Madonna's MDNA Album & Singles Chat- Page 14

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/10/12 at 9:37pm

Vera, dear, help me off this plywood moon.

Now, I don't really have a head for numbers, so I will defer to all the people who seem eager to point out the success of MDNA and are comparing the precipitous drop in sales to that of "Born this Way" to prove, well, I don't know what. However, and here's where my math gets fuzzy, it seems to me that Madonna sold not quite 350,000 copies before her drop off (and let's just for the sake of argument use the word "sold" to include giveaways). "Born this Way" on the other hand, appears to have sold (and we'll use that word again to include the low sale price offered online) something over 1,100,000 copies.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this isn't like a golf game where the winner is the one who has the lowest number, is it? Because it just seems to me the way I look at it, that 1 million is more than 300 thousand.

Can anybody back me up on this?

Updated On: 4/10/12 at 09:37 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/10/12 at 11:12pm

Well Madonna's "bundled" editions as has been pointed out again just now by billboard meant paying the iTunes price for the album on top of the ticket price--so it's arguable if that's more cheating or less than Gaga's 99cents thing. Both of course ensured their hard core fans would have to buy it again anyway as neither released the deluxe editions this.

Regardless, I *think* the deal is about percentage not numbers. Gaga had an 84% drop from week 1 to 2. Madonna had an 87% (I think). I hope nobody was trying to argue Gaga sold less... Follow? Either way I believe drops are usually more in the 40% - 60% range for hit albums, so anyone using this info to say it's a good thing is silly. :) I guess the point only is Madonna beat Gaga's record of percentage drop full stop.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 7:06am

Madonna breaks records with MDNA!!!

She scored the BIGGEST 2nd week sales DROP in U.S. Chart HISTORY!


WAY TO GO MADONNA!!! Congrats!!!


This album BLOWS Updated On: 4/11/12 at 07:06 AM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 8:12am

Namo
I think the simple fact is that after 12 studio albums Madonna did a tour bundle (as did Bon Jovi etc), these are artists who dont sell as big as they do. And Gaga sold her 2nd album for 99 cents for reasons i still dont understand. Both had huge drops after the initial release, and it was to be expected. Even i purchased Gaga's album at that first week price and i hate her.

Both artists are clearly more interested in the stats (look they got another number one album) than the actual money they make from the album.

I keep reading this daft article from the notorious Madonna hater in Forbes saying that bundling the album with the concert tickets means she cheated and should have gone in the chart at number 2. What he (and some on here) fail to realise is that if she had not done the bundle (which lets say Forbes is right and it accounted for 180 thousand copies meaning she sold 170 thousand) she would have sold more than the 170 thousand she sold this time. Many people who got the album with the ticket would have gone out and purchased the ticket, even if only say 40 thousand of the 180 thousand actually went out and purchased the album that would still put her ahead of Ritchie and made her number one.

All this bashing her for doing the tour bundle (which also you did not get an album with each ticket, it was a package album, one i did not choose) but what about the artists who have done it before, why did nothing get mentioned then? Because it's Madonna and it's another way to pull her down.

The album has done what it needed to do, it's gone to number one in over 30 countries around the world and she got the headlines. The album is a great album, it's helping sell the tour and got her some of the best reviews she has had in years.

Did everyone jump on Gaga when she had such a huge drop (84 percent)? no

oh and Carlos, you are a little late to the party aren't you dear

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 10:26am

When Prince did it before anyone else, it seemed a genius idea to thumb his nose at sales charts fetishists. It was to point out how ridiculous the chart system is. I remember chuckling about it with friends and singing "Fake Your Way to the Top" because he DID get a #1, but it should've had an asterisk. So it's not about hating Madonna, or Madonna being old, or what-have-you. I'm interested in it within the context of her once being a leader and now a follower (of Prince and the other people you have named doing give-aways) and of the fact that her defenders are the ones who throw facts and figures around as if they are proof of something.

I wouldn't be so sure that she would have sold the album to people who took the give-away. That's the curse of the legacy artist, many if not most of their ticket buyers only want to hear the hits. Passing out the discs like AOL used to do is one way to INSIST to your fans that they might just enjoy the new stuff.

Either way, I think this all does reveal that a lot of thought went into the complete lack of promotion for this album. Unfortunately for Madonna, it didn't turn out.

Posted: 4/11/12 at 11:30am

I wonder if she is gonna turn around and do TV appearances.
But then again- the tour starts soon.


Lionel Richie has a special on CBS or NBC coming up.

I think this 2nd week drop was expected...of course.

Album sales are up in general from last year.

It's funny that both Madonna and Lady Gaga have the highest 2nd week sales drop in the chart history.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 12:04pm

It's a reflection of the state of the music industry, really. I have to think Madonna knows this full well, she knew a paltry number of people would actually shell out money for her new disc. (This is something I said before it was released and I was called a hater.) I also believe this is why the album sounds so cobbled together and why Madonna comes across as not particularly engaged on the album. This makes absolute sense to me because at this point it's all a contractual obligation for her. She has to tour, she has to release something. To me the album sounds like she preferred to do the Britney formula, hand over one or two vocal takes to producers and let them work their magic and give it back to her for imminent release.

The "no promotion" angle seems to me the decision of a team of managers and the artist who realized it isn't going to matter anyway. She, the super-multi-tasking Type A, has never ever been "too busy" prepping a tour to promote an album until now. At this point, it must be like factory work for her.

So, what is there to look forward to? I guess braying about the tour grosses (which is a lot like Lion King bragging about income generation, *technically* true but reflecting insanely high pricing schemes). Oh, and I know I am looking forward to seeing how long Lourdes lasts as one of her back-up dancers.

Posted: 4/11/12 at 12:24pm

The album drop is better explained in this new Billboard article.

It is a fair look at the situation.

http://www.billboard.com/#/news/madonna-tops-lady-gaga-for-biggest-2nd-week-1006725152.story?utm_source=most_recent

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 12:33pm

I just think Oseary's "too busy prepping for the tour" is code for "not going to bother because we've done a cost benefit analysis and it won't amount to anything." Plus, Madonna does have a way of insulting hydrangeas and looking like somebody is holding a turd beneath her nose when required to shill herself in front of non-paying audiences. But really, she coulda easily banged out an SNL performance without interrupting the tour prep all that much.

Posted: 4/11/12 at 12:54pm

Agreed.


she did recently tweet about 'gagging to do SNL' and would love to do a skit with Wiig and Lola. superfans set up a FB page and it's making the rounds.

that would be a smart gig- she should close the season right before the tour starts.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Madonna-to-host-SNL-we-hope/122719017756129 Updated On: 4/11/12 at 12:54 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 3:31pm

So basically, Madonna's the new Betty White.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 3:40pm

I don't believe a petition is necessary, although they always seem to work for Corine, so what do I know?

I think if Madonna wanted to do the show, they would say, "Okay, when would you like to come on?"

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 5:25pm

Particularly if she just wanted to do another one off skit a bit like what he did with Gaga--they often seem to let any celeb walk on for a random appearance. I do think it's absolutely true that all of this reflects the state of the industry right now, although I do think Madonna genuinely cares about her tours--not so much abotu her albums really.

There's an online article with the person behind Girl Gone Wild (not Benassi, but the main writer) that of course I can't find, but it was done very very much in the way Britney, Rhianna and Pink often work (apparently Gaga--for good or bad--still does often write out her songs before taking them into the studio). He did a demo (which you can hear on youtube, I think under Rosette) and shopped it around, and was VERY surprised that it actually even got shopped to Madonna. She changed a few lyrics (but in this case VERY few), and he said he spoke to Benassi when she was recording it and he had some questions about vocals but never spoke to her though :"heard her in the background".

Madonna recorded most of Hard Candy that way too. With Confessions the majority was written in tandem with Price in the studio together, so... Still, I like a good chunk of MDNA a lot (and a lot more than HC).

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 5:31pm

Here's the article on the writer: http://mymdna.com/exclusive-our-interview-with-girl-gone-wild-writer-jenson-vaughan/

I think it's obvious which tracks Madge did have some more lyrical input in.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 5:48pm

I think if Madonna wanted to do the show, they would say, "Okay, when would you like to come on?"

That is utterly absurd. How could her fans take any credit that way?!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 7:34pm

If Madonna is smart she will never, ever do another SNL walk-on again. She's far too self-conscious and not quick enough on her feet to improvise. Years earlier, she was hilarious on the Coffee Talk sketch when Roseanne hosted and some meeskite from Brooklyn dropped in to surprise them all, but something tells me they rehearsed her to within an inch of her life. But she's been too busy to rehearse since before she presented at the Tonys.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/11/12 at 11:12pm

I agree about SNL, she is far to self conciseness now and protective of her image that i just dont think it would be any good.

I dont think at all that the album sounds cobbled together, thats one place we have to disagree. I think the album has different sounds to it but i think the the album is very well put together. And yes of course Madonna uses songs written by other people at some points, but she also writes a lot her self (also got o You Tube for many of her guitar only demos of songs). Girl Gone Wild and Turn Up The Radio are both songs that she just reworked some lyrics and sounds on.

The whole debate about the album drop seems kind of pointless. It was always going to fall big, even without the concert bundle the album had been on pre sales for a good couple of months. Namo if you dont think at least 40.000 out of the reported 180.000 people would have purchased the album if they had not got it with a ticket then you are kidding yourself. Yes she may be a legacy artist in America but thats even more reason that the album would have sold well to her solid fan base, it just so happened that some decided to get it with the ticket instead.

The simple fact is the lack of promo )which Namo keeps insisting she has done even though every report is clearly stating she has not) has hurt the album. The fall was expected and the album got mostly positive reviews. End of story. I am pretty sure nobody made this much fuss over Gaga's epic drop (only 4 percent behind Madonna's)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/12 at 1:03am

Yes, but after selling three times as many copies, which I think is the part you're not facing. I mean, I think that's the natural order of things, a young talent sparking with creativity really OUGHT to be outselling a legacy artist by three times, even if said legacy artist wasn't just phoning it in.

I'm just surprised at how passssssive the mythology of this album is shaping up to be. Remember when Madonna was the can-do go-getter multi-tasking busy type A woman who had it all? This time around she's too bizzzzzzzy to do any promotion at allllllll, the huge drop in sales was totally expeccccccccted. This underperforming was in the plan all alonnnnnnng! When the tour doesn't sell out every date, what is going to be the word on that? Oh, we never expected it to sell ouuuuuuuut!! Everything is going exactly as we knew it would even though we never said anything about it before! The good thing is we can report huge dollar amounts brought in because of the exorbitant ticket prices ("What do I see in the first ten rows? INDUSTRY, Freddie, INDUSTRYYYYYYY!").

Everything about this, from the lackadaisical barely-there presence of Madonna on the recording to the "we knew nothing was going to work so we didn't even TRY HARD!" excuses is just surprising to me. It all reminds me of the old Bette Midler line: "Why botherrrrrrrrrr?"

I guarantee you this, and mark my words, in three or four years when she has to put her name on some sort of recording to honor her contract, she will tell interviewers she wasn't really that fond of MDNA from the start. Mark my words. Then it will be safe for her fans to notice that it's not very good without feeling they're betraying her.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/12/12 at 2:03am

Nah Hard Candy will get that honour first. This has more that seems personal to her than the one or two songs on that impersonal album.

I think I agree with you much more than not (except for liking the album much more), but, as you yourself seem to say, all this stuff is pretty much expected. The Madonna--at least musically--who you remember fondly as being ahead of the game has not been with us for some time now, and to expect as much is silly (but it's also silly that she behaves like she still is--but then again,that's typical Madonna).

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/12/12 at 10:09am

There are 88 keys on that piano. That m****er f***er knows two.

Why bahthuh?

Updated On: 4/12/12 at 10:09 AM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/12/12 at 5:33pm

Come on Namo, you are a smart guy, don't play the idiot card now. Of course Gaga sold 3 times as much, her album was 99 cents, even homeless people could afford to buy it. As i said even i purchased it out of curiosity to see if it really was the greatest album ever (as she proclaimed)...it was not. Her sales figures were not a representative of first week sales (MDNA is the highest of the year so far with over 350k, normally albums that hit number 1 will sell around 200 to 250k. Gaga took a huge tumble because of the offer ending, after that it did what most albums do. And bare in mind Gaga promoted that album like i have never seen. Both albums had help because of offers or long pre sale periods, both albums tumbled in their second week. These are artists who make big impressions to the world straight out of the gate and then level off.

Also Namo, YOU don't like the album, the mass opinion has been positive, so no she won't think its Hard Candy 2, yes she seems proud of it and yes fans and most critics like the album. Again you can shout your opinion all you want, but remember it is your opinion, not a factual reference or a prediction tool etc.

Also this whole 'Madonna sounds lifeless on the album' is so daft, you only started saying it after others were saying thats how she sounded on GGW. She sounds like she is having a blast on the album except GGW, don't make a comment that was said about one single spread over the album.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/12 at 6:21pm

To be fair, I didn't read very carefully what others were saying about Girls Gone Wild and if you recall, I waited until I could hear the album in its entirety while giving it my undivided attention through a pair of superior headphones. And, frankly, I wish Madonna had given the album her undivided attention, because that was the first thing that hit me, it all sounded as if she couldn't care less. But that's fine, once the tour gets going there's a really good chance MDNA will go gold. Finally.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/13/12 at 5:05pm

She's STILL got it!

Posted: 4/15/12 at 12:24pm

hmmm.. don't most people buy tickets online? and in pre-sales? and where is this article coming from? A credible source??? This smells like that Forbes magazine writer (ex- Fox reporter, Roger Friedman) who loves reporting/creating every financial loss Madonna has ever since she went anti-Bush during 'American Life'. Negative nelly.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/15/12 at 12:36pm

The official Defenders of the Faith response, taboo, is supposed to be: "All the fans already bought their tickets through the fan club pre-sale, so it's no surprise there was no line!"