5th Single Poll

[Zach1998]

And there weren't. Carrie had the highest debut in a few years, so she sold a lot of tickets to fans, fans that wanted to hear the new music. So, to me that says she's still at the top of her game, despite the negative attitude of many members. Also, she's starting to age out of the industry's preference, so the success she's had is still remarkable, but again, some don't like to hear it.

Wouldn't call it negative, would more so call it being let down. Idk about anyone else, but I remember the day that news broke that CU left Sony for UMG and I was absolutely pumped. They made all these promises about taking her to the next level. Everyone showing frustration about this era probably remembers all those promises they made, and now we are at the end of her first UMG era and it doesn't feel like it lived up to everything they promised it to be. Prior to UMG Carrie had a near flawless catalog in every way. With her first UMG single we saw her miss the top 5 for the first time ever followed by her missing the top 10 for the first time ever (on BB.) The streak was bound to end eventually, but with her first releases on the new label? After 26 #1's as well as one top 2 even when she was still 34 (one year from 35?) All that work for it to go like that? A bit discouraging. That is why fans are upset. Songs peaking at 6,9, & 10 is definitely not a bad showing for any random country artist, but for Carrie it's a big step back from where she was prior to this label. And it's not like the songs were exactly setting the sales/ streaming charts on fire either if you want to completely throw radio out of the mix.

 

[CarrieAddicted]

Wouldn't call it negative, would more so call it being let down. Idk about anyone else, but I remember the day that news broke that CU left Sony for UMG and I was absolutely pumped. They made all these promises about taking her to the next level. Everyone showing frustration about this era probably remembers all those promises they made, and now we are at the end of her first UMG era and it doesn't feel like it lived up to everything they promised it to be. Prior to UMG Carrie had a near flawless catalog in every way. With her first UMG single we saw her miss the top 5 for the first time ever followed by her missing the top 10 for the first time ever (on BB.) The streak was bound to end eventually, but with her first releases on the new label? After 26 #1's as well as one top 2 even when she was still 34 (one year from 35?) All that work for it to go like that? A bit discouraging. That is why fans are upset. Songs peaking at 6,9, & 10 is definitely not a bad showing for any random country artist, but for Carrie it's a big step back from where she was prior to this label. And it's not like the songs were exactly setting the sales/ streaming charts on fire either if you want to completely throw radio out of the mix.

This. Precisely this.
Thank you.

And people throwing the tour‘s success in to try to defend UMG doesn’t even make sense, as we’re taking about success of new singles, new material.

Mentioning the tour is to agree with what I stated: Carrie is becoming a legacy artist. Have Madonna, Rolling Stones, Elton John etc had any new hit song? No. But their tours are always mega successes, because people go to their tours to see catalog songs live.

About CP’s first week sales. I want to believe that at least 80% of the sales were because people actually wanted to hear the new songs, rather than just because they could redeem the album for free (who doesn’t like free gifts?!) after buying tickets to... what again? Yes, the tour/see catalog songs live.

 

[adam1995]

Wouldn't call it negative, would more so call it being let down. Idk about anyone else, but I remember the day that news broke that CU left Sony for UMG and I was absolutely pumped. They made all these promises about taking her to the next level. Everyone showing frustration about this era probably remembers all those promises they made, and now we are at the end of her first UMG era and it doesn't feel like it lived up to everything they promised it to be. Prior to UMG Carrie had a near flawless catalog in every way. With her first UMG single we saw her miss the top 5 for the first time ever followed by her missing the top 10 for the first time ever (on BB.) The streak was bound to end eventually, but with her first releases on the new label? After 26 #1's as well as one top 2 even when she was still 34 (one year from 35?) All that work for it to go like that? A bit discouraging. That is why fans are upset. Songs peaking at 6,9, & 10 is definitely not a bad showing for any random country artist, but for Carrie it's a big step back from where she was prior to this label. And it's not like the songs were exactly setting the sales/ streaming charts on fire either if you want to completely throw radio out of the mix.

I doubt Carrie is disappointed about the move though. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been willing to make this move if she knew they weren't all in. "Cry Pretty" was Carrie's album. The album she had wanted to make, that she likely couldn't do on Sony. UMG gave her that freedom. The album supported a massive tour, that was definitely more entertaining to attend and look at than any other in the genre. She's making a Christmas album, that if the rumors are true, Sony wasn't really supportive of. UMG is supporting it. Having the label's support to make the music she wants is more important, in my opinion, than having every song be #1, but not getting to do what Carrie wants. UMG supported these singles for weeks after it was obvious interest waned from radio and the public. There is sometimes only so much that they can do on that front. We also, don't know how much the pandemic hurt promo of DA or any possible things Carrie might have done.

 

[adam1995]

This. Precisely this.
Thank you.

And people throwing the tour‘s success in to try to defend UMG doesn’t even make sense, as we’re taking about success of new singles, new material.

Mentioning the tour is to agree with what I stated: Carrie is becoming a legacy artist. Have Madonna, Rolling Stones, Elton John etc had any new hit song? No. But their tours are always mega successes, because people go to their tours to see catalog songs live.

About CP’s first week sales. I want to believe that at least 80% of the sales were because people actually wanted to hear the new songs, rather than just because they could redeem the album for free (who doesn’t like free gifts?!) after buying tickets to... what again? Yes, the tour/see catalog songs live.

What would rather see then? Jason Aldean sold 83,000 copies of his latest CD in November, only 68,000 of those were traditional sales. Carrie sold 266,000 with the bundle. It's possible she'd be down around that total too. So, would you rather her CD be bundled and more people hear the music or she sell 80,000 copies and the label can be blamed again?

Kenny Chesney, an actual legacy act at this point sold 233,000 of his most recent album, with a bundle, so Carrie still did better, but it also shows that more people will still hear the music through this tactic.

So, the way I see it, she can have low album sales where no one knows the new music, or she can bundle the CD and tickets, and get that music heard, as well as catalog hits. Not sure what the aversion is to her having a catalog people love?

 

[pacarriefan]

I wasn’t necessarily throwing in the tour and album’s success as a way to defend UMG. I do think that UMG was making it seem like they were putting all of their attention into Carrie whenever she signed, and that really didn’t come true. More so, I’m just saying that Carrie is still achieving success that others aren’t which is an accomplishment. Even if Miranda, Maren, Kelsea, Kacey, etc, did ticket bundles they still probably wouldn’t have had as high of a first week debut as Carrie because their concerts aren’t as big of a draw. I mean, people on Twitter were trying to declare Kelsea the new trendy it girl but her album literally sold just over 10% of Cry Pretty in the first week. Yeah, the singles weren’t as good as other eras, but for my own sake I don’t want to act like this era was a total flop by any means and am trying to keep the grand scheme of things in perspective.

 

[Zach1998]

^ Oh this era is far from a flop. Just after so many "mountain top" eras this one feels more like a valley, and some of us feel disappointed because the way UMG and everyone was hyping this era up it felt like it was going to be another "mountain top" era, but that's not the way it turned out.

 

[CU4ever]

I don't think I'd say it's been six years since Carrie's last hit and that SITW was her last hit. I would argue that Smoke Break, Heartbeat, and CB were all decent hits. Yeah, they weren't big sellers like SITW was, but they all had a really easy time getting to the top and tested really well. Of course I would agree she hasn't had a song of Blown Away's hit level in a while for sure. I do agree there weren't really any hit songs on this current album (Southbound is whatever), and that doesn't look that good being Carrie's first album with UMG and she loses several streaks. However, I think that is partially due to the bad single choices. I think we can all agree LW wasn't a good pick. We know CP wasn't written for radio, and DA's struggling is a little odd. Though, many Carrie fans (even a few here when we ranked Carrie's albums in our favorite order) feel that this album wasn't their favorite and that they prefer her old music and sound. So I think some of the struggling could be put up to that argument as well.

 

[adam1995]

Just so I understand where the frustration is coming from with regards to UMG not delivering their promises, what did people expect to happen? Did some expect tours throughout Asia (where she's not well known), tours across Europe, South America, etc. (where she's also not well known outside of the U.K.)? Are you looking for Taylor Swift level success, Lady Gaga success, Katy Perry? What is the benchmark? Carrie is a country artist and that can only extend so far (mostly within English speaking countries). If this were a decade ago, I'd say worldwide spread would have a much better chance of happening, but at this stage it will be harder to do. Worldwide success for a country artist is so rare, only really Dolly and Shania were successful at that, and they leaned heavily into pop to achieve that success, and Carrie doesn't seem to be heading down that path.

Plus, we do not know what UMG might be cooking up. She could have an international duet, or one with a huge popstar in the works, but unfortunately there's only a global pandemic occurring. Plans could be halted, but then again Carrie may not have any plans outside the Christmas album right now. My point is, we don't know behind the scenes workings and dealings, so how can we criticize something we don't fully know yet?

 

[pacarriefan]

^i will say that it was good that UMG had Carrie doing stuff like the Deni Ute Muster and that festival over in the Netherlands...idk if that’s what they were planning to have Carrie do whenever they were talking about her being global, but that maybe wasn’t quite what everyone was anticipating. I guess it was worldlier than what Sony had her doing though. I am still holding out hope though for the supposed international duet with David Bisbal. I see people on social media asking Carrie to come to different countries like Argentina and Greece for instance, but that really wouldn’t go over well at all.

 

[simonplay]

Just so I understand where the frustration is coming from with regards to UMG not delivering their promises, what did people expect to happen? Did some expect tours throughout Asia (where she's not well known), tours across Europe, South America, etc. (where she's also not well known outside of the U.K.)? Are you looking for Taylor Swift level success, Lady Gaga success, Katy Perry? What is the benchmark? Carrie is a country artist and that can only extend so far (mostly within English speaking countries). If this were a decade ago, I'd say worldwide spread would have a much better chance of happening, but at this stage it will be harder to do. Worldwide success for a country artist is so rare, only really Dolly and Shania were successful at that, and they leaned heavily into pop to achieve that success, and Carrie doesn't seem to be heading down that path.

Plus, we do not know what UMG might be cooking up. She could have an international duet, or one with a huge popstar in the works, but unfortunately there's only a global pandemic occurring. Plans could be halted, but then again Carrie may not have any plans outside the Christmas album right now. My point is, we don't know behind the scenes workings and dealings, so how can we criticize something we don't fully know yet?

You keep talking about the tour but UMG don't have anything to do with the tour.

I was expecting some big promo in streaming services and nothing.
They could have done a push to DA and make it to the top 10 at Billboard when it was at #11 I think, they did nothing, just a small ad at all access when the song was already falling (like WTF!?)
The music videos were pretty bad, zero replay value and little budget.
And what about the "international superstar" thing!? They didn't even care to promote her singles to radio in UK or other countries. Even Sony did it with Chaser and Smoke Break.

Maybe it's not UMG but it's more Capitol that have a terrible promo/marketing team!

 

[pacarriefan]

^i think the touring is being brought up because the whole global thing is what they seemed to be touting in the press release thing at the time of the switch and it seemed exciting.

 

[Zach1998]

Just so I understand where the frustration is coming from with regards to UMG not delivering their promises, what did people expect to happen? Did some expect tours throughout Asia (where she's not well known), tours across Europe, South America, etc. (where she's also not well known outside of the U.K.)? Are you looking for Taylor Swift level success, Lady Gaga success, Katy Perry? What is the benchmark? Carrie is a country artist and that can only extend so far (mostly within English speaking countries). If this were a decade ago, I'd say worldwide spread would have a much better chance of happening, but at this stage it will be harder to do. Worldwide success for a country artist is so rare, only really Dolly and Shania were successful at that, and they leaned heavily into pop to achieve that success, and Carrie doesn't seem to be heading down that path.

Plus, we do not know what UMG might be cooking up. She could have an international duet, or one with a huge popstar in the works, but unfortunately there's only a global pandemic occurring. Plans could be halted, but then again Carrie may not have any plans outside the Christmas album right now. My point is, we don't know behind the scenes workings and dealings, so how can we criticize something we don't fully know yet?

UMG really doesn't have anything to do with the tour. What I was expecting from UMG was to at least match or come very close to matching the success she has seen with her past albums (i'm talking if the songs can't make it to #1 then they shouldn't be less than top 5.) I know from past posts that me and you have different views that radio is phasing Carrie out, but even if you are right and they are in fact doing that (preventing UMG from matching her past chart success) I expect them to view that and start focusing on how she can be get her new music heard to the maxes for when radio is completely done with her... (Streaming) and building her following on there. As well as trying to grow her audience to the younger generation through ads on apps that the younger generation uses: snapchat, tic tok, etc. In addition it would have been nice to at least see an attempt at an international single release. Better music videos with an actual budget would have been nice as well. None of the 4 CP videos have replay value. Love Wins averages 5,000 views a day and CP averages 9,000 views a day currently, compare that to Two Black Cadillacs (a video with replay value) who still manages to average 18,000 views per day despite being released nearly 6 years prior to CP and LW. Replay value is important as that helps get songs new certifications.

 

[adam1995]

UMG really doesn't have anything to do with the tour. What I was expecting from UMG was to at least match or come very close to matching the success she has seen with her past albums (i'm talking if the songs can't make it to #1 then they shouldn't be less than top 5.) I know from past posts that me and you have different views that radio is phasing Carrie out, but even if you are right and they are in fact doing that (preventing UMG from matching her past chart success) I expect them to view that and start focusing on how she can be get her new music heard to the maxes for when radio is completely done with her... (Streaming) and building her following on there. As well as trying to grow her audience to the younger generation through ads on apps that the younger generation uses: snapchat, tic tok, etc. In addition it would have been nice to at least see an attempt at an international single release. Better music videos with an actual budget would have been nice as well. None of the 4 CP videos have replay value. Love Wins averages 5,000 views a day and CP averages 9,000 views a day currently, compare that to Two Black Cadillacs (a video with replay value) who still manages to average 18,000 views per day despite being released nearly 6 years prior to CP and LW. Replay value is important as that helps get songs new certifications.

How does any of this help broaden her international appeal though? I mean, put her on Spotify lists, but if a majority of people in Greece say don't listen to country, she doesn't get any bigger. I agree though, that they should have hit streaming services harder (even though CP set a streaming record for female artists, I believe). Their plan may have been to hit radio as they always have, but they found radio wasn't there anymore. They can't push a song to #5 from #11 if radio isn't going to play it, and I believe that's what happened with DA, LW, and even CP. They continued to promote for weeks after even as interest waned. The videos could be better, but the Storyteller ones were even more abysmal, so not sure what that means as of now. I bring up touring, because everyone wants her to be this huge international star, but how does she do that without touring? There are limits to where she can go at this point. But, we may see the strategy change in the next cycle, because we saw relying on the old one didn't provide the same results. But, if the strategy is the same, I'd say Carrie may have something to do with it, because clearly UMG is working multiple different strategies for different artists, and I'm sure they wouldn't be opposed to doing so with Carrie.

 

[NC State Carrie Fan]

I understand the frustration with UMG - BUT I feel like there is a loose term on success here. Just because a song goes #1 does not mean it is successful. There are songs country radio listeners have never even heard of that are getting 50 million streams on Spotify and not even charting.The days of album sales and #1 radio hits are honestly kind of fading. Like sure - I always want every Carrie song to go to #1 to be able to have a 1 in the little slot on the discography page, but if we are being honest we are probably the only ones to go look at that usually lol.

Kacey has been one of the biggest country artists in the past few years imo and where are her album sales? number ones? country awards? Her Golden Hour era has been succesful because of the growth she has seen as an artist, the exposure she has gotten, the fans enjoying the music, and pretty decent streams as well. The same can be said for so many artists and albums that have not seen huge success on radio but are killing it elsewhere.

Luke/Jason/Maren/Keith/Tim/FGL/and all of those people can have their number ones for their long list of mediocre songs, but I will take Cry Pretty any day (minus LW) because it was a great album/tour/and overall good era in my opinion for Carrie

 

[rcramer]

I understand the frustration with UMG - BUT I feel like there is a loose term on success here. Just because a song goes #1 does not mean it is successful. There are songs country radio listeners have never even heard of that are getting 50 million streams on Spotify and not even charting.The days of album sales and #1 radio hits are honestly kind of fading. Like sure - I always want every Carrie song to go to #1 to be able to have a 1 in the little slot on the discography page, but if we are being honest we are probably the only ones to go look at that usually lol.

Kacey has been one of the biggest country artists in the past few years imo and where are her album sales? number ones? country awards? Her Golden Hour era has been succesful because of the growth she has seen as an artist, the exposure she has gotten, the fans enjoying the music, and pretty decent streams as well. The same can be said for so many artists and albums that have not seen huge success on radio but are killing it elsewhere.

Luke/Jason/Maren/Keith/Tim/FGL/and all of those people can have their number ones for their long list of mediocre songs, but I will take Cry Pretty any day (minus LW) because it was a great album/tour/and overall good era in my opinion for Carrie

This.... You hit the nail on the head..... It is a true shame IMO that these Mediocore songs go right to the top and some of the best singers and songwriters cant even score a Top 10... Always made me question Country radio......

And not to mention the big male country singers.... Mediocore at best.... Give me a Kip Moore any day.... Such a talented and one of the most underrated singer/songwriter out there... Great story teller also.....

 

[jaymiee]

Although I do think UMG could have done better Im going to wait until CU7 to completely give up on them. I keep reminding myself that Carrie straight up said CP was not written for radio. So 4 of 4 singles reaching top 10 (mediabase) is still fantastic for something not meant for radio.

She broke records with her debut sales for CP and had a massive tour, This whole era started off with challenges that im hoping CU7 will be a smash. I feel (hope) Carrie is ready to come back and kick some @ss with CU7 and get some big chart topping singles out of the now that she had her personal moment with CP. Im ready for fun/pop/rock/country Carrie to slay us again like the first 5 albums

 

[clh_hilary]

Honestly, we don't know what happened behind the scenes.

It's obviously reasonably and objectively disappointing that her singles no longer become automatic No 1s, and the lead single not doing so was definitely shocking, but unless we have some insiders' info, we really can't say why.

At one point in anyone's career, they stop getting massive hits, then they stop getting hits altogether and become veteran artists.

Carrie has sold more than 65 million records and will continue to sell many more.

Cry Pretty sold a million copies globally, produced 3 gold singles, including a No 1 hit. Her career isn't over and I think this is just the natural progression of things. We also have to remember that a Top 20 placement does mean a song is a hit. Her career is not experiencing some drastic collapse á la Katy Perry or Britney Spears. And if we look at the most successful female artists in history, be it Shania Twain or Dolly Parton or Reba McEntire, we can put Carrie's career in perspective and safely say that a CP era for any of them would still be a successful radio era. Carrie's career before Storyteller was not just "successful", it was literally monumental, historic, and groundbreaking. Never-before-seen. Never-before-done and may never ever be surpassed. If she never gets a No 1 single from this point on, which I really doubt would be the case, I'm fine with it. (And of course anyone can easily have a comeback in her situation - one underperforming era means absolutely nothing.) If this is the path her career is going, I'm just happy that this is just natural rather than a result of releasing some awful music that turned people off like many veteran artists have done.

And so what if her last label worked harder to get the No 1s? It's obvious that they were not all hitting No 1 naturally due to their huge popularity, but rather some label trickery, possibly payola. I have nothing against it but I'm also perfectly fine with the artists I follow not to participate in it. She's still not only a massive country superstar, but a successful contemporary artist on the global scale.

 

[clh_hilary]

I don't think I'd say it's been six years since Carrie's last hit and that SITW was her last hit. I would argue that Smoke Break, Heartbeat, and CB were all decent hits. Yeah, they weren't big sellers like SITW was, but they all had a really easy time getting to the top and tested really well. Of course I would agree she hasn't had a song of Blown Away's hit level in a while for sure. I do agree there weren't really any hit songs on this current album (Southbound is whatever), and that doesn't look that good being Carrie's first album with UMG and she loses several streaks. However, I think that is partially due to the bad single choices. I think we can all agree LW wasn't a good pick. We know CP wasn't written for radio, and DA's struggling is a little odd. Though, many Carrie fans (even a few here when we ranked Carrie's albums in our favorite order) feel that this album wasn't their favorite and that they prefer her old music and sound. So I think some of the struggling could be put up to that argument as well.

The fact that we are even contemplating the idea that No 1 hits are not "hits" just shows how spoiled we have been! Like, there's nowhere higher to go!

 

[Zach1998]

^ my problem is that if other artist get to go number 1 with weaker hits commercially then of course i want the same for Carrie. Scotty Mcreery, Locash, and FGL have just went number 1 with some of the weakest songs I’ve seen. DA had much more buzz around it than any of those songs, so of course you would find it frustrating to see other labels actually push their artists to number one while Carries didn’t. Heck I wouldn’t even have minded if all they tried for was a top 5 peak. I know there’s no way to know exactly how hard they tried, but given the fact that they waited to put ads out that it was top 10 and to convert it into higher rotation until after the song had already been top 10 for a month and was starting to stall gives me an idea about it, whereas for their male artists they had adds to convert their songs immediately after they hit top 10. FGL’s song had callouts almost just as bad as DA did but theirs still managed to go number 1 (that’s not to say their wasn’t a push back from radio with FGL’s song, because when callouts are bad there always will be,) but their label put their nose to the ground and got the job done.

 

[adam1995]

^ my problem is that if other artist get to go number 1 with weaker hits commercially then of course i want the same for Carrie. Scotty Mcreery, Locash, and FGL have just went number 1 with some of the weakest songs I’ve seen. DA had much more buzz around it than any of those songs, so of course you would find it frustrating to see other labels actually push their artists to number one while Carries didn’t. Heck I wouldn’t even have minded if all they tried for was a top 5 peak. I know there’s no way to know exactly how hard they tried, but given the fact that they waited to put adds out that it was top 10 and to convert it into higher rotation until after the song had already been top 10 for a month and was starting to stall gives me an idea about it, whereas for their male artists they had adds to convert their songs immediately after they hit top 10. FGL’s song had callouts almost just as bad as DA did but theirs still managed to go number 1 (that’s not to say their wasn’t a push back from radio with FGL’s song, because when callouts are bad there always will be,) but their label put their nose to the ground and got the job done.

They got their #1s likely because all of them have a body part that Carrie does not.