Their first album, the music you could take seriously, it was something with depth. Kinda the 2nd album as well, but as their image and sound continue to progress we are lead to this… 

 

 

why such a drastic change from the first era to now? Is it trend hopping to get a hit. No tea no shade, their old material was just better. 

charts not the arts

They got their biggest hit with Unholy though so it paid off

Desperation once the hits stopped being easy. Unholy was a big pivot for them in this direction, though, since most of the music they've put out in the past few years like Diamonds has been decent (if one pretends I'm Ready doesn't exist)

Their original sound and image is timeless. It will look and sound fresh for decades to come. 
 

The new direction, not so much. 
 

Y’all complain when artists don’t evolve then when they do you complain……Which one is it?

If this was Shawn Mendes doing doing this yall would be thirsting over it

 

Edited January 8, 20233 yr by Josh

They are being true to themselves. Maybe its a phase, maybe it isn’t. No one is beholden to a version of themselves at age X.  

Honestly, I like that he's experimenting and doing something unpredictable as an artist. No, Sam is more than fine considering they are having the time of their career with "Unholy".

they should have saved this for when they turn like 45 tbh, because like they are still young and talented and sellable and didn’t need to go this route.

 

just imagine what they will need to do for their next era, eek

35 minutes ago, wastedpotential said:

Desperation once the hits stopped being easy. 

What? Dancing With A Stranger was a jump into more queer-tinged music they wanted to do and a massive hit. Once they got a solid foundation, it's clear they started having more confidence in theirself. See: Following up DWAS' video that basically obscured their sexuality with How Do You Sleep featuring them like never before.

 

If anything, the underperformance of I'm Ready saw the label force them into a more heteronoramtive and cisnormative marketing with the To Die For concept scraped for the vanilla'd Love Goes, and it would have been easy to continue down that path, especially with the "course correction" of Diamonds doing well. 

 

It's just silly to try and ignore how this person's image - and the acclaim that came with the 'seriousness' of it - was rooted in cisheteronormative ideas and closeting. 

 

It's no different than Olly from Years & Years having to basically be de-facto closeted when the band first started and now being overly flamboyant. If it's not someone taste, that's totally fine, but it's silly to act like as though queer people embracing forms of gender expression that cishet people generally don't accept is in anyway to garner success when so often doing so is a risk to their success to be openly queer. 

ATRL spent years calling Sam boring until now Sam is called desperate for attention, y’all’s internalized homophobia is not cute  

Edited January 8, 20233 yr by Yog

20 minutes ago, Ger-55 said:

Honestly, I like that he's experimenting and doing something unpredictable as an artist. No, Sam is more than fine considering they are having the time of their career with "Unholy".

I agree, this era could be interesting musically, there will be enough time if they want to be “classical” again (if the they want to ofc)  

@Communion coming thru with the facts per usual 

2 minutes ago, DanMex said:

I agree, this era could be interesting musically, there will be enough time if they want to be “classical” again (if the they want to ofc)  

Good luck with that, because “Love Me More” MV basically symbolized that NEVER gonna happen..

Sam got multiple hits and a fat bank account + they had one of their biggest hits just now, so... why care for what people think?

 

It's working for them and they're also living their truth. I like Sam so much more now than before

1 minute ago, Thelightiscumin said:

Yeah the rest of his album won’t do well compared to unholy that’s the thing when you rely on gimmicks 

“Gimmicks” in what way? 

Just now, Yog said:

“Gimmicks” in what way? 

Unholy used controversy to sell 

4 minutes ago, Thelightiscumin said:

Unholy used controversy to sell 

No… intentional controversy would be Lil Nas very effective Satan Shoes, compared to the general public getting angry of Sam embracing their queer identity, so no it’s not controversy at all…

Edited January 8, 20233 yr by Yog

11 minutes ago, Thelightiscumin said:

Unholy used controversy to sell 

what controversy? sam being fat?

2 minutes ago, Karla Cabello said:

what controversy? sam being fat?

No, the lyrics are kind of controversial. 

1Yall from day one have hating on this person and the GP has shown love to them. Let's not act like now yall looking for an excuse for the GP not to like them when they are living their best life now and the GP is clearly here for it considering Unholy.

 

I've been here since 2014 around when he was finishing his first era.

 

Ya never liked them that era ( I remembered the disclosure here was he sounded whiny and like a goat)

 

Ya never liked them when they got skinny. 

 

Ya never liked his Love Goes era 

 

Ya don't like them now.

 

Yet the GP has said otherwise. And im not the biggest SS fan but damn ATRL be some hating gays when their own are successful

 

7 minutes ago, Thelightiscumin said:

No, the lyrics are kind of controversial. 

A man cheating on his wife is controversial now? Since when?

No. Sam is experimenting and being their authentic self. Some of it might a little out there, but it's not all going to be perfect and work. 

The current image might not be to everyone's taste, but they're enjoying themself and their success so who cares 

 

And to put things into perspective, I remember Sam sharing on a podcast years ago that they used to wear more feminine clothing, but stopped after getting punched in the neck right on the streets of London (this was before they got famous). So the "cleaner" image & sound of the first era was likely the result of that incident.

 

To breakaway from all those heteronormative standards and live your trueself, while still enjoying tremendous success, is one heck of an achievement I think