She's absolutely coasting, it's why after three Gold albums, radio hits, massive publicity due to being Bieber's girlfriend, a successful TV show, etc, her new single can't even go Top 15 on iTunes the week of release and it takes relentless, A-level promo for her song to become a success and it's not even Top 20 on the Hot 100 yet. No shade but she just has a lot of backing from the industry, the public is clearly not seeing whatever the label is and they're not responding to her.

EDIT: She just doesn't have IT. Even Ke$ha had IT at one point (January 2010) although she's lost it by now. It's that spark, that something that makes an artist stand out and explode. For Britney it was mixing innocence and sexuality, for Gaga it was presenting weirdness as empowerment, for Rihanna it was presenting devotion as icy and dominating (Umbrella is a love song but the way she sings it she might as well be giving orders to troops, and that's something new and exciting). Selena is just a competent pop star at this point but she's not IT yet.

@feuxtography You're right. I wish I could add more but I think you've said it all. She's pretty and that's all that's really going for her. Having Disney in her resume and Bieber in proximity helps too, but from what I've seen, she has very little to offer otherwise.

Yes!

I mean that's why she had gold albums and platinum singles before dating Justin Bieber

Nope! She basically is just a well-oiled product of Disney with a really impressive management team. She doesn't really have a lot of star power on her own, nor is she very talented; all of the moderate success she's had recently/over the years is just due to really effective marketing.

@Arking I edited my post quite a bit so you may want to reassess that co-sign

Yes, she has the X-Factor. She's talented in acting and has gotten better at performing every year. Yes she isn't the best, but she's decent. And her albums all have great songs on them. You can say what you just said about any pop star since everyone needs a team behind them to succeed.

Everyone always seems to ignore this when talking about Selena. Justin may have boosted her star power, but he certainly didn't help her sales, and it's delusional to think otherwise. Plus Love You Like A Love Song was doing great before any promo started/before it got sent for radio adds.

I think for now she is coasting but she is making an effort to make up for her lack of musical talent tbh.

Makes no sense gorl.

Her success has been fronted by Disney. I never denied she was successful.

But during her relationship with Justin (WTSGD era) she achieved her best selling single (2 million), best selling album WW (1 million) and highest grossing tour? (25 million)

well do you actually think every single mainstream singer/artist would be popular without a giant team behind them? not really. you need an army of people to get your career going, otherwise no.


And I think she's self aware that she's not the best singer or the best performer, she's just doing it for the contract and more as a hobby than anything. at the end of the day she's always gonna be considered as an actress first. She's gonna be fine in the long run

IKR

Besides K&T was her best selling album in the US (and that was before Jelena even existed) and i agree with everything else that you said too

My reply was in regards to the OP, you just managed to beat me to the punch. Let me go clarify that.

But still, I agree with your points. She clearly lacks starpower (and talent, imo) and all I've seen from her were a handful of underwhelming songs/performances/movies with a pretty face attached to it.

Well, i guess we will never know the answer then

But i still believe she has some star power there

But some have that actual "X" factor though. If Rihanna didn't have a huge music team behind her, she'd still be doing SOMETHING in the industry. She looks like a star, acts like a star, and therefor is a star.

Selena is a pretty girl, but pretty is common on the coast. You can't really say she's too talented acting-wise because the point of Disney and kids shows is to overact, every Disney sitcom is like that. Spring Breakers got horrible reviews. Everyother movie she's done has been a childrens movie.

Let me say though I'm willing to be proven wrong the day she takes on a mature role and slays it.

Because she got more promo during that era. The success of A Year Without Rain also helped. It was bound to happen that she would only get more successful since her popularity went up each era. I don't see how dating somebody boosts your sales since Katy's sales didn't increase when she dated that John guy or when Rihanna was dating Chris.

She's like Katy Perry.

Perfectly content to just release generic songs with cute little music videos. I don't think anyone is claiming her to be some serious artist

Completely. Disney is a different entity all together. There's definitely a difference between being scouted by a label and being hired by Disney at a young age.
Any Disney STAR (as in starring role STAR) will be guaranteed steady sales. Artists aimed at children usually have commonly good sales because parents are the ones buying their material.

The question was asking if she would be as successful as she is without Disney. I feel like Miley could, Britney obviously could, JT obviously could. Hillary and Raven couldn't.

That's not what this thread is about. Katy Perry made it without Disney. She's a certified star. She has that "it" factor that makes people somewhat interested in her even though she does release generic songs. You dont get 5 #1's by JUST releasing generic songs with "cute" little music videos.