STING2 said:
ATYCLB after the first Grammy awards moved up to #11. But the Grammy awards they won that night were the biggest ones one can win at the Grammy's for a song, Record of The Year and Song of the Year. This year, Vertigo was not up for those awards, but in categories that got much less spotlight.
So there is a 9 spot differential in positions to the climb achieved by ATYCLB due to the Grammy push. I would bet that there is even more disparity with the sales figures considering the market now is smaller than before. Also, how did ATYCLB do after its first post-Grammy week? Did it dramatically drop 21 places like HTDAAB did from #20 to #41? Or did it maintain steady sales the second week?
Next year, I can see the band winning album of the year for the first time since 1987/1988, along with a big sweep of the awards, perhaps as many as 8 Grammy's. This will have a huge and probably larger impact on sales than the Grammy shows for ATYCLB.
You can never be sure. ATYCLB was perhaps the only album in rock history to have four different songs win Grammies - including two records of the year. Yet, it did not even win album of the year. So right now, it is just your prediction to see the band win album of the year.
Well, the third leg of POPMART in North America was only 17 shows, mainly in smaller markets. The POP album at that point had only sold 1.2 million copies in the USA. Despite these facts, 575,742 people attended these 17 shows! The first leg of POPMART had 29 shows and 14 "sellouts", the third leg had 17 shows and 5 "sellouts". There were a few shows on both the first Elevation leg and the third Elevation leg that did not completely sellout in small markets and usually seats that were behind the stage being the tickets that remained unsold.
12 of 17 Popmart shows for the third leg, or 70% of the shows were not filled to capacity. And a number of them I am certain, were to half-empty stadiums. Traditionally, U2 don't play major markets like Chicago or Boston on their third legs, so it is a safe assumption that they won't hit those dates in this third leg either.
By the way, BOMB came in at #48 this week with 23,000+ sales in the USA!
....as compared to ATYCLB week 15 which was #37 with 41,000. So right now, in terms of raw figures - the pace of HTDAAB has dropped considerable to almost 50% of ATYCLB's pace. In the end, it might be a tall order for HTDAAB to match ATYCLB's sales. By the way, just for a point of clarification, did ATYCLB's week 15 sales occur before or after the Grammy awards?
POP still sold 5.5 million copies in 1997 and was one of the 20 biggest selling albums of the year worldwide. It was not the standard 10 million + one had become accustomed from U2, but it was definitely not an album that was rejected or a flop either.
No U2 album is every "rejected." But one of the things that have made U2 stay relevant for so long is that they never stoop to lower standards and make themselves content with an album not being a flop in relation to others. U2 only measure their success based on their own previous success. So to their mind, POP was a flop for their standards -- and all their interviews near the release of ATYCLB had them either making confessions about POP or stressing the importance of ATYCLB selling more than POP.
Its important to remember that the push for "Sometimes" has just started. The HALL OF FAME is coming up this Monday and every artist that appears on there normally gets a huge boosts and U2 will be the spotlight of the show.
I am aware of the Hall of Fame push. But those kinds of pushes happen mostly the an artist's back catalogue or greatest hits release. U2 are a very unique band, to still be a marketable force with a current album and be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Nevertheless, I don't see how a Hall of Fame push can be greater than the Grammy push which has a wider audience. Only the rock fans will tune in to that event. So if the Grammies made the album climb to #20, I don't think the Hall of Fame will spark a bigger comeback.
This album is only in its 15th week and has already sold over 2.5 million copies to consumer and is certified at triple platinum. In this market, this is very, very impressive. The odds are still very good that this album will sell over 4 million copies in the USA by the summer of 2006, if not sooner.
I have never been shy about my good impression of U2's huge intitial sales weels. What is alarming is the fact that the chart positions and sales figures have dried up so soon. I was hoping for a better performance than this.
If U2 releases an album in time for the third leg, they should have new songs to play live and the new album show debut in the top 5 and stay about 3 weeks in the top 10. That is about all they need to keep the interest level high and keep them always in the public's eye.
Cheers,
J
...so it was you?
