We needed a USA #1. Where are the USA fans at? I know we're here, but I'm really shocked that the "experts" and "insiders" are saying MJ won't debut at #1. This sucks because that means the media will say the album is underwhelming and a failure. It will be yet another chance to call him irrelevant.
You got a USA #1...on the R&B charts.
Urban America stepped up. Not much we can do about the Subo and Swift supporters. lol. But even so, you have to remember that Susan Boyle's album in holiday related. After the holiday, not much use for Christmas music so sales could drastically drop for her. All Michael has to do is sell consistently and he could very well end up #1 or #2 battling it out with Swift.
If some of you remember with the Thriller25 release, Michael was in the top 10 for WEEKS, hanging on after superhot and popular artists like Alicia Keys and others debuted large and dropped. And these artists had tons of public appearances and promotion. All Michael had was the Luomo Vogue (a magazine that was hard to get in the USA), the Thrillicious campaign, and the Ebony interview as major promotion. Other things were sorta low-key ALTHO the CD did have a nice set-up in stores to get people's attention. And T25 was a CD compilation that many of us already owned several times over, except a completed version of For All Time. Lots of fans complained that no one would be interested in old songs that had been re-re-released. And the outrage some fans demonstrated against those remixes, it really was a surprise that T25 hung on for as long as it did against new, hot, well-promoted artist with new music.
And don't get me started about the "fans" who went on amazon and other sites trashing the remixes and the fact that another re-re-release was being....released. But I digress.
I think some of you are being prematurely pessimistic...for whatever reason...same as ppl were with T25. IMO, it's not always about finishing first...altho we know Michael liked to do so. To me, it's about having a steady lead. And T25 did that...even OUTSELLING those hot new artists it went up against.
How about we hang on for a bit and see where this all goes. :flowers:
If Michael is consistent, and a new single gets more attention/airplay than HMH, it COULD very well do better than it looks at this stage.
I, for one, am proud of the debut when you consider artists like Ciara and Neyo, P-Diddy and others, with ALL their promotion and appearances, are doing much MUCH less. And with all the controversy regarding the vocals, etc...it REALLY is a feat worth appreciating...for me, at least.
Time will tell what happens now.....but we have to be patient. Remember, Boyle is a holiday CD. Her time is short.
Now having said that...
Go Michael!! Congratulations!
unk:
EDIT:
A lot of people in the US don't even know there's a new album out; heck, I wouldn't have known if I hadn't come to this board. I've seen a couple of commericials for it during the day time; but that's because I'm retired. Most people work during the day. I don't think advertisement has been very good here in the US.
I agree. Save for New York, Sony has dropped the ball with in-store promotion. I've yet to see the commercial on tv (tho I rarely watch anything other than HGTV and Food Network..and lately SuN Channel for the Heat games lol).
SONY,...WTF?! And what happened to the big itunes promotional page like the Beatles had?! Uhh...
