Rock on The Net isn't pop radio. They use their own method.

Mediabase
http://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/gghunt/charts/lhill.html

BDS
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/chart...ingles/3034198

You can see they both peaked at #29.

wait so one chart says it peaked at number 3 and other number 29? Im honestly confused as to which one I should go by.

Regardless, Doo Wop still received massive airplay, won countless awards, and had a video that was played on MTV endlessly. None of the singles from Channel Orange had that impact, and if one did, the album would receive more sales right off the bat.

Right. "Thinkin Bout You" is no "Doo Wop."

Don't use Rock On The Net. I don't know what method they use exactly. Sometimes, it mirrors pop radio, sometimes it doesn't. But it's not pop radio.

Pop Radio is Mediabase or BDS. So that #29 peak is accurate

Where did you see that? That's inaccurate. I'm looking at its chart run and it definitely peaked at #29 on Billboard Mainstream Top 40. Sometimes theres a discrepancy between Mediabase and Billboard over a few positions. But never something that huge of a gap

And I wouldn't say it had longevity as much as most Top 10 hits. It did hang around for awhile, yeah but most of its time was spent in the 30-40 region. Maybe if it had hung around the 11-20 portion for a while I could see that, but 30-40 is way too low. So there wasn't much overall impact there.

On the year end Mediabase Top 40 that year it didn't even finish in the Top 50. It ended up at #77. So definitely not close to a Top 10 hit, even with longevity taken into consideration.
http://www.popradiotop20.com/Year/RR-POP-1999-Year.htm

This statement isn't serious, right?

The average person doesn't give a **** about what critics or even celebrities say. w h o k i l l was Pazz and Jop's top album, but how many albums has it sold? Or what about Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion? I could not ESCAPE that album come the end of 2009, because all of the critics splooged over it. Guess what? It wasn't a sales giant, either. That's the funny thing about critical acclaim: It doesn't quite translate to commercial success for many lesser-known artists. Hell, even for someone like Kanye West, whose My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was basically the dominant critical album of 2010...and it was also a failure, at least in comparison to his past albums.

I think that the "lack of success" for CO (even if it's actually pretty successful for an album that is receiving ZERO help from Top 40 radio) stems from how it's not typical R&B. The only negative impact his coming out would have had on his commercial success would be being shunned by R&B and Urban radio. I mean, TBY went top 5 on Urban radio. It wasn't a "flop" by any stretch of the imagination. CO is just a difficult album to grasp, especially if you come in expecting something that resembles what you expect from R&B artists.

Most of the albums topping critics lists in the past 10 or so years haven't been that commercially successful. ArchAndroid, whokill, all 3 LCD soundsystem albums, Silent Shout, etc etc

General public won't care what the critics say, if the radio isn't playing him, people won't discover him, which leads into less album sales.

Why is Lana being mentioned? Anyway, Frank has been successful because, first of all, coming out of the closet would have been career suicide for a rapper years ago. Nowadays, people accuse Frank of doing it for sales which just shows how much times have changed. And Lana is more successful because, let's be honest, she's white which allowed her to book huge gigs on SNL and American Idol when the GP didn't even know who she was. Also, countries outside of the U.S. generally don't use R&B (look at how '4' is Bey's lowest-selling album).

And once again, I DON'T understand why Lana was mentioned in the first place, but I felt the need to speak about everyone comparing two completely different artists. And obviously Frank had some sort of impact because he was nominated for SIX GRAMMYS.

Hit the nail right on the head for me.

Because she's marketed as a more accessible mainstream pop act

Basically. A straight female pop artist will have more success than a LGBT black R&B artist, that's a fact.
I know for a fact that some people refused to buy his album simply because he's not straight. They liked the music but didn't wanted to support an LGBT artist

Some of the opinions in this thread...

Expectations notwithstanding, selling 500k albums is nothing to scoff at. He is successful.

Being #1 in the mainstream isn't important anymore now that the internet is as big as it is.

Artists are building their success and fanbases through online activity. This includes artists like Frank, Lana, Azealia, Grimes, many more atm.

Channel Orange will go down in history.

my music charts knowledge has been a lie! ALL LIES