Birthday wasn't a great single choice. The GP love songs they can sing along to, especially Katy Perry songs, it's basically a must. "Birthday" was too high for most of the GP to sing along with. Add a terrible video so it won't become viral and there's a great recipe to not getting a hit. That's why "Teenage Dream" had the least lasting impact of the TD era singles.
And before everyone shouts "Sugar", Adam is known for his high vocals and that's part of his shtick in a way. Plus there are low moments in the chorus that Birthday doesn't have.
The best single choices (in no order) would have been:
Roar
Legendary Lovers
Walking On Air
Dark Horse
This Is How We Do (you can't deny its Spotify streams, people liked the song far more than Uncle and Birthday)
International Smile
and maybe a pop ballad to close out the era, something like This Moment or It Takes Two
Birthday simply didn't connect and changing the video wouldn't have helped that, it might have just made it a quick viral hit for a minute but it wouldn't secure its longevity.
She could have done seven with PRISM except there were so many bumps along the way. Albums die out by the fourth single because radio stops giving less support, especially after a miss,unless your name is Taylor Swift. It explains why TIHWD hardly got any radio spins.
3 years in between albums is way too long, especially since there's not even a re-release this time. She better not keep us waiting this long just to give us another album full of This Moments
They're both full of pretty cringeworthy cliches about the present being a gift or whatever (watch this be a lyric on EDIAH ) but Love Me's production is cute. This Moment's production sounds like DWUW, and Gaga did it better to be honest
Kacey Musgraves is in there too.
TD really did deserve a better MC score than PRISM.
