Gretchen Wilson

[Razor X]

Snipped from the One Hit Wonders thread (so as not to hijack it):

Gretchen Wilson - Redneck Woman, and then she went downhill from there w/the same theme, same song rehashed...

I wouldn't go so far as to call Gretchen Wilson a one-hit wonder, but I can't recall ever seeing an artist crash and burn so quickly after initially showing so much commercial promise. When she won Female Vocalist of the Year, I thought that she'd be a force to be reckoned with for the next several years. Granted, there wasn't a whole lot of substance behind the hype, and she did keep releasing songs with the same sound, smell, feel -- but that strategy has worked perfectly well for other artists (I mean you, Kenny Chesney). And when she did try to release songs that were a little different from the Redneck Woman mold (When I Think About Cheatin', I Don't Feel Like Loving You Today) radio wouldn't play them.

Let me be perfectly clear, I don't mean to suggest in any way that she deserved the kind of attention she got after Redneck Woman came out. But most artists who do get that kind of attention tend to hold onto it a little longer. So what went wrong? Is it because she had the misfortune of breaking through too close to Carrie Underwood's success?

[indulgedcountrymusic]

Despite her singles beginning to not chart so well after 2005, she still has 3 #1 US Country albums

Some artists are popular on the radio, but the records don't sell... at least people bought n supported her albums

[Rainbow]

One Of The Boys hasn't even sold 250.000 copies in the U.S yet.

[Peter Durward Harris]

hasn't even sold 250.000 copies in the U.S yet.

I can remember when sales of 250,000 would have been a phenomenal achievement in country music. I must be getting old.

[indulgedcountrymusic]

One Of The Boys hasn't even sold 250.000 copies in the U.S yet.

It still opened at the top spot is all I'm saying... it don't do that for everybody; even the popular Sugarland has only just now gotten their first #1 album, out of 3

Gretchen has 3/3 top the charts... and the first two were Platinum+

[Rainbow]

Pete, that's compared to her previous albums, which garnered sales of 5 million for the first, and 1 for the second.

[Stormy]

hasn't even sold 250.000 copies in the U.S yet.

I can remember when sales of 250,000 would have been a phenomenal achievement in country music. I must be getting old.

Back then they didn't throw millions of dollars into promoting those albums.

[Razor X]

One Of The Boys hasn't even sold 250.000 copies in the U.S yet.

It still opened at the top spot is all I'm saying... it don't do that for everybody; even the popular Sugarland has only just now gotten their first #1 album, out of 3

Gretchen has 3/3 top the charts... and the first two were Platinum+

Getting to the top of the chart means that it outsold every other album for that week. It's not a big deal unless it manages to stay there for a while, which Gretchen's album didn't. As Rainbow said, it only sold about 250,000 units and Sony won't be spending any more to promote it, since she'll have a new album out soon. There's a single out already.

[Razor X]

hasn't even sold 250.000 copies in the U.S yet.

I can remember when sales of 250,000 would have been a phenomenal achievement in country music. I must be getting old.

Back then they didn't throw millions of dollars into promoting those albums.

It would be interesting to know how much is spent making and promoting the typical indie album, how many units sold is considered successful and how much profit is typically made from each, as compared to the typical major label release.

[Peter Durward Harris]

It would be interesting to know how much is spent making and promoting the typical indie album, how many units sold is considered successful and how much profit is typically made from each, as compared to the typical major label release.

Indie labels vary widely, some being small local affairs and some being much more substantial. Of course, once they reach a certain size, they tend to be taken over by the majors anyway, but that's another story. I suspect that the variation within the indie scene is reflected in a variation in costs, sales and profits.

[Razor X]

It would be interesting to know how much is spent making and promoting the typical indie album, how many units sold is considered successful and how much profit is typically made from each, as compared to the typical major label release.

Indie labels vary widely, some being small local affairs and some being much more substantial. Of course, once they reach a certain size, they tend to be taken over by the majors anyway, but that's another story. I suspect that the variation within the indie scene is reflected in a variation in costs, sales and profits.

I'm wondering how artists who are starting their own labels are doing. I wonder how many units Dolly sold of her bluegrass albums for Sugar Hill. And how many she's sold of Backwoods Barbie. She seems to be spending a mint promoting it, so I wonder if there will be any profit to show for the efforts when all is said and done.

250,000 units is actually nothing to sneeze at, but the major labels consider sales of that level to be small potatoes. I wonder if Gretchen would be able to sell that many CDs as an indie artist.

[Peter Durward Harris]

I think the bigger indie labels like Sugar Hill and Rounder have sometimes had substantial sellers. I seem to remember reading a long time ago that "Grass is blue" sold 100,000 units and it could be a lot more than that now, but it still didn't have the majors rushing to offer Dolly a contract, nor did the country radio stations suddenly decide that this was what the public wanted to hear.

The Trio II album is another interesting case. Again, country radio wasn't interested but the album was promoted heavily on Amazon and became their #1 best selling album for a while. It sold 350,000 units. Again, that figure is out of date but, sad person that I am, I remember it. It shows that if the music is good enough and you get the marketing right, you can bypass country radio.

[indulgedcountrymusic]

One Of The Boys hasn't even sold 250.000 copies in the U.S yet.

It still opened at the top spot is all I'm saying... it don't do that for everybody; even the popular Sugarland has only just now gotten their first #1 album, out of 3

Gretchen has 3/3 top the charts... and the first two were Platinum+

Getting to the top of the chart means that it outsold every other album for that week. It's not a big deal unless it manages to stay there for a while, which Gretchen's album didn't. As Rainbow said, it only sold about 250,000 units and Sony won't be spending any more to promote it, since she'll have a new album out soon. There's a single out already.

Getting a number one for one week is better than none at all

[Razor X]

Getting a number one for one week is better than none at all

I'd rather have an album that peaked at # 20 and stayed there for six months than an album that got to #1 and then quickly dropped off the charts. Which do you think sells more in the long run?

[Rainbow]

Shelby Lynne's new album has sold approx. 85.000 to date, and that only made it to number 42 on the Billboard 200. That's quite good, especially for Shelby.

[Rainbow]

I just read that Julianne Hough's debut has only sold 106.000 copies in the U.S. That was a number 1 album.

[Stormy]

I think the bigger indie labels like Sugar Hill and Rounder have sometimes had substantial sellers. I seem to remember reading a long time ago that "Grass is blue" sold 100,000 units and it could be a lot more than that now, but it still didn't have the majors rushing to offer Dolly a contract, nor did the country radio stations suddenly decide that this was what the public wanted to hear.

The Trio II album is another interesting case. Again, country radio wasn't interested but the album was promoted heavily on Amazon and became their #1 best selling album for a while. It sold 350,000 units. Again, that figure is out of date but, sad person that I am, I remember it. It shows that if the music is good enough and you get the marketing right, you can bypass country radio.

But then again, O Brother sold 8 million and the majors were still saying people don't want bluegrass.

[indulgedcountrymusic]

In country music you can be successful and get #1s without selling a ton of records, so it doesn't matter if Gretchen didn't do so well on her last album

[Matt B]

I just read that Julianne Hough's debut has only sold 106.000 copies in the U.S. That was a number 1 album.

Julianne has sold 193,246 copies of her album as of the soundscan report this week. Which is more than Montgomery Gentry has sold with their "Back When I Knew It All" which has sold 80,151. Randy Travis is at 62,571.

[Rainbow]

Huh, Wikipedia says 106.000.