How can Backspacer be the number 1 record?

musicismylife78

they deserve it obviously, but I am having a hard time figuring out how this is possible. yes they are a major rock band, a legendary major act, but face it, in many ways this is a cult band. They are a big deal to us, but beyond us, I dont think there is much. Thats due to alot of stuff. The majority of people either moved on to other genres of music post Kurts death, or they forgot PJ existed when the band retreated from the mainstream in the mid to late 90's.

So I am having a hard time figuring out, how such a band could have the number one album of the week, their first in 13 years.

Has The Fixer, and Got Some really done all that well?

In some ways, it does make sense, This is the most mainstream and accessible Pearl jam record since Ten. Politics that could divide fans are absent. The songs arent really about complex or abstract ideas. Its really an album about love, and finding a place in the world.

But on the other hand, I find it hard to believe those fans who moved on, or forgot about PJ, would suddenly come back into the fold. I dont think that happens.

Beyond us, the rabid hardcores, and the folks who have been with the band since day 1, who is their audience now? It sure as hell aint teenyboppers, Top 40 fans or even really mainstream rock fans.

orig_long red

their music appeals to people with a disposable income.

Phantom Pain

These days it just depends on what other albums are coming out at the same time

Nothing is really coming out that would bump PJ from the top spot

Didn't the last album sell 279,000 its first week ? its around the same number this time but nothing coming out will top it is the difference

slightofjeff

Honestly, I'm not sure it's that big a deal.

It's sort of like sort of a blah movie will come out, one that nobody on Earth thinks will be any good, but since it's new, people go see it and for about a week you'll hear apalling things like "Norbit is the No. 1 movie in America!"

I'm not trying to compare Pearl Jam to Norbit, obviously. I'm just saying I don't think these designations mean very much anymore. Something new comes out, there is a small rush of people buying it, and then it goes away.h

musicismylife78

Phantom Pain wrote:

These days it just depends on what other albums are coming out at the same time

Nothing is really coming out that would bump PJ from the top spot

Didn't the last album sell 279,000 its first week ? its around the same number this time but nothing coming out will top it is the difference

true in 2006, i think the Peppers and Tool had records coming out on May 2 as well

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

its a really big cult, and Tool doesnt have an album coming out the same week. Its elling less than ST, which is suprising to me.

OceansMagnet

I said it all over here...
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=112299#p2539172

aNiMaL

Meh, I would say 75-80% of people who go to Pearl Jam concerts and buy their albums are not "us." Most fans, even most fan club members, do not post on these message boards. I think we're the minority as far as the overall fan base goes.

decides2dream

slightofjeff wrote:

Honestly, I'm not sure it's that big a deal.

It's sort of like sort of a blah movie will come out, one that nobody on Earth thinks will be any good, but since it's new, people go see it and for about a week you'll hear apalling things like "Norbit is the No. 1 movie in America!"

I'm not trying to compare Pearl Jam to Norbit, obviously. I'm just saying I don't think these designations mean very much anymore. Something new comes out, there is a small rush of people buying it, and then it goes away.h

this made me laugh!



and yes, it's too true......if you are surrounded by mediocrity, it's quite easy to come out on top, even for just a little while. and i don't want to get critical on backspacer, but also.....maybe it does appeal more to the masses who like, well...other music.....



btw - ALL of these designations never meant more.....they simply mean what is popular, right now. 'being popular' in and of itself, means nothing in regards to quality necessarily, tho of course....the two can go hand-in-hand, but they are not mutually exclusive.



btw -

"It sure as hell aint teenyboppers, Top 40 fans or even really mainstream rock fans."

how can you possibly know that? it's a new album, lots of people simply give new music a shot.....and honestly, i think 'mainstream rock fans' most definitely make up the bulk of pj's fanbase. they really aren't this cult, counterculture, exclusive, inaccessible music that people like to make them, and themselves, out to be.

DewieCox

aNiMaL wrote:

Meh, I would say 75-80% of people who go to Pearl Jam concerts and buy their albums are not "us." Most fans, even most fan club members, do not post on these message boards. I think we're the minority as far as the overall fan base goes.

75-80??? I'd say 95% or so at the most.............. There's a little joke I've seen around here......

How do you make a PJ concert get completely quiet?? A: ask "Who posts on the message board?"


JayZ and Whitney released their albums earlier.

DH62179

They may have a cult following but that's not all they have, they are still very relevant in the music biz and the mainstream. Yield went up against Titanic and reached #2, Binaural went against Britney Spears and reached #2 and those two sold more than BS is set to. Riot Act went up against a number of hip hop artists and a rock band will never win that battle especially when it didn't sell well and S/T ran into Tool (I still don't get why 10,000 days sold so much, it blows). All in all I think they just got lucky with their release date in terms of debuting @ #1, but they're still going to outsell a lot of #1 albums from the past few years w/ 200K or so, I think that Colbie Caillat chick sold 75K a few weeks ago and hit #1.

BF25394

It's really not that complicated. All it takes to debut at number one in the SoundScan era is a good-sized core fanbase, the type of fans who anticipate the release date and buy the album as soon as it's available. If you are the only artist of that kind with a release that week, you are a virtual cinch to debut at number one.

What would be surprising would be for "Backspacer" to do what "Vs." did: debut at number one and remain there for five weeks. In all likelihood, "Backspacer" won't even be in the top 25 in its fifth week.

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

i have been hearing from non fan friends of mine about it (without me mentioning anything), so it does have traction in the real world. moreso than their last 3 albums.

but yeah this thing will probably drop like a rock after the first 2 weeks.

djjazzy276

In the end I think it boils down to something pretty simple. I know us message board people are die hard fans, but I think there are also a lot of fans who aren't on here, but still have a fairly strong interest in hearing what the band has to offer. Those two groups of people are the ones who are going to go out and buy the album in the first week. Those sales alone, coupled with weak competition easily put Pearl Jam at #1. I imagine we'll see a steep drop off in week two, because most people who really want the album will have already bought and/or downloaded it. It'll see modest sales after that and eventually go gold and maybe platinum in a year or so's time. That seemed to happen with S/T and I don't see why that wouldn't be the case this time around too.

soulsinging

- commercial
- big promotional push by major retailer
- nobody else half as big as pj released a new album this week
- even if they had, pj appeals to a lot of people who maybe aren't so keen on downloading and the like, so hard sales are unusually high
- the cover kicks ass, i bet a ton of people picked it up just to see what the hell it is and figured 'what the hell'
- ITW, Conan, nfl soundbytes, Ed solo tours, etc all gave the band a higher profile this time around than they've had in a long while

DF691

i'm impressed with the fact that they are not signed to a major label and are able to score the (potentially) #1 record in the country. don't get me wrong, i fully support (every chance i can) indie record labels but they seldom have "major" selling records. tip of the hat to PJ.

JonnyPistachio

its funny if you think of the US as having 307,000,000 people. if less than 0.5% buy it, you're actually doing pretty good on the charts.

Wilds

I only know what I read on this board, but it seems as if Just Breathe has or had a pretty good run on the itunes singles chart.

I would guess that must be word of mouth.

It also seems as if they are pushing this album less than S/T was pushed. The band was doing a lot of promotion and interviews I thought at the time.

This time it seems pretty quiet. (All of this is from memory and current perception, so I could be wrong)

But I would think cause this album is pretty accessible to the more mainstream vibe, there is a word of mouth push that is helping it to sell.

JOEJOEJOE

BF25394 wrote:

It's really not that complicated. All it takes to debut at number one in the SoundScan era is a good-sized core fanbase, the type of fans who anticipate the release date and buy the album as soon as it's available. If you are the only artist of that kind with a release that week, you are a virtual cinch to debut at number one.

What would be surprising would be for "Backspacer" to do what "Vs." did: debut at number one and remain there for five weeks. In all likelihood, "Backspacer" won't even be in the top 25 in its fifth week.

I agree.....the die-hard fans buy it upon release, so getting to #1 is easy......sustaining the #1 spot is very unlikely....I bet it will drop out of the top 25 by the 3rd week.

marcos

I agree with most of the posts here that nothing else came out the same week which is big for a band but this also in conjunction with that everything released within the past year have sucked barring the Dead Weather who noone really knows or cares about. I also think the fact they are possibly a little less political. I understand the importance of being political but i just like to jam and forget about that shit sometimes.

Gardenparty

Pearl Jam is a mainstream rock band. If you think they're "cult" you may want to research underground music a little more.

Also, as stated, this one has sold around (mostly under) what the last ones have done. Just a weak week for releases

Backspacer_Backer

honestly, if the promote Just Breathe to pop and rock stations, BS could hang in the top 10 for a few weeks. that song has tons of mainstream appeal. but it doesn't seem like they are preparing to do so at the moment.

bigbadbill

musicismylife78 wrote:

Phantom Pain wrote:

These days it just depends on what other albums are coming out at the same time

Nothing is really coming out that would bump PJ from the top spot

Didn't the last album sell 279,000 its first week ? its around the same number this time but nothing coming out will top it is the difference

true in 2006, i think the Peppers and Tool had records coming out on May 2 as well

I do recall Brittney Spears had an album come out the day Binaural came out also in 2000. I ended up trading it in to buy Binaural in the long run.

PorchRats

I'd say it has a lot to do with Pearl jam's fanbase being older and used to buying Albums when they come out. The typical kids these days don't buy CD's anymore. They download the 1 or 2 songs that the radio plays and put them on their IPOD. Its a shame to because the best songs are NEVER the ones the radio plays!

BF25394

One thing that would goose record sales is a high-profile promotional appearance. The Conan appearance, with the large audience tuned in for his first show, could have been that, but it was too long ago. If the album had been out at that time, Pearl Jam would have sold 10,000-50,000 additional copies that week. I'm not sure that Letterman or SNL would have the same effect-- their audiences are too small. The only option now is to get Oprah to plug the album.

PJammin'

DF691 wrote:

i'm impressed with the fact that they are not signed to a major label and are able to score the (potentially) #1 record in the country. don't get me wrong, i fully support (every chance i can) indie record labels but they seldom have "major" selling records. tip of the hat to PJ.

well said. MAJOR TIP OF THE HAT TO PJ FOR THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT.

they are always blazing a new trail.

choop

the answer is simple, people on the board were posting about the copies they bought from 10C, the cd and vinyl, then the target cd they bought, and then because they couldn't wait they bought the download from itunes. so whatever the total sales were, divide it by 4.... theres your actual number of people who bought it

elderman

I notice that the biggest album chart act at the moment Jay-Z sold 450k 1st week, 300k last week......what will it fall to next?????...... because the projected PJ sales are around 200k.
Dont think there is another big album out this week.
Interesting... but it would be nice for the band to have a #1 after all these years

BF25394

Jay-Z's album is something of an outlier, for reasons explained by Billboard below:

"Jay-Z remains in the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with his new album "The Blueprint 3" shifting 298,000 copies (down 37%) in its second week. The set bowed atop the list last week with 476,000.

Traditionally, No. 1-debuting albums that start with monster sales weeks have a steeper second-week decline. Jay-Z's drop, however, was fairly soft, in part because last week was the album's first proper week of availability. Though "The Blueprint 3" had its Sept. 11 release pushed up to Sept. 8, many retailers reportedly didn't have the album until later that week. Jay-Z also performed on the premiere of NBC's "Jay Leno Show," and the residual buzz from his MTV Video Music Awards performance likely bled into sales."

So, you can expect a steep drop for Jay-Z this week-- as indicated by the early sales that show Pearl Jam outselling everything else.

yield2me

musicismylife78 wrote:

they deserve it obviously, but I am having a hard time figuring out how this is possible. yes they are a major rock band, a legendary major act, but face it, in many ways this is a cult band. They are a big deal to us, but beyond us, I dont think there is much. Thats due to alot of stuff. The majority of people either moved on to other genres of music post Kurts death, or they forgot PJ existed when the band retreated from the mainstream in the mid to late 90's.

So I am having a hard time figuring out, how such a band could have the number one album of the week, their first in 13 years.

Has The Fixer, and Got Some really done all that well?

In some ways, it does make sense, This is the most mainstream and accessible Pearl jam record since Ten. Politics that could divide fans are absent. The songs arent really about complex or abstract ideas. Its really an album about love, and finding a place in the world.

But on the other hand, I find it hard to believe those fans who moved on, or forgot about PJ, would suddenly come back into the fold. I dont think that happens.

Beyond us, the rabid hardcores, and the folks who have been with the band since day 1, who is their audience now? It sure as hell aint teenyboppers, Top 40 fans or even really mainstream rock fans.

good is good, that's why

BF25394

I don't think political content has much impact on first-week sales, at least not in a positive sense. In other words, people who were turned off by the band's politics on "Riot Act" and "Pearl Jam" are generally not going to be aware of the absence of overt political content on "Backspacer."

If you are someone who finds Pearl Jam's political beliefs antithetical to your own such that you stopped buying the band's records, I doubt that you would run out to buy the new album, even if you might have read an article that describes the new album as less political or even apolitical.