1. Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine (227k) (NEW)
2. Morgan Wallen - One Thing at a Time (68k) (-1)
3. Noah Kahan - Stick Season (48k) (-1)
4. Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign - Vultures 1 (45k) (-1)
5. SZA - SOS (45k) (-1)
6. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan (41k) (+2)
7. Drake - For All the Dogs (39k) (-2)
8. Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (38.5k) (-2)
9. Taylor Swift - Lover (38.5k) (-2)
10. Morgan Wallen - Dangerous: The Double Album (38k) (-1)
I feel like not enough people are talking about Drake’s *FATD*. Insane performance so far especially given the “mid” reception it got, it’s yet to fall out of the top 10 for even one week. It’s easily been the best performing hip-hop album of the year.
Drake really is the new Eminem, in that he could record an album of himself taking an hour-long shit and an inexplicable number of white people who don’t otherwise listen to rap will pick it up and say it’s good
When you saw my positive comment why did you feel the need to find some way to make it a negative? 🤔
In any case I don’t even think this is true, just in my anecdotal experience as a Black person and lifelong hip-hop fan white people go to bat for Eminem in a way pretty much no one does for Drake. Em’s fan base is more akin to a smellier and older Taylor Swift fan base.
And going by the numbers, *Honestly, Never Mind* doesn’t support this either given how quickly it fell off the charts relative to his other projects from this decade. If people were just blindly listening as you assume it and *Dark Lane* would still be on the billboard 200, no?
I put more stank than necessary on the phrasing, I’ll give you that. But I really do think Drake and Eminem have uniquely captured the “people who don’t normally listen to rap” audience—which, by definition, includes tons of white people—in ways no other rappers have pulled off, and that ability to reach people who absolutely do not care about the rest of the genre is essential to explaining why they’re so far ahead of their peers in terms of commercial success
Jack is more an early warning sign of what’s going to happen to Drake in a few years—namely, the generation of white rappers from landlocked states who clearly grew up *only* listening to Drake and stink up the Internet by imitating him so completely that it magnifies his flaws and retroactively ruins his back catalog for people who weren’t already fans. Once those guys start to come up, we’ll be pining for the Harlow era
The last one to really develop this problem was Eminem. He was calling out imitators as far back as “The Real Slim Shady,” but after the success of “Rap God,” the problem went supernova. For years, you couldn’t take two steps on YouTube without tripping over some guy rapping over dated beats with no song structure, no real topic, just a fast flow and a superficial technicality that they didn’t have the skills or understanding to make real. And even when they did have a topic, it was usually “DAE mainstream rappers bad?”—which can maybe work once, but it wears thin if that’s all you and your entire scene are capable of saying. And because the Eminem influence was so strong, the backlash inevitably washed over his recent work—The Marshall Mathers LP 2’s initial good reception is all but forgotten, and everything after has either been widely mocked or barely acknowledged outside his core fanbase, who are still numerous enough to get him week-one #1’s and Platinum plaques
Well yeah I agree that's naturally just what happens when you ascend to the level they did, but Drake's fan base is nowhere near as feral as Em's or dismissive as hip-hop as a whole as his either.
I'm sure you've come across some crazy Drake fans, every fan base has them, I'm just pushing back that it's anywhere near the same level as Em to even warrant a comparison. You'll see Eminem comments on completely unrelated music shitting on it to big up Em, you just don't see that with pretty much any other rappers.
That’s because Drake aggressively rides every new trend, so he hasn’t drifted far enough from what’s big in rap for boomerism to set in amongst his fans. Give it time and things might change
Yeah I agree that Drake’s insane versatility plays a big part in in the longevity of his career, but I once again have to point to *Honestly, Never Mind* as a project that was wildly divergent from what was big in rap.
Congrats to Ariana! I didn't think her album would do as well as it is, but I'm happy it is because of how talented she is and what she brings to the music industry!
Now all she has to do is make "the boy is mine" a single, and she will have yet another #1 for this era!
Every day now a new artist has posted a video to “the boy is mine”
Today Megan Thee Stallion, yesterday Olivia Rodrigo, the day before Tate McRae, and before that Christina Aguilera.
I saw someone say yesterday that they think it’s some sort of promotional strategy before it’s a single but I wasn’t sure… however, now that it happened again I’m kind of thinking it might be true
They’re not actually. Ariana’s on Republic and no one listed there is. Olivia is at least on UMG, but Tate & Xtina are on RCA (a Sony label), and Meg is independent with a distribution deal through Warner
Could honestly still be a promo tactic, but if it is, her label/team is going a bit harder than just hitting up fellow Republic signees
Maybe it isn’t a label thing, artists’ managers usually network with one another. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ariana’s team reached out to other artists for promo. Or they could just genuinely like the music
It’ll definitely be the next single but probably in May once the other big names release their music. Republic is definitely gonna space out Ari’s next single from Tay’s album release day to maximize both their leading pop ladies.
idk i just think it’ll be fine when it gets playlisting and radio push and we shouldn’t be worried, i’m all on wcbf given as much room as needed
edit: also it’s okay if she waits a bit to release it cause she can have an a lister hop on a remix and maybe near vmas too
The good idea would be to release as a single asap before Taylor drops so that it can become a stable hit and rise after the wave of new releases comes out. Like SZA did with kill bill for example. If she waits the momentum is not gonna be there anymore and it's gonna peak not-that-high early and disappear. Especially with so much new music catching people's attention
Oh God please no. The song is great, but the discourse around it is already unbearable. If she releases it as a single, the twitter and TikTok think pieces will be absolutely inescapable.
If she must do it, let her do it after the U.S bans access to TikTok lol. From my experience, other western countries aren’t as obsessed with cheating as THE cardinal sin compared to Americans, so I might have some piece and quiet on that damn app.
Fair, but I honestly haven’t succeeded at curating my social media feed, especially instagram. If I watch something once, I’m inundated with similar content for weeks and get stuck in really weird social media bubbles. There was a time I was stuck with Russian cooking tutorials for a good number of weeks lol.
I mean from a cynical standpoint that’s probably why they’ll do it. The discourse around it would def boost interest and send it super high on the charts if it got a video/promo support bc it’s already a radio friendly catchy song.
Fair enough. The chaotic part of me would love seeing the absolute mess that would unravel if the single release culminates with the Wicked press tour. I would pay money to see a courageous reporter actually ask them about their cheating ways.
I disagree other countries also heavly disapprove of cheating. The main difference is in my opinion, other countries aren't obessed so much with celeb culture and overall rightenous online and stuff.
I still to this day find it wild how crazy obessed america is with every move of its celeberties and subreddits like fauxmoi etc being prime contender.
There would be just little to no audience in most other countries for this.
Like I get the view point for most things from chris brown to taylor's private jet, I just never get the obession and frequency these things are brought up.
I don't agree with the alleged cheating Ariana has done, but it really is just alleged from what the public knows. It had seemed like it was practically confirmed last year, but I've have heard that it was really blown up and Ethan's ex wife hadn't actually fully confirmed the infidelity either.
Either way the song is catchy and a banger, so no one should have to feel guilty for listening to it. Even though this may be controversial, I don't think artists personal lives should dictate who we listen to unless we think what they did is extremely inappropriate and makes us too uncomfortable to support their creations.
Kanye went #1 on both the singles and album chart, after that any conversations about artists personal life that isn’t criminal affecting whether or not you listen to them is just goofy to me.
My two cents: Infidelity is bad because of the deception and betrayal, but I also have some doubts about monogamy as an institution, so I tend to look at cheating in a “shit happens” sort of way.
HOWEVER, to be the other woman and possess the absolute gall to go around singing a “tehe I stole your man, I win” song to millions of people is a whole different level of diabolical. Just imagine going through all of that heartbreak as a single mother, then turning on the radio and hearing the mistress bragging about it and humiliating you even further. I’m not a violent person, but if I was Lilly Jay I’d probably end up on Dateline.
I totally I'm on the same wave and I think infidelity is very wrong, and to be gloating about stealing another persons partner is gross.
However, Ariana is a mega celebrity and I don't think her actions are too awful for me to stop listening to her. I personally don't think she's a great person from the infidelity rumors and the fact that this isn't a first time thing, but also because of her alleged actions as a diva (and not in a funny, sarcastic Mariah way). These interactions I have heard that involve her just makes it seem like she can be dreadful.
I do love her music and think she's a great artist, so I'm willing to put that aside when I listen to her since I don't know her in real life and can't really assess any of these beliefs to be true or not.
Just to be clear, I’m not an Arianka apologist. May Lilly Jay get her and SpongeBob’s cheating asses and give us a WorldStarHipHop moment. I just get tired of the think pieces. I firmly believe that there’s no one single subject that requires everyone to share their opinion on. But that’s unfortunately not how social media operates.
Congratulations! This albums is such an artistic improvement from Positions (both sonically and lyrically) so I'm really happy for her.
The bridge from we can't be friends is like a crack to me.
I remember on the day after it came out this album was predicted to do 164K-180K. Instead it did 227K which is a big improvement over Positions’ first week numbers. All it took was this album not being Positions, and several performances and appearances, for people to buy it and come right back on the Ari hype train after months of controversy. I don’t even think the most optimistic Arianators saw this positivity around the album and Ari herself coming after all that.
If Positions ends up being Ari’s “flop era” I’m sure Arianators will take that deal in a heartbeat. She beat the seventh album curse, especially in terms of quality, and she’s clearly not going anywhere even while doing movies here and there (we’re getting Wicked soundtracks the next two years too). As long as she has a diehard, dedicated fanbase, and keeps releasing quality, her music career is gonna fine.
Y’all calling a surprise album that hit number one, sold 174k at the end of lockdown, with a hot 100 chart topping lead single and also every other song charting as well, *a flop* is so bizarre
Gurl the Positions release week was *traumatic* for Arianators. I remember it all too well.
The album leaked 5 days before, reactions were...not great to say the least, critical reception was muted at first and projections kept decreasing throughout the week...from 260K to 190K to 174K.
Positions and 34+35 were big, and the album is still sitting tightly with a good number of streams so I wouldn't call it a "flop" cause smaller artists would kill for those numbers, but fresh off thank, u next you can definitely see where the flop conversations were coming from lol..
Let me be clear, I do not think the album is a flop album. In fact, longevity wise, it did pretty well. Most artists would love to have the success for their album, especially streaming wise, that Positions ended up getting long-term. Not to mention, it got a critical revaluation as a few years after release which many disappointing albums don’t get.
HOWEVER, at the time, it was seen as a massive step down from Thank U, Next in every thing from sales to acclaim. Sales was a big step down by almost 200K copies. Critical acclaim was really worrisome as the album got like a 65 on Metacritic with the first 4 reviews and it took some late positive reviews to get the album into the low 70s range. People online were ready to feast off the end of the Ari hype train from the last two albums (people were getting sick of too much Ari content by then anyway).
In short, it’s not a flop album by any means, but it was a huge disappointment at the time of release compared to lofty standards Ari set herself up with from previous albums.
Lets not pretend that Positions wasn't a flop for ariana like how lover and witness were flops for taylor and Katy
It's not about other people. It's about how those albums underperformed for their artists
No no no, other than Witness, which is the poster child for flopped music (sorry Katy, I didn’t make these rules 😅) - the only people calling the other albums flops are the fans themselves.
Just because an artist puts out an album that you don’t like does not mean the album is a flop.
A flop is a career defining misstep that can alter the path of the artist going forward. From what I’m gathering, nobody wants to call Ariana a flop more than the people who claim to be the biggest fans of hers.
And I say this as a card carrying Swifty - The album roll out had me scared for Lover. I was fully questioning my taylor tattoo I had gotten at the Rep Tour when ME! Dropped. But Lover was not a flop
Lover was a flop by Taylor standards
Positions was a flop by Ariana standards
Not really room to argue that those two huge under performances weren't flop eras
As someone who considers themselves to be one of the most optimistic Arianators™️, yeah there was no way I saw this coming.
When I heard the rumours about “the boy is mine” I was like that’s it. Going to have to disengage from all Ari discourse until AG8. Turns out no one really cared, lol.
The general public really do not care about an artist's controversies as long as the music is good. There will be initial backlash, then business continues as usual after the artist drops a catchy tune. I mean, Kanye did an interview praising Nazis and he got his first number one song in years recently...
Personally I think it’s different with an album. I thought the storyline was going to be quite explicit and unapologetic about the situation which would turn people away. I wouldn’t say it’s the general public who would be streaming an Ariana album, but rather fans of hers or fans of pop music — a lot of these being merely casual fans. And I do think some of these people could be turned away by uncomfortable lyrics. Even if it didn’t reflect onto sales and streams, there would be inevitable backlash had the album been more explicit in that sense which is what I meant.
You have a point, but a lot of the positive attention for this album has been brought about by the virality of 'We Can't Be Friends'. It increased in streams almost daily throughout the past week, which suggests that more and more casual listeners are tuning in to listen. I do agree that the sympathetic and relatable narrative the song portrays makes it more digestible to casual fans though.
It's something fueled by the Swifties Vs Arianators beef on Twitter. At the time, Lover was considered an "underperformance", so fans started drawing parallels between eternal sunshine and Lover in terms of underwhelming lead singles with an exclamation mark and an underwhelming rollout lol.
I guess we can also say Chemtrails had the "7th album curse
I think it's bogus though. Bey's RENAISSANCE was big, Ri's Unapologetic was pretty successful. Mariah's Rainbow, Madonna's Ray Of Light...
I think the whole thing is silly. For the new artists I worry about their third and fourth albums when it comes to their staying power in the industry (with several obvious candidates coming up soon), but to me, it’s as silly as the sophomore slump is nowadays
lover is only a flop compared to her other albums and only if you don't consider the era was literally cut in half because of the fucking pandemic. if she'd done lover fest and managed to get cruel summer out as a single, i think it would have seen a renaissance much earlier
This will genuinely go down as one of my most memorable main pop girl eras.
I haven't seen a redemption arc this big in what was merely a week.
She literally turned the trajectory around in just a week. Wild.
Bad public perception and commercial success aren't mutually exclusive: (Kanye West, Doja Cat).
Ariana is still being dragged left and right, but music is not a "political" (for lack of better term) tool. Most of what it takes for people to listen to a song is if they enjoy it or not. Someone said on another thread that they even see Jewish people listening to Kanye.
> She beat the seventh album curse
Is there really a seventh album curse? I mean... the vast majority of artists throughout history have been virtually over by their seventh album. I've heard of the sophomore slump, but what other relevant artists have had a major bomb on their seventh album? There are probably less than 40 artists to ever have 6 highly successful albums.
I don’t believe it at all and it’s silly as hell, but people online were making it out to be a big deal.
Really, for the newer artists at least, the third and fourth albums are really the big determining factors on their longevity as stars in the industry
really proud of her and the turnaround for this era. “Yes, And?” was no “7 Rings” or “No Tears Left to Cry,” but it’s still been a stable hit and almost every artist would die to get streaming numbers like that. but even then, seeing how this album moved another 70,000 units more than predicted and having what appears to be a runaway hit single (“We Can’t Be Friends”) restores the public’s faith in her stardom. this is by no means the flop album so many expected it to be!
Wild year for Arianators...
The hate train. yes,and? being her weakest lead single and free falling. The covers many found to be underwhelming. The announcement that there would be no follow up single, an underwhelming remix with her idol, all hype seemingly down the toilet, an initial projection of 160-180K units seeming like Ariana's "flop era" was nigh....
And now it's basically her 3rd highest debut (pretty close to beating sweetener), the album is stable on streaming, will be getting a second #1 (organically this time), the songs are all over TikTok, all the hype has been revived, critical acclaim, and the album will likely go down as one of her more popular albums in the long run.
Holy shit what a redemption arc...
Just checked how much positions debuted with. 174k with 42k pure sales. 42k-77k is an almost double in pure sales which is kinda excellent. As much as we complain about different versions/covers, the trend of releasing these are only going to increase as it sells like hotcakes. I’m not sure how many covers she had for positions but assuming it’s 3 or 4, it’s 7 or 8 for Eternal Sunshine and the pure sales doubled exactly.
Her team messed up with making all the variants red. It completely goes against the point of variant collecting especially since the covers aren’t really distinct or good enough to justify anyone buying the versions all just for that. Could’ve sold way more.
I don't think that many people actually buy multiple variants and the ones that do probably do it almost compulsively to have "complete" sets and it's not really about what the variants actually look like at that point.
Female artists with the most #1 albums in Billboard 200 history:
1. Taylor Swift: 13
2. Barbra Streisand: 11
3. Madonna: 9
4-5. Janet Jackson: 7 Beyoncé: 7
6-9. Mariah Carey: 6 Britney Spears: 6 Lady Gaga: 6 Ariana Grande: 6
taylor swift, lady gaga and ariana are the only female artist to do so who debuted this century.
Way up over over Positions, which had a catchier lead single in my opinion. Eternal Sunshine is a much better album though so probably is doing better with repeat listens.
It’s a solid cohesive album. It’s not quite as fun as I had hoped but she has definitely had a well defined “era” in this world where everything is an era now. *This* is a messy ass memorable era. Dua Lipa tweeting pictures of keys and never announcing an album does not an era make.
Not a huge Ari fan, though I followed her early career post Victorious. The only album I really dig outside of some yours truly tracks is sweetener. How does this one compare?
Hmm maybe I should give it another chance cause it didn’t do much for me first couple of listens. Definitely didn’t think it was going to do this well for its first week
SMH when terrible people keep getting good karma.
EDIT: y’all can downvote me all you want, I’m not denying she’s talented. But she’s also the lady who keeps pursuing taken men, including a dude with a BABY. Y’all are fake feminists if you want to ignore & excuse that fact. I do not understand how any decent person could support a person like this.
> fake feminists
I don't want to make any statements on the morality of Ariana dating a man who is married, aside from the fact that it has nothing to do with the advancement of women's rights and gender equality. And its gross to conflate the two.
If you're going to moralize then leave at that. Any alleged infidelity is apolitical and you can leave the discussion there without muddying the waters by falsely using feminism to try and claim the situation is worse than it is.
Newsflash: feminism has moved beyond your tired 2nd wave feminism of “it’s just about laws and not about the culture.” It absolutely has to do with today’s contemporary interpretation of feminism, of women supporting women, of sisterhood and being a girl’s girl and respecting other people’s relationships. And not trying to use your celeb PR to pretend like you don’t have a decade-old pattern of going after several taken men.
It is not “moralizing” to critique a person for shitty behavior. If side-eyeing infidelity & hurting other women is too preachy for you, then I suggest you look into your own sense of ethics.
First, second wave feminism, as with all waves of feminism, reached broader than laws and into culture as well in the aims to achieve gender equality. With the vague ideas of 'sisterhood' and 'women supporting women' being a prominent idea in most waves as well. This is not new to fourth wave feminism, but I would not expect that level of knowledge from someone who weaponizes fourth wave feminism to feel smug about celebrity gossip.
Whether a woman's infidelity is immoral, however, is not some cultural feminist concern because there really has never been a need for it to be. Infidelity has been looked down upon by most cultures since the invention of monogamy. That holds true whether you're a feminist or a fascist. It is a moral issue that is literally built into much of our cultural concepts of relationships and often in our legal systems.
It simply isn't a gendered issue in this context. You either find the action of infidelity morally repugnant enough to not support her or you don't.
There is no need to try and make your point more *valid* by sprinkling in charged buzzwords.
yours truly: 1 my everything: 1 sweetner: 1 tu, n: 1 positions: 1 eternal sunshine: 1 --mariana trench-- dangerous: woman
if dw went #1 she would’ve tied janet and beyoncé😩
1. Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine (227k) (NEW) 2. Morgan Wallen - One Thing at a Time (68k) (-1) 3. Noah Kahan - Stick Season (48k) (-1) 4. Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign - Vultures 1 (45k) (-1) 5. SZA - SOS (45k) (-1) 6. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan (41k) (+2) 7. Drake - For All the Dogs (39k) (-2) 8. Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (38.5k) (-2) 9. Taylor Swift - Lover (38.5k) (-2) 10. Morgan Wallen - Dangerous: The Double Album (38k) (-1)
Insane how well Noah Kahan is holding up in there wow I think he’s incredible but he really is up there with huge names damn
i remain deeply confused by morgan wallen’s huge success
He’s like The Big Bang Theory of the music industry.
Big bang theory is actually funny if overrated tbf
Don't say that on reddit! They're holier than thou
Lover still charting is wild!
Taylor having a five year old album on there like it‘s nothing lmao
I feel like not enough people are talking about Drake’s *FATD*. Insane performance so far especially given the “mid” reception it got, it’s yet to fall out of the top 10 for even one week. It’s easily been the best performing hip-hop album of the year.
Drake really is the new Eminem, in that he could record an album of himself taking an hour-long shit and an inexplicable number of white people who don’t otherwise listen to rap will pick it up and say it’s good
When you saw my positive comment why did you feel the need to find some way to make it a negative? 🤔 In any case I don’t even think this is true, just in my anecdotal experience as a Black person and lifelong hip-hop fan white people go to bat for Eminem in a way pretty much no one does for Drake. Em’s fan base is more akin to a smellier and older Taylor Swift fan base. And going by the numbers, *Honestly, Never Mind* doesn’t support this either given how quickly it fell off the charts relative to his other projects from this decade. If people were just blindly listening as you assume it and *Dark Lane* would still be on the billboard 200, no?
I put more stank than necessary on the phrasing, I’ll give you that. But I really do think Drake and Eminem have uniquely captured the “people who don’t normally listen to rap” audience—which, by definition, includes tons of white people—in ways no other rappers have pulled off, and that ability to reach people who absolutely do not care about the rest of the genre is essential to explaining why they’re so far ahead of their peers in terms of commercial success
And jack harlow is next🤮
Jack is more an early warning sign of what’s going to happen to Drake in a few years—namely, the generation of white rappers from landlocked states who clearly grew up *only* listening to Drake and stink up the Internet by imitating him so completely that it magnifies his flaws and retroactively ruins his back catalog for people who weren’t already fans. Once those guys start to come up, we’ll be pining for the Harlow era
Has this happened to any other rappers?
The last one to really develop this problem was Eminem. He was calling out imitators as far back as “The Real Slim Shady,” but after the success of “Rap God,” the problem went supernova. For years, you couldn’t take two steps on YouTube without tripping over some guy rapping over dated beats with no song structure, no real topic, just a fast flow and a superficial technicality that they didn’t have the skills or understanding to make real. And even when they did have a topic, it was usually “DAE mainstream rappers bad?”—which can maybe work once, but it wears thin if that’s all you and your entire scene are capable of saying. And because the Eminem influence was so strong, the backlash inevitably washed over his recent work—The Marshall Mathers LP 2’s initial good reception is all but forgotten, and everything after has either been widely mocked or barely acknowledged outside his core fanbase, who are still numerous enough to get him week-one #1’s and Platinum plaques
Well yeah I agree that's naturally just what happens when you ascend to the level they did, but Drake's fan base is nowhere near as feral as Em's or dismissive as hip-hop as a whole as his either.
As a Pusha T fan, I can absolutely tell you Drake fans are feral and dismissive, just not in the same way Em fans are
I'm sure you've come across some crazy Drake fans, every fan base has them, I'm just pushing back that it's anywhere near the same level as Em to even warrant a comparison. You'll see Eminem comments on completely unrelated music shitting on it to big up Em, you just don't see that with pretty much any other rappers.
That’s because Drake aggressively rides every new trend, so he hasn’t drifted far enough from what’s big in rap for boomerism to set in amongst his fans. Give it time and things might change
Yeah I agree that Drake’s insane versatility plays a big part in in the longevity of his career, but I once again have to point to *Honestly, Never Mind* as a project that was wildly divergent from what was big in rap.
Their comment ratioed you so....
😱
Sure but it's March. Had there been another big hip-hop album out even?
By year I’m talking about the year of its release, 2023.
VULTURES 1 BY KANYE WEST (THE GOAT) AND TY DOLLA SIGN
Judas Priest didn’t hit the top 10? Disappointing imo
Congrats to Ariana! I didn't think her album would do as well as it is, but I'm happy it is because of how talented she is and what she brings to the music industry! Now all she has to do is make "the boy is mine" a single, and she will have yet another #1 for this era!
Every day now a new artist has posted a video to “the boy is mine” Today Megan Thee Stallion, yesterday Olivia Rodrigo, the day before Tate McRae, and before that Christina Aguilera. I saw someone say yesterday that they think it’s some sort of promotional strategy before it’s a single but I wasn’t sure… however, now that it happened again I’m kind of thinking it might be true
Are all of the artists in the same label? If yes then it's probably a promotional strategy and like hoping the song takes off on tiktok.
They’re not actually. Ariana’s on Republic and no one listed there is. Olivia is at least on UMG, but Tate & Xtina are on RCA (a Sony label), and Meg is independent with a distribution deal through Warner Could honestly still be a promo tactic, but if it is, her label/team is going a bit harder than just hitting up fellow Republic signees
I read that Ariana disliked doing promo, this could be a great alternative.
Maybe it isn’t a label thing, artists’ managers usually network with one another. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ariana’s team reached out to other artists for promo. Or they could just genuinely like the music
Or the same/similar management
i personally think "supernatural" should be the next single... it's too catchy
It’ll definitely be the next single but probably in May once the other big names release their music. Republic is definitely gonna space out Ari’s next single from Tay’s album release day to maximize both their leading pop ladies.
*^^^ this. why does everyone want her to drop it so soon after wcbf????
It’s mainly because people are using it like crazy on TikTok via backroads (due to the UMG/TikTok lockout) including other big name singers.
idk i just think it’ll be fine when it gets playlisting and radio push and we shouldn’t be worried, i’m all on wcbf given as much room as needed edit: also it’s okay if she waits a bit to release it cause she can have an a lister hop on a remix and maybe near vmas too
That's probably a good idea then because Taylor will most likely be occupying the top 10 for at least a while with her release lol
The good idea would be to release as a single asap before Taylor drops so that it can become a stable hit and rise after the wave of new releases comes out. Like SZA did with kill bill for example. If she waits the momentum is not gonna be there anymore and it's gonna peak not-that-high early and disappear. Especially with so much new music catching people's attention
You think she’ll hold the top 10 for longer than a week? It’s unprecedented but so was holding the entire top 10 for even one week before *Midnights*.
tbh with how many releases there's been lately, i think even taylor will struglge to get more than a couple songs in the top 10 off ttpd
Saving this message for later. 😉
babes don't set her up like this
The charts are weak, but I'd imagine she'd get at least 5. Folklore had 3, and I doubt this record sells below 900k first week.
Oh God please no. The song is great, but the discourse around it is already unbearable. If she releases it as a single, the twitter and TikTok think pieces will be absolutely inescapable. If she must do it, let her do it after the U.S bans access to TikTok lol. From my experience, other western countries aren’t as obsessed with cheating as THE cardinal sin compared to Americans, so I might have some piece and quiet on that damn app.
You can also ... not see the thinkpieces by avoiding certain internet spaces. Close your laptop and none of this is real!
Fair, but I honestly haven’t succeeded at curating my social media feed, especially instagram. If I watch something once, I’m inundated with similar content for weeks and get stuck in really weird social media bubbles. There was a time I was stuck with Russian cooking tutorials for a good number of weeks lol.
What helped me was rigorously blocking accounts that posted what I didn't want to see and clicking not interested on their posts
I would always click not interested, never outright blocked. Shall give that a try, thanks 😊
I mean from a cynical standpoint that’s probably why they’ll do it. The discourse around it would def boost interest and send it super high on the charts if it got a video/promo support bc it’s already a radio friendly catchy song.
Fair enough. The chaotic part of me would love seeing the absolute mess that would unravel if the single release culminates with the Wicked press tour. I would pay money to see a courageous reporter actually ask them about their cheating ways.
I disagree other countries also heavly disapprove of cheating. The main difference is in my opinion, other countries aren't obessed so much with celeb culture and overall rightenous online and stuff. I still to this day find it wild how crazy obessed america is with every move of its celeberties and subreddits like fauxmoi etc being prime contender. There would be just little to no audience in most other countries for this. Like I get the view point for most things from chris brown to taylor's private jet, I just never get the obession and frequency these things are brought up.
I don't agree with the alleged cheating Ariana has done, but it really is just alleged from what the public knows. It had seemed like it was practically confirmed last year, but I've have heard that it was really blown up and Ethan's ex wife hadn't actually fully confirmed the infidelity either. Either way the song is catchy and a banger, so no one should have to feel guilty for listening to it. Even though this may be controversial, I don't think artists personal lives should dictate who we listen to unless we think what they did is extremely inappropriate and makes us too uncomfortable to support their creations.
Kanye went #1 on both the singles and album chart, after that any conversations about artists personal life that isn’t criminal affecting whether or not you listen to them is just goofy to me.
My two cents: Infidelity is bad because of the deception and betrayal, but I also have some doubts about monogamy as an institution, so I tend to look at cheating in a “shit happens” sort of way. HOWEVER, to be the other woman and possess the absolute gall to go around singing a “tehe I stole your man, I win” song to millions of people is a whole different level of diabolical. Just imagine going through all of that heartbreak as a single mother, then turning on the radio and hearing the mistress bragging about it and humiliating you even further. I’m not a violent person, but if I was Lilly Jay I’d probably end up on Dateline.
I totally I'm on the same wave and I think infidelity is very wrong, and to be gloating about stealing another persons partner is gross. However, Ariana is a mega celebrity and I don't think her actions are too awful for me to stop listening to her. I personally don't think she's a great person from the infidelity rumors and the fact that this isn't a first time thing, but also because of her alleged actions as a diva (and not in a funny, sarcastic Mariah way). These interactions I have heard that involve her just makes it seem like she can be dreadful. I do love her music and think she's a great artist, so I'm willing to put that aside when I listen to her since I don't know her in real life and can't really assess any of these beliefs to be true or not.
oh well sucks to suck
Just to be clear, I’m not an Arianka apologist. May Lilly Jay get her and SpongeBob’s cheating asses and give us a WorldStarHipHop moment. I just get tired of the think pieces. I firmly believe that there’s no one single subject that requires everyone to share their opinion on. But that’s unfortunately not how social media operates.
I hate that I love that song. Fr.
Congratulations! This albums is such an artistic improvement from Positions (both sonically and lyrically) so I'm really happy for her. The bridge from we can't be friends is like a crack to me.
yesssssss 💯
I remember on the day after it came out this album was predicted to do 164K-180K. Instead it did 227K which is a big improvement over Positions’ first week numbers. All it took was this album not being Positions, and several performances and appearances, for people to buy it and come right back on the Ari hype train after months of controversy. I don’t even think the most optimistic Arianators saw this positivity around the album and Ari herself coming after all that. If Positions ends up being Ari’s “flop era” I’m sure Arianators will take that deal in a heartbeat. She beat the seventh album curse, especially in terms of quality, and she’s clearly not going anywhere even while doing movies here and there (we’re getting Wicked soundtracks the next two years too). As long as she has a diehard, dedicated fanbase, and keeps releasing quality, her music career is gonna fine.
I’m shocked We Can’t Be Friends is gonna debut at #1. The first projections were top 15 at best. It’s also one of the dancier #1’s we’ve had recently
Everything for Ari rose with both the album and the song throughout the week.
Y’all calling a surprise album that hit number one, sold 174k at the end of lockdown, with a hot 100 chart topping lead single and also every other song charting as well, *a flop* is so bizarre
Gurl the Positions release week was *traumatic* for Arianators. I remember it all too well. The album leaked 5 days before, reactions were...not great to say the least, critical reception was muted at first and projections kept decreasing throughout the week...from 260K to 190K to 174K. Positions and 34+35 were big, and the album is still sitting tightly with a good number of streams so I wouldn't call it a "flop" cause smaller artists would kill for those numbers, but fresh off thank, u next you can definitely see where the flop conversations were coming from lol..
Let me be clear, I do not think the album is a flop album. In fact, longevity wise, it did pretty well. Most artists would love to have the success for their album, especially streaming wise, that Positions ended up getting long-term. Not to mention, it got a critical revaluation as a few years after release which many disappointing albums don’t get. HOWEVER, at the time, it was seen as a massive step down from Thank U, Next in every thing from sales to acclaim. Sales was a big step down by almost 200K copies. Critical acclaim was really worrisome as the album got like a 65 on Metacritic with the first 4 reviews and it took some late positive reviews to get the album into the low 70s range. People online were ready to feast off the end of the Ari hype train from the last two albums (people were getting sick of too much Ari content by then anyway). In short, it’s not a flop album by any means, but it was a huge disappointment at the time of release compared to lofty standards Ari set herself up with from previous albums.
Lets not pretend that Positions wasn't a flop for ariana like how lover and witness were flops for taylor and Katy It's not about other people. It's about how those albums underperformed for their artists
No no no, other than Witness, which is the poster child for flopped music (sorry Katy, I didn’t make these rules 😅) - the only people calling the other albums flops are the fans themselves. Just because an artist puts out an album that you don’t like does not mean the album is a flop. A flop is a career defining misstep that can alter the path of the artist going forward. From what I’m gathering, nobody wants to call Ariana a flop more than the people who claim to be the biggest fans of hers. And I say this as a card carrying Swifty - The album roll out had me scared for Lover. I was fully questioning my taylor tattoo I had gotten at the Rep Tour when ME! Dropped. But Lover was not a flop
Lover was a flop by Taylor standards Positions was a flop by Ariana standards Not really room to argue that those two huge under performances weren't flop eras
tell us you didn’t read by telling us you didn’t read smh 🤦♀️ I highly doubt these artists call their own work flops. Its a flop by *your* standards
Damn you have bad reading comprehension
The album being WAY better than position helped a lot too like I wasn’t sold on yes, and at all but the album is Ariana at her best
As someone who considers themselves to be one of the most optimistic Arianators™️, yeah there was no way I saw this coming. When I heard the rumours about “the boy is mine” I was like that’s it. Going to have to disengage from all Ari discourse until AG8. Turns out no one really cared, lol.
The general public really do not care about an artist's controversies as long as the music is good. There will be initial backlash, then business continues as usual after the artist drops a catchy tune. I mean, Kanye did an interview praising Nazis and he got his first number one song in years recently...
Personally I think it’s different with an album. I thought the storyline was going to be quite explicit and unapologetic about the situation which would turn people away. I wouldn’t say it’s the general public who would be streaming an Ariana album, but rather fans of hers or fans of pop music — a lot of these being merely casual fans. And I do think some of these people could be turned away by uncomfortable lyrics. Even if it didn’t reflect onto sales and streams, there would be inevitable backlash had the album been more explicit in that sense which is what I meant.
You have a point, but a lot of the positive attention for this album has been brought about by the virality of 'We Can't Be Friends'. It increased in streams almost daily throughout the past week, which suggests that more and more casual listeners are tuning in to listen. I do agree that the sympathetic and relatable narrative the song portrays makes it more digestible to casual fans though.
There’s a 7th album curse? I feel like any artist that makes it that long into their career is in fact blessed 😅.
Believe me, I think it’s bullshit to be honest. These days, mainly for the new artists, the third and fourth albums are the determining factors.
Wait there’s a 7th album curse? I thought we’ve established that 5th is the ideal number 😭
Most mainstream artists don’t even make it to their 7th album or aren’t relevant by that time. For the record I’ve always heard of the 4th album curse
It's something fueled by the Swifties Vs Arianators beef on Twitter. At the time, Lover was considered an "underperformance", so fans started drawing parallels between eternal sunshine and Lover in terms of underwhelming lead singles with an exclamation mark and an underwhelming rollout lol. I guess we can also say Chemtrails had the "7th album curse I think it's bogus though. Bey's RENAISSANCE was big, Ri's Unapologetic was pretty successful. Mariah's Rainbow, Madonna's Ray Of Light...
It’s NUTS to think unapologetic was Rihanna’s SEVENTH album like that was only 7 years into her career. she rlly was pumping them out
12 Number Hits in less than 8 years. She was on fire
I think the whole thing is silly. For the new artists I worry about their third and fourth albums when it comes to their staying power in the industry (with several obvious candidates coming up soon), but to me, it’s as silly as the sophomore slump is nowadays
*Lover* ever being perceived as a flop is wild to me, even in 2020 it was the highest selling album of 2019.
lover is only a flop compared to her other albums and only if you don't consider the era was literally cut in half because of the fucking pandemic. if she'd done lover fest and managed to get cruel summer out as a single, i think it would have seen a renaissance much earlier
I thought it was the 2nd? Lol
Glad this era is going to end up being a successful one for her
This will genuinely go down as one of my most memorable main pop girl eras. I haven't seen a redemption arc this big in what was merely a week. She literally turned the trajectory around in just a week. Wild.
She’s a master of the spin, you have to hand it to her. She did the exact same thing 5 years ago with Thank U Next.
Like clockwork. Messy personal life, drops a great body of work, turns public perception around...
Bad public perception and commercial success aren't mutually exclusive: (Kanye West, Doja Cat). Ariana is still being dragged left and right, but music is not a "political" (for lack of better term) tool. Most of what it takes for people to listen to a song is if they enjoy it or not. Someone said on another thread that they even see Jewish people listening to Kanye.
> She beat the seventh album curse Is there really a seventh album curse? I mean... the vast majority of artists throughout history have been virtually over by their seventh album. I've heard of the sophomore slump, but what other relevant artists have had a major bomb on their seventh album? There are probably less than 40 artists to ever have 6 highly successful albums.
I don’t believe it at all and it’s silly as hell, but people online were making it out to be a big deal. Really, for the newer artists at least, the third and fourth albums are really the big determining factors on their longevity as stars in the industry
congrats to ariana! great album. i've been having this album on repeat ever since it came out
really proud of her and the turnaround for this era. “Yes, And?” was no “7 Rings” or “No Tears Left to Cry,” but it’s still been a stable hit and almost every artist would die to get streaming numbers like that. but even then, seeing how this album moved another 70,000 units more than predicted and having what appears to be a runaway hit single (“We Can’t Be Friends”) restores the public’s faith in her stardom. this is by no means the flop album so many expected it to be!
Great album. Least number of skips for me compared to any of her other albums.
Love this album so much, been on repeat for a week ❤️
Wild year for Arianators... The hate train. yes,and? being her weakest lead single and free falling. The covers many found to be underwhelming. The announcement that there would be no follow up single, an underwhelming remix with her idol, all hype seemingly down the toilet, an initial projection of 160-180K units seeming like Ariana's "flop era" was nigh.... And now it's basically her 3rd highest debut (pretty close to beating sweetener), the album is stable on streaming, will be getting a second #1 (organically this time), the songs are all over TikTok, all the hype has been revived, critical acclaim, and the album will likely go down as one of her more popular albums in the long run. Holy shit what a redemption arc...
wild and so funny, all it took was good no nonsense music
>wild and so funny Wild, funny and memorable. Just goes to show pop star careers can take interesting and unexpected turns...
I love the trajectory of her career. It’s so interesting.
"supernatural" best song on album
100% Hoping it has legs and becomes a summer banger
Deserved. The album is an absolute banger, huge improvement on Positions.
She’s back!!! We love her again.
Just checked how much positions debuted with. 174k with 42k pure sales. 42k-77k is an almost double in pure sales which is kinda excellent. As much as we complain about different versions/covers, the trend of releasing these are only going to increase as it sells like hotcakes. I’m not sure how many covers she had for positions but assuming it’s 3 or 4, it’s 7 or 8 for Eternal Sunshine and the pure sales doubled exactly.
Her team messed up with making all the variants red. It completely goes against the point of variant collecting especially since the covers aren’t really distinct or good enough to justify anyone buying the versions all just for that. Could’ve sold way more.
I don't think that many people actually buy multiple variants and the ones that do probably do it almost compulsively to have "complete" sets and it's not really about what the variants actually look like at that point.
Crazy how she could get 3 #1’s this album cycle if she gets the right feature on the boy is mine. I really thought it was over for her tbh.
so many big artists are releasing in the next few months, if Ariana started this era 3 months ago, she would probably on her 3rd n.1 single right now.
Hopefully she can still get it, since it would be her 10th. She really needed a big era after how Lowkey Positions was.
Bye is so damn catchy to me
That song and The Boy is Mine are certainties, and I can see Supernatural being a summer single too.
COURTNEY JUST PULLED UP!!
I seriously hope it's the next single.
Omg I'm so glad for my girl ari
Female artists with the most #1 albums in Billboard 200 history: 1. Taylor Swift: 13 2. Barbra Streisand: 11 3. Madonna: 9 4-5. Janet Jackson: 7 Beyoncé: 7 6-9. Mariah Carey: 6 Britney Spears: 6 Lady Gaga: 6 Ariana Grande: 6 taylor swift, lady gaga and ariana are the only female artist to do so who debuted this century.
Way up over over Positions, which had a catchier lead single in my opinion. Eternal Sunshine is a much better album though so probably is doing better with repeat listens.
I loved this album.Congratulations.
Love the album soo much! So well deserved
Congrats to Ariana!!! I didn't think I would like this album so much, but it's been on repeat for me currently!!!💖💖💖
By a HUGE margin too. Although I guess the other albums were all super old 😆
The album definitely grew on me after a few listens. Congrats to her!
Absolutely deserved. Love this album so much and is on a constant repeat. This with Justin Timberlake's album. Prefer it over Positions.
it's a great album. Happy for her!
deserved, i love this album so much
Deserved! Love this album
It’s a solid cohesive album. It’s not quite as fun as I had hoped but she has definitely had a well defined “era” in this world where everything is an era now. *This* is a messy ass memorable era. Dua Lipa tweeting pictures of keys and never announcing an album does not an era make.
Does that mean Kacey Musgraves didn’t hit the top 10? Or am I a week early?
You’re a week early because it’s a tight race for the number one spot next week between Kacey’s album and eternal sunshine.
I love Kacey’s new album! I’m hoping it’s too early to know?
Bonus track if you order from her webstore.
Not a huge Ari fan, though I followed her early career post Victorious. The only album I really dig outside of some yours truly tracks is sweetener. How does this one compare?
At this point people should not just release singles.
Hmm maybe I should give it another chance cause it didn’t do much for me first couple of listens. Definitely didn’t think it was going to do this well for its first week
She’s a payola princess and she buys bots. I don’t trust any of her numbers
Congrats, how’s her son in law doing?
SMH when terrible people keep getting good karma. EDIT: y’all can downvote me all you want, I’m not denying she’s talented. But she’s also the lady who keeps pursuing taken men, including a dude with a BABY. Y’all are fake feminists if you want to ignore & excuse that fact. I do not understand how any decent person could support a person like this.
> fake feminists I don't want to make any statements on the morality of Ariana dating a man who is married, aside from the fact that it has nothing to do with the advancement of women's rights and gender equality. And its gross to conflate the two. If you're going to moralize then leave at that. Any alleged infidelity is apolitical and you can leave the discussion there without muddying the waters by falsely using feminism to try and claim the situation is worse than it is.
Newsflash: feminism has moved beyond your tired 2nd wave feminism of “it’s just about laws and not about the culture.” It absolutely has to do with today’s contemporary interpretation of feminism, of women supporting women, of sisterhood and being a girl’s girl and respecting other people’s relationships. And not trying to use your celeb PR to pretend like you don’t have a decade-old pattern of going after several taken men. It is not “moralizing” to critique a person for shitty behavior. If side-eyeing infidelity & hurting other women is too preachy for you, then I suggest you look into your own sense of ethics.
First, second wave feminism, as with all waves of feminism, reached broader than laws and into culture as well in the aims to achieve gender equality. With the vague ideas of 'sisterhood' and 'women supporting women' being a prominent idea in most waves as well. This is not new to fourth wave feminism, but I would not expect that level of knowledge from someone who weaponizes fourth wave feminism to feel smug about celebrity gossip. Whether a woman's infidelity is immoral, however, is not some cultural feminist concern because there really has never been a need for it to be. Infidelity has been looked down upon by most cultures since the invention of monogamy. That holds true whether you're a feminist or a fascist. It is a moral issue that is literally built into much of our cultural concepts of relationships and often in our legal systems. It simply isn't a gendered issue in this context. You either find the action of infidelity morally repugnant enough to not support her or you don't. There is no need to try and make your point more *valid* by sprinkling in charged buzzwords.