Short answer:
- If you are from the US, worldwide means everywhere but your own country.
- If you are not from the US, worldwide means slaying all over the globe, beyond the Anglosphere, projecting power to the other half of the world and nothing limited to that 1 country or culture.
Some background information on the markets, what they mean for an artist, what importance they have and how the cultures are interconnected:
It's already said that ATRL is US-centric, it's the home market. Easiest to access for an American speaking the native language, living/experiencing it's culture and having only a few major labels controlling a single market/culture with 300+ million population.
For an European artist to slay the US, it's harder because language difference, having only the stereotype or caricature version of American culture from the newspapers,... and labels from Europe also don't know how it's over there.
The US is an important stepping stone during the first 5 years of a career. If you slay the US, you can spill over to the rest of the Anglosphere. Because of the shared cultural heritage with the British, 1 culture with multiple countries and a lot of people under it.
| Country | Population |
| United States | 321,272,634 |
| United Kingdom | 63,742,977 |
| Canada | 34,834,841 |
| Australia | 22,507,617 |
| Ireland | 4,609,600 |
| New Zealand | 4,570,038 |
| Total | 449,212,219 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglosphere
There are only 2 main cultures in the world
(The third one would be communism, but it's relevancy declined greatly in last 25 years.):
- Anglosphere: Anglo-Saxon economics + common law legal system + small state/government not interfering much with the citizens
- Continental European: Rhineland (German) economics + civil code (Napoleonic, French) legal system + big state/government redistributing wealth, guarantees that if you don't pay your bills the creditors can find where you live and drag you out of your bed (no such thing in Anglosphere, even in Asia, you have to proof you address with at least 3 months of utility bills instead of showing ID card is enough because the state can find you and the street cop can check if you really lives/sleeps there, if the bed is used,...),...
Asian countries resembles for like 80% with the Anglosphere. China and Japan even sent their people during the same year to Royal Naval College, Greenwich to learn how to rule the waves with ships bought from the British. They all aspired to become like the British. However it's popular nowadays in Asia to embrace the Continental European way of doing things and way of life.
e.g. Hong Kong politics is discussing all the time about obtaining EU health and safety standards like why are products built to Chinese standards are legally allowed to be 100 times more poisonous than the products made in the same Chinese factory to EU standards? Are the Chinese being racist to their own and give the white people safer products or subject their own people to dangerous stuff? It's just economics, the EU standards are like 50 times more expensive to produce than the Chinese standards.
When an American wants to cross the English Channel to the other half of the world, he/she talks about totally different way of life.
Katy sells an idea in the Anglosphere, where privatise the profit and socialise the losses is the norm and the average Joe can be ****ed over by the system till you see entire hoods being bulldozered. The youth can see all hope disappearing in life when they see their parents in credit card debt, the bailiff taking stuff away, losing the roof above their heads, youth unemployment going through the roof,...
Katy started out in a similar position, car repossessed, crashing couches to find a place to sleep, asking her little brother (had no income) if she can borrow 20 dollars for food, getting her clothes by trading in the old ones at thrift shops (she wear anything that doesn't stink after washing),... When the credit crunch hit America, Katy went up, found success and worked hard all the way to top female artist in Forbes.
The problem is that Continental Europe has a strong state protecting the citizens from being ****ed over. It's so strong that our business potential is limited by our mentality of thinking "That will never work because of legal limitations!" while Americans are like "Just do it, steal everybody's private data, sell it to advertisers, sell everybody's pictures to anyone wanting to buy stock pictures,... and only after years and years and decades of battling it out in the courts, you might lose and have to give up some of the nasty stuff you are doing to your fellow Americans.".
As long you aren't from the PIGS countries, you didn't feel a thing of the credit crunch. If I lose my job here, the state pays me in the first year 80+% of my current (net) wage. If I stay too long in unemployment, the lowest possible benefit, is still twice what an American makes by working in Walmart. And this is already the reformed system to reduce the costs for the state. Access to health care (including the dentist and hospitals) and university does not depends on your dad's wallet. That's why Europeans look at Katy like "What is she talking about?": It is not our economic reality, not our struggles, not our way of life.
Don't forget the majority of the GP overseas doesn't understand English good enough. Every metal band knows that 95+% of the crowds don't understand English and it's all about the wall of sound, the instrumentals,...
Conquering Continental Europe means dealing with 10, 15 different languages, cultures, different way of doing things. If you want to proof that you can transcend languages and cultures, you can rack up the amount of different languages/cultures fast in Continental Europe. 15 is like the total amount of tourable countries on all the places outside the Anglosphere and Europe.
The reward of getting Continental Europe is finding loyalty, people who also keep centuries old buildings standing next to the newest and latest in modern architecture. And off course people having the income to afford the tickets. Females can last beyond 30 years like the 30th anniversary of the queen of (heavy) metal was celebrated with 80k crowd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGvczJ6Y6jQ
Genres of previous decades coexist with today's. Metal still lives because of the European festivals having stadium size crowds to make it sounds, feels,... great. We love diversity, everyone has their own tastes and preferences and there is something for everybody on the market. It is not like the American idea of bulldozering the past and replace it with new steel and concrete. America bulldozer "old" genres/faves too and pushes them into the sea. America rarely supports female singers for more than 6 to 10 years.
If your fave can't find markets overseas willing to support her, she will sleep with the fishes. Thus beyond first 5 years, every American artist should focus on conquering Europe since Madonna discovered that being the key to a long career. Failing to do so, we all have seen that Xtina ended up not able to book arenas, Britney can't tour outside 1 city,...
If you have Continental Europe on your side, you are immune to American backlash like Nipplegate and criticising the president (pissing off one half of America). Madonna, Beyonce, P!nk and Rihanna have a firm grip on Europe. Katy just landed in the European arenas and has yet to obtain "full control" over Europe. It's there where the access to 15+ years career is, main pop girl with full status.
Asians are even more fickle than Americans, they are proud of living even faster than the Americans from hype to hype, from fad to fad,... and do the same on their financial markets too. First thing Asian students learn in Europe is taking time to breathe and live instead of being in the rat race all the time. Long term value is low and costs for shipping stages around is high. Unless it's the only market willing to support you, keep your feet dry and give you an Avril like status.
This concludes that worldwide is at least both sides of the Atlantic and bigger artists can go beyond (South America, Middle East, Africa,...)
/Looks-like-a-big-rant.
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