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Why Kylie's Aphrodite failed
Topic Started: Oct 5 2011, 08:46 AM (895 Views)
johnnox
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Ok, so I was asked to write a piece about the commercial failure of Kylie's Aphrodite album.

I'd love to know what you guys think of it.....

LINK HERE
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thesmu
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I think a combination of marketing and music. Aphrodite is by no means a *bad* album but it's nowhere near as good as All The Lovers sugested it would be. Also ATL aside the videos and promo have been bog standard 'Kylie on a chair with some neon' efforts, plus as she said herself a slightly antiquated approach to releases etc..

But I also agree with the chap who commented on the article that it's a slight over dramatisation. There is still a huge love for Kylie but it's been a loooooong time since she was an album artist.

I think she's headed towards Vegas Cher-land but in Kylie's case that's no bad thing, and I don't mean it as an insult. For many artists it would be a depressing kerrching step down to become a greatest hits Vegas type but Kylie is at her absolute best when she's singing fun songs with a big feather headress on to a bunch of queens and somehow SOMEHOW still managing to make it look classy. She's an old fashioned showgirl (no pun intended) IMO but that's not going to set the charts on fire forever.

I say all this with love by the way ;)
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johnnox
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I think it was her best and most consistent album album since Light Years.
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TheBitterEnd
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I think the album was terribly produced. Horrid vocal production almost throughout. It was almost a weekend project that Stuart sneezed out.

But why did it flop commercially? There could be oodles of reasons.... one of them being that Kylie was an artist of a decade ago. The 'pop-dance' market has moved to a seemingly increasing younger audience, bubblegum pop or urban-infused pop/dance rules the airwaves. Pop-lite from a 40 something year old star does not.

Kylie simply doesn't have the oomph to take on the airwaves and never has. Can't Get You Out of my Head was not hugely success simply because it was Kylie. Right place, right time, the song having just that 'something' are factors there.

A very, very average lead single was also inevitably a factor in the initial sales and continued drive of the album. Followed by the terrible sales of two follow up singles it was evident that noone really cared.

Re the article.... Kylie needs to find her Ray of Light? Maybe she could if she was remotely involved or interested as Madonna is/was. She simply doesn't have the presence or the talent to make such a move. The nearest Kylie will get is Impossible Princess and that's an overhyped (by fans) and very patchy album at best.
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Glamorama
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She was 42?

It was generic Kylie - pleasant enough, but inadequate in the era of Gaga?

Dannii was still on X Factor, so for the 1st time ever was the more newsworthy Minogue?

She was in the US doing a tour for the gays, when she should have been doing promotion here?
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Riverwide
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TheBitterEnd
Oct 5 2011, 05:24 PM
The nearest Kylie will get is Impossible Princess and that's an overhyped (by fans) and very patchy album at best.
YES!
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Riverwide
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Barring the blip of CGYOOMH, she hasn't been a big seller since her first couple of albums. Those first couple of albums were massive, especially in the UK, but the sales of almost all of her other albums are shockingly poor to average.
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FuckBuddy
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u do state some pretty valid points there, john

i think the main problem with aphrodite was that, although a cohesive set of songs, the songs themselves just weren't good enough. personlly speaking, after my excitement over new kylie material worn off - and that happened within a forthnight afer the first listening - i had a difficulty predicting which the obvious singles could be. this was a worrying factor cause, as much as we know kylie is not primarily an album act, the soon-to-be-killer singles were always instantly detected. as a matter of fact, there's always been a couple-or even more- album tracks that could work as singles, too. in the case of aphrodite, all the lovers was followed by chaos. get outta my way was a killer single only released a decade too late, the latter singles flirted with pop music included in in hotel elevators playlists and retro stock aitken waterman compilations

stuart price did abad job producing it, but i think the whole project was a mess before he got on board. all the lovers as a lead single was glorious, she and her label should be thanking their luck for it because it sold the album alone, if it wasn't for it she would have faced a flop of mega proportions.

kylie team judged wrong when assuming x was a step to the wrong direction. its best tracks + some of its leftovers indicate a great pop album could have surfaced out of those recordings, only whoever responsible mixed up everything, leading to a total mess. still, x is a much better album than aphrodite.

i do think the problem with kylie is taking too much of a consideration of her fanbase likings + attempting to revisit past formulas/glories. fever in 2001 was hip for all demographics, aphrodite in 2011 is just plain gay and not in a good way. she cannot reconnect with the mainstream anymore, yet she's still in the position to enthuse the club/dance community cause they still remember her as a force. she needs to take some risks, the stragedy of releasing music that ticks as many available boxes as possible clearly ain't working no more
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Glamorama
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She doesn't really give a shit about her pop career anymore?

(This is my favourite theory. I think she should sit back, enjoy her millions, and try to engineer an affair with Dannii's HOT man.)
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Glamorama
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Riverwide
Oct 5 2011, 11:21 PM
Barring the blip of CGYOOMH, she hasn't been a big seller since her first couple of albums. Those first couple of albums were massive, especially in the UK, but the sales of almost all of her other albums are shockingly poor to average.
Not true, ALL her albums (except Impossible Dannii) have gone at least platinum, in the UK Her sales over a 23 year career have been damned impressive
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FuckBuddy
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Riverwide
Oct 5 2011, 11:21 PM
Barring the blip of CGYOOMH, she hasn't been a big seller since her first couple of albums. Those first couple of albums were massive, especially in the UK, but the sales of almost all of her other albums are shockingly poor to average.
her album sales have been mostly poor during the 90s, but the parlophone releases in the past decade have sold in healthy numbers. did anyone really expect she could evolve to this multi platinum, million selling album act in the uk or elsewhere? even the fact aphrodite sold 300k on the back of one hit single is pretty impressive, if u ask me.
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Riverwide
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Glamorama
Oct 5 2011, 11:32 PM
Riverwide
Oct 5 2011, 11:21 PM
Barring the blip of CGYOOMH, she hasn't been a big seller since her first couple of albums. Those first couple of albums were massive, especially in the UK, but the sales of almost all of her other albums are shockingly poor to average.
Not true, ALL her albums (except Impossible Dannii) have gone at least platinum, in the UK Her sales over a 23 year career have been damned impressive
Eh...I guess we have different ideas on what "damned impressive" is. I don't think that simply going platinum in the UK is much to boast about for an act of her profile over the years. Almost all of Madonna's albums are at least multi-platinum in the UK. Kylie's UK sales are embarassing in comparison. And as for her sales in other countries, they are shockingly poor.
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FuckBuddy
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Glamorama
Oct 5 2011, 11:32 PM
Riverwide
Oct 5 2011, 11:21 PM
Barring the blip of CGYOOMH, she hasn't been a big seller since her first couple of albums. Those first couple of albums were massive, especially in the UK, but the sales of almost all of her other albums are shockingly poor to average.
Not true, ALL her albums (except Impossible Dannii) have gone at least platinum, in the UK Her sales over a 23 year career have been damned impressive
what's really impressive is her consistency. though hardly selling by the millions, she managed to build a strong fanbase that will buy her products no matter what. even more impressively, her hardcore uk market counts as many fans as madonna's, who's had multiple million selling albums. when a flop album by madonna sells 300-400k and kylie brings the same result with her own underperforming album, well, that's interesting at least.
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Riverwide
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FuckBuddy
Oct 5 2011, 11:46 PM
Glamorama
Oct 5 2011, 11:32 PM
Riverwide
Oct 5 2011, 11:21 PM
Barring the blip of CGYOOMH, she hasn't been a big seller since her first couple of albums. Those first couple of albums were massive, especially in the UK, but the sales of almost all of her other albums are shockingly poor to average.
Not true, ALL her albums (except Impossible Dannii) have gone at least platinum, in the UK Her sales over a 23 year career have been damned impressive
what's really impressive is her consistency. though hardly selling by the millions, she managed to build a strong fanbase that will buy her products no matter what. even more impressively, her hardcore uk market counts as many fans as madonna's, who's had multiple million selling albums. when a flop album by madonna sells 300-400k and kylie brings the same result with her own underperforming album, well, that's interesting at least.
Oh but come on, Madonna's UK album sales dwarf Kylie's.

And don't even get me started on worldwide sales. That would be too cruel.
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Riverwide
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TheBitterEnd
Oct 5 2011, 05:24 PM
I think the album was terribly produced. Horrid vocal production almost throughout. It was almost a weekend project that Stuart sneezed out.

But why did it flop commercially? There could be oodles of reasons.... one of them being that Kylie was an artist of a decade ago. The 'pop-dance' market has moved to a seemingly increasing younger audience, bubblegum pop or urban-infused pop/dance rules the airwaves. Pop-lite from a 40 something year old star does not.

Kylie simply doesn't have the oomph to take on the airwaves and never has. Can't Get You Out of my Head was not hugely success simply because it was Kylie. Right place, right time, the song having just that 'something' are factors there.

A very, very average lead single was also inevitably a factor in the initial sales and continued drive of the album. Followed by the terrible sales of two follow up singles it was evident that noone really cared.

Re the article.... Kylie needs to find her Ray of Light? Maybe she could if she was remotely involved or interested as Madonna is/was. She simply doesn't have the presence or the talent to make such a move. The nearest Kylie will get is Impossible Princess and that's an overhyped (by fans) and very patchy album at best.
I actually liked Aphrodite, but I 100% agree with everything else you said.
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