American Life is my favorite Madonna album, but honestly it never felt really commercial to begin with and we got COADF afterwards anyway...

 

Vote goes for Janet's Discipline. It's far from perfect, but it deserved to do better and Feedback is still that song. 

unliek the rest of the flops you named 30 was actually a smash era purely looking at its stats, i really dont see why you ATRLers keep pushing the narrative that it's in the realm with albums that havent even move half of its units.

 

To improve the era tho, she would have to actually promote the record. I think when Vegas/post-holidy slump hit her team didnt kick into gear hard enough. OMG could have had more of a push, at least on the global scale, and IDW should have had a radio edit and been pumped the moment OmG left the US charts. It would have worked as a single imo. Once the Vegas mess began, it would have been smart to undergo a bit more transparency and done some TV appearances or at least engaged with the fans as much as possible whether through performing or interviews or any other creative way. 30's issue is that the old rollout Adele is used to just doesnt work anymore in the streaming age unless you have a strong, consistent fanbase and even then one needs to adapt. Nonetheless, it was the best-selling album of 2021, earned several awards and spawned the second biggest hit by a female artist this decade despite fierce competition from acts more in tune with todays music and some half her age.

2 hours ago, Taylor fanboy said:

ARTPOP - Lady Gaga

This 

Artpop

 

lead: Do What U Want (feat. Justin Timberlake or The Weeknd) 

2nd single: Applause

3rd single: Sexxx Dreams 

4th single: Manicure or G.U.Y. (Probs would’ve flopped but who cares) 

 

the first three are all legit smashes if handled right. The album just needed all the weird antics being ditched and no tragic 2nd single roll out like what happens  

3 hours ago, Taylor fanboy said:

A reverse “delete one era…” thread which is currently popular. 

 

Justify your answers based on the quality, and effort by the ladies BELOW:

 

Charmbracelet - Mariah

American Life - Madonna

evermore - Taylor Swift

Music On The Sun - Rihanna

ARTPOP - Lady Gaga

Yours Truly - Ariana Grande

Witness - Katy Perry

4 - Beyoncé

Discipline - Janet Jackson

Glory - Britney Spears

Honeymoon - Lana Del Rey

Solar Power - Lorde

Younger Now - Miley Cyrus

30 - Adele

Hurts 2B Human - P!nk

Goodbye Lullaby - Avril

Queen - Nicki Minaj

Goodbye Lullaby: WTH and WYWH deserved top 5. Should have been released ”I Love You” and “Everybody Hurts” as single instead of Smile. 

 

4: Love on Top deserved Top 10 at least. It’s one of her best song ever. The rest I don’t care. 

 

ARTPOP: Applause should have been released before Roar it will sure debuted at Top 3 or even went number 1, and her second single should have stayed with Venus it would have still flopped but at least it’s not messy release like DWUW, Promo singles Aura/DWUW, then 3rd single Sexxx Dreams featuring Rihanna for cute Top 10 hit peak, then close the era with Gypsy or ARTPOP as the final single. 
 

Witness: I don’t know why it flopped hard, music wise, the single choices were perfect for that album and CTTR and Bon Appetite are one of my fav song from Katy. Swish Swish is too meme’d MV, wise and aged like milk. 

Evermore is the best album on the list by a mile, Taylor's best studio album, and the immediate successor to another blockbuster era. If she'd simply bothered to try, it could have been huge. It's still showing great longevity, and of course it will move millions of units in the end just because it's a Taylor Swift album, but it has more potential than that. After Willow, she could have put energy into songs like Coney Island, or RWYLM, or Ivy, or Cowboy Like Me - anything. She could have waited to release it until CDs were ready to ship so it's debut week wasn't completely tragic. So many things could have gone better.

 

And yet, neglected as it was, it was still in the top 5 on the year end BB200, #1 for its year-end charts in pure sales, and helped prepare her for eventually smashing hard with Midnights.

 

I think it deserves better.

4. It's Bey's best album, the best among this list and she was clearly very passionate about it. Didn't deserve what it got.

 

That or Discipline by Janet. Sure it's a bad album, but she lost her drive after her career got almost entirely erased in '04 and disappeared for years after Discipline. If it were a smash album it might've returned the spark she lost and given us a few more albums between then and now.

Only one of these would've made a marked difference on pop had it smashed...