and sing honest music, but how can she fight against all the contrived, noisy and often meaningless songs that radio and tv stations feed us today? There's a complete fall style that reflects our society, so, in order to have fame and make money, today's artists adapt themselves and eventually all the songs sound alike. If you want to stay true to yourself, these are the disadvantages you will face. She doesn't need to change the way she write or sings to please her fans though, she shouldn't forget that there's still plenty of people who love good music and love her, so at this point of her career she shouldn't care anymore about poor sales: if you survived to 40 years of musical changes and you still sell 300,000 records worldwide in this age of decay, well... it means you are still way better than any anonymous and untalented singer that released a big hit but will disappears in just 1 or 2 years. Therefore, poor sales are more than welcome!

I don't think it's right or fair to generalise by saying that all younger people today listen to crappy music.

Originally Posted by Macfanforever

I agree on the crap that is produced today.It seems like most of the kids I know like the older music .then the current tunes.

Most are Autotuned since they cant sing for crap.

Stevie probably agrees with that but cant say it out in public.

I know a couple of older country music artists made statements that todays country music is not country music which I agree with them.

There's a lot of amazing music being made out there today, you just have to look past the top 40 to find a lot of it. HAIM, Lissie, Fossil Collective, First Aid Kit, Mat Kearney, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Imagine Dragons, Florence + the Machine, Kathleen Edwards, Lauren Aquilina, Phoenix are just a few examples. It's not like there wasn't crap music released back in the 1980s.

[fairydust75]

Originally Posted by RickRobert

She needs a reality check

Reality ? She lives on her own world, her own private Idaho....why would she want to leave her world and come to the real world with the rest of us. I try and escape into hers every chance I get....I like it there, it makes me happy...lol.

[Macfanforever]

Originally Posted by TheSorcerer

I don't think it's right or fair to generalise by saying that all younger people today listen to crappy music.



There's a lot of amazing music being made out there today, you just have to look past the top 40 to find a lot of it. HAIM, Lissie, Fossil Collective, First Aid Kit, Mat Kearney, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Imagine Dragons, Florence + the Machine, Kathleen Edwards, Lauren Aquilina, Phoenix are just a few examples. It's not like there wasn't crap music released back in the 1980s.

There was crap tunes released since music started 100 years ago.

I do love the 1980's though but until the rap crap started.

I like Haim. Adele .I hear alot of good things about Florence and the Machine.
I got to check those other mentioned.

I'm not condemning all of todays music sucks but most of it does.

Anything on the light side I can handle.I cant handle the whiny noise of guitars and screaming out tunes.Plus rap/hip hop crap.

I guess it goes on through generations.My parents liked the 1940's and 50's music and they said the 1960's and 70's was crap to their ears . I love those old tunes they enjoyed.

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by kak125

Radio doesnt really play songs from any artist over 40 so it wouldnt have matter if it was the best record ever they werent going to play it.

This is so true. Top-40 radio playing Stevie now would be like FM radio playing Sinatra or Ray Charles in the 70's. It just isn't going to happen.

[Chris_Lover]

Originally Posted by Macfanforever

I agree on the crap that is produced today.It seems like most of the kids I know like the older music .then the current tunes.

Most are Autotuned since they cant sing for crap.

Stevie probably agrees with that but cant say it out in public.

I know a couple of older country music artists made statements that todays country music is not country music which I agree with them.

I totally agree with you on that issue, and I agree with Holiday too about the fact that the biggest problem was the long span between albums!
Then, as TheSorcerer suggested, she should sing her 80s songs again during FM concerts, as she did in 1987 during the "Tango Tour".