No way. The fact that she's chosen not to focus on that has only gained her more credibility and legitimacy as a recording artist. Metaphorically she wants to be placed in a different sphere than say, Britney or Miley; she wants to be taken seriously as an artist. And she pulled that off effortlessly, people do think of her that way. The album is universally acclaimed, and smashing. Last era she had acclaim but not success (by her standards). The era before that it was vice versa(kinda). Even as a human being, she's universally acclaimed. that's why it's such a big deal in the news everytime there's a potential scandal brewing. Can something shake her rock solid image this time?
Hit singles are still the foundation of music success stories and they always will be. And radio does not care how credible an artist is or what their Metacritic score is. The GP does not care. They just want to love good songs. And regardless of what Pepcé achieves outside of the "hit single game", the longer she fails at it the harder it will be to succeed at it. Those are the unwritten rules of the game and that's really the only point I was making. If she was coming off an era with hit singles there is no doubt in my mind that XO would be doing a LOT better.
