Sales and Stats: Pop: Fact and Fiction*

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By Martijn Janssen
2004.06


Few U2 albums are as controversial as the 1997 release ?Pop.? The controversy does not lie in the album's content, with Edge explaining in interviews at the time of its release that, "The themes are love, desire and faith in crisis, the usual stuff." Rather, the album gets many mixed replies because of the form of the songs, ?Pop? being U2's flirtation with dance music, relying more on beats and rhythm than ever. This wasn't that surprising, considering that dance DJs like Howie B, Steve Osbourne and Nellee Hooper produced the album. These flirtations roughly divide the fans into camps that love and hate the album. There's almost no middle ground with regard to this record.

cov_pop.jpg

(Image: U2.com)

Released 10 years after U2 became world superstars with ?The Joshua Tree,? there was never any doubt the record would sell. But how big a success is ?Pop?? What are the dry numbers that summarize the album? Since music is a very personal thing, stating chart info does not indicate anything regarding the quality of the work. However, it may help to distinguish the facts from the fiction. So let's go shopping!


?Pop? for Historians

In the early ?90s U2 was on a winning streak. Their Zoo TV spectacle attracted more enthusiasm and new fans than the slogans during ?The Fly? could come up with. The band took a rest after the tour?s completion in 1993, only to be temporarily broken by a massive summer 1995 hit with ?Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me? and some attention to their side projects, expectations were running high for the new U2 album.

Late 1996, two short samples were leaked on the Internet (with Interference.com playing a big part in this) and suddenly U2 was the world?s most-talked about band once again. Some even tried to sell tapes with these samples, short 30 second bits of ?Discoth?que? and ?Wake Up Dead Man.? Then, in early January 1997, the full ?Discoth?que? song became available, forcing Island Records to rush-release the single. This did not turn out to be a catastrophe as the single became the highest added song ever on US radio. It also went to No. 10 in the US Billboard charts and earned a gold record status for more than 500,000 singles shipped to retail, and all this happened before the album even was available!


?Pop? for Buyers

Released on March 3 and 4, 1997 (depending on which part of the world you lived then), the album went off with a start as blistering as some of the BPM's on the album (BPM's are Beats Per Minute for those not into dance). Fans had waited almost four years for a new U2 record and now everybody wanted to buy the album immediately. In the United States it entered the album charts at No. 1, U2?s last album to reach that top position, selling around 349,000 copies the first week. The album also topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and 23 other countries. In its first four weeks, the album sold almost five million copies worldwide. These are very impressive figures, not just for U2, but for any artist.

However, after these initial frenzied weeks, sales seemed to slow down. Reports started coming out in newspapers and magazines that the U2 album was selling less than expected, as were tickets for their Popmart Tour. In general, touring stimulates sales, so with touring revenue behind schedule, this also meant lower album sales. Unfortunately, this is where the information about the ?Pop? album sales end, not much information has come after the first few weeks. Recent information suggests that U2 have sold about six to seven million copies of ?Pop? worldwide, of which about 1.5 million was in the United States and two million in Europe.


Pop for Tourists

The Popmart Tour story is a bit different from the album. Although there were reports of bad ticket sales from the beginning, in the end the tour turned out to be quite successful. By only playing stadiums, U2 maybe did not sell out many shows, but it did allow them to play to as many people as possible. (As a comparison, even Bruce Springsteen at the height of his ?Born in the U.S.A.? mania, when he sold out six stadium dates in Los Angeles, failed to sell out a show in Birmingham, Alabama.) At the end of 1997, Popmart was the second-highest grossing tour in the United States with a gross revenue of around $80 million. The Rolling Stones were number one with a gross revenue of about $90 million dollars for the ?Bridges to Babylon? tour, however, U2 played to more people (1.7 million in the United States, compared to 1.5 million for the Stones).

poptour.jpg

(Image: U2.com)

Worldwide the success was just as big, if not bigger. Starting in Las Vegas on April 25, 1997 and ending in Johannesburg (South Africa) on March 21, 1998, U2 played 93 shows to nearly four million people. Total gross revenue for the whole tour is around $170 million, making Popmart the fourth highest grossing tour ever. By comparison, Elevation played to 2.3 million people and grossed around $145 million, due to higher ticket prices than Popmart.


Pop for Singles

On the singles front the story is quite identical to the album achievements. As mentioned above, ?Discoth?que? crash-landed on the scene, becoming the most-added song on US radio. It went to the US top 10 and even became a gold single. It was also a UK No. 1. The second single, ?Staring at The Sun,? was a moderate success in the United States, reaching No. 26. Better was its performance in the UK, where, although not the sure-fire summer No. 1 hit some magazines had predicted, it was a top three hit. Unfortunately, ?Last Night on Earth? could not reverse the downward trend of ?Pop? singles, never reaching higher than No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 10 in the UK. The ?Please? single only charted on the US Maxi-Single Dance Charts for the single with the new studio version of the song and several remixes. The single with four live songs (the so-called ?Popheart EP?) didn't chart at all in the United States, nor did the final single from ?Pop,? ?If God Will Send His Angels.? ?Please? did reach No. 7 in the UK, while ?If God Will Send His Angels? became another top 15 hit when it stalled at No. 12.

While not all the singles were No. 1 in the UK, they all did go top 15, which is quite respectable. ?Pop? was the last U2 album for which actual singles were sold in the United States, in contrast to only releasing singles to radio as is done nowadays.


Pop for Future Historians

So what is the final verdict on ?Pop?? While it is undoubtedly one of the lighter-selling U2 records, the album, and certainly its subsequent tour, do not deserve the titles ?Flop? or ?Flopmart.? Of the hundreds of thousands of albums released each year, only a few hundred go platinum (selling more than 1 million units) in the United States, and a few thousand sell more than 100,000 copies. For the year 1997, ?Pop? was the 48th best selling album in the United States and was in the top 20 of best-selling album worldwide. And Popmart was just plain successful, no doubt about that. But once an opinion has spread through a community, it's often difficult to prove the opposite is the actual truth. At least it will keep the discussion alive.

Thank you for shopping!
 
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Thanks so much for the great report on one of my favourite albums. This summarizes just what I have been wondering lately. I was going to post a query in the Peeling Off the Dollar Bills forum, but you anticipated me. Thanks again!
 
That was a very good read, thanks Martjin. I don't know why people don't like POP, it's a ballsy record, another prove why U2 is better than many bands and why they are so big. I don't see it as a flop at all, it's one of my favorite U2 records. I still can't understand why Last Night On Earth didn't do better on the charts, it's one of their best singles I think, great chorus, amazing lyrics, great guitar work, awesome drum and bass and funny and interesting video. Should have done better as should Please. By the way I'm listening to The Playboy Mansion, another underrated song on that underrated album. :wave:
 
Thank you for report, I learned from it many facts about one of my favourite U2 album.
Looking through these numbers I felt very proud that I'm in U2 community.

Thank you very much!! :)


ZOOROPA


You know you're chewing bubble gum...
 
The Uncut U2 special put sales at 7 million (a quote from Bono), or 6 million - another article. Maybe when they atre inducted into the HOF we will get upto date sales figures for the entire catalogue.

Mike
 
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