jtfolden said:

Mariah's always had that kind of promo for her records. She's all about the promo, and major props for her for knowing what she has to do to sell her shit.

As someone said, Madonna's interested in touring. Madonna hasn't appeared on a highly rated television show during release week in - well, possibly never. When she appeared on Oprah for Ray of Light, it was a couple months after the release (to date, it's the only time she's performed on the show). Ray of Light opened with 371k, being a first-quarter release, but that was 10 years ago.
[Edited 5/8/08 12:53pm]

Yeeesh. All this talk of sales, chart positions, target markets, agressive promotion, soundscan, billboard, hot digital, hot 100, top downloads, biggest radio play, is all too much.....makes me shudder.

Some of the madonna forums have these creepy sticky threads like "4 minutes request links" or "4 minutes TRL performance".....its just weird and wrong. Just get the damn record and enjoy it (or dont) - but this obsession with its performance seems unhealthy. Madonna records will always do well in their first week (even AL did), and i think its fair to say her fan base in terms of album sales is between 4-6m worldwide - so shes pretty much guarenteed decent sales whatever happens. If she makes a a really good record this resonates with people naturally, and sales increase as the record has more longevity. Confessions had that, and I think Hard Candy has it also. She'll struggle to ever shift units like Ray Of Light or even Music again imo....times have changed.

Whether hard Candy was made with a view to succeeding in America or not is debatable. Sure shes made a more urban pop album - itll seem contrived to some - but if she cared that much why in the hell wasnt she on Oprah, or doing Ellen? She just dont care that much.

In her own words "Thank god i dont have to rely on record sales....i can still put on a show".....amen to that. New albums to her are just a new excuse to put on a new show. Her shows have replaced her videos as the focus of her creative energies which in some ways is a little sad, but in other ways is great. She'll have done 4 world tours in this decade. She did 2 in the 90's.

Donnarama, my favourite drag queen EVER, does Madonna:

I'm tired of this album already. I hope Madonna sings ballads in her next album 2 showcase her vocal talent.

VoicesCarry said:

I hate trannies!

Matronik said:

wow Mike i'm shocked to be reading that. kinda makes me sad.

Matronik said:

Um, ok.

Anyway, she's a drag queen, not a tranny.

I am a big Madonna fan and have now been listening to the album for a few days and saw her on TV at Radio 1 Big Weekend.

I was optimistic as I don't mind Timberland and Neptunes. But after hearing the album and watching her on TV, I am disapoinnted. Madonna is normally a step ahead of the pop trends and with this album she is a step behind in my opinion. The mid tempo generic RnB doesn't hold my attention at all. There is nothing here Gwen and Nelly haven't done abit better (and earlier).

It is just pandering, desperate for a hit stuff. Too bad.

VoicesCarry said:

I don't like bootlegs

I still like the album. I think it's the best since ROL!!

Music has 4 good songs and the rest sucks (sorry). AL has little really bad songs but no really good ones...

COADF suffers of the Music-syndrome - 4 good songs the rest sucks.

And HC... only two really bad ones, the rest is cool!!! HC is really great.

a very good fan-made video for "Heartbeat"....

"Great" to see it's not only M forums where they bitch about sales.

Not sure why anyone would compare Hard Candy to Mariah, who comes from a 6 million selling record so it's obvious she was meant to get her highest debut week, with promo like that.

Oh and the "Madonna made this record for the USA" is tiresome - not even half of the album sounds like the "typical American sound". Just because she got Timbaland, nobody expected her to shift a million copies in two weeks...

Anyway, the Radio gig was OK-ish, that new version of "Hung Up" has to go though.

LiveToTell86 said:

Yeah,I don't get the Mariah Carey comparions either.Mariah has *always* sold more records in the U.S. than Madonna.I certainly didn't expect 'Hard Candy' to outsell the new Mariah CD.

Hard Candy - Week 2

94,000 copies sold, a 66% drop in sales.

Copycat said:

Whoa. She needs to get on the road.

Copycat said:

Still better than Prince record sales

MsLegs said:

not even. TV would have helped.

SoulAlive said:

I dont get the constant emphasis and trumpeting of US chart positions / sales. I dont know about this, but didnt both their last albums shift similar numbers worldwide - despite Mimi massively outselling Confessions in the US????

CrozzaUK said:

Mimi outsold Confessions by about 2 million copies worldwide.

Shes Not Me-


Some1 said this is a vein song really disguised about other pop artists trying to be her..but they 'never will be'.

***Headbang***

My favourite track is undoubtedly Incredible, although it takes too long to get to the best part ("I don't want this to end....")

The synths and the beat are so much fun, you just wanna get up and DANCE every time It's such a positive, feel good song and Pharrell sounds

I actually would like to see this as a single, although it'd have to shorten the first part down.

I like Devil Wouldn't Recognise You although it sounds almost EXACTLY like JT's What Goes Around.

The only other song I like is Give It To Me - again Pharrell and those damn synths!! Amazing! The "get stupid" bit is awesome too, anyone think it was meant to sound similar to Gwen Stefani?

I just purchased "Miles Away" as the ringtone on my cellphone I'm with AT&T and I didn't even realize that they had all the 'Hard Candy' tracks available as ringtones! LOL.It's the handclapping chorus/breakdown part in the middle of the song.

purplesweat said:

I love the shakers on the left channel after the beat. The synths

This is HOT HOT HOT track. Funk the haters

is it just me or are there more people who keep singing, instead of

i felt it, it thrilled me
i want it, to fill me

i felt it, it thrilled me
i want it, to kill me

or is that just my messed up state of mind

Copycat said:

My eye according to Nielsen Soundscan the album has sold more than 200.000 copies in the US alone

JoeTyler said:

Not sure what you are talking about. 94k is its second-week total for the US.

Worldwide report:

1st week:
USA: 280.000
REST: 478.000
758.000

2nd week:
USA: 94.000 (-66%)
REST: 246.000 (-49%)
340.000

Total: 1.142.000
USA: 374.000 (37%)
REST: 724.000 (63%)

purplesweat said:

Its so strange because on first listen this was one of the songs i was unsure about...but on repeated listens its just amazing. I love the melody of the first section, with the addictive "cant get my head around it" parts - but the second bit is what takes it up a notch. This sounded a mess at first, but now i realise it needed to sound urgent and desperate and frantic.

CrozzaUK said:

Yeah, the first part actually really bored me and I probably would've deleted it off my playlist if I hadn't let it go all the way one day when I was distracted. Thank god I did!

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