base talk How much bigger would Beyonce be had she never stopped chasing the charts?

[MingYouToo]

A fascinating topic that always gets brought up here and there is Beyonce's refusal to play the game post-4 era. And it has always showed, Self Titled, Lemonade, Rennaisance, all respectable eras, but clearly eras that had way too much momentum and juice left to rot and dry away. 

 

The double lead singles of ST, no promo for subsequent singles, Formation kept off of streaming, ignoring Sorry and Hold Up, not giving BMS and Cuff It videos, she is the queen of sabotage. 

 

However, in another world where B never stopped her hunger for commercial success, where do you think she'd be now?

 

Tbh, had Renaissance been a bigger era with full visuals I don't doubt she'd take home AOTY. BMS video, Cuff It full push, Radio Edit of Virgo's Groove, Heated, etc. so many wasted songs for hits!

 

Honestly if she was very driven to commercially succeed for ST, LMND and REN I think we'd be seeing way more #1 hits, Hold Up global Top 10, Cuff It #1 in major markets additional 2M to every album, her works deserve it all!!!

[Kuntmonster]

She does chase the charts. Just because she doesn’t do traditional TV performance promo etc doesn’t mean she doesn’t promote the album - she has released 4 singles, remixes with hot rappers like Kendrick Lemar, has promoted it with a worldwide tour, has promoted it on social media, BMS was very radio fuelled, and so on.
 

I don’t mean to be rude but the quality just isn’t there for it to have done any better than it has  

Edited October 1, 2023 by Kuntmonster

[Axelios]

She still does. She just changed her marketing strategy after the failure of 4. She even used fraud for her Tidal streaming numbers for Lemonade.

More recently BMS had huge playlisting and multiformat radio deals but the GP just said "NO".

Edited October 1, 2023 by Axelios

[Funnyfatty]

She is chasing the charts but in a more embarrassing way. Looking like she cares for the charts looks cringe so she acts as if she doesn’t care. Those fake tidal streams and all that tiktok payola + radio payola for the regressionance album was all there. 

[Antisocialites]

the fumes already

 

 

[Hephaestus]

The wild takes already. Some of y'all really live in a different reality 

 

To answer the question, she'd be huge huge. Probably close to Taylor's current level of domination, if not at the same level. The demand is absolutely there, she just needs to give people more than just crumbs.

[Solaria]

24 minutes ago, Axelios said:

She still does. She just changed her marketing strategy after the failure of 4. She even used fraud for her Tidal streaming numbers for Lemonade.

More recently BMS had huge playlisting and multiformat radio deals but the GP just said "NO".

Yes because a single that went No.1 25 years into someone’s career is the GP saying NO!  It also peaked at No.2 on streaming so it’s streaming stats were good, it just didnt have a lot of longevity because Cuff It came in like a force

[Ja_making]

Beyoncé has remained culturally relevant and become the icon she is BECAUSE she stopped chasing charts. If she continued making radio-friendly, bubblegum hits like Single Ladies and IASF, she would be irrelevant.

 

There’s a reason why she has outlasted most of her peers. Cultural currency matters more than anything. 

[Armani?]

I don't think she would longterm, especially during that EDM era. 

[Axelios]

2 minutes ago, Love Again said:

Yes because a single that went No.1 25 years into someone’s career is the GP saying NO!  It also peaked at No.2 on streaming so it’s streaming stats were good, it just didnt have a lot of longevity because Cuff It came in like a force

She has a decently big fanbase in the US which still allow her to have good peaks in the US especially with remixes.

BMS had horrible callouts so it collapsed on radio after album release. Neither BMS nor Cuff It had good streaming longevity.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Axelios

[Axelios]

5 minutes ago, Hephaestus said:

To answer the question, she'd be huge huge. Probably close to Taylor's current level of domination, if not at the same level. The demand is absolutely there, she just needs to give people more than just crumbs.

Beyonce was already not as big as Taylor even in the late 2000s at her peak and when she was promoting a lot with Fearless being bigger Sasha. How can you expect to be as big today when Taylor commercial consistency is compeletely unmatched among female artsists.

[Baby Boy]

She didn’t stop chasing them on purpose. Radio dropped her with 4 so she changed gears and focused on albums & touring. Worked well for her. She still does from time to time. BMS obviously had a huge radio deal. & every track from Lemonade was sent to radio simultaneously. 

[byzantium]

She would probably have 30-40% more streams, but her tours would gross about 30-40% less.  So it’s hard to say what would happen in this “what if” scenario. 

[BnPac]

In terms of numbers, much bigger. And frankly even Renaissance well handled could have been a bigger success.

 

Lemonade, ST with a well-oiled machine would have rivaled IASF ww. She does only care about initial push : first week or couple of weeks then she dips.

 

She pivoted after 4 and shifted her focus but I think she could have had the best of both words if things were better handled. In the end, she’s still The Beyoncé, so I guess that’s enough.

Edited October 1, 2023 by BnPac

[blueberries]

She never stopped 

[Otter]

50 minutes ago, Kuntmonster said:

She does chase the charts. Just because she doesn’t do traditional TV performance promo etc doesn’t mean she doesn’t promote the album - she has released 4 singles, remixes with hot rappers like Kendrick Lemar, has promoted it with a worldwide tour, has promoted it on social media, BMS was very radio fuelled, and so on.
 

I don’t mean to be rude but the quality just isn’t there for it to have done any better than it has  

She released 2 singles and not in any active way promoted either of them... on the scale of promo where artists attend award shows, give live performances, release videos, interact with fans, go on talk shows, releasing singles to radio, she's doing about a 3/10....

 

You have to be blind to miss the point.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Otter

[Otter]

5 minutes ago, byzantium said:

She would probably have 30-40% more streams, but her tours would gross about 30-40% less.  So it’s hard to say what would happen in this “what if” scenario. 

You think having music videos, more singles and a few live performances online would decrease the tour revenue by 30-40% 

[By the Water]

The Renaissance singles had plenty of airplay and playlisting as well as multiple remixes. Music videos and televised performances are a thing of the past

[BnPac]

4 minutes ago, Otter said:

You think having music videos, more singles and a few live performances online would decrease the tour revenue by 30-40% 

Like the correlation is 0. 
They just camp in all B’s threads uttering hateful nonsense.

[Polgg48]

she always does

 

[liquiddiamonds]

I don’t think so and I love LOVE Bey. Having Lemonade off of Spotify boosted its pure sales, so we would have an exchange in the numbers and not an extra if it were there since its first week (same goes for other albums that were temporarily unavailable there). ST had a surprise release at a at the time weird day, but it was very in tune with trends in R&B and Hip Hop and it was a massive moment for her. Can’t think of a moment Bey felt bigger as a name, unless you’re european. 
 

I think Bey only skipped the dance music trend because that’s not what she is. That EDM craze had little to do with dance music as originated by black people (which she showcased in Rena), and she stuck with what she’s good at and passionate about and it payed off long term, because urban music came stronger than ever once EDM died down. She skipped a trend, but she was very in tune with what was popping in black circles. She just waited for white america to catch up, instead of doing dance music and get discarded by them

Edited October 1, 2023 by liquiddiamonds

[Peak Now]

Considering Break My Soul, a track in the dance genre which US audiences infamously aren't that friendly to, went #1 20 years into her career, I don't think her promo was that bad?

[Laura Palmer]

It wouldn’t make a difference. She doesn’t need the charts. 

[Digitalism]

Oh so the fake tidal numbers were not about chasing the charts?

[Great808]

Someone that forced their way onto several shameless remixes just to have a hit in some sort of way with their named attached to it is very much chasing chart success.