Back in 2021-2022, Olivia came out with SOUR, a massive album that became a huge cultural phenomenon and made her a megastar pratically overnight. It quickly became one of the most streamed female albums of all time and gave her several massive hit singles. She seemed untouchable and people were quick to call her the new Taylor Swift. Everything was going right and her follow up album also seemed destined to do similar massive numbers.

 

Now, in 2023, GUTS came out and, while not a flop per say, the album is nowhere near as big as SOUR was and she's been overshadowed by Taylor herself who arguably had the biggest year in her career. Vampire, while a decent hit, was nowhere near as big as Driver's License and Good 4 You were. And none of the other GUTS singles really made any impact whatsoever.

 

So what happened exactly? Why did she went from "new Taylor Swift" to just another female artist who's more moderately successful, while several other female artists ended up massively overshadowing her? What went wrong? Discuss.

what happened:

 

she released an amazing successful album that was universally acclaimed, had a global #1 hit and already has a sold out worldwide arena tour with all its tracks being TOP 40 hits. The album is just slightly less successful than the previous one. So ******* what? Literally nothing happened outside of poor marketing compared to her debut. 

 

Olivia: releases an incredible album that’s a strong contender for 2023 AOTY that unsurprisingly doesn’t do as well commercially as her first album because the GP loves nothing more than to write every female singer off as a one hit/album wonder. 

 

Random ATRL user: “What happened?”

 

 

Edited October 29, 20232 yr by smoore95GAGA

Isn't Guts still in the top 10? 

You need to take your head out of Taylor's ass and see the reality.

it's funny because I was a complete OOH before guts dropped, and now I kind of don't mind her. The ballads on the album are all skips for me, but tracks like BIR and GHB are complete smashery. the era overall just felt like sour 2.0 though so it's not really surprising it was a decline. She should go further in the rock direction and release a grunge album next 

Edited October 29, 20232 yr by shookspeare

Guts has a number 1 Hit song, and the album is still top 10 today
 

 

We been knew the era was doomed when Bad Idea Right flopped

7 minutes ago, KatyPrismSpirit said:

The album is just slightly less successful than the previous one

We must be looking at same different stats. GUTS will not even end up with half of SOUR’s units or streams. It won’t even do 1/5 as many weeks top 10 as SOUR.

Okay. 

OP isn't wrong, the album is already on its way out of the top 10, they are handling the era so poorly as there isn't a song that has taken Vampire's torch since the release.

Just now, Gorjesspazze9 said:

and the album is still top 10 today

It has been 7 weeks? I would ******* hope so?  It is currently #10 and is guaranteed to not even make it to a measly 12 weeks. Mind you moderately successful pop girl albums like Renaissance or 30 did 14 weeks let alone Olivia’s MEGAAA smash of SOUR doing 55

 

 

OT: OP you won’t get the responses you should be getting in this thread. Randomly the stan world is vehemently against calling a spade a spade and recognizing GUTS as a MASSIVE underperformance. I think it may just be a lack of education on chart knowledge and getting blinded by shiny statistics like “#1 single!!1!1!1!”. In 3 years or so they’ll probably wake up and realize.

10 minutes ago, Enrique523 said:

So what happened exactly? Why did she went from "new Taylor Swift" to just another female artist who's more moderately successful, while several other female artists ended up massively overshadowing her? What went wrong? Discuss.

Sidenote but what are you even trying to convey here? Literally nobody said she is the “Next Taylor Swift” that is literally just something you made up. In fact, where did Taylor Swift see any of the success in her debut era that Olivia saw? Comparing them doesn’t make any logical sense as Olivia and Taylor make way different music. And who exactly is overshadowing her? She has her own lane of dedicated fans, hence why she can sell out a worldwide arena tour. Just because other female artists also have hits in 2023 does not mean that Olivia is being overlooked lol.

the GUTS promo is so weird. What's the single? is it get him back? why is she performing so bad on the radio? they should do something to keep the era going 

gosh you guys are annoying. what happened is she released an actually quality album with two BNTs from pitchfork, a 91 on metacritic and healthy album sales which clearly showed she has cemented her fanbase. stick to tracking radio-fueled dancepop songs which fail to create any impact in the real world or album sales if this is such a foreign concept

Do people expect Taylor to smash like Shake It Off everytime? or Ariana Grande with 7 Rings? No.

The album is still doing very good.

 

I know people here like it but Vampire ruin the era. It killed the hype big time. The only reason it was a hit is because she is Olivia

Also if you compare her and billie with someone like Dua they are super lazy as regards promo. The era is already abandoned

Just now, Digitalism said:

I know people here like it but Vampire ruin the era. It killed the hype big time. The only reason it was a hit is because she is Olivia

Also if you compare her and billie with someone like Dua they are super lazy as regards promo. The era is already abandoned

I don't know what else she could have done for promo. There's a strike going on so stuff like SNL weren't possible 

 

Apple id shoving down GHB down our throat already so I feel like she did all she could. She should probably wait for mid January and release a deluxe version with a new single and a new color.

She's in her Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie era. After a huge breakthrough era and a lot of hype, the lead single is big but everything after that doesn't seem to catch on.

 

That's okay though, not every album can be SOUR-sized.

Edited October 29, 20232 yr by blown away

There are 2 options I'm afraid:

 

1) her 15 mins were up

 

Or

 

2) The GP woke up

I think you are more worried about the album performance than she is. Her tour is shaping up to be super successful.

She needs a electro-dance-meet-rock song like Miley's See You Again next

The album doesn't have a strong enough uptempo to become the era's Good For You and carry it to prolonged smashery. Hence the second single fumble. That's all there really is to it, there's no think piece material here. The album still did well.

Nothing happened. And what should be happening is yall touching some grass instead of debating the same old topic of Olivia not living up for her debut and having a sophomore slump, which is completely irrelevant if you are actually attached to reality

Edited October 29, 20232 yr by GentleEarthquake