Carrie Underwood WILL be working on a new album this year!

[carriecountrystar]

^ SWSRN seems pretty lucky whenever she releases like she doesn't really have any real competition. people like Lady A, miranda, carrie all release together year after she does so she hardly has anyone legit to compete with, even other genres too like Lady Gaga is not a threat to her as she releases her new material after all the big acts like gaga has already had their albums out for some time with just old material.
also, since she usually releases when many don't-she gets the spotlight all to herself.
yeah and the fact that she constantly releases her albums gets her back in the spotlight regardless and holds up the sales for the main album.

 

[Country_Carrie]

I'm excited!! The new album process is fun

 

[Kizmet311]

So, somewhere, can't remember if it was this thread or not, someone talked about how most of the country female artists seem to have a drop off in popularity around their 4th album. Since this is Carrie's 4th album, I went to wikipedia to do a little research on Faith, Martina, Shania, Trisha, etc to see if there was any kind of effect on their popularity after the 4th album. Here's what I found based on RIAA certifications:

Faith Hill: Album #3 Faith, 6x Platinum; Album #4 Breathe, 8x Platinum (Cry & Fireflies both went double platinum after this)

Martina McBride: Album #3 Wild Angles, Platinum; Album #4 Evolution, 3x Platinum (Martina only had one multi-platinum album after Evolution, which was Martina)

Trisha Yearwood: Album #3 The Song Remembers When, Platinum: Album #4 Thinkin' About You, Platinum (Trisha's only multi-platinum albums were her first & Songbook Collection)

Leann Rimes: Album #3 Leann Rimes, Platinum; Album #4 Twisted Angel, Gold (Boy, this was a tricky one. Leann had two compilation/special albums after "Blue". Her true second album still had 4 covers on it. What I thought was her 4th album, "I Need You" was really a collection of B-sides and promo tracks to fulfull her contract and only went Gold. While "Blue" went 6x Platinum, nothing since "Leann Rimes" has gone platinum except for a Greatest Hits album.)

Miranda Lambert: While Kerosene and Revolution have gone Platinum, she has no multi-platinum albums certified.

Reba McEntire: Reba had a LOT of albums in the early 80's before she became popular. I decided to count "Whoever's In New England" as her first album, as it's the first that most of us have ever heard of, then chose the 3rd and 4th album from there. So, with that: Album #3 The Last One to Know, Platinum; Album #4 Reba, Platinum. (Since then Reba has had several multi-platinum albums, with the highest certification for a regular studio album being 4x Platinum for "For My Broken Heart" which was released in 1991.)

Shania Twain: Album #3 Come On Over, 20x Platinum (was this a double disc?); Album #4 Up!, 11x Platinum (Special case, of course, since she hasn't released anything since Up!)

I left out compilations such as greatest hits and Christmas albums. I'd be happy to look up anyone else, but those are the ladies that I feel we can best compare to Carrie's career as they have been around a while and were popular during their time. I think we can all realize just how special our Carrie is - especially in these days of lower album sales. And we can also see that there isn't any kind of 4th album curse, as Faith, Reba, and Martina all had increased sales on at least one album after their third studio release. Who knows what Shania would have done and Leann is a glaring example of a mismanaged career. The problem is that these women didn't hit it right out of the box with their first album. It took until their 3rd or 4th album for them to become incredibly popular (except Leann). Trisha seems to be a case of a great talent that isn't commercially successful, which somewhat surprised me for as respected as she is in country music. Our Carrie started out so high it was hard for her to become any more popular with successive albums especially with the decline in album sales. I personally still think we haven't seen the best Carrie has to offer and that her next album could be the one that is her "career maker" in terms of artistry. Unfortunately the decline in album sales means we may never seen SH type numbers again, but I think she could easily see a 3x or 4x Platinum album if it was the right material.

Edit: For a male reference, look at Rascal Flatts. Their highest certifications came on their 3rd and 4th albums (Feels Like Today which had several hits and Me & My Gang, which had "What Hurts the Most"). I believe Still Feels Good (2x Platinum) only sold based on their goodwill from the previous two albums. Unstoppable has only been certified Platinum and the latest album only sold 165k in it's first week. So, it seems that for most artists, the 3rd-5th albums are when they have their "peak" sales.

Trisha seems to be an artistic favorite, but not a commercial success. Leann was a novelty at 14 with Blue, but no one cared once she wasn't the cute little girl anymore (how lucky are we that that wasn't Carrie and she waited!). Miranda may be just hitting her peak with Revolution. Reba is kind of odd, as she put out so many little albums, often more than one a year, before she made a name for herself, but she has stayed popular for over 20 years, which is amazing. Her last platinum album certification, though, was in 2007 for her Duets album and before that 2005 for Room to Breathe. And Shania...well, we'll see just how popular she still is if she ever decides to come back.

 

[teesharky]

^ thanx for compiling all that kizmet! That is really interesting to see. Hopefully the trend will continue with SWSRN too. lol

Love you, mean it, but you have to see the contridiction here.
You state that Carrie has to stay competative with singers that change out albums like they change their shoes!
I don't want Carries material to ever been overlooked like that. I want it to be a big deal everytime.
I honestly can not keep track of Chesney or Straite album releases or the albums themselves. They run together like there is no charactor to them at all. I can't even name one.
I only know that Kenny came back from a bad marriage and had alot of feelings to express on his album that year. And that is cool. And I think it resinated. But then he went right back to churning out music.
I don't want that for Carrie.

true. I don't want Carrie to copy them as most of their recent albums kind of sucked anyway. lol

I guess I just want a happy medium... I don't think Carrie can afford to take off huge chunks of time before she puts out her next album.....as I want her to stay in the forefront and keep up her momentum/buzz. But, I don't want her to be another album puppy mill like Strait and kenny, etc, seem to be.

Even Taylor's re-reeleases usually pretty much suck too, and all of the songs sound the same as the original album.... so the only thing she gains is making more money off the re-release, and keeping her name out there, over-exposed and over-promoted as always.

 

[jptexas]

Let's see, she released SH in 2005, CR in 2007, PO in 2009. She wants to release the new one in 2011. Duh.

 

[Kizmet311]

^ thanx for compiling all that kizmet! That is really interesting to see. Hopefully the trend will continue with SWSRN too. lol




true. I don't want Carrie to copy them as most of their recent albums kind of sucked anyway. lol

I guess I just want a happy medium... I don't think Carrie can afford to take off huge chunks of time before she puts out her next album.....as I want her to stay in the forefront and keep up her momentum/buzz. But, I don't want her to be another album puppy mill like Strait and kenny, etc, seem to be.

Even Taylor's re-reeleases usually pretty much suck too, and all of the songs sound the same as the original album.... so the only thing she gains is making more money off the re-release, and keeping her name out there, over-exposed and over-promoted as always.

You're welcome! I was at work and bored, so I decided I would do a little research project. I thought it was all pretty interesting. It's almost like artists have a bell curve with sales. It takes the first album or two for the audience to get to know them and they have a hit or two off each album. Then by albums 3-4 they either have multiple hit songs or a big monster hit that gives them a boost. Then it seems most have a hard time replicating the success after that.

As for wanting the trend to continue, it depends on which part of the trend you are talking about! For SWSRN, I would like to think maybe she would peak a little earlier than album #4. So, I would like to see SN sell less than Fearless and then her sales really start dropping off with the next album. But, her sales numbers today are almost like Shania numbers ten years ago with the digital age. So, the question is, is she a Shania or a Faith/Rascal Flatts? If she's a Shania (sales-wise), then we really don't know what her sales might be like for future albums. Oh, and just as a comparison, Shania's "The Woman in Me" also went 12x platinum. So, Shania stayed consistently above average with albums 2-4.

However, with Carrie, I would like to see the trend that happened with Faith/Rascal Flatts/Shania continue. Meaning, I would love to see her 4th album outperform Play On. I think she can do it if she picks the right material (cough, Oklahoma Wind, cough). If she doesn't change up her formula, I see her sales staying about the same or less for future albums. I think Miranda is also on the cusp of breaking through like Rascal Flatts did with their 3rd/4th albums. If she edges her music just a tad more mainstream without compromising her traditional country tones I think she'll have her biggest success with the next album. As much as I love Revolution, THTBM was the best song on it and she's already released it. It has helped sales, as well as her newfound recognition, but there isn't another song on the album that would continue the breakthrough on that album. I love HLM, but it isn't going to be the song that gets the masses to buy her album.

Edit: Looking at Wikipedia, Shania Twain's "Come on Over" has sold over 15 million copies in the US, so the certification is way above sales numbers on wiki. Also, with Up! it is confusing. It was sold as a double disc (country disc and pop disc), meaning every copy sold counted as 2 units. Wiki says there have been 14 million sold worldwide, so does that mean that in the US, even though it's certified 11x Platinum, that means 5.5 million copies shipped counted twice for the dual disc? If so, then Shania had a serious drop off in sales from her 3rd to 4th album, but then again she had such outrageously high sales, it's impossible to keep up! Also, Come On Over had 11 singles released and only 16 tracks! Can you believe that!

Edit #2: Just read on Wiki that HLM is the 5th and FINAL single from Revolution. Anyone know if that's true? If so, then I think sales from Revolution are about done.