Adorecream said:

What amazes me is how she became a star in the first case. Her voice and music are weak and is she black or white, if she is black she needs to be more proud and at least sound blacker. She nearly looks white. Her music is formulaic and generic. Still shes miles ahead of Disney pop and shit hop.

Shes neither.

Shes Caribbean but since she isnt white.. folks like to call her "black" but she technically isnt.

jayARDAHB said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

She's a singles artist. People like the songs enough to download them off of Itunes, but they can't take her seriously enough to buy the whole album.

Exactly,and this is how she should be marketed and promoted.Nothing wrong with being a 'singles artist'.Her record company should just release singles from her.No albums.

SoulAlive said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

She's a singles artist. People like the songs enough to download them off of Itunes, but they can't take her seriously enough to buy the whole album.

Exactly,and this is how she should be marketed and promoted.Nothing wrong with being a 'singles artist'.Her record company should just release singles from her.No albums.

Her last album has sold 6 million worldwide in 1 year. Her record company would be stupid not to release albums.

I just tried to listen to the new album. Got 6 tracks in or so and was bored so I turned it off.

Now I'm listening to Jody Watley instead. Much better.

[Edited 12/2/11 6:50am]

What is there to 'understand' about her album sales? Not that many people bought it. End of the complex theory of her failure to hit number 1(again)!

I think its simple:

Rihanna is the product of a digital generation: people who pick individual songs from Itunes and other musicsites, because they think these songs sound nice and catchy on the surface or because they are considered 'hip' beyond their (facebook-)friends.

These 'kids' aint really interested in things like 'albums': They probably dont buy many CD's (and if they buy ones, it are mostly hit-collections by various artists) and they probably have no clue a collection of individual songs by a single artist can sometimes have a bigger artistic value: they are probably not very aware with the idea: the sum of its parts is sometimes greater then the whole.

And artists like Rihanna and Katy Perry are simply 'designed' like that: They offer a big number of very catchy, but often very shallow 'hitsongs' that are to be designed to be 'the hit of the day', nothing more. These type of artists still release albums, probably with lots of filler outside the 5 or 6 obvious singles, but thats more the result of continuation: its normative within the music industry that 'artists' deliver albums.

But for how long anway? People like Chris Brown, Rihanna, Beyonce and Katy Perry could actually do without them, because they dont offer any extra commercial, let alone artistic value compared to a number of individual tracks on I-tunes.

I might appear cynical and old-fashioned in that sense, but its first of all an observation: the commercially biggest 'stars' nowadays simply don't need albums to sell their music. They are designed to sell individual songs on the internet. As long they are 'in fashion' they will succeed in that, but i wouldnt frown when i see that the likes of Katy Perry and Rihanna will be forgotten in 3 years or so, and replaced by a next generation of 'hitmakers'.

[Edited 12/2/11 11:45am]

aardvark15 said:

Riri has only sold 10 million albums worldwide. But she's sold 70 million singles worldwide. If she's not a singles artist, who is?

Worldwide sales:

Talk That Talk: 504,000 (one week)

Loud: 8 million

Rated R: 3 million

Good Girl Gone Bad: 7 million

Not even bothering with her previous albums, that's about 18.5M right there.

Her label doesn't care about US sales because she sells millions of albums internationally as well as millions of singles. She is huge in the UK, where Loud sold over 1.7 million copies alone.

smoothcriminal12 said:

jayARDAHB said:

Thanks for the insight?!?!?!

Her newest record is not for young girls - the songs are about human sexuality and emotion, which by no means am I saying is a new point of discussion, but done in a way that little girls wouldn't understand or need to understand.

The record is made by a young lady who is without a doubt becoming aware of who she is as a woman, a powerful woman and a woman who is allowed to have a sexuality without having to feel a sense of shame.

More than anything - the grooves on this new disc are undeniable!

It's not that deep.

It is though - you probably haven't been paying much attention.

It's far deeper than you're giving it credit but that's cool.

Adorecream said:

What amazes me is how she became a star in the first case. Her voice and music are weak and is she black or white, if she is black she needs to be more proud and at least sound blacker. She nearly looks white. Her music is formulaic and generic. Still shes miles ahead of Disney pop and shit hop.

More amazing is your comment.

I'm sorry for dignifying your mind drivel.

Raffi,

You may want to believe what you are saying as 'evidence' to why she's so unimportant but the reality is that she's been working with many of the same artists for multiple years now. They've got something going here and whether you enjoy it or not, people are feeling the music and the image. She's got a ton of confidence and great material!!!

raffi said:

Stop, we are not talking about Joni Mitchell here. This is a girl whose label brings in 50 of the best writers, and producers to craft an album for her in a week's time. She goes in the studio with a vocal coach that tells her how to sing each and every note.

Militant said:

I just tried to listen to the new album. Got 6 tracks in or so and was bored so I turned it off.

Now I'm listening to Jody Watley instead. Much better.

[Edited 12/2/11 6:50am]

Enjoy the Jody Watley - I'm digging this new Rihanna album - the music on Where Have You Been and that melody are freaky!!!

Militant, can you check my tunes out? Maybe we can do something together>

LOVE Jody!

HAPPYPERSON said:

Rihanna’s ‘Talk That Talk’ entered the Billboard 200 at #3 this week and it became her sixth consecutive album to miss the top spot on the tally. However, what really baffled her fans were the relatively slow sales of the project, despite the record being preceded by its widely successful lead single, ‘We Found Love’.

With sales barely exceeding 197K copies, ‘Talk That Talk’ actually sold 10K copies less than Rihanna’s previous album, ‘Loud’. So what exactly is the reason for the slow start of the record? Well, while there may have been many possible causes, the main reason for the slow chart start lies with Rihanna’s US fans themselves.

Rihanna is the quintessential Pop star of the 21st century, appealing to the masses of the dominant iTunes generation – the 16 to 25 age bracket – who require striking visuals and simplistic hooks to stimulate their interest. Yet, although she has thus far enjoyed incredible success on the singles charts because of her ability to satisfy their demands, Rihanna’s team has overlooked a crucial fact – the children of this digital era typically do not buy albums on a large scale.

Regardless of how well her songs perform on iTunes and radio, Rihanna’s fans are generally not interested in buying complete albums. Reflecting on the trend of her past sales confirms this point as her top-selling release – 2007′s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ – has sold only 2.7 million copies in the US to date and none of her other albums have surpassed the 2 million mark.

On the other hand, Adele, for instance, has generated massive sales with her ’21′ LP, which has already topped 4.6 million copies in US sales after only 9 months – more than three times to total of Rihanna’s ‘Loud’. Yet, why is Adele, who only has two #1 singles, rarely moves anything except her mouth during her shows and simply sits on a stool in a her videos, outpacing Rihanna? The answer is once again found with the audience in question.

Adele is an Adult Contemporary artist and her target market arguably represents the larget album-buying audience in the US. As such, although she may not always score hit singles – the successes of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Someone like You’ were truly unusual – with the right material and promotion, Adele is guaranteed to have a huge advantage on the album charts.

So how has Rihanna managed to sell albums at all? Similar to her close friend Katy Perry, she has to perform near excessive promotion and issue a wave of singles with the intent that those members of her fanbase who aren’t just looking for a new ringtone would buy her records. Of course, special discounts and bonus content, such as posters, pictures and video packages, also help her cause.

Hence, Rihanna’s greatest strength on the singles charts is ironically her downfall on the album tallies. The very fans that guarantee her dominance of the digital singles charts and force her song titles onto the list of Twitter’s trending topics will do almost anything except buy her albums.

Ultimately, Rihanna may enjoy slow sales that eventually result in long term success but as was the case with her ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’, ‘Rated R’ and ‘Loud’ projects, Rihanna’s team will have to launch a much larger promotional campaign than her Adult Contemporary counterparts and issue a flurry of singles just to keep her ‘Talk That Talk’ album on the charts. Rihanna may lead her fans to ‘Talk That Talk’ on iTunes but she can’t always make them click ‘purchase’.

http://thelavalizard.com/...bum-sales/

Rhianna has never been a real big album seller...she's a singles artist just like Katy Perry

mjscarousal said:

Adorecream said:

What amazes me is how she became a star in the first case. Her voice and music are weak and is she black or white, if she is black she needs to be more proud and at least sound blacker. She nearly looks white. Her music is formulaic and generic. Still shes miles ahead of Disney pop and shit hop.

Shes neither.

Shes Caribbean but since she isnt white.. folks like to call her "black" but she technically isnt.

Confused:-? Is she mixed race then?

Rihanna always seems to be doing Prince style poses and experessions in publicity stills, and licking her lips...

BklynBabe said:

I asked my family who is actually from Barbados and yup, we consider ourselves Black, even the ones with blue, green, and gray eyes.... As for her sales... the #1 and #2 spots sold 227K so why is Rihanna a flop at 197K did people really expect her to outsell Nickelback??? I'm mad she outsold Mary J Blige!!!! yet no on is calling Mary a flop and I do believe this was her worse start ever at #5.... maybe Rihanna should switch to YMCMB and buy her own albums like Weezy and Drake.... wait...aren't we still in a recession? but people got money to waste on albums, movies, and Black Friday. And we blame our President for not having jobs and money.....

Exactly, during a recession, whole album sales suffer, but because they are cheaper and mopre convenient, sales of single songs will go up. Also with this obsession with hits and filler on albums, sites like Itunes, will let consumers listen to 30 seconds of a song, so besides selling the single, a few of the stronger tracks will get bought, but filler will lie there like a lox.

Thats why Rhianna who has had several killer up tempo hits, will always score big singles, but only average album sales. (I mean she is not a flop, but like you all say, she could help to sell a few more of this new record - but all albums this year have tanked a bit, even Born this way, could have sold more than it did)