So we all know about the 4th album curse, but this is a new one

 

 

there is an interesting thread on twitter about it

Spoiler

 

 

 

Have yall heard about it?
What are some examples?

 

 

 

 

Isn't Lover like one of Taylor's biggest selling now?

Femme Fatale broke the curse!

 

3 minutes ago, Heldenzeit said:

Isn't Lover like one of Taylor's biggest selling now?

It’s still in the top 10 and above Midnights.

 

7th album “curse” isn’t nearly as detrimental to a person’s career as a sophomore slump or the 4th album curse. If you’ve had 6 previously successful albums you’re much more likely to get back on your feet soon (or live off the success of those prior albums)

Avril Lavigne had a 5th and 6th album curse, but managed to break free of Samara’s hold with Love Sux as that was a return to form. 
 

Well since Glitter is technically a soundtrack, by that metric Merry Christmas would have to be included as well. So I'm claiming Mariah's 7th studio album as the clusterfuck that is Rainbow. 

And what about Ray of Light

Also Lover being included in this list. Didn’t it sell more than Rep and the folk albums

the way Glitter and Lotus arent even their seventh albums

I'd say Glitter was the only one genuinely cursed here. The PR disaster that resulted from her team change, people not really checking for the movie (sorry lambs) and the 9/11 release date were just really unfortunate things. Lotus flopped because Xtina's team didn't try hard enough to pick up the pieces after Bionic. From an actual quality point of view Lotus is a sonic downgrade from Bionic.  And people had probably switched off a bit at that time. Lover's singles were some of her worst too. The album has some nice tracks but it was also a result of a dip in quality.

 

Time will tell with Ariana, but the remix is giving yes, and? a bit of a resurgence (potentially back to the top 10 this coming week) and her fans will be dedicated enough to buy and stream on release day that I doubt it'll miss #1. She released six albums between 13-20 (nearly an album a year) and dipped in and out of features so this has been her first prolonged break from music and it's just not the comeback maybe her fans expected, but right now I'm not quite seeing this AG7 era as a flop or as cursed.

Edited February 20, 20242 yr by Jack!

Id actually argue that the 7th album can be the opportunity for a repeak era for female artists. Just look at Unapologetic, Ray of Light, Lover, RENAISSANCE. After these albums these women all reached new heights. All for You was a massive era for Janet too with many hits. Two #1 hits on that album

Edited February 20, 20242 yr by KatyPrismSpirit

i noticed women experience an underperform during their 4th album, men with their 5th album.

 

Lover turned out well.

Rihanna did well.

Beyoncé did well. 

Janet did well too.

Ariana will prob do well.

Gaga and Katy idk 

Madonna wouldn't know about this - she had a 7th album blessing with Ray of Light 

3 minutes ago, Devin said:

i noticed women experience an underperform during their 4th album, men with their 5th album.

 

Lover turned out well.

Rihanna did well.

Beyoncé did well. 

Janet did well too.

Ariana will prob do well.

Gaga and Katy idk 

Gaga and Katy dont have 7th albums yet

11 minutes ago, B-Luke said:

Femme Fatale broke the curse!

 

I mean yeah, it’s a great album where every song could have been a single and every single was very successful + SM remix that went #1 too. Love it. 

Lover got the last laugh, though 

2 minutes ago, KatyPrismSpirit said:

Gaga and Katy dont have 7th albums yet

which why i said idk i.e. how they would turn out. 

I wouldn’t really call Lotus an example of this either, because even tho it did flop and was her worst album, Bionic had already started the downward trend.

Wow so this means there’s another curse Madonna skipped

 

Sophomore curse - Like A Virgin mega smashed 

 

4th album curse - Like A Prayer mega smashed 

 

7th album curse - Ray of Light mega smashed 

 

It’s more like a typical time period of decline for artist 

 

It less 4 albums and more like 10 years and by the time 7th comes around it’s gonna be another ten years 

 

Also not every albums I gonna do smash numbers consecutively. This Ari album is gonna go platinum at the end. No comment on Lotus tho

Tbh you can make a theory about every album flopping after the first one, there's the sophomore slump, the 3rd album curse and then there's tons of 4th albums that flopped, 5th albums that flopped, 6th albums that flopped, etc. 

But Xtina had the sixth album curse with Bionic 

Spoiler

The seventh with Lotus 

Spoiler

The eight with Liberation 

Spoiler

And also the ninth with Aguilera 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 20242 yr by alexrex

we also have to consider how we judge the release schedule for older artists because for someone like Mariah she had

debut - emotions - live album - music box - christmas album - daydream - butterfly - gh album - rainbow - glitter

 

that's 10 albums and even if you only count the studio albums, glitter is a soundtrack so it can't really be considered in this "7th album curse"

The Lover sneak 

Glitter technically is Mariah's 8th if you count the Christmas album (which should be counted since it birthed All I Want).

Lotus was a little bit of a flop but Bionic didn't do great either.

Lover is still a huge success - it currently has a single in the top 10.

Eternal Sunshine is doing alright so far.

Femme Fatale, Ray Of Light, Rainbow (Mimi's actual #7), Light Years, Sale El Sol even all did well.

oral fixation volume 2 was almost a complete disaster if it wasnt for hips dont lie