Quote:
Originally posted by dirrtydiana
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The comments from this person, D.M.F. and Slobro really make me worry that
Idiocracy was on to something.
Some things to keep in mind:
- First week sales are higher now than ever thanks to digital sales, early releases and more stores being counted in Nielsen Soundscan than ever before.
- The market declining is not a valid excuse. Not only did Britney contribute to the market being so huge in 2000 (much like how 2011 and 2012 were up thanks to ADELE and other major releases), but we also have SEAs/TEAs to compare. BTW wouldn't have even done 15M at any point in mainstream music history.
- Airplay-only singles were popular prior to Britney debuting and the market was ruled by airplay because physical single sales were falling. For most releases, they only got physical singles if they did well on radio. Britney was an anomaly because her single sales were higher on average than her radio play. It was so bad that even when some songs did smash on radio like "Don't Speak" by No Doubt or "When I Come Around" by Green Day, they didn't release physical singles because it wasn't worth the production cost when the albums could be sold instead. Airplay-only songs were allowed to chart in the Hot 100 on December 5th, 1998 and the first airplay-only #1 was Aaliyah's 2000 "Try Again."
