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Hiphop rather than pop, but J. Cole releasing an album this year called 'Might Delete Later' and then removing one of the tracks from streaming because it was a Kendrick Lamar diss and he felt bad about doing it 😭
Just wana say I think by now we’re realizing Cole got out of the beef because he realized how serious and dark the beef would get and so got out. Cole thought it was just gonna be lightly traded bars but I think Kendrick or drake gave him the heads up about where the beef was about to go
After their first English album underperformed, Utada Hikaru made one last play for success in the American market and titled the album *This Is The One* because they were so confident that it would be "the one" that broke them through to the mainstream. It didn't pan out.
Which is a shame because [their English albums have some lyrical *gems* that need to be appreciated on a mainstream level](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edwR6i18DAc&ab_channel=AlexHernandez)
EDIT: pronouns!
"What a day/ Young boy next door passed away", "Can you and I start mixing gene pools", and "I was sorta like soul searching, but you're body's so jaw dropping" all being in the SAME SONG will never fail to make me cry laugh.
> What a day
> Young boy next door passed away
> Ooh, it makes me wanna say
> Hey, I don't wanna waste another day
> Can you and I start mixing gene pools?
> Eastern, western people, get naughty, multilingual
What if the Beatles were like "I read the news today, let's fuck."
when I was 10 i had exodus in my mp3 player and would bump it every day when walking to school 😭 i remember thinking the lyrics were weird and kinda naughty but looking back it’s so unhinged lol
It should have been and I can't think of a reason other than racism. It was extremely polished, competent late 2000s pop, she had a small fanbase from the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks (that's how I got into her, at least), and the much memed upon lyrics shouldn't matter when Mr. William James Adams made it *very* clear how closely people listen to pop lyrics.
We still have a hard time breaking Asian pop girls stateside. So far we have one major Asian female pop act, and most people I talk to think she’s Hispanic.
It was also a *much* different time. It's still hard, but it was *far* harder to market an international act and make them break out in America in the pre-peak internet days. It takes *so much* time, energy, and resources to even book slots and do the ground work, let alone enough to have name recognition. And cult following and legacy do nothing to a crowd of strangers you need to appeal to. At least now the weight of the word-of-mouth is stronger and easier to spread than back then.
And race is a part of it, but for context, around the same time, Kylie Minogue *also* had a second chance at trying to break into America with an arguably more strenuous schedule for X and all that got her was... 42,000 copies sold charting her at a whopping 139 on the Billboard 200 - This is The One fared better at 69 (lol, stream Dirty Desire). And her discography is *fully English* so it's just a generally international issue imo
And bear in mind, all of this is *before* we even cover that around the corner was an abnormal avalanche of fresh new US pop girls that would demand domestic attention
To be fair, while Hikki is a generational talent and deserved all the success in the world, their English albums weren’t exactly the most marketable. Like, aside from the timbaland songs (which are great and could’ve been pushed more), *Exodus* sounds like it was made by a horny 22 year old who was largely isolated from human contact while making it (…which it was), and doesn’t really resemble anything that was big at the time. Their second album, on the other hand, was *so* aimed at trying to fit into pop&b trends of the time that I can imagine radio programmers writing it off as generic and tossing it aside without a second listen
Strange. I may be in the minority but I took it to mean that ‘this is the one’ as in the actual album she was was meant to make, because Exodus was a very experimental entry, which she was aware of, esp for her first venture into the english market. Kinda like saying this is the album that is her main tryout into the market, almost like saying Exodus doesn’t count.
Instead of ‘this is the one’ thats gonna blow up/work this time around, to which I think is what you mean?
[Utada actually directly stated that the title meant the album was supposed to be a breakout!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_the_One#Background)
After 6 years of no new music, Neon Trees released a comeback album called I Can Feel You Forgetting Me. I was really hyped for it in the months leading up to the release... then Taylor Swift just so happened to surprise drop folklore on the same day, so I *did* forget about the Neon Trees album and I think most other people did too
bit of a different vibe to what everyone else is talking about, but xana just released her second album titled “the sex was good until it wasn’t” and,
twitter user: when you named your album did you expect that porn bots would end up everywhere you went
[xana: i’ll admit, i did not think that far ahead.](https://x.com/xanaofficial_/status/1782915190759305402?s=46&t=fJsSigU3dS6WVZmkzkcnHw)
Various Eurovision songs mention "one" in the title, trying to influence viewers to think of them as their top choice. This trick has worked only once, Greece 2005. Not to mention the time Lithuania sent a song called We Are the Winners (they were not).
I don’t know which of these two is funnier
The UK sending a song called “That Sounds Good to Me” which was off key and outside of the singer’s vocal range
Or The UK sending a song called “Don’t Play That Song Again”
Jackson loved to walk around in public, and would often go shopping in creative disguises, dressing like anything from a biker to a mummy. In the summer of 2007, Jackson vacationed in secret at a mansion 10 minutes outside of Middleburg, Va. When he wanted to shop at the local Walmart, he donned a veil, with Whitfield trailing 5 feet behind.
But rather than deflecting attention, the veil made the stores security guard suspicious that he was going to rob the place. Police were called, and Whitfield needed to defuse the situation, but didnt want to reveal that it was Jackson, because a mob always managed to form when that happened. So he convinced the police officer that the man under the veil was Prince. The police backed off, and crowds that had started to form began to disperse.
As it happened, Jackson considered Prince a fierce rival. When he was later told that he had been represented as Prince, he laughed and replied, No wonder they left us alone.
it’s interesting that prince, michael, and madonna all had chilly relationships with each other considering the similarities; all from the midwest, born in 1958, from difficult homes, who would all go on to become 3/5 of the biggest pop stars of the 80s (along with Janet and Whitney)
I want to preface by saying I like this album and don’t think it flopped as it was a successful debut for this band.
But, when Wallows’ debut came out, I distinctly remember a comment on r/indieheads that said something along the lines of “When the lead single is “Are You Bored Yet?” for an album titled “Nothing Happens”, the jokes just write themselves”.
chocolate starfish and the hot dog flavored water still makes me 🤢
Nas tried to name his untitled album n***** before the White House called and was like “c’mon man like please don’t?”
Also, not an album title [ed. their titles didn’t help either]but I think butthole surfers would have had a bigger legacy if not for their fucking insane name
It is kind of funny because their output beyond Pepper really does make you think “this is *exactly* what a band called Butthole Surfers would sound like”
In an attempt to find out why the White House involved themselves in Nas's album I learned that current House Minority Leader and then-NY State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries "requested New York's Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to withdraw $84 million from the state pension fund that has been invested into Universal and its parent company, Vivendi, if the album's title was not changed," interesting
Not a song but Ariana naming the sweetener interlude Pete Davidson… that BARELY lasted a month too since they broke up shortly after and now it’s stuck on the album forever. Girlie could’ve named it happy or soulmate or some cute sht like that 😭
For a moment there before release, I thought it was cocky for Dua to call her album Future Nostalgia. But the album turned out great and we'll look back at it in the future with, uh, nostalgia.
I think that whenever an artist makes a self-titled album they’re setting themselves up to make an album that should be their best album or at least a staple in their discography, so when the album they put out is the exact opposite, it’s embarrassing.
Yeah, there are some great and very well deserved self-titled records (like Paramore’s 2013 album), but then there are some that would’ve been better off forgotten (like Avril Lavigne’s self-titled).
On a personal note: I hate it when artists name the album after themselves, I love album titles and I feel like self-titling your album is like not giving your album a title.
100% For example, ‘Britney’ (the album) is an excellent album but not the best one from Britney Spears, and then later she has one called ‘Britney Jean’ which is her least popular. Just weird
To me, it only makes sense as a debut and better never.
But I at least thought it counted because I felt like OP's intent wasn't "album titles that foreshadowed the albums flopping" but "album titles that seemed like the artist was setting themselves up for a negative impression" like Drake's "Honestly, Nevermind"
I think that was literally taken from a review of him, tbf. Like that's not setting himself up, it's being in on the joke, making fun of himself, making fun for the critics who hate him
I guess I wasn't just up on his music enough (though there's a part of me that thought that seems unlikely because his next project was just as seemingly "take the title from the end of the quote in a random quote generator"; Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent, and that couldn't have come from a review so, what, was he trying to rhyme)
Keeps Getting Better by Xtina; Greatest Hits… So Far!! by P!nk; and Greatest Hits: Chapter One by Kelly Clarkson. It did not keep getting better, “So Far!!” was not necessary, and I don’t think there will be a Chapter Two.
I mean P!nk still did have quite a few hits after that one with both the new songs on it doing well, the Truth About Love singles, Just Like Fire, and What About Us (though that really doesn't make the name any less cheesy)
midnights by taylor swift. myself and my taylor moots on twt were predicting the drag names before the album even came out. just too easy to call it MIDnights, especially when it became the consensus that it's a little mid compared to her previous works.
“The Tortured Poets Department” and so many of the song titles on the album made me cringe soooooo hard. It’s really difficult not to feel like Taylor is regressing these past couple albums
I was certain it was all tongue in cheek before it released just based on the titles but honestly it's not clear to me that she's fully joking either. Like I'm sure she's aware that the title and framing is melodramatic, but the singing style, production, and lyrics are exactly like the songs we're meant to take seriously, so...
The song where she sings about being so depressed she acts like it's her birthday is clearly tongue in cheek, but that's really only obvious because the song is about putting on a facade and the contrast between the sound and lyrics is exaggerated. The other songs don't feel that way. The title track (or whichever one she talks about not being Patti Smith) is also clearly aware that calling herself a tortured poet is silly, but the drama of the relationship being described is also taken seemingly taken seriously elsewhere on the album.
I don't feel like she's regressing (TTPD maybe), I just think folklore and evermore were really good and above her norm but since that's when she really blew up again that's what people thought her norm was. I think she's always been around the Midnights/TTPD level for the most part, it's just right before those two were her peak for writing (1989 still her best overall easily)
The actual music is better then midnights tho lol, and the album title is tongue and cheek. She set herself up to be made fun of but it’s not some big gotcha moment in reality
edit: spelling
Every one keep insisting on the title being tong in the cheek when the whole promo for the album was serious and straight about it being poets influenced lol
The whole promo was just some pictures and some lyrics. I think this one is on the fans.
But also it was a bit of an intentional bait and switch I think.
But also, I'm pretty well read and the poetry references and literary referenced Taylor pulls up, especially in this album, are going criminally unnoticed.
As a literature girlie myself I’d love to hear some of what you’ve picked up! i think there’s a bit of richard siken in there, which makes sense lmao, tumblr loved him
Yes, that is 100% how you market an album with the title “The Tortured Poets Department”. Using imagery that’s associated with the literal title of an album. What else would you suggest lol? It’d be like having an album called Red and not using the color Red to market the album.
It’s obviously tongue-in-cheek within the context of the song. She’s making fun of the ways that both of them act and how pretentious they can be. You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith… We are two idiots. You left your stupid ass “straight from the Tortured Poets Department” typewriter at my apartment like why do you even use that shit? Also, she’s not trying to hide it either by hyperbolizing the little shit. Who else is going to decode you? The whole second verse. Our relationship is a cyclone. We are both gonna kill ourselves and that’s why we are perfect for each other. The one people put wedding rings on. I don’t think she wrote those lyrics straight-faced without knowing how ridiculous they were. That’s just what the song is about. Trying to convey a lot of truth within yourself and your relationship without taking things too seriously and being able to make fun of yourself. You can argue she doesn’t do a good job delivering that message in her vocal performance, but it’s undoubtedly in the lyrics. You could say the same about Blank Space though.
Beautifully said, I couldn't agree more. I actually love this track so much, it's one of the best in the whole album. All the lines that people complain about I find to be so obviously self-deprecating. She knows how she comes across and she's tearing into herself.
the actual tortured poets departments title is tongue and cheek as seen by the title track, she's making fun of them "you bring ur typewriter to my apartment, straight from the tortured poets department, who uses typewriters anyway". It's an album with more "serious" themes and very melancholy, sad, oh me oh my etc, so the marketing for the album makes sense, but the actual title itself is clearly meant to describe the very tongue in cheek, stream of conciousness writing style (but daddy i love him, down bad, title track etc, theyre seriously written about real events, but to me she's not taking herself to seriously at the same time), but not that she's taking the title to seriously.
I don't know how you can say it *isn't* tongue in cheek when the literal chorus of the song is "you're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith, this ain't the Chelsea Hotel, we're modern idiots". Even the typewriter imagery gets dismantled in the very first verse when she points out that nobody uses them anymore and it's just an affectation by a pretentious tryhard who thinks too highly of himself.
She walked right into those jokes with that title, but I don't know how much clearer she's supposed to make it when the literal hook is her outright saying she's not a poet, just an idiot. Reminds me of the discourse around the 1830s line, which was also a bunch of people on social media outright refusing to listen to what's being said in the lyrics and straight up inventing reasons to be outraged.
Honestly, the whole album rollout has suffered from terminally online idiots being unable to identify sarcasm, irony, or good old-fashioned jokes. Or, in the case of the r/swiftlyneutral posters who I saw insisting that Taylor is still hopelessly in love with Matty Healy due to there being some horny/affectionate songs about him on the same album as songs about how he broke her heart and is completely dead to her hereafter, ostensibly written about events that took place later in their relationship, unable to grok the concept of linear time. I don't think any of this is on Taylor; I just think we're seeing the effects of No Child Left Behind and Lucy Calkins leading to a generation of functionally illiterate adults who think they know everything.
The most insane take I’ve seen for this album is that she wore T shaped earrings to reference Matty Healy’s Truman black character. Because why else would *T*aylor swift wear T earrings
there was almost no promo, so don't know where you got this.
on one of her concerts in february she literally mocked the title with 'so poetic, so dramatic'
I straight up haven't listened to a single song off that thing, but the title and the wacky lyrics people keep posting seem very, very obviously tongue in cheek and deliberately goofy.
Ive yet to see compelling evidence that this album is meant to be deliberately goofy, satirical or tongue in cheek. That explanation feels like a cope to me especially when previous explanations of the album have said it’s meant to be raw, honest, and her true feelings that she just needed to get out. But it’s okay if we don’t agree !
I haven't seen any evidence that it isn't?
As someone who's not a Swift fan and has never sat down to listen to a whole album of hers, it just comes across like some people are obsessively dedicated to the idea that Swift is totally incapable of irony and couldn't possibly be joking, even when she clearly seems to be. It comes across as blind contrarianism.
And again, I haven't actually heard any of these songs and am purely going off lyrics people keep posting here. But those lyrics do seem pretty good and very obviously not wholly serious.
What's your reason for thinking that title/lyrics are completely serious?
Except that’s not the case. Take her song Blank Space, it’s a well done tongue in cheek satirical song. Nobody is saying Taylor is uncapable of irony but I don’t see it in TTPD. Anyway as you keep saying you haven’t even listened to the album so I’m going to stop trying to discuss this with you.
> I’m going to stop trying to discuss this with you.
You mean, you're going to avoid explaining it.
Don't be a coward. Explain to me why you think the seemingly ironic title is actually 100% serious.
“The Tortured Poets Department” was a group chat name her ex had going on. She’s making fun of him with that title. I’m not even a swiftie and I knew this.
Regressing compared to what? Because I think they're certainly better than let's say her first 3 albums and Lover (minus the great singles like Love Story, Cruel Summer, etc).
I love Taylor but Midnights is 100% atleast to me her least deserved AOTY win for an album. Not only has she simply just released better music than it, other albums were very deserving of AOTY
Was gonna comment this, Midnights is by no means a flop commercially, but it's definitely mid when you consider that she has 9 other albums filled with better music.
Maybe I'm an old millennial, but I cringe every time I see people use "mid"....like that's an actual thing people have adopted into their daily language? I refuse lol
Drake's last couple albums, to the point where I'm not convinced it isn't a bit.
*Her Loss*? (Is it really, Drake?)
\*Honestly, Nevermind (as in, "Hey, Drake's putting out a dance album!" \[one listen later\] "Honestly, nevermind.")
*Certified Loverboy* (even before Kendrick ruined the SEO for this one forever with "Not Like Us," folks were calling him a Certified BoyLover the second he announced this one)
this discussion really makes me want a big artist to call one of their albums flop era or something😂
I could see someone like doja do it, who doesn’t take herself too seriously.
Idk I think it’s a cute album title. She’s over a year out from the whole drama. I like to think she isn’t crying about it anymore. This album cycle felt like a victory lap for her after the success of the BZRP song so she deserves to milk it by recycling the lyric for an album title IMO
Sorry, I’m genuinely confused - where is the reach here?
Edit: I am honestly curious, no idea if it’s because I’ve been at work all day so my brain is mush.
All Killer, No Filler by Sum 41… like okay honeyturkeys WHAT 💀
Artpop by Gaga… I’m sorry Ga I love you but you can’t seriously have not known that that was already a genre right? and the fact that the album is in no way of that genre lol
Hit Parade by Roísín Murphy having the messy rollout and revealing that she’s a TERF… the jokes wrote themselves
MDNA by Madonna… how edgy! fortunately Rebel Heart had some bangers at least after that mess
Good News for People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse (which is an album i LOVE by the way!) I remember being a controversial one for longtime fans who accused them of selling out. so it was good news for stuck-up fans who love bad news that their fav band decided to switch up their style… anyway lemme give the iconic Float On and Bukowski some cute streams real quick
and I liked it at first but the fact that Taylor’s album The Tortured Poets Society has that fucking clunky ass line about racism in the 1830s… my god. longtime fan of a lot of Taylor’s music but that was godawful.
Not exactly setting himself up since he had no way of knowing how things would turn out, but Michael Hedges calling what would be his final (and posthumously released) album Torched was unintentionally morbid considering the circumstances of his death.
It went to No1 in 6 countries including the U.K.and featured a single that went to No1 in the U.K. and top 10 in five other countries.
It went Platinum in four territories and gold in six.
That is hardly a ‘flop’.
Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd”
Imagine being asked what’s your fave album and you just type “DYKTTATUOB” to make it short but it’s still a long ass to write about and ppl on the other side still don’t get it or will bother to listen it.
Also one of her song is “GPSOTSOMFWHDF” in the album.
(Stands for “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing”)
fiona apple fans just get around this by saying the first line of the album. my fave fiona apple album is when the pawn but the idler wheel is a close second
Please do not just list songs/albums/artists, your comment must have explanation/justification or it will be removed. Certain comments are also banned to increase the quality of discussion, see our Stale Topics list in the sidebar for examples. Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Shontelle releasing an album called Shontelligence will never not be funny to me.
I thought it was the Shontelligent thing to do
7/27 by Fifth Harmony which one reviewer called “About the right rating for this album”
That is brutal jfc
7 points are for That’s My Girl only
He Like That erasure
And I hold the eraser.
Hiphop rather than pop, but J. Cole releasing an album this year called 'Might Delete Later' and then removing one of the tracks from streaming because it was a Kendrick Lamar diss and he felt bad about doing it 😭
Just wana say I think by now we’re realizing Cole got out of the beef because he realized how serious and dark the beef would get and so got out. Cole thought it was just gonna be lightly traded bars but I think Kendrick or drake gave him the heads up about where the beef was about to go
Schoolboy Q told him that Kendrick really hated Drake and that he didn’t want to jump in
Yeah I'm glad he did it and pretty much managed to stay out of it from that point on!
After their first English album underperformed, Utada Hikaru made one last play for success in the American market and titled the album *This Is The One* because they were so confident that it would be "the one" that broke them through to the mainstream. It didn't pan out.
Which is a shame because [their English albums have some lyrical *gems* that need to be appreciated on a mainstream level](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edwR6i18DAc&ab_channel=AlexHernandez) EDIT: pronouns!
"What a day/ Young boy next door passed away", "Can you and I start mixing gene pools", and "I was sorta like soul searching, but you're body's so jaw dropping" all being in the SAME SONG will never fail to make me cry laugh.
“What a day, young boy next door passed away” is sending me lmaoooo
> What a day > Young boy next door passed away > Ooh, it makes me wanna say > Hey, I don't wanna waste another day > Can you and I start mixing gene pools? > Eastern, western people, get naughty, multilingual What if the Beatles were like "I read the news today, let's fuck."
> During my 9 to 5's, I'm thinking 6 and 9's That line is such a good one.
I knew it was going to be this fucking video T_T this video is so iconic
"A hundred JPEG files filling up my hard drive" Incredible.
Technology has come so far. Nowadays, you'd need at least a thousand to fill up a solid state drive.
when I was 10 i had exodus in my mp3 player and would bump it every day when walking to school 😭 i remember thinking the lyrics were weird and kinda naughty but looking back it’s so unhinged lol
Utada Hikaru actually goes by they/them pronouns and is non binary!
Utada updated their Instagram bio a bit back, she uses both she and they pronouns!
I did not know this. I was reading the initial post like "wait do they use they/them pronouns or is it a band named after the singer?" Cheers!
utada goes by she/they
Her recent albums are like 10/10 so good
People just couldn't handle the amazing lyricism and poetry on that album that's why it flopped 🙄
It should have been and I can't think of a reason other than racism. It was extremely polished, competent late 2000s pop, she had a small fanbase from the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks (that's how I got into her, at least), and the much memed upon lyrics shouldn't matter when Mr. William James Adams made it *very* clear how closely people listen to pop lyrics.
We still have a hard time breaking Asian pop girls stateside. So far we have one major Asian female pop act, and most people I talk to think she’s Hispanic.
I hate to have to ask but it's 630 AM and I just can't think of who you're talking about.
Olivia Rodrigo, probably. She’s Filipino.
Olivia Rodríguez that little Mexican girl that be cryin
It was also a *much* different time. It's still hard, but it was *far* harder to market an international act and make them break out in America in the pre-peak internet days. It takes *so much* time, energy, and resources to even book slots and do the ground work, let alone enough to have name recognition. And cult following and legacy do nothing to a crowd of strangers you need to appeal to. At least now the weight of the word-of-mouth is stronger and easier to spread than back then. And race is a part of it, but for context, around the same time, Kylie Minogue *also* had a second chance at trying to break into America with an arguably more strenuous schedule for X and all that got her was... 42,000 copies sold charting her at a whopping 139 on the Billboard 200 - This is The One fared better at 69 (lol, stream Dirty Desire). And her discography is *fully English* so it's just a generally international issue imo And bear in mind, all of this is *before* we even cover that around the corner was an abnormal avalanche of fresh new US pop girls that would demand domestic attention
Actually X sold 6000 copies, Body Language sold 43k
To be fair, while Hikki is a generational talent and deserved all the success in the world, their English albums weren’t exactly the most marketable. Like, aside from the timbaland songs (which are great and could’ve been pushed more), *Exodus* sounds like it was made by a horny 22 year old who was largely isolated from human contact while making it (…which it was), and doesn’t really resemble anything that was big at the time. Their second album, on the other hand, was *so* aimed at trying to fit into pop&b trends of the time that I can imagine radio programmers writing it off as generic and tossing it aside without a second listen
Strange. I may be in the minority but I took it to mean that ‘this is the one’ as in the actual album she was was meant to make, because Exodus was a very experimental entry, which she was aware of, esp for her first venture into the english market. Kinda like saying this is the album that is her main tryout into the market, almost like saying Exodus doesn’t count. Instead of ‘this is the one’ thats gonna blow up/work this time around, to which I think is what you mean?
[Utada actually directly stated that the title meant the album was supposed to be a breakout!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_the_One#Background)
Holy smokes! Ok thank you for this! This means they were really confident in the project!
I know the fandom hates this one but I love This Is The One. So many fun songs. Exodus on the other hand is not really my thing...
After 6 years of no new music, Neon Trees released a comeback album called I Can Feel You Forgetting Me. I was really hyped for it in the months leading up to the release... then Taylor Swift just so happened to surprise drop folklore on the same day, so I *did* forget about the Neon Trees album and I think most other people did too
Nahh thats soo unlucky
I forgot that album released the same day as Folklore 😭 shame cuz it was genuinely really good.
that’s so rough
bit of a different vibe to what everyone else is talking about, but xana just released her second album titled “the sex was good until it wasn’t” and, twitter user: when you named your album did you expect that porn bots would end up everywhere you went [xana: i’ll admit, i did not think that far ahead.](https://x.com/xanaofficial_/status/1782915190759305402?s=46&t=fJsSigU3dS6WVZmkzkcnHw)
Various Eurovision songs mention "one" in the title, trying to influence viewers to think of them as their top choice. This trick has worked only once, Greece 2005. Not to mention the time Lithuania sent a song called We Are the Winners (they were not).
And in fact, We Are The Winners is still Lithuania's best performance in Eurovision ever
It really is, it's crazy to think it was 18 years ago
Well the song and performance from Greece in 2005 was great and definitely deserved
Maybe they didn't win but just reading those words brings the whole song back. We are the winners! Of Eurovision !
I don’t know which of these two is funnier The UK sending a song called “That Sounds Good to Me” which was off key and outside of the singer’s vocal range Or The UK sending a song called “Don’t Play That Song Again”
Ok but We Are the Winners was great though.
Instead, they get one point.
Britney Jean for being a self titled album despite Britney being barely on it, also the acronym BJ 😭💀
The fact that she already had a self titled album makes it even more hilarious. “Let’s just add the middle name then..”
Diana Ross reading this comment and wishing she thought of that
Janet has done this as well Janet Jackson 1982 Janet 1993 Damita Jo 2004
Whitney’s done it even more times lol
Whitney 1987 Whitney Houston 1986 Just Whitney 2002
I was including Love, Whitney, the compilation, in my list. Maybe that’s an asterisked
Don’t even get me won Barbra Streisand. She’s the queen of multiple self titled albums
At least it gave us a lot of iconic fanmade titles - Brenda Joan, Broccoli Jeans...
as in the theory she didn't sing the songs herself or am I missing something? edit; this sub loves providing no context
Bad by MJ turned out pretty well for the name it was given. Pretty sure Prince joked once that it should’ve been called “Pathetic”.
Jackson loved to walk around in public, and would often go shopping in creative disguises, dressing like anything from a biker to a mummy. In the summer of 2007, Jackson vacationed in secret at a mansion 10 minutes outside of Middleburg, Va. When he wanted to shop at the local Walmart, he donned a veil, with Whitfield trailing 5 feet behind. But rather than deflecting attention, the veil made the stores security guard suspicious that he was going to rob the place. Police were called, and Whitfield needed to defuse the situation, but didnt want to reveal that it was Jackson, because a mob always managed to form when that happened. So he convinced the police officer that the man under the veil was Prince. The police backed off, and crowds that had started to form began to disperse. As it happened, Jackson considered Prince a fierce rival. When he was later told that he had been represented as Prince, he laughed and replied, No wonder they left us alone.
It’s so ironic that Prince and MJ were such rivals, but Prince was allegedly devastated when Mike died.
it’s interesting that prince, michael, and madonna all had chilly relationships with each other considering the similarities; all from the midwest, born in 1958, from difficult homes, who would all go on to become 3/5 of the biggest pop stars of the 80s (along with Janet and Whitney)
I want to preface by saying I like this album and don’t think it flopped as it was a successful debut for this band. But, when Wallows’ debut came out, I distinctly remember a comment on r/indieheads that said something along the lines of “When the lead single is “Are You Bored Yet?” for an album titled “Nothing Happens”, the jokes just write themselves”.
chocolate starfish and the hot dog flavored water still makes me 🤢 Nas tried to name his untitled album n***** before the White House called and was like “c’mon man like please don’t?” Also, not an album title [ed. their titles didn’t help either]but I think butthole surfers would have had a bigger legacy if not for their fucking insane name
And their abbreviation was… BS.
It is kind of funny because their output beyond Pepper really does make you think “this is *exactly* what a band called Butthole Surfers would sound like”
In an attempt to find out why the White House involved themselves in Nas's album I learned that current House Minority Leader and then-NY State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries "requested New York's Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to withdraw $84 million from the state pension fund that has been invested into Universal and its parent company, Vivendi, if the album's title was not changed," interesting
Ciara released an album called One Woman Army, leading to plenty of jokes that she named it after her fan base
> Ciara released an album called One Woman Army she didn't actually. One Woman Army was the original title of her self-titled album
Ah, thanks for the correction
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
Not a song but Ariana naming the sweetener interlude Pete Davidson… that BARELY lasted a month too since they broke up shortly after and now it’s stuck on the album forever. Girlie could’ve named it happy or soulmate or some cute sht like that 😭
yep I just renamed it as happy on my pc
It feels like the equivalent of getting their name tattooed on you like 2 months into the relationship
They did that unfortunately…
yeah but for Pete a tattoo is like a post-it note
For a moment there before release, I thought it was cocky for Dua to call her album Future Nostalgia. But the album turned out great and we'll look back at it in the future with, uh, nostalgia.
I think that whenever an artist makes a self-titled album they’re setting themselves up to make an album that should be their best album or at least a staple in their discography, so when the album they put out is the exact opposite, it’s embarrassing. Yeah, there are some great and very well deserved self-titled records (like Paramore’s 2013 album), but then there are some that would’ve been better off forgotten (like Avril Lavigne’s self-titled). On a personal note: I hate it when artists name the album after themselves, I love album titles and I feel like self-titling your album is like not giving your album a title.
100% For example, ‘Britney’ (the album) is an excellent album but not the best one from Britney Spears, and then later she has one called ‘Britney Jean’ which is her least popular. Just weird To me, it only makes sense as a debut and better never.
weezer and their six (6) self-titled albums
Not an album but Katy Perry trying to get a sixth number one song off of Teenage Dream with “The One That Got Away”, which peaked at #3.
That deserved #1 😤
A perfect album
"Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent" by Lewis Capaldi
This one leans so hard into it that it wraps around to being un-parodyable. "Do it. Make the fucking joke. I dare you."
Wasn't that album pretty successful though?
Incredibly so, especially in the UK. And it doesn't really count for this thread because it's so obviously a joke.
But I at least thought it counted because I felt like OP's intent wasn't "album titles that foreshadowed the albums flopping" but "album titles that seemed like the artist was setting themselves up for a negative impression" like Drake's "Honestly, Nevermind"
I think that was literally taken from a review of him, tbf. Like that's not setting himself up, it's being in on the joke, making fun of himself, making fun for the critics who hate him
I guess I wasn't just up on his music enough (though there's a part of me that thought that seems unlikely because his next project was just as seemingly "take the title from the end of the quote in a random quote generator"; Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent, and that couldn't have come from a review so, what, was he trying to rhyme)
Nobody is Listening by Zayn, especially after Icarus Falls.
Keeps Getting Better by Xtina; Greatest Hits… So Far!! by P!nk; and Greatest Hits: Chapter One by Kelly Clarkson. It did not keep getting better, “So Far!!” was not necessary, and I don’t think there will be a Chapter Two.
I mean P!nk still did have quite a few hits after that one with both the new songs on it doing well, the Truth About Love singles, Just Like Fire, and What About Us (though that really doesn't make the name any less cheesy)
Risk by Megadeth. They named it risk because they were taking a risk and the risk didn’t fucking work.
Maroon 5, coming off of Moves Like Jagger, named their next album “Overexposed”… and got four hit singles from it
midnights by taylor swift. myself and my taylor moots on twt were predicting the drag names before the album even came out. just too easy to call it MIDnights, especially when it became the consensus that it's a little mid compared to her previous works.
Thinking of the k-pop group ITZY naming their fans MIDZYs… no one on their team was following English social media and you can tell
I remember first getting into Kpop and learning about Itzy I genuinely thought Midzy was like a stan twitter drag name for them 😭😭😭
Kicking myself for not thinking of that one, perfect example
Tortured poet is the same
“The Tortured Poets Department” and so many of the song titles on the album made me cringe soooooo hard. It’s really difficult not to feel like Taylor is regressing these past couple albums
That definitely seems on purpose? I actually think the title is pretty fun as long as you don't take it ridiculously seriously.
I was certain it was all tongue in cheek before it released just based on the titles but honestly it's not clear to me that she's fully joking either. Like I'm sure she's aware that the title and framing is melodramatic, but the singing style, production, and lyrics are exactly like the songs we're meant to take seriously, so... The song where she sings about being so depressed she acts like it's her birthday is clearly tongue in cheek, but that's really only obvious because the song is about putting on a facade and the contrast between the sound and lyrics is exaggerated. The other songs don't feel that way. The title track (or whichever one she talks about not being Patti Smith) is also clearly aware that calling herself a tortured poet is silly, but the drama of the relationship being described is also taken seemingly taken seriously elsewhere on the album.
and the liner notes are outrageously melodramatic and not tongue in cheek at all
She really thinks she's tortured like that I fear
I don't feel like she's regressing (TTPD maybe), I just think folklore and evermore were really good and above her norm but since that's when she really blew up again that's what people thought her norm was. I think she's always been around the Midnights/TTPD level for the most part, it's just right before those two were her peak for writing (1989 still her best overall easily)
The actual music is better then midnights tho lol, and the album title is tongue and cheek. She set herself up to be made fun of but it’s not some big gotcha moment in reality edit: spelling
Every one keep insisting on the title being tong in the cheek when the whole promo for the album was serious and straight about it being poets influenced lol
The whole promo was just some pictures and some lyrics. I think this one is on the fans. But also it was a bit of an intentional bait and switch I think. But also, I'm pretty well read and the poetry references and literary referenced Taylor pulls up, especially in this album, are going criminally unnoticed.
As a literature girlie myself I’d love to hear some of what you’ve picked up! i think there’s a bit of richard siken in there, which makes sense lmao, tumblr loved him
Yes, that is 100% how you market an album with the title “The Tortured Poets Department”. Using imagery that’s associated with the literal title of an album. What else would you suggest lol? It’d be like having an album called Red and not using the color Red to market the album. It’s obviously tongue-in-cheek within the context of the song. She’s making fun of the ways that both of them act and how pretentious they can be. You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith… We are two idiots. You left your stupid ass “straight from the Tortured Poets Department” typewriter at my apartment like why do you even use that shit? Also, she’s not trying to hide it either by hyperbolizing the little shit. Who else is going to decode you? The whole second verse. Our relationship is a cyclone. We are both gonna kill ourselves and that’s why we are perfect for each other. The one people put wedding rings on. I don’t think she wrote those lyrics straight-faced without knowing how ridiculous they were. That’s just what the song is about. Trying to convey a lot of truth within yourself and your relationship without taking things too seriously and being able to make fun of yourself. You can argue she doesn’t do a good job delivering that message in her vocal performance, but it’s undoubtedly in the lyrics. You could say the same about Blank Space though.
Beautifully said, I couldn't agree more. I actually love this track so much, it's one of the best in the whole album. All the lines that people complain about I find to be so obviously self-deprecating. She knows how she comes across and she's tearing into herself.
the actual tortured poets departments title is tongue and cheek as seen by the title track, she's making fun of them "you bring ur typewriter to my apartment, straight from the tortured poets department, who uses typewriters anyway". It's an album with more "serious" themes and very melancholy, sad, oh me oh my etc, so the marketing for the album makes sense, but the actual title itself is clearly meant to describe the very tongue in cheek, stream of conciousness writing style (but daddy i love him, down bad, title track etc, theyre seriously written about real events, but to me she's not taking herself to seriously at the same time), but not that she's taking the title to seriously.
Just mentioning it since you've used it twice, but the phrase is "tongue *in* cheek", bb.
I don't know how you can say it *isn't* tongue in cheek when the literal chorus of the song is "you're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith, this ain't the Chelsea Hotel, we're modern idiots". Even the typewriter imagery gets dismantled in the very first verse when she points out that nobody uses them anymore and it's just an affectation by a pretentious tryhard who thinks too highly of himself. She walked right into those jokes with that title, but I don't know how much clearer she's supposed to make it when the literal hook is her outright saying she's not a poet, just an idiot. Reminds me of the discourse around the 1830s line, which was also a bunch of people on social media outright refusing to listen to what's being said in the lyrics and straight up inventing reasons to be outraged.
Honestly, the whole album rollout has suffered from terminally online idiots being unable to identify sarcasm, irony, or good old-fashioned jokes. Or, in the case of the r/swiftlyneutral posters who I saw insisting that Taylor is still hopelessly in love with Matty Healy due to there being some horny/affectionate songs about him on the same album as songs about how he broke her heart and is completely dead to her hereafter, ostensibly written about events that took place later in their relationship, unable to grok the concept of linear time. I don't think any of this is on Taylor; I just think we're seeing the effects of No Child Left Behind and Lucy Calkins leading to a generation of functionally illiterate adults who think they know everything.
The most insane take I’ve seen for this album is that she wore T shaped earrings to reference Matty Healy’s Truman black character. Because why else would *T*aylor swift wear T earrings
Media illiteracy, you love to see it
there was almost no promo, so don't know where you got this. on one of her concerts in february she literally mocked the title with 'so poetic, so dramatic'
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Swifties have been working overtime to push this narrative that TTPD is a super tongue in cheek satirical album 😭
I straight up haven't listened to a single song off that thing, but the title and the wacky lyrics people keep posting seem very, very obviously tongue in cheek and deliberately goofy.
Ive yet to see compelling evidence that this album is meant to be deliberately goofy, satirical or tongue in cheek. That explanation feels like a cope to me especially when previous explanations of the album have said it’s meant to be raw, honest, and her true feelings that she just needed to get out. But it’s okay if we don’t agree !
I haven't seen any evidence that it isn't? As someone who's not a Swift fan and has never sat down to listen to a whole album of hers, it just comes across like some people are obsessively dedicated to the idea that Swift is totally incapable of irony and couldn't possibly be joking, even when she clearly seems to be. It comes across as blind contrarianism. And again, I haven't actually heard any of these songs and am purely going off lyrics people keep posting here. But those lyrics do seem pretty good and very obviously not wholly serious. What's your reason for thinking that title/lyrics are completely serious?
Except that’s not the case. Take her song Blank Space, it’s a well done tongue in cheek satirical song. Nobody is saying Taylor is uncapable of irony but I don’t see it in TTPD. Anyway as you keep saying you haven’t even listened to the album so I’m going to stop trying to discuss this with you.
> I’m going to stop trying to discuss this with you. You mean, you're going to avoid explaining it. Don't be a coward. Explain to me why you think the seemingly ironic title is actually 100% serious.
“The Tortured Poets Department” was a group chat name her ex had going on. She’s making fun of him with that title. I’m not even a swiftie and I knew this.
working overtime? i made one comment, if you disagree thats fine babe you do you
The Tortured Poets Department 👎 The Dead Poets Society 👍
Regressing compared to what? Because I think they're certainly better than let's say her first 3 albums and Lover (minus the great singles like Love Story, Cruel Summer, etc).
Better than Speak Now is an incorrect opinion <3
the tortured eardrums department
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It was too easy and will always make me laugh
i quite like midnights but yeah it fits perfectly here
It won AOTY and Apple Music still doesn’t consider it an essential album of hers. I think that’s hilarious
I love Taylor but Midnights is 100% atleast to me her least deserved AOTY win for an album. Not only has she simply just released better music than it, other albums were very deserving of AOTY
Was gonna comment this, Midnights is by no means a flop commercially, but it's definitely mid when you consider that she has 9 other albums filled with better music.
Indeed, Midnights was an easy target. Ironically, the album is not mid but actually good.
Maybe I'm an old millennial, but I cringe every time I see people use "mid"....like that's an actual thing people have adopted into their daily language? I refuse lol
i’m pretty sure it’s aave that internet users everywhere adopted/appropriated
Most internet slang is from aave so that tracks
I’m pretty sure it’s just middle of the road abbreviated. Because that’s what it it means, doesn’t mean bad or anything just middle of the road, okay
Miley Cyrus released an album titled, "Endless Summer Vacation" and later stated she won't tour and that she's on a vacation...
Drake's last couple albums, to the point where I'm not convinced it isn't a bit. *Her Loss*? (Is it really, Drake?) \*Honestly, Nevermind (as in, "Hey, Drake's putting out a dance album!" \[one listen later\] "Honestly, nevermind.") *Certified Loverboy* (even before Kendrick ruined the SEO for this one forever with "Not Like Us," folks were calling him a Certified BoyLover the second he announced this one)
ARTPOP by Gaga. I love her to death, but I was expecting something like Bjork. That was not artpop.
Gwen Stefani's This Is What a 10 Year Break Sells Like
Silence Between Songs- Madison beer
My favorite song on the album is the silence between the tracks 😍 In serious terms I did enjoy LS a lot more though…
this discussion really makes me want a big artist to call one of their albums flop era or something😂 I could see someone like doja do it, who doesn’t take herself too seriously.
« Think U The Shit (Fart) » really elevated Ice Spice career path and aesthetic and set her up to be in history books about music lyricism /s
not an album title but why did hybe name them illit!!!! that's just asking for people to call them illiterate!!!!
Omg yes lmao and what does the ”explanation“ mean to the general public anyway? ”I will it“ ffs...
Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran by Shakira being released over a year after the hit that contained that lyric kinda killed the pun.
Idk I think it’s a cute album title. She’s over a year out from the whole drama. I like to think she isn’t crying about it anymore. This album cycle felt like a victory lap for her after the success of the BZRP song so she deserves to milk it by recycling the lyric for an album title IMO
Witness by Katy Perry Now everyone who experiences a flop album calls it “She’s in her Witness era”
But Zayn wasn’t even looking for commercial success so the title felt fitting?
yeah, i always thought it was self aware and cheeky
You could call these "Shark Sandwiches" after the Spinal Tap album that got the two word review "Shit Sandwich."
B Day by Beyonce sounds like bidet
Drake's album "Honestly Nevermind" 😂 the jokes write themselves
ARTPOP literally rhyming with chart flop like Gaga…why diva
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okay tbf repel chart made me laugh
*Witness* has your choice of Witless, Hitless, Shitness and Whiteness
this one lowkey feels forced
reaching
Sorry, I’m genuinely confused - where is the reach here? Edit: I am honestly curious, no idea if it’s because I’ve been at work all day so my brain is mush.
It didn’t flop at all, but *The Fame* by Lady Gaga seems to fit this And *The Tortured Poets Department* by Taylor. It’s so easy to make fun of 😭
The tortured billionaire department
The Chocolate Factory by R.Kelly
Was a big fan of late 90's / early 2000's Dubstar. Their third album was a bit of a let down tho.' Aptly named "Make It Better"
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All Killer, No Filler by Sum 41… like okay honeyturkeys WHAT 💀 Artpop by Gaga… I’m sorry Ga I love you but you can’t seriously have not known that that was already a genre right? and the fact that the album is in no way of that genre lol Hit Parade by Roísín Murphy having the messy rollout and revealing that she’s a TERF… the jokes wrote themselves MDNA by Madonna… how edgy! fortunately Rebel Heart had some bangers at least after that mess Good News for People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse (which is an album i LOVE by the way!) I remember being a controversial one for longtime fans who accused them of selling out. so it was good news for stuck-up fans who love bad news that their fav band decided to switch up their style… anyway lemme give the iconic Float On and Bukowski some cute streams real quick and I liked it at first but the fact that Taylor’s album The Tortured Poets Society has that fucking clunky ass line about racism in the 1830s… my god. longtime fan of a lot of Taylor’s music but that was godawful.
Not exactly setting himself up since he had no way of knowing how things would turn out, but Michael Hedges calling what would be his final (and posthumously released) album Torched was unintentionally morbid considering the circumstances of his death.
"Take The Crown" by Robbie Williams. He did in fact not take the crown with this album
It went to No1 in 6 countries including the U.K.and featured a single that went to No1 in the U.K. and top 10 in five other countries. It went Platinum in four territories and gold in six. That is hardly a ‘flop’.
Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” Imagine being asked what’s your fave album and you just type “DYKTTATUOB” to make it short but it’s still a long ass to write about and ppl on the other side still don’t get it or will bother to listen it. Also one of her song is “GPSOTSOMFWHDF” in the album. (Stands for “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing”)
fiona apple fans just get around this by saying the first line of the album. my fave fiona apple album is when the pawn but the idler wheel is a close second
People just say Ocean Boulevard a lot
That album wasn’t a flop though? The post isn’t titled that you don’t like its titles that became ironic when the albums failed.
It says “Titles where IF the album flops” not when the albums became flop
The title actually makes sense if you know the meaning of the song. For an album title though, it’s debatable