Which albums had a shaky start but smashed in the long run?

 

An example would be Bday which initially lacked a megahit but had insane longevity and eventually sold 15.2m WW, with classics like Irreplaceable and Beautiful Liar.

dangerous woman

lover

die with a smile

the emancipation of mimi

anti

Edited September 22, 2025Sep 22 by Sailor Moon

Lover 

I'm Not Dead

In The Zone (In US)

The Emancipation Of Mimi

 

Edited September 22, 2025Sep 22 by UnusualBoy

Came to say I'm Not Dead

'The Rise And Fall Of A Midwestern Princess' was pretty much a khia 4digays mamasgirl album until like 2024

Edited September 22, 2025Sep 22 by AshleyLovescats887

SOS - SZA is the prime example of this. That period of 2020-2022 was so messy. Who else remembers the endless begging for "Shirt" to come out just for it to be completely forgotten about in the context of the album. 

 

 

4 

 

not everyone can turn songs that peaked outside the top 20/30 into 7x platinum signature tracks 

Lizzo's Special. She worked hard to make About Damn Time to go viral, after initially flopping. People were ready to write her off, but it was a decent follow up to Cuz I Love You and she won Record of the Year 

Camila 

 

crying in the club - I have questions - album called the hurting the healing the loving 

 

27 minutes ago, Sailor Moon said:

the emancipation of mimi

21 minutes ago, UnusualBoy said:

The Emancipation Of Mimi

Emancipation had the highest first-week sales of any Mariah album and didn't drop below 100k even before WBT started smashing  

 

OT: Anti by Rihanna, I'm Not Dead by P!nk, Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish

31 minutes ago, Sailor Moon said:

dangerous woman

lover

die with a smile

the emancipation of mimi

anti

God anti's release was a ******* mess. 

The Fame. Just Dance debuted at #76 on H100. The album debuted at #17 with 24k copies first week.   

Melanie C with Northern Star. Her first two singles reached top 5 in the UK but the smashes (Never Be The Same Again and I Turn To You) came later.

I would say Christina Aguilera's Stripped (2002) started off a bit shaky, considering the reception of "Dirrty", but subsequent single releases did help progress the era to the success we know it had.

Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism

 

Shaky first 2 years but the revival is coming, see you all in January

'I Am Sasha Fierce' outside the USA. It debuted with like 30K in the UK which was insanely low for Beyonce, even though she had the #1 hit If I Were a Boy

 

eventually became her best-selling album in most places

What You Waiting For bombed but L.A.M.B. was a megahit album both in sales and hits.

The Fame debuted at #17 and just dance took 5

months to reach the top 

I don't think eras like 4 and Happier Than Ever really fit this discussion because there was never a clear turning point where they became massive. They were just a bit lukewarm at the time, and that's fine. They're more like underperforming eras that still don't count as flops, because the artist's stature and fanbase make it almost impossible for them to truly flop.

 

Eras that started shaky but eventually took off for me: Anti, Lover, Mayhem, I'm Not Dead, Oral Fixation. Also I've heard Butterfly also had a slow start.

Anti and Dangerous Woman

 

I think The Fame is nothing of the sort though. It was her debut era and she wasn't known before the era like Olivia Rodrigo for example who was an actress. Debuting at #17 is super impressive.

Janet's Rhythm Nation album as people thought the Control era smashing was just a fluke and she wouldn't be able to replicate it. Per wiki below, the album debuted at #28 first week!

 

Quote

The album debuted at number twenty-eight on the Billboard 200 and eighty-seven on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums

 

And also The Velvet Rope era where the lead single Got 'Til It's Gone was flopping on US radio (it peaked at #36, possibly due to the new unfamiliar alt-rnb sound it was introducing at the time) which made the label withhold a commercial release of the single in the US, and they quickly pivoted to Together Again. The rest is then history 

Loose initially had a shaky start in parts of Europe and USA - iirc in the US it went as low as #92 in the first 4 months of charting, in Europe it was going out of the top 50 at one point but in 2007 after "Say It Right" and "All Good Things" it gave a new life to the album

 

 

Jessica Simpson's "In This Skin" in the US 

 

It debuted at #10 and almost exited the Billboard 200 a few months later but after "Newlyweds" and "WIth You" smashing on pop radio it eventually re-peaked at #2 and sold 3 million which was on par with Ashlee, Avril and Britney sold in 2004 as well