Monday, November 25, 2013




ARTFLOP?


James Poulos in the Daily Beast recently wrote ‘From Lady Gaga to Jay-Z, “Serious”Art is Ruining Pop Music’

James laments poor “…Lady Gaga, whose ambitious and costly new record ARTPOP is, we are told, the year’s most important flop.” He then goes into a diatribe against artiness in pop music, ending with “That’s why Gaga and Jay-Z are foundering….”.






I love how James, instead of delivering evidence to support his contention that ARTPOP is a flop,, merely says “we are told”. It reminds me of the leftwing politicians and journalists who smugly claim that human CO2 emissions are causing global warming by referring to a ‘scientific consensus’, in spite of the fact that global average temperatures have not increased at all over the last 15 years.






Gaga’s flop, ARTPOP, is currently #1 on the Billboard chart. What does it take for an album to be a nonflop, go to #0?






And how do we describe the following albums by other artists, none of which reached #1 on Billboard. Are they Ultraflops?


Artist(s)
Album
Year Released
 Highest Billboard Charting
Rolling Stones
Their Satanic Majesties Request
1967
2
Rolling Stones
Let it Bleed
1969
3
Led Zeppelin
IV
1971
2
Madonna
Bedtime Stories
1994
2
Eagles
Desperado
1973
41
Bee Gees
Children of the World
1976
8
Whitney Houston
I’m Your Baby Tonight
1990
3