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