Adele's 30: What went wrong?

[Snow 27,623]

Despite an extremely strong start with Easy on Me, the album has not been holding up as well.

This week, the album slipped further down to No. 29 on the Billboard 200, behind Sour (#5), Planet Her (#9), Still Over It (#24) and Future Nostalgia (#26) despite many of these albums being much older. It's also barely outpacing Billie's "flop" album Happier Than Ever (#31).

And it's not doing better in the Singles department either. The second single, Oh My God, debuted at No. 5 but crashed down 32 spots to No. 37 in its second week and never returned to see the Top 15. Last month, it dropped off the Hot 100 completely after only 16 weeks of charting.

What went wrong with the era? Do you think it could still be saved?

[Shego 36,739]

Same type of music  

[ajp 13,291]

Pulling out of VegAss and not rescheduling killed the 30 era

 

[Autumn Variations 4,825]

It was formulaic like 25, she should've done more performances...

[Gilly 12,318]

34 minutes ago, ajp said:

Pulling out of VegAss and not rescheduling killed the 30 era

 

this

[Kylie 114,294]

4th album curse?

[Joanne 2,847]

 It’s promote strategy was the same as the last album.

Great record, but you cant just rehash a marketing strategy from years ago and be like YES THIS WILL STICK. Also, radio’s lowering prevalence and the fact Adele isn’t streaming playlist type music. Her strength used to be car radio soccer moms. That’s a changing demographic rn

 

Also not one song went tiktok viral

[Chris 57,841]

54 minutes ago, Joanne said:

 

Also not one song went tiktok viral

she did not want the album to be for tiktok

[jrdn 26,660]

The album isn't memorable. Easy On Me felt underwhelming, I've always said I was hoping it was more of a buzz song and that the album would be full of much better and grander songs but it wasn't. The fact Easy On Me (Adeles first single in almost 6 years) had a lukewarm reception perhaps should've been a sign of things to come. In pop music if you're going to have a chorus with a melody that descends it really needs to be not just a good melody but a great melody and sadly Easy On Me just doesn't have that. 

 

I can never understood why Oh My God was released as a single it has no replay value and is the definition of Middle Of The Road, Can I Get It should've been released instead, it's pretty much the only song I still frequently listen to and I see from Spotify its also the most popular non-single. I know the whistling chorus is a bit generic but it sticks in your head and for pop radio you need songs like that. If you look at past Adele eras she's always had at least one more up tempo single. 

 

While promotional strategy did play a big part I'd argue the blandness and lack of progression on the album played an even bigger part. Future Nostalgia and Happier Than Ever both saw their respective artists growing artistically and had multiple non-singles that match up in quality to the singles. 

[LittleDudeNT5 6,718]

Stale. I don't think people aren't here for her anymore but it could be that she needs to elevate her sound in a different way. Not necessarily change who she is or her music genre, but there doesn't feel much of a progression and that wasn't going to pull her through another album.

30 definitely doesn't have the same power, grit, or quality that 21 had. 

[Disco Darling 4,537]

Not Myself Tonight.mp3

[Villanelle 5,142]

It's the lack of tour imo. That always kills an album. There's nothing to look forward to with this era, we all loved the songs etc but if she isn't going to use them why should we

[Teenage Wet Dream 2,909]

Not people coming for the quality of the album when it's her best work...

The Vegas thing hurt her and there's also no promo. If she did a few late night appearances and some performance I think that would help with the hype. 

[Autumn Variations 4,825]

1 hour ago, Teenage Wet Dream said:

Not people coming for the quality of the album when it's her best work...

The Vegas thing hurt her and there's also no promo. If she did a few late night appearances and some performance I think that would help with the hype. 

Yeah I think she forgot to reschedule the dates for her Vegas residence. 30 is still a good album but still the residence wasn't rescheduled

[Princess Aurora 30,854]

Nothing. It was a hit 

[SaintPop 55]

im tired of singing sad songs

[Miss Show Business 1,200]

Let's not be too dismissive. Easy on Me easily replicated the chart success of Hello, and the album has amazing pure sales for 2022. It's sold 5 million copies already on mostly pure sales alone. I don't think it ever was realistic to think she would pull off another 25; 2015 almost feels like a drastically different time when thinking of just the music industry. Streaming is totally dominating now — whereas then, it was slowly starting to catch on.

 

I will agree though, that the era definitely has slumped. Whereas 25 had When We We're Young between Hello and Send Your Love, I don't think there was good preparation for a single after Easy on Me. I think alot of people agree that there were better choices than Oh My God, and they took too long to get a video out. In addition to that, the Vegas fiasco I think was/is disatrous for her image. A seasoned performer such as Adele should've been able to see the writings on the wall with the problems they were having — and should've postponed the start dates much sooner, if not totally changed the start date from the beginning. The bad press about her allegedly doing this to savor her relationship is also not good. Whether it's true or not, it's already done the damage. Also — in terms of promo, she's been MIA since the concert specials. The Grammys would've been a perfect opportunity to promote a new single and drop a new video, but this didn't materialize. Unfortunately I think in 2022, I don't think it's still feasible to drop your music then go fishing and rely on name recognition alone. You need to have a hit or be trying to get one in order to keep things afloat.

 

I won't count out the entire era yet, but if she doesn't change things up soon, it's looking pretty grim.

[Teenage Wet Dream 2,909]

12 hours ago, Miss Show Business said:

Let's not be too dismissive. Easy on Me easily replicated the chart success of Hello, and the album has amazing pure sales for 2022. It's sold 5 million copies already on mostly pure sales alone. I don't think it ever was realistic to think she would pull off another 25; 2015 almost feels like a drastically different time when thinking of just the music industry. Streaming is totally dominating now — whereas then, it was slowly starting to catch on.

 

I will agree though, that the era definitely has slumped. Whereas 25 had When We We're Young between Hello and Send Your Love, I don't think there was good preparation for a single after Easy on Me. I think alot of people agree that there were better choices than Oh My God, and they took too long to get a video out. In addition to that, the Vegas fiasco I think was/is disatrous for her image. A seasoned performer such as Adele should've been able to see the writings on the wall with the problems they were having — and should've postponed the start dates much sooner, if not totally changed the start date from the beginning. The bad press about her allegedly doing this to savor her relationship is also not good. Whether it's true or not, it's already done the damage. Also — in terms of promo, she's been MIA since the concert specials. The Grammys would've been a perfect opportunity to promote a new single and drop a new video, but this didn't materialize. Unfortunately I think in 2022, I don't think it's still feasible to drop your music then go fishing and rely on name recognition alone. You need to have a hit or be trying to get one in order to keep things afloat.

 

I won't count out the entire era yet, but if she doesn't change things up soon, it's looking pretty grim.

Agree with everything in your post except that last line. What do you mean grim? Are you saying she won't have a successful follow up single(s) after this? If not, does that really mean it's a flop when only a handful of artists even have post album single success?

And also everyone let's be real, Vegas was a disaster but the minute she posts new dates and tickets, they will sell out ASAP and people will pay serious cash for them at the end of the day. 

[Miss Show Business 1,200]

4 hours ago, Teenage Wet Dream said:

Agree with everything in your post except that last line. What do you mean grim? Are you saying she won't have a successful follow up single(s) after this? If not, does that really mean it's a flop when only a handful of artists even have post album single success?

And also everyone let's be real, Vegas was a disaster but the minute she posts new dates and tickets, they will sell out ASAP and people will pay serious cash for them at the end of the day. 

I'm saying the outlook of the era would be grim if she doesn't have another single success. But it's quite possible she might, so that's why I'm not going to count out the entire era just yet. If she doesn't, the era will look very frontloaded.

[Harry. 80]

Didn't it sell over 5m copies?

I think some people are stuck in the idea that we're still in 2015 and she was going to sell 30 million copies. The music industry has dramatically changed in the past 7 years, that doesn't mean 30 was a flop. 

Most mainstream artists struggle to even sell 1m ww these days, I think Adele's success was still very superior to other popular artists.