Artpop came to mind immediately.  The initial rollout of Anti was traumatic initially but at least the album was good.  I think Witness would have been worse, but too many of us were indifferent.  

1 hour ago, lcylcy said:

for being commercially successful?

that's what you want from an artist you like?

well we all can tell from its quality

Which bothers you more, the record breaking commercial success or the widespread critical acclaim? Or the fact that so many people wanted to see her tour the album that she broke Ticketmaster, made national headlines, and got the US government involved?

 

OT: Lover. The album itself ended up having some great tracks but the 1-2 pre-album single punch of ME! and YNTCD was absolutely traumatic.

joyride was… the lowest for everyone involved i think. the way the actual era lasted like 3 months? serving get it out the ******* door after the years of mess

Not sure if it counts as an era but Meghan's The Love Train/Treat Myself delay arc was super traumatic

ARTPOP

Traumatica

All I know is that I was personally in really bad places when Joanne and Chromatica dropped.  So I can't really listen to either without thinking of those times somewhat. Here's looking forward to LG7! 

 

But in general, 2013-2015/16ish seemed not to be great for anyone musically iirc.

 

1 hour ago, Ricardo1993 said:

lol theres no such thing as a traumatic ariana grande era. i'm talking about eras where pop girls were tormented relentlessly and became a punching bag for the GP.

Definitely Blackout then 

4/Artpop/Anti/Witness

 

4: Everything leaking. The albun going in a very different direction then most stans were expecting. Afro beats(fela inspired) and Edgy Pop. The constant floppage of the singles. The era ending early.

 

Artpop: Just mess all around.

 

Anti: The completely failed and protections set up. American Oxygen. Endless delays.

 

Witness: the huge potential from the snippets being wasted with terrible writing. The pretentious "purposeful pop" branding and lack of self awareness. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, lonnie said:

The one that sent fans on a wild goose hunt for locks in parks and cities for some videos that weren't even incorporated in the actual era?

Wait what was this?!

2 hours ago, Thinking Of You said:

Dangerous Woman.

 

The lack of management from the beginning, the TV ban, the underwhelming performance of the album and the singles as a result of both. Scooter came in at the end and saved the day, but then the tour happened. 

I disagree. "Focus" might have been an awkward false start, but even then it brought us one of Ariana's best music videos and performances, not the mention its underperformance was crucial in shifting the album's direction into what we eventually got.

 

"Dangerous Woman" was a bold choice for a lead single, but it paid off in terms of showcasing artistic evolution and maturity. The only messy thing about its rollout was the the fact we were promised a more exciting, story-driven music video following the lingerie beauty shots, but it never came about. "Be Alright" and "Let Me Love You" were great picks for promotional singles, and "Into You" mainly struggled because the pop landscape was moving towards a more minimalistic, moody sound (see The Weeknd and Max Martin's "In The Night" peaking at #12 that year despite strong promo efforts), but even then it had a respectable performance.

 

As someone who actively followed the era at the time alongside other Arianators, I genuinely have no idea about this TV ban you're talking about. Ariana got plenty of opportunities for promotion in 2016, from her killer SNL double duty appearance (which arguably played a key role in redeeming her image post donutgate), several late night show gigs, this gorgeous performance at the MTV Movie Awards, and even a duet with Christina Aguilera on The Voice. While Scooter might have used his resources and connections to boost "Side To Side" and make it even bigger than it already was, Ariana didn't need any saving. I'm glad her professional relationship with him seems to be at a better place compared to when she first chose to part ways, but it's disingenuous to claim she was struggling without him.

 

 

1 hour ago, Ricardo1993 said:

lol theres no such thing as a traumatic ariana grande era. i'm talking about eras where pop girls were tormented relentlessly and became a punching bag for the GP.

Agreed. There were moments which were traumatic and/or upsetting for fans and casual followers, but they never affected the album rollout, and with the exception of donutgate, the GP was extremely supportive and empathetic of what she was going through.

 

OT: Not really an album era, but I think the infamous late 2014-2017 period between "Me. I Am Mariah..." and "Caution" (also known as the Stella years) were far more traumatic for Lambs than "Glitter" or "Charmbracelet". Tragic megaviral performances, unflattering outfits showing excessive cleavage at the most bizarre of occasions, her team enabling her unhealthy drinking habits only to later use them against her through humiliating photos and videos, plus the overall low class trashiness of the era, down to Mariah having her own reality show.

 

It was rough... 

19 minutes ago, IAmJustAKnee said:

Wait what was this?!

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a13291/rihanna-antidiary-secret-fan-mission/

 

An example of the mess. Basically certain fans in certain cities would go on secret missions to find clues about the upcoming Rihanna era (we didn't even know it was to be called Anti) and it was just strange and weird I don't think I ever saw something like that before or after. Rih's team and Samsung tried to have a cryptic fan experience but it just turned out to be confusing. The worst part is that the Antidiary visuals were some of the best Rihanna has ever made but they didn't even go to the era, and what's more a single like Love On The Brain didn't even get a visual. The beginnings of the Anti era were just shaky and frustrating. From those cryptic missions to the droplets to the album leak that brought the infamous 460.

3 minutes ago, Moonlight Nation said:

The only messy thing about its rollout was the the fact we were promised a more exciting, story-driven music video following the lingerie beauty shots, but it never came about. "Be Alright" and "Let Me Love You" were great picks for promotional singles, and "Into You" mainly struggled because the pop landscape was moving towards a more minimalistic, moody sound (see The Weeknd and Max Martin's "In The Night" peaking at #12 that year despite strong promo efforts), but even then it had a respectable performance.

 

As someone who actively followed the era at the time alongside other Arianators, I genuinely have no idea about this TV ban you're talking about. Ariana got plenty of opportunities for promotion in 2016, from her killer SNL double duty appearance (which arguably played a key role in redeeming her image post donutgate), several late night show gigs, this gorgeous performance at the MTV Movie Awards, and even a duet with Christina Aguilera on The Voice. While Scooter might have used his resources and connections to boost "Side To Side" and make it even bigger than it already was, Ariana didn't need any saving. I'm glad her professional relationship with him seems to be at a better place compared to when she first chose to part ways, but it's disingenuous to claim she was struggling without him.

The rollout was absolutely horrid. The entire album was streamed on Apple Radio way before the release. There was absolutely no point in doing this. Alison, her manager at the time, had no idea what exactly she was doing.
 

They released the Into You music video way too early, they never released the visuals to the title track or Be Alright despite filming them with The Astronauts, she couldn’t perform her music on national TV for months in the Summer because there was something contractual going on behind the scenes, her horrid attempt at using DJ Khaled as a marketing tactic for the album, the choice to release the album right along with Drake, her running to SoundCloud for additional streams for Into You by releasing unnecessary remixes, she was nowhere to be found in the public eye until September (she was too busy playing Pokémon n’ Go). Scooter definitely saved her. The rollout was an entire mess and she needed structure again. He gave that to her.

The Lover Era from ME's release all the way up to the album drop (and some bits beyond) was rough for sure. ME was a **** song that nobody liked, missed the top spot, really damaged Taylor's credibility, and then flopped into oblivion. Mayochella was also uniquely awful to experience because it wasn't entirely unfounded. Plus, Taylor traveling around the world to perform ME! on random TV shows in France, Germany, the UK, Japan, and China, so they could all hate it as much as we did in the US . YNTCD was a MESS and invited wayyyyyy too much controversy, and came with a few terrible performances of its own. Then the whole Scooter/masters thing came, and yeah Taylor had a decent amount of support from the GP, it was hard to be a stan through that era. Then The Archer where we all had to pretend that Humpty Dumpty lyrics were the most profound things we'd ever seen. The title track underperformed HARD (and she still didn't win that damn SOTY grammy). The tour got cancelled, and Taylor made the worst song on the album the fourth single, only to have it tank harder than literally any single she'd ever released, where we were celebrating weeks it made it onto the H100 in the first place  It was just one bump after another after another after another. 

 

Admittedly, some eras look like they were farrrrrr worse to experience, and Lover era was competently managed and quickly course corrected from, but it definitely knocked Taylor and her fans off their pedestal for a while. 

10 minutes ago, wastedpotential said:

The Lover Era from ME's release all the way up to the album drop (and some bits beyond) was rough for sure. ME was a **** song that nobody liked, missed the top spot, really damaged Taylor's credibility, and then flopped into oblivion. Mayochella was also uniquely awful to experience because it wasn't entirely unfounded. Plus, Taylor traveling around the world to perform ME! on random TV shows in France, Germany, the UK, Japan, and China, so they could all hate it as much as we did in the US . YNTCD was a MESS and invited wayyyyyy too much controversy, and came with a few terrible performances of its own. Then the whole Scooter/masters thing came, and yeah Taylor had a decent amount of support from the GP, it was hard to be a stan through that era. Then The Archer where we all had to pretend that Humpty Dumpty lyrics were the most profound things we'd ever seen. The title track underperformed HARD (and she still didn't win that damn SOTY grammy). The tour got cancelled, and Taylor made the worst song on the album the fourth single, only to have it tank harder than literally any single she'd ever released, where we were celebrating weeks it made it onto the H100 in the first place  It was just one bump after another after another after another. 

 

Admittedly, some eras look like they were farrrrrr worse to experience, and Lover era was competently managed and quickly course corrected from, but it definitely knocked Taylor and her fans off their pedestal for a while. 

I actually still like ME! and The Man but I know how unliked they are by the stanbase. The grocery store I work at only plays those two songs from Taylor everyday - mind you they have better Taylor options among the in-store audio network catalog but this store hasn't changed their loop since July. 

every bey era since IASF, in spit the commercial, critical and cultural success. Renaissance probably being the worst experience for fans so far.

Bionic, Artpop, and Witness. 

I mean, Mariah was involuntarily committed twice, sabotaged by her ex-husband, 9/11 happened, lost her record deal, and had her career completely fall apart during Glitter era.

 

Not sure what's more traumatic than that. 

14 hours ago, #Beautiful said:

Lotus. You just had to be there. Cancelled tour one year before. Two single album the previous era. Now a one single era with a terrible album, terrible looks, ZERO performances of said single. The constant shady behavior when asked about her own career and craft. That one reporter telling her Let There Be Love is gaining traction and asking when the video is coming out and her straight up talking about taking a trip to Japan. 2012 was complete misery for us fighters and then she vanished for years except for a few useless droplets like We Remain and American or whatever that song was. Telepathy slapped tho

The Say Something era was cute though. She also gave the gays everything they wanted by losing weight and collabing with Gaga. I remember ATRL collapsing when they performed at The Voice 

Edited December 5, 20223 yr by Jump

16 hours ago, Bicassie said:

Renaissance 

problematique

poster girl era/zara’s album limbo

About Last Night era/mabel’s album limbo

XCX World

 

Renaissance it's not a era, it's just a album

Bionic

Britney Jean

Smile

Anti Diary fiasco was super traumatic  thank god the music was good (once it came) and the era was successful because...

ASIB… Shallow song was everywhere and I hated it 

1 hour ago, Jump said:

The Say Something era was cute though. She also gave the gays everything they wanted by losing weight and collabing with Gaga. I remember ATRL collapsing when they performed at The Voice 

it all felt like crumbs though because it never led to another full on era :( liberation came way too late, although a great album, the era was late and a non event

ARTPOP  from the slayage of BTW to then checking the iTunes charts every 5 minutes because I was so paranoid that Applause would leave the top 20. Also with DWUW struggling to reach the top 30 on Australian iTunes for MONTHS  I still wake up screaming from dreaming…

19 hours ago, lcylcy said:

Midnights

the Swifties finally realize they can no longer defend Taylor's tragic lack of ability to write actual melodies

Midnights has been very traumatic indeed. This comment is the proof.