In 21 era, Someone Like You and Set Fire To The Rain straightly climbed to the top without music video
(As far as i remember, SLY already performed well before MV came out)
However, this era, Adele cant get Top 10 hit without MV, for example When We Were Young which was only treated by live performance video
And the current single, Water Under The Bridge which was stuck around Top 40 without any MV released
Why WUTB can't perform like SFTTR?
Is it the music climate to be blamed? Or what?
Because 25, imho, sucks. I hate it. The songs aren't good. Maybe they're good but to me they aren't catchy.
At the very least it doesn't have any singles. Hello is like the only song but I still find myself skipping it at times. I don't do that to the 21 singles
Simple - streaming wasn't a factor in 2011/early 2012, and her digital sales (the peak when sales were near their highest) responded well with her accelerating airplay.
Now, almost every depends on streaming in 2016-beyond. Not to mention, 25 has already outsold 21 (during comparative periods - 9 million versus 6 million in a year after their releases), so the already-dead digital sales for the singles won't really respond that well with the airplay at this point.
Because digital sales are doomed, and 25 sold soooooo fast, so basically 90% of the poeple who like her music already have the songs. The main factor on the charts as of today is streaming (which include YouTube views), and we know by now that the HAC/AC and even a very large portion of the Pop audience aren't yet into streaming, so Adele is disadvantaged in this area compared to rap or EDM acts.
So, of course she needs a music video in order for her singles to be successful, since video views are her main way or obtaining healthy streaming numbers.