Carrie Underwood 7- Denim and Rhinestones

[CU4ever]

With the exception of "Burn," all these songs have good numbers on streaming platforms simply because they were placed in large playlists at some point. Streaming numbers can be highly manipulable and do not always reflect reality. For example, "Out of That Truck" has largely performed well mainly due to that.

Maybe, but I didn't really mention streaming in my post. But on that topic, OOTT is doing exceptionally well streaming-wise despite being in a main playlist. It's half of HMH, which at one point was in all those playlists and being played top 30 on radio. And as I mentioned in another post, OOTT is connecting with people outside just numbers. That's what my original post was about, really. Streaming could follow connections

 

[countrymusicfan15]

Yeah, we are past the point where anything she releases goes to the top. Like when she released SITW, which tested horribly, because of her name, she was able to almost get a #1 (and would have got #1 if not for label shenanigans). So, yes, we are past the point where they take a song to #1 or close to it based on her name only. That’s why GS and HMH didn’t do well. I don’t think every song would go to #1 just because she’s Carrie, but with the right single choices, it’s possible. And these listed songs are songs that I think would legitimately connect and do well because of how good they are and be legitimate #1s. If she has songs that are really good and really connect, like I think those would, there’s no reason they wouldn’t go to the top. Of course, if they didn’t, then yes, I agree, they wouldn’t all go to #1. But I believe those singles would all do very well

Something In The Water tested badly??? Ahhh how is that even possible?? Literally a masterpiece of a song and fits right in with country’s religious leaning listeners

 

[CU4ever]

Something In The Water tested badly??? Ahhh how is that even possible?? Literally a masterpiece of a song and fits right in with country’s religious leaning listeners

Yeah sadly it was like the lowest negatives in history. I think it was about 40% negative. But still a great song and it’s many weeks at #1 on the HCS chart showed that

 

[abbeyjones18]

Honestly, promo is a two way street, imo. You can't only go on a couple of talk shows and expect your album to do well.

 

[angeliccarrie]

Did she even go any talk shows? I think Good Morning America

 

[FanSince04]

She went on GMA and also did an Amazon Prime concert. I think there’s many factors that can explain why this cycle was lackluster, but I loved seeing her in concert. She is happy. I can’t complain about that. However, I still hold out for those BIG NUMBERS… because why not?!

 

[PRGuy79]

I disagree. I think we're past the point of every Carrie single from an album reaching number one. Maybe, one or two could have eeked out a week, but all four wouldn't make it anymore.

Anyway, Carrie really doesn't seem bothered by any of this. She does seem very happy to be gardening and spending time with family. We can't get mad at her for that.

The business executives on Music Row who decide the budget for promotion - for this and future projects - would likely have a very different take. Indifference is not a good look. When Carrie signed with Universal, she attributed a dedication to competition and drive as part of the rationale for aligning with Team UMG. I have argued that UMG has not lived up to their promises, and I still believe that. But Carrie also seems to have lost some of the "fire in the belly" to be commercially viable. All I'm saying is that this is in stark contrast to what was promised with the label shift.

Another example of many: If Tears of Gold was a demonstration of the team's commitment to international dominance, we should not be surprised by the fact that Carrie is much closer to legacy status than anyone thought possible only 5 years ago. This is another example of a subpar song, released without appropriate promotion, paired with a past-their-prime artist, unveiled with little fanfare at an odd time for both artists in their album cycles. Rather than generate interest, it seemed to distract from the other projects at hand. It is all very perplexing and random.

UMG, Ann Edelblute and Carrie all share responsibility for where we are. They have options to change it up and get creative - or she'll be a full-fledged legacy artist in 5 years. I don't see the vision for her career right now. The choices seem out-of-step, old-fashioned and uninspired. Choosing to focus on a Las Vegas residency at the same time she turns 40 and at the expense of an expanded domestic and/or international tour and stronger promo/media appearances for a struggling album seems to advance a "past-her-prime narrative" which will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, I fear. She willingly skipped the ACMs for goodness sake. We all hate what the show has become, but this seems like a poor choice if you want to be viewed as current. They are acting like they acknowledge she is on the way out of commercial viability, and instead of fighting to remain relevant, the current strategy (or lack thereof) seems like surrender to a second-tier status. Carrie deserves better.

 

[adam1995]

The business executives on Music Row who decide the budget for promotion - for this and future projects - would likely have a very different take. Indifference is not a good look. When Carrie signed with Universal, she attributed a dedication to competition and drive as part of the rationale for aligning with Team UMG. I have argued that UMG has not lived up to their promises, and I still believe that. But Carrie also seems to have lost some of the "fire in the belly" to be commercially viable. All I'm saying is that this is in stark contrast to what was promised with the label shift.

Another example of many: If Tears of Gold was a demonstration of the team's commitment to international dominance, we should not be surprised by the fact that Carrie is much closer to legacy status than anyone thought possible only 5 years ago. This is another example of a subpar song, released without appropriate promotion, paired with a past-their-prime artist, unveiled with little fanfare at an odd time for both artists in their album cycles. Rather than generate interest, it seemed to distract from the other projects at hand. It is all very perplexing and random.

UMG, Ann Edelblute and Carrie all share responsibility for where we are. They have options to change it up and get creative - or she'll be a full-fledged legacy artist in 5 years. I don't see the vision for her career right now. The choices seem out-of-step, old-fashioned and uninspired. Choosing to focus on a Las Vegas residency at the same time she turns 40 and at the expense of an expanded domestic and/or international tour and stronger promo/media appearances for a struggling album seems to advance a "past-her-prime narrative" which will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, I fear. She willingly skipped the ACMs for goodness sake. We all hate what the show has become, but this seems like a poor choice if you want to be viewed as current. They are acting like they acknowledge she is on the way out of commercial viability, and instead of fighting to remain relevant, the current strategy (or lack thereof) seems like surrender to a second-tier status. Carrie deserves better.

But how much of it is Carrie’s decision? You can’t say UMG has failed Carrie when Carrie makes some of the choices here.

I’d imagine if Carrie wanted to go on a big international tour she would. But, she has a family and two young kids that she likely wants to see a lot of at this time. My guess is she wanted to scale date tour dates, and my guess is she’s happy with doing Vegas, as she can stay in one place for a while and have her family out for a time sometimes.

Carrie seems happy, so I don’t think we need to second guess that. She might want to move into legacy status, because whether anyone likes it or not a woman, in country, at 40 years old is not going to be the biggest selling artist, have the most number ones, or be the top artist anymore. They’re more likely to be legacy acts, if they even built a big enough career for that.

 

[Zach1998]

I don't expect her to be a top seller anymore, but I do think there is a fine line between a natural decline of an artist that is 20 years in, vs basically being absent the entire album era outside the tour.

I did find it a little awkward when Miranda outsold Carrie, with Palomino because that never used to happen. The difference is, Miranda and her team tried to adapt to the change in music consumption, with more focus on playlisting, and the benefits of having a longer album. Whereas Team CU just stuck to the same rinse and repeat method.

The only reason it's frustrating is that I feel like she does have a couple more solid performing album eras left in her. Not eras with all #1 smash hits like at her peak, but ones that might have a #1 here and there and some top 5s in there. Similar to Faith's "Fireflies" era. I wouldn't expect this kind of lack of effort in a project until she's fully shifted into legacy status and has very little relevancy (which Carrie still has.)

 

[PRGuy79]

But how much of it is Carrie’s decision? You can’t say UMG has failed Carrie when Carrie makes some of the choices here.

I’d imagine if Carrie wanted to go on a big international tour she would. But, she has a family and two young kids that she likely wants to see a lot of at this time. My guess is she wanted to scale date tour dates, and my guess is she’s happy with doing Vegas, as she can stay in one place for a while and have her family out for a time sometimes.

Carrie seems happy, so I don’t think we need to second guess that. She might want to move into legacy status, because whether anyone likes it or not a woman, in country, at 40 years old is not going to be the biggest selling artist, have the most number ones, or be the top artist anymore. They’re more likely to be legacy acts, if they even built a big enough career for that.

Unless Carrie instructed UMG specifically to roll out a new album with as little buzz as possible, select the least popular single choices and make head-scratching business decisions that seemed disconnected from any logical strategy, UMG failed her.

 

[FanSince04]

I’ll ask her about all of this at her concert in Highland Park Lord knows my seat is close enough!

 

[LilUnderwood]

Can I ask a question? What exactly do you want Carrie to do with her career right now? Are you wanting her to be at the level like Taylor Swift is? Just curious and asking for clarification because I understand the complaints but I’m just wondering what y’all want from Carrie and her team?

 

[maddkat]

The business executives on Music Row who decide the budget for promotion - for this and future projects - would likely have a very different take. Indifference is not a good look. When Carrie signed with Universal, she attributed a dedication to competition and drive as part of the rationale for aligning with Team UMG. I have argued that UMG has not lived up to their promises, and I still believe that. But Carrie also seems to have lost some of the "fire in the belly" to be commercially viable. All I'm saying is that this is in stark contrast to what was promised with the label shift.

Another example of many: If Tears of Gold was a demonstration of the team's commitment to international dominance, we should not be surprised by the fact that Carrie is much closer to legacy status than anyone thought possible only 5 years ago. This is another example of a subpar song, released without appropriate promotion, paired with a past-their-prime artist, unveiled with little fanfare at an odd time for both artists in their album cycles. Rather than generate interest, it seemed to distract from the other projects at hand. It is all very perplexing and random.

UMG, Ann Edelblute and Carrie all share responsibility for where we are. They have options to change it up and get creative - or she'll be a full-fledged legacy artist in 5 years. I don't see the vision for her career right now. The choices seem out-of-step, old-fashioned and uninspired. Choosing to focus on a Las Vegas residency at the same time she turns 40 and at the expense of an expanded domestic and/or international tour and stronger promo/media appearances for a struggling album seems to advance a "past-her-prime narrative" which will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, I fear. She willingly skipped the ACMs for goodness sake. We all hate what the show has become, but this seems like a poor choice if you want to be viewed as current. They are acting like they acknowledge she is on the way out of commercial viability, and instead of fighting to remain relevant, the current strategy (or lack thereof) seems like surrender to a second-tier status. Carrie deserves better.

But does she want better? Doesn't appear she does.as I said before she seems more than content to garden and play Vegas. She's happy, I'm happy for her.

I don't get why some fans are so angry.

 

[Zach1998]

Can I ask a question? What exactly do you want Carrie to do with her career right now? Are you wanting her to be at the level like Taylor Swift is? Just curious and asking for clarification because I understand the complaints but I’m just wondering what y’all want from Carrie and her team?

Personally just want them to be putting their best foot forward. Which they haven't been doing, from the album rollout, promotion, and single choices. If the album and singles performed the way they did after an ounce of effort was put in then you wouldn't hear a word from me. I do think that the blame lies on both UMG and Carrie honestly.

Carrie has never been as massive as Taylor Swift, but I do wish her promotion team would rip a few pages out of her team's playbook, because you can tell that everyone on TS' team is receptive and all on the same page. There's a natural decline, then there is a complete nosedive because CU/Team couldn't be bothered to plan out how to make the era the most successful. What we're seeing is the latter and that's what has angered a lot.

You know it's an issue when you see casual fans outside of the core fandom on social media and other music boards making similar comments about the lack of promo and single choices.

 

[maddkat]

^ put their best foot forward?What does that mean? What specifically do you want?

 

[adam1995]

The Christmas album was extremely successful. UMG seemed to put a lot into that. Appearances over two Christmas seasons, Gold selling and an HBO Christmas special, all during a pandemic. UMG has rolled out the red carpet for her. Not to mention a Gospel side project that was highly successful for the genre, with a special for that as well.

It would suggest to me that Carrie may have had some say in the lower promotion. I highly doubt that UMG and her management isn’t trying to get her to appear on a ton of different shows.

 

[MSCarriefan]

I think the time of the release had some to do with it too. June is when a lot of shows are off air for summer.

 

[Zach1998]

^ put their best foot forward?What does that mean? What specifically do you want?

Album wise:

-Planning a release date closer to when the second single will drop. To help expand the era more and not have to waste 3-4 months promoting the lead after the album drops.
-Release the album when vinyls would be available the same day as the album drop. Eric Church saw roughly 8K of his first week figures be from vinyl sales. Carrie is a larger name than him so she probably could've seen that if not more if they were available the week of the album drop.
-Speaking of vinyls. Having special versions of vinyls for collectors is becoming really popular. Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Kacey Musgraves and more have used this strategy and works well given vinyl is starting to make a comeback.
-For the Target exclusive version of the album have the incentive of buying the album there be something worthwhile (maybe an extra song or two), not stickers. No casual fan is going to go out of their way to go to target for some stickers, like she did this era.
- Speaking of extra songs a longer tracklist wouldn't hurt anyone. And if she had songs like OOTT just laying around, I know she had extras. The longer the tracklist, the stronger the streams for the album.
-A focus on streaming wouldn't hurt anybody either. There are plenty of major playlists that they could've gotten some of the album tracks into. End Up With You was put in a random Valentines major playlist last cycle and look at how well the streams are (22M.)
-I know many fans would flock to buy a signed copy of the CD. Which I don't think she did this era. She did some type of signed thing included with a box set, but if she did just signed CD's and vinyls they would have sold out quickly.
- She could've also been a little more visible during the album release week. To my knowledge she just did the today show and the Amazon Prime Concert (which I loved.) However, looking at it from a typical consumer's perspective, they probably only saw her on the today show, the Amazon Prime Concert would've required a fan going out and seeking it specifically, not just happening to watch and see Carrie. Would've liked to see her on Fallon, Kimmel, and/or the Kelly Clarkson show, even if it was just virtual and for a virtual performance.

Single wise:

-Really just pick better singles. Whoever that falls on. If the lead single was going to be climbing over the summer months why would you have something like GS released, when you have songs like Crazy Angels that help show the consumer the "fun" narrative that you are selling the album on. In addition, picking singles that have a higher consumer interest. I remember before HMH was released it was in the bottom 3/4 songs streaming wise from the album. Along with WW, Faster, & Garden.
- In addition to that, just similar to what I said about the album, just focus on playlisting the song and the positioning in the playlist.
- Wouldn't mind if we had a comeback of better music videos with replay value either. I probably watched the GS music video once, because it felt like it was 3:30 minutes of nothing.

 

[abbeyjones18]

Did she even go any talk shows? I think Good Morning America

She was also on the Tonight Show, had the CMA Fest that weekend.

 

[CU4ever]

A lot of people seem to not want to complain about Carrie/team’s management this era, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling it out. Is Carrie happy posting about her garden on album release day and not doing any promo for the album? Maybe. But that doesn’t make the criticisms for this era any less true or valid.

as others have pointed out, there are things not even to blame Carrie for directly. The complete lack of a streaming push, short albums, lack of a real marketing campaign, are all things the label/team CU has in their control, as I’m sure Carrie isn’t in charge of all those things. Like with her music videos, it's not Carrie asking for low budget and forgettable videos. It's not Carrie choosing not to make a streaming push because shes happy with her career like it is.

Casual fans seem to have had no idea Carrie even released a new album. I’m sorry but there’s no way Carrie can be happy about that and there’s just not a good spin for that. As I’ve said before, her Christmas album did way better than this one did and that’s not good. People like to say Carrie doesn’t want to do a huge promo anymore or anything like that, but I’m surprised she’d do more for a Christmas album than for her major release album.

Universal/Team CU have been a massive disappointment this era. Miranda has been having most of her radio singles do pretty bad for a decade now, yet she’s arguably almost as relevant as she was back then. So it’s not all just based on how bad/good her singles are and do (which, of course, have been horrible choices in my opinion).

Carrie is (and always will be) one of the few country artists who is a household name. But this last era, things were managed like she is nothing of the kind. But I miss Carrie. Outside the tour, i felt like i did not see her this whole era. I miss seeing her and hearing from her, and for whatever reason (the label or Carrie/team) Carrie and Co seemed to have been extremely quiet this whole (very short) era