lom kit;4117595 said:
Releasing "Best of album" wouldn't have worked, the way it did for Madonna. It would have caused only money that problably wouldn't have covered the spend costs. It was the right choice to go with new material.
If "Decade" had happened, it would be "Thriller" and "Bad" combined in one album. Thriller has sold ca 50mill at that time. Bad had just ended with 7 hit singles. That means evryone had those albums and no reason to buy it.
It worked for Madoona, bacause that way you have the best songs from all her albums, where in my opinion, from 8 tracks pro album, there were only 2-3 great songs, the rest was fillers.
Where Michael's albums from that decade, were all alredy classics.
‘Decade’ would have comprised tracks from ‘Off The Wall’ as well because it was meant to cover his adult solo career. Also, without tracks from ‘Off The Wall’ it would have looked incomplete.
So, it was meant to be a classic compilation album, full of classic hits (along with few new songs) that would have sold significantly (taking into account also his momentum at that time).
lom kit;4117595 said:
Many blame lack of promotion, when album didn't reach the expectations they had.
But lets face it. Michael would have never ever have reached the numbers of Thriller. Doesn't matter how much they promote him and the albums.
Michael sales average 7mil albums in the US. And all 3 albums (Bad, Dangerous, History) have reached those numbers. It was no need for him to tour in the US, no need to spend more money in promotion.
The fans should stop comparing Thillers success with the rest of the albums. It was once in the life time phenomenon, and Michael would have never repead this, no matter what he do. Even if the scandal in '93 didn't occur.
The average worldwide sales of each album is 30mio. And those numbers have been reached more or less.
An album does not sell itself. It has to be properly & wisely promoted which makes a lot of sense.
But MJ was poised to
go even further & reach the same level of the huge commercial success of the ‘Thriller’ album (or even to surpass it).
As a result, he adopted a very aggressive promotional campaign during the period of the ‘Dangerous’ release, for example:
- He gave a stunning live performance during the Superbowl Halftime show in 1993 in front of a staggering number of viewers. The performance resulted in significant sales of the ‘Dangerous’ album.
- He gave a detailed, personal TV interview (Oprah Live) in 1993 where he discussed also songs & projects from the ‘Dangerous’ album. Due to that interview ‘Dangerous’ climbed significantly the chart positions at the ‘Pop albums’ category.
- The ‘Dangerous’ album was the
first project of his new deal with Sony, the largest contract in the entertainment industry up to that point. So, the stake, pressure & expectations were great.
- He released nine singles (out of fourteen tracks) with a view to release one more in the first months of 1994.
- He shot very expensive video clips (which included extremely popular public figures also) that accompanied the ‘Dangerous’ album.
- He adopted a very wise marketing strategy by using a lot of controversial material so as to gain huge, free press coverage (violence, sexual connotations of the full video of ‘Black Or White’, for example).
- The album & its accompanied music clips appealed (from the very beginning) to
crossover audiences due to their global themes.
- He decided to perform outside North America (at least, in the beginning) where his vast majority of his fans is located (Western European countries, Japan, for example).
- The stage for the 1993 leg of the ‘Dangerous’ Tour was wider (270 feet) than the America’s widest one (the one that belongs to ‘Radio City Music Hall’ in New York & measured 190 feet). He wanted to be more spectacular than before which also boosted even further the album’s sales.
- His closest collaborators during the making of the ‘Dangerous’ album often said that he wanted to surpass the commercial success of ‘Thriller (some overly optimistic mentioned that his goal was to sell 100 million copies of the ‘Dangerous’ album).
- During that period he appeared on a great number of magazines covers not only American but also international ones (‘Le Figaro’, ‘Stern’, ‘Rennbahn Express’, 'Bravo', 'The Wire’, for example) & in many cases magazines devoted their entire edition’s space to MJ’ s material (‘Black Beat’, for example).
- He shot a number of promos & commercials (along with his video clips) so as to increase even more his popularity.
- He sold the filming rights of his ‘Dangerous’ Tour to HBO network so as the broadcast of his concert to boost even further his popularity & sales of the ‘Dangerous’ album.