Xscape General Discussion

[HIStory]

Pharrell Williams, G I R L wins

Eh. That album sucks IMO. The only reason it won is because of Happy.

I didn't think Michael would win because I don't think they would like to have a deceased artist beat living ones, but "GIRL" just didn't deserve it IMO.

 

[tricia70]

Well, since Michael didn't win, which I didn't think he would just because it was a posthumous album. But, I'd rather have Pharell ten times more than Beyonce. Beyonce just wins imo, just because of her popularity. I'm honestly sick of her winning everything all the time. Beyonce album was awful just from the few songs I heard, imo.

 

[Smooth72]

Xscape was by far better than the rest. It's a shame hardly anyone heard the album. Short promotion is to blame. It started out fantastic then nothing. I guess that's the way it's gonna be from here on out.

 

[barbee0715]

Xscape was by far better than the rest. It's a shame hardly anyone heard the album. Short promotion is to blame. It started out fantastic then nothing. I guess that's the way it's gonna be from here on out.

You'd think the numbers sold alone would make Epic sit up and take notice. This really is extraordinary for an album to do so well these days-esp the 2nd posthumous album.

 

[reibish]

Billboard selects winners based solely on that actual ratings. It isn't judged like Grammys, AMAs, things like that. They select the finalists but the winner will be the one who had the overall best numbers on the charts. :shrug: Sort of like People's Choice, that's all voted.

 

[barbee0715]

^^Just curious: the AMAs were Dick Clark's answer to the Grammys based on actual sales and radio play. Not decided by a bunch of academy members.

What's the diff between billboard and AMAs?

 

[dam2040]

Man, G I R L was an awful album. Xscape was brilliant, and imo, X by Chris Brown was very good too. Xscape deserved to win that and if you don't want to give it to a deceased artist fine, give it to Beyoncé if it's a popularity contest. Award shows are only done to sell commercials anyway so they aren't really a big deal to me anymore.

 

[reibish]

^^Just curious: the AMAs were Dick Clark's answer to the Grammys based on actual sales and radio play. Not decided by a bunch of academy members.

What's the diff between billboard and AMAs?

AMAs are more like People's Choice, but were created because the contract to broadcast GRAMMYs was expiring. It's based on polls but not chart figures. Billboard is strictly chart figures. So it's a "Vote with your dollars" thing, and has little to do with the quality of the content.

 

[HIStoric]

Pharrell Williams, G I R L wins

Reeeaaally? I mean I like some of Pharrell's stuff but there's no way in hell G I R L was better than Xscape, Beyoncé or Love in the Future.

 

[HIStory]

Billboard selects winners based solely on that actual ratings. It isn't judged like Grammys, AMAs, things like that. They select the finalists but the winner will be the one who had the overall best numbers on the charts. :shrug: Sort of like People's Choice, that's all voted.

Yep, you are right, it's probably based on sales. Quickly checking out on Wiki:

As of February 2015, the album has sold 591,000 copies in the United States.

Xscape sold 459,000.

It's a shame actually because Xscape had a better start than GIRL:

It debuted at number two on the US Billboard charts with first-week sales of 157,000 copies in the United States.[SUP][58][/SUP] In its second week of sales, the album sold 67,000 more copies. In its third week it sold 35,000 copies bringing its total sales to 259,000 copies.[SUP][59][/SUP]

GIRL:

In the United States, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 113,000 copies.[SUP][41][/SUP] In its second week the album dropped to number five on that chart, selling 45,000 more copies.[SUP][42][/SUP] In its third week the album dropped to number six on that chart, selling 34,000 more copies.[SUP][43][/SUP] In its fourth week the album rose to number five on that chart, selling 25,000 more copies.[SUP][44][/SUP]

I guess because of the viral hit of Happy and because Pharrell is a living artist who is here to promote his album, his album had a bit more longevity on the charts then which made it sell a bit more overall. It didn't help that Sony basically stopped promoting Xscape after the "hologram" and APWNN.

 

[dam2040]

Xscape's first week sales were incredible. They outsold Chris Brown's last album who had everybody and their mother tweet out promotion for it. Still wish it would've got that number 1 spot!!

 

[TinnyandOdd]

Not to sound mean, but Happy by Pharrell is legitimately one of the most / if not the most annoying songs ever released.

 

[Slave To The Rhythm]

I think happy is a great song. I just heard it too often... That's why i can't listen to it anymore.

 

[LastTear]

I'm sad Michael didn't win but Im really proud that Xscape was nominated, (especially with the boycotters antics). Has a posthumous album ever been nominated for an award before?

 

[Snow White luvs Peter Pan]

Happy doesn't have that quality of all time classics that people will always love no matter how many times they listen to them, (I've listen to Billie Jean thousands of times or maybe more during 26 years, I still adore it and I haven't fed up with it yet ) it can be infectious at first but it has an annoying quality not all people can put up with for long periods.

Winning for an infectious song is no merit IMO.

 

[Hess]

Billie Jean is 4:54 minutes. - That's 294 seconds. - 1000 plays is 294000 sconds. --> 4900 minutes --> 81,666666667 hours or 3,402777777777778 days. :lol:

I actually 100 % honestly think I have heard Billie Jean more than a 1000 times in my life. - I still love it, never get tired of it !!


MJ should have won - he makes great timeless music that you never can get too much off !!

 

[Bubs]

I'm sad Michael didn't win but Im really proud that Xscape was nominated, (especially with the boycotters antics). Has a posthumous album ever been nominated for an award before?

Yes, it was great that Xscape was one of top albums of the year. Billboard awards goes according to sales, downloads and airplay, so there was no voting process as whether people like it or not.

About posthumous album being nominated for an award. I did search and found only one, Jenni Rivera.

 

[LastTear]

Yes, it was great that Xscape was one of top albums of the year. Billboard awards goes according to sales, downloads and airplay, so there was no voting process as whether people like it or not.

About posthumous album being nominated for an award. I did search and found only one, Jenni Rivera.

I think this is quite exceptional, a posthumous album with new music and so many years after the artist passed - just shows that Michael isn't going anywhere.

 

[Tygger]

Billboard selects winners based solely on that actual ratings. It isn't judged like Grammys, AMAs, things like that. They select the finalists but the winner will be the one who had the overall best numbers on the charts. :shrug: Sort of like People's Choice, that's all voted.

Thank you.

I enjoyed Williams’ G.I.R.L. album and it truly deserved to win the Billboard Award based on the criteria above. When Xscape was released last year, G.I.R.L. was number one on Billboard’s R/B chart.

While I enjoyed Xscape, it did not generate the sale numbers and radio play G.I.R.L did. It is an achievement however that Xscape performed as well as it did despite the poor promotion it received and its one successful single. Full credit to Michael’s vocals and the producers efforts which encouraged and justified the sale of Xscape when the project was abandoned.

 

[HIStoric]

I'm sad Michael didn't win but Im really proud that Xscape was nominated, (especially with the boycotters antics).

There were boycotting antics?

 

[mkgenie]

We have won Xscape plaque award!! The Estate and Epic Records said they were "very appreciative of all the effort that you put in to promote Xscape in China, and have selected MJJCN as the winning recipient of an Xscape plaque!" Here are some photos of the plaque and fan events.

Past Chinese fan events in 2014:

http://www.mjjcn.com/mjjcnforum/thread-185435-1-1.html

 

[Bubs]

^^Well done:clapping:

 

[Tygger]

D.amien S.hields explains why there was not a third single or Xscape re-release below. If this is to believed, fans are to blame again.

On July 18, 2014 I revealed exclusively here at *************.com that Epic Records and The Estate were planning on re-releasing Xscape before Christmas 2014 with a handful of new songs. The source of this information was John Branca – co-executor of The Estate. Ultimately those plans were abandoned when Xscape‘s second official single – the StarGate remix of “A Place With No Name,” complete with accompanying music video (see below) – failed to chart anywhere in the world.

Not even a Michael Jackson-themed So You Think You Can Dance episode and much hyped yet majorly underwhelming simultaneous Twitter Video and Times Square bigscreen debut of the music video were able to salvage the “A Place With No Name” single.

The lacklustre performance of “A Place With No Name” ultimately marked the end of the Xscape album campaign, resulting in the complete abandonment of the project including the cancellation of considered third single “Chicago” (a.k.a “She Was Loving Me&#8221 and additional marketing.

 

[barbee0715]

I don't think they should throw in the towel just bc one song didn't chart. I played APWNN repeatedly on YouTube but guess that didn't count?
I never heard it or STTR on the radio at all.

 

[HIStoric]

D.amien S.hields explains why there was not a third single or Xscape re-release below. If this is to believed, fans are to blame again.

Not entirely. Why they debuted it on Twitter was beyond me since the Twitter video player is pretty shit (plus, unlike YouTube, I don't think any of the plays actually counted towards the charting). In addition, fans weren't able to actually support the new single if they bought the album off iTunes (like yours truly here), where the vast majority of single purchases take place.

Were people even able to hear the song being played in Times Square or was it just playing visually on one of the countless monitors there? Genuine question, haven't been to Times Square (yet ).

 

[HIStory]

Meanwhile among the leaked Sony documents they have the Xscape album as one of the year's big successes...

Yes, the album had even more potential, but I guess it's difficult to keep up a lengthy campaign for an album by an artist who is not here any more. He is not here to promote on TV shows, to go on tour, to make new videos etc.

 

[serendipity]

Fans are not to blame. It's radio discriminating older artists, period. Madonna promoted the hell out of her two new singles and they both failed to even crack the HOT 100 and flopped all over the world too. Mariah's latest single is flopping too. No airplay = no hit single = no success.

We were lucky LNFSG got big airplay (in big part due to Timberlake) and the album was as successful as it was. Nobody is to blame, it is what it is. I'm very happy with the way Xscape performed.

 

[barbee0715]

Fans are not to blame. It's radio discriminating older artists, period. Madonna promoted the hell out of her two new singles and they both failed to even crack the HOT 100 and flopped all over the world too. Mariah's latest single is flopping too. No airplay = no hit single = no success.

We were lucky LNFSG got big airplay (in big part due to Timberlake) and the album was as successful as it was. Nobody is to blame, it is what it is. I'm very happy with the way Xscape performed.

Actually, yes, we should all be thrilled with these kinds of numbers now days. And age has a lot to do with it. Every time you hear about Madonna or Mariah, they bring their age up. I think Janet's album will suffer from that as well even if it's the best album of all time.
Radio and tv seem to be going after the 'tween' crowd now.

 

[Tygger]

Historic, I agree with you and some others here. The issue was promotion/marketing to the public not the failure of one single’s – APWNN - commercial success.

As per Sony leaked emails, Xscape generated $29M in five months (May through September) and successfully supported Sony’s One Sony initiative. This initiative allowed for several Sony entities to cross-promote/market a Sony product to generate revenue for said entities. Xscape was promoted by Sony Music as well as Sony Mobile, Sony Electronics, and Sony Network Entertainment. $10M of the $29M in revenue derived from Xscape being promoted through Sony’s Xperia Mobile. Xscape was also nominated for a Billboard award which speaks to the full album’s commercial success.

Because Xscape proved to be extremely successful in a very short period of time for Sony, I believe it was satisfying enough. Xscape served its purpose in their view and the decision was made to abandon the Xscape project with profits in hand. That cannot be said to the public however. The public version is APWNN’s commercial failure (no charting success) dictated the abandonment which places the blame on the public that did not purchase/stream APWNN. That public includes fans.

It is unfortunate because I did want to purchase the re-release of Xscape with the additional songs. I thought the choice of Chicago as the third single instead of Xscape was interesting.

From YT, no sound, one monitor.
[video=youtube;sc8hlULGICM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc8hlULGICM[/video]

 

[barbee0715]

From YT, no sound, one monitor.

How odd. No sound?
Obviously Xscape was an overwhelming success and Sony should be thrilled. It could have been even bigger, but I don't see any massive marketing for any recording artists these days, but then I'm way out of the album buying demographic now.

Don't understand who says or why it is being considered a failure and it's fans fault tho.