I believe that a song that is a mega-collab between 2 or more SMASH artists and seems like a smash on paper always results in an underperformance if not flat out bomb.

 

Here are some examples to support my hypothesis:

Spoiler

- Scream by Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson

- Me Against the Music by Britney Spears & Madonna
- End Game by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran & Future

- The entirety of Everything Is Love by Beyoncé & Jay-Z

- Power Is Power by The Weeknd, Travis Scott & SZA

- Celebration by DJ Khaled, Post Malone & Travis Scott

- Stuck With U by Ariana Grande & Justin Bieber

- One Right Now by Post Malone & The Weeknd

- K-pop by Travis Scott, Bad Bunny & The Weeknd

... among many others.

*to be clear the key component is both artists being extremely A-list/successful. A case like Kiss Me More by Doja Cat & SZA would not apply as neither of them were established guaranteed smashers at time of their release.

Do you agree? If so why is this the case?
Discuss.
 

 

Edited July 23, 20233 yr by Machete

Because majority of these songs are not that good at all.

It’s not always true 

 

look at Work, I Don’t Care, Perfect, Rain On Me, Telephone, Beautiful Liar, Side to Side

They almost always suck, the GP can see right through them and, many times, the different appeal of each artists ends up being a liability, not an advantage.

 

See: End Game. Taylor f/ Ed (in 2017) would smash. Taylor f/ Future, not as much, but it could do well with the right song. Taylor, Ed and Future? Who is the target audience for a song like that? All three millennial horse girls who stan DS2?

Edited July 23, 20233 yr by Virgos Groove

Nah, their are just as many counter examples

 

Rihanna + Eminem: love the way you lie, Monster

Rihanna + Drake: Multiple songs

Gaga + Beyonce: Telephone

Ariana + Justin Bieber: Stuck With You

 

 

its really boils down to the quality, if Ariana+Nicki serves song like side to side they smash, if they serves song like bed they underperform. 

An another big example:

 

 

 

Many of them are, some of them aren't. Just like many disappoint quality-wise and some of them don't.

Yup most times 3 big artist collabs = flop.

 

The fact that this song flopped is criminal

 

1 minute ago, Kayseri Mantisi said:

An another big example:

 

 

 

This should've just been Lorde with Post. In fact, I made my own edit where I omitted Khalid and SZA because they didn't quite deliver on the remix.

10 minutes ago, Machete said:

 

 

  Hide contents

- Power Is Power by The Weeknd, Travis Scott & SZA

What in the world is this I-....

This song is the perfect example. They all had hits in 2017/2018 but this song flopped!

Ariana and Travis being common denominators  sickoagb lost

It's not always the case but if the song isn't good than all the big names in the world won't make it a hit (at least if the GP don't consider it to be good).

Don’t Call Me Angel is another example

Rihanna & Shakira “Can’t remember to forget you”

 

Shawn Mendes & Justin Bieber “Monsters” 

not always but it does happen a lot

This isn’t the case for all mega collabs but I think one major reason they don’t always smash is because there tends to be a large fanbase overlap with some mega artists that collab with each other, so there ends up not being much of a new audience to capture. 

Edited July 24, 20233 yr by Quicksand

Stuck With U is far from a bomb. It’s literally about to cross a billion streams on Spotify 

The Britney and Madonna song was such a missed opportunity.  That song was ass. I wished they'd put more thought into putting out a better song.

9 hours ago, Machete said:

- Scream by Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson

This was a top five hit.

the true epic collabo:

 

 

 

#1 - Hungry

#2 - Iceland

#2 - Greece

#2 - Norway

#2 - Spain

#2 - Sweden

#2 - Switzerland

#4 - Belgium (W)

#4 - Italy

#4 - Netherlands

#4 - UK

#5 - Belgium (F)

#5 - France

#6 - Austria

#7 - Denmark

#7 - Ireland

#8 - Germany

#8 - New Zealand

#10 - Finland

#13 - Australia

#15 - USA

#18 - Poland

#20 - Canada

#45 - Japan

 

Certs:

1xP + 1xG - 1,500,000 - USA

1xG - 400,000 - UK
1xG - 250,000 - GER

1xG - 250,000 - France

1xP - 50,000 - Belgium

1xG - 35,000 - Australia

1xP - 30,000 - Sweden

1xG - 25,000 - Switzerland

1xP - 20,000 - Norway

In addition to the OP:

Maroon 5 and Rihanna - If I Never See Your Face Again

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran - The Joker and the Queen

Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes - Lover (Remix)

Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber - Monster

Rihanna and Shakira - Can't Remember to Forget You

Eminem and Ed Sheeran - River

Sam Smith and Demi Lovato - I'm Ready

Ariana, Miley and Lana - Don't Call Me Angel

Blackpink and Selena Gomez - Ice Cream

 

I know some of these were not sent to radio or were only promo singles, but still. I actually love all of these so sad that they didn't get much love on the charts. But huge collab does not really mean chart poison.

 

There are other huge songs from huge collaborations that did well:

Beyonce and Shakira - Beautiful Liar

Katy Perry and Kanye West - ET

Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar - Bad Blood

Ed Sheeran and Beyonce - Perfect

Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber - I Don't Care

Scream was a hit

most of these tanked because they suck

It most often just feels inorganic, GP sees through it

Yes and no

 

cause there's a tendancy to rely on the big names and not deliver

 

another example: Dont Call Me Angel

 

But SWU was made timeless, so it ended doing well in the end especially in Asia. Iirc SWU debuted with really good callouts as well on pop radio, it was literally just an attempt at a back-to-back #1 for Ariana so they didnt push it beyond week 1