i personally agree with most of the reviews that were put out at the time of avocado... best pearl jam album in a decade. yield was better, by quite a bit actually, but its also hard being an almost thirty year old pj fan compared to a 15 or 16 year old pj fan that we all were. first of all, we were in our youth. those were the albums that we grew up with. they are always going to hold a more special place to us because of that. i mean i still get excited when a new pj album comes out, but its not the same. my point is that if the songs that are on avacado were on vs or vitalogy, we would have liked them alot more i believe. if that makes any sense... and whoever said that album sales are different now couldnt be more correct. think about how many less people actually go and buy cd's now in the age of ipods??!! alot less. and to the guy tht said pearl jam is just a live band now couldnt be more wrong. while u cant ever expect them to have the new fans that they did in 1991 or 92, they still sell a considerable amount of records. they still attract new fans i believe. but lets face it, in the age of american idol and emo, they are not going to get alot of teenage fans like they did at one time. do you think that zeppelin would have been getting new teenage fans in waves had they been around 17 years later?! probably not. but if they choose to, pj will be doing exactly what petty and springsteen are doing today.. still selling alot of records and selling out stadiums around the world. where do you think daughtry will be in 17 years? my chemical romance? fall out boy?
I think the bigger point is that they are not in the places that young people hear music. TV is where a lot of bands get discovered and they are not very often in that realm. Things like Guitar Hero have driven up Evenflow sales on Itunes. They also completely ignored and let what southern USA following they had diminish so they have made their own bed. They are relevant in the US in the Northeast and Seattle. Also a few major midwest cities but that is about it. Middle America and the South have no clue who they are anymore in general. If they did car commercials and e-trade commercials and volkswagen commercials then maybe it would change. They are also very dreary lyrically. I try to find songs to add into presentations or events and nothing fits because it is all so dreary. Kids in this generation seem pretty happy compared to the 90's.
nowayi'mfaithful.....not for nothing, but i live in williamstown and totally disagree with what you say about playing yield on the radio in philly. the only songs i hear on the radio are betterman, alive, evenflow, and corduroy.
...please note, i don't listen to matt cord at 10:00, because i have to get up so early for work, so you may be able to shed some light on that for me
This is such a silly topic. One thing about Pearl Jam fans that I dont understand, and I have been the same way at times in my life, Is why we're always wondering if Pearl Jam is or is not "Popular" anymore. Everytime I see a topic like this it makes me dought myself in being the true fan that I am of this band. We should all feel lucky, if you are like me, that they still decide to make records and play for us. Not wondering why they aren't selling MILLIONS! PJ have always been against making sales important. All in All, was Pearl Jam ever really popular at "one" time? or was Someone else selling us that idea?
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I don't care if your band has Jimi Hendrix on lead, Jimmy Page on rhythm, and John Lennon as the lead singer; no one is going to sell even 5 million units of one disc again. The leading album seller last year was Josh Groban's Christmas album (3 million). No one buys CDs anymore, other than as a gift. Teenagers don't buy them at all. And that's what fm radio is geared towards! Personally, I think the music industry needs one great big Aenima. Just let the fall out continue until businesses that know what they're doing, and aren't in it for the profit margin (Sony!) are left.
Record sales are not the same as they used to be but as someone else said, the Foo fighters are selling better. So you can't blame it all on illegal downloads. It effects every band so you can still compare PJs sales vs. Their peers. Tool crushed avacados sales that first week.
Everyone keeps talking about teenagers, who needs em! The 10 million former teenagers who bought Ten are still around and know who Pearl Jam is. What they would need is to get these people talking again. I'm not saying they could ever sell 10 million copies again in the current market but less than 1 million copies in the entire country is pathetic given the amount of fans that they once had who are still walking around and breathing.
My favorite story surrounding Avocado was when that 10-15 second snippet of WWS was released. However long it was, it was not nearly enough to formulate an opinion of the album or even the song but people here were blowing a gasket saying PEARL JAM IS BACK!!! THEY ARE GONNA SELL A MILLION!!! OMG!!!! I would love to find those threads and see who was saying that.
As for sales, to me it is just a mediocre overproduced rock album that doesn't stand out at all. I love Come Back and Comatose. I like WWS. I think Severed Hand and Life Wasted are about as generic as it gets. Gone is pretty generic as well. I don't dislike the album as a whole but I can see why it never really caught on to the masses. American Idiot and Vertigo were extremely catchy songs that worked on a variety of radio stations.
And whoever said the Life Wasted video sucked...you were totally right. Awful video.
I have five kids from age 10-16 and NONE of them have ever bought a CD in their lives!
CD's are going away
I bought albums like a fiend growing up but my kids don't.
They all seem to know of Pearl Jam though (not just because of me), and they still have an aura of coolness amongst kids even if they don't know much of their music. (They are still current and are not looked at as an "old persons band) - Sort of a Led Zeppelinish respect.
Avocado is good, but Into the Wild is way better. That is a good sign.
I liked Avocado more when it came out than now.
Yield is my favourite.
Save You is my favorite song live. (today at least)
I would say Pearl Jam is now a worldwide cultural movement/ experience and can't be measured by album sales.
I was shocked to have recently seen how many copies of avacado I saw in the used section at fye! How could you trade in that CD? You'd have to be high!
Bridge - 10/25/03
Mansfield I - 6/28/08
Eddie NYC - 8/4/08
Seattle - 9/21/09, 9/22/09
Salt Lake City 9/28/09
LA 9/30/09, 10/07/09
San Diego 10/9/09
Alpine Valley 9/03/11, 9/04/11 Ashbury Park 9/18/21 LA 5/06/21, 5/07/21 Phoenix 05/09/22 NYC 9/11/22 Denver 9/22/22
They're headlining 2 different major festivals 2 years in a row, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. I don't think the album boosted their popularity/fame much at all, but it definitely did prevent them from continuing to become more obscure.
pearl jam isn't as obscure as it seems. i'm 16 and high school and every single person i've asked knows who they are and at least 3 songs. also, i'm only 16 but i'm just as big of a fan as anyone on here. they've been my favorite band since i was into music and definitely changed the way i lookat life. god bless em. they don't need huuuge success, but they definitely have enough under their belt to be recognized.
I've just done the math and realize I've basically been a fan for as long as this guy has been alive.
Holy shit I feel old.
everybody wants the most they can possibly get
for the least they could possibly do
Perhaps they could take an old hit and do a new version of it with a popular hip-hop artist (since that's basically what resurrected Aerosmiths career). Andre 3000 and Pearl Jam releasing "Go". (just kidding of course)
Avacado is going on 800,000 sold, that is good nowadays. And Avacado just kicks too much ass for the average lame PJ fan, blah, blah you have heard it all before. "In my Tree, YaaaaY" "Comatose, Worldwide?, what is that garage dirty punk noise, ewww".
Idiots.
I think you're ass backwards. Most PJ fans love Avocado because it's full of generic crap they can relate to. Life Wasted? Severed Hand? WWS? Come Back? Some of the lamest riffs they've ever come up with. Releasing Life Wasted as a video was a horrible idea, because there is nothing interesting about that song at all. It's the most generic Pearl Jam song ever, and it's no suprise that it brought them ZERO new fans. And to think that people wanted Come Back to be a single. Ha! Yeah right. Let's release the weakest song on the album as a single because it's reminds me of my dead grandmother. That oughta bring some new fans out of the woodwork. NOT.
Only two or three songs on Avocado stand out as being truly excellent. Riot Act sounds like like Sgt Pepper in comparison. And we all know how much that "fans" love that one. :rolleyes:
I think you're ass backwards. Most PJ fans love Avocado because it's full of generic crap they can relate to. Life Wasted? Severed Hand? WWS? Come Back? Some of the lamest riffs they've ever come up with. Releasing Life Wasted as a video was a horrible idea, because there is nothing interesting about that song at all. It's the most generic Pearl Jam song ever, and it's no suprise that it brought them ZERO new fans. And to think that people wanted Come Back to be a single. Ha! Yeah right. Let's release the weakest song on the album as a single because it's reminds me of my dead grandmother. That oughta bring some new fans out of the woodwork. NOT.
Only two or three songs on Avocado stand out as being truly excellent. Riot Act sounds like like Sgt Pepper in comparison. And we all know how much that "fans" love that one. :rolleyes:
You are kinda high here sir, only kinda though- as you nailed "Come Back" as being a bit ridicluous, or "generic crap" howeva... Life Wasted is a great song, the video stayed true to PJ ethics/ Worldwide Suicide is a lame riff? Do you have a reason for saying how a punk-rock raver ala the super-awesome "Grievance" after being Townshed-ified is "lame", other than you are an idiot looking to see how many negative nancy comments you can get out :>)Face it, Life Wasted,WWS,Comatose,Severed,MITS is the best album explosion PJ has ever done, certainly up their with the best any straight ahead rock act has done recently. We live in an era, that unless you act retarded like Green Day did with American Idiot (doing interviews with Teen magz etc..) you are not going to get "new fans" which people hereapparently equate with album sales. They did get new fans as they do every tour. I can name names if you like.
Album sales equations are bogus, as people just steal music nowadays. I do it, you do it, your dead grandmother does it. It makes judging record sales with the 90-s era untenable.
It's more in the 600,000-700,000 range. It hasn't sold more than Binaural, and that album sold about 750,000 copies.
A fella used to email me with PJ's Neilsen soundscans, I think it has done 700,000+, defintely maybe going on 800,000. Keep in mind the era we live in and I would unscientfically say that, by the year 2000 standards, that would be roughly equivalent to 1,200,000 million sold. Almost Yield like gang!
Face it, Life Wasted,WWS,Comatose,Severed,MITS is the best album explosion PJ has ever done, certainly up their with the best any straight ahead rock act has done recently.
I personally don't think this album is their best at all. To me it's in that same realm as everything post Yield. An ok album. I love the band so obviously I bought it...not really expecting much...and it was good. I don't think that the sound is all that accessible. Lot of my friends who are ex-pearl jam fans (the guys who only bought the first three records) I remember did not like the album at all. And most ended up selling it or returning it or something to that effect. To me the album doesnt really stand out. It's good. It's there. I will listen to it on occasion cuz I am a huge fan....but looking at it from an outside perspective...It's not anything all that special.
I know its a business thing.But I think they really made their Money with Ten,Vs. and Vitaolgy.I hope that the albums after that were more for the fans then the money.
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i've heard stone say that he hates to do the same thing twice. i bet pj could sell a 'market share equivalent' to ten million albums again. remember creed sold millions of albums because people thought 'higher' was an 'Alive' outtake. for pj, been there done that.
Well, exactly.
When in history have 15 to 18 year olds (who typicaly don't know shit, anyhow - and yes, you'll have to excuse the generalization) EVER flocked with enthusiasm to a band that began 15-18 years BEFORE their time?
You are asking for a new wave of record buying public ... one that has a very limited knowledge of who pearl jam is or was ... and has ZERO understanding of the climate they arose from ... or just how important they were in the early 90's music scene ...
they have no clue about the mass hysteria that ensued around Pearl Jam, and honestly, most of the ones who do probably scoff at it.
Its the old "hate your parent's music" mentality.
Pearl Jam are old hat.
They are dinosaurs.
Kids want to think they are on to the hip new thing.
Pearl Jam are ANYTHING but trendy.
Why would you even want that?
Ewww.
I like young fans,
i think its fucking great.
The ones that can weed out the crap, and find true creative beauty in bands like Pearl Jam ... i embrace their new inclusion in the Jamily.
That being said, why would you want the unwashed masses of idiot teeny boppers and moron fans fawning over a band that speaks about individualism and purity of spirit?
I hear ya.
It feels great to have the validation of the world,
but be careful what you wish for,
you probably don't really want it.
The only thing that matters is that it’s good music. I think it’s a big success . . . because it’s good music. Comatose and WWS are in my top 10 pj songs! There is a heck of a lot of good music out there that doesn’t sell millions of records.
Well I agree, I did not start the post, but I always enjoy a good debate and figured this a good topic.
Comments
but it was better than riot act....
but thats not saying too much...........................
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
Personally i think if Severed Hand was their first single this thing goes platinum. its radio friendly, old school rock n roll.
...please note, i don't listen to matt cord at 10:00, because i have to get up so early for work, so you may be able to shed some light on that for me
Jones Beach NY 1 + 3 - '00
MSG 1 + 2 - '03
Boston Garden - '04
Montreal - '05
Boston Garden 1, Meadowlands 1 + 2 - '06
Mansfield 1 - '08
(EV solo) Boston 1 - '08
Chicago 1 - '09
MSG -'10
Brooklyn 1+2 - '13
Central Park - '15
MSG - '16
Fenway - '16
Wrigley - '16
(RRHOF) Brooklyn - '17
Fenway - '18
MSG - '22
MSG 1 - '24
Most people though just look at me strangely when they get in my car and just see Bootleg CDs of Pearl Jam spread out every where...:(
06/18/08: Columbia
08/23/09 & 08/24/2009: Chicago
05/06/2010: Columus
05/07/2010: Indy
05/20/2010 & 05/21/2010: NYC
Everyone keeps talking about teenagers, who needs em! The 10 million former teenagers who bought Ten are still around and know who Pearl Jam is. What they would need is to get these people talking again. I'm not saying they could ever sell 10 million copies again in the current market but less than 1 million copies in the entire country is pathetic given the amount of fans that they once had who are still walking around and breathing.
As for sales, to me it is just a mediocre overproduced rock album that doesn't stand out at all. I love Come Back and Comatose. I like WWS. I think Severed Hand and Life Wasted are about as generic as it gets. Gone is pretty generic as well. I don't dislike the album as a whole but I can see why it never really caught on to the masses. American Idiot and Vertigo were extremely catchy songs that worked on a variety of radio stations.
And whoever said the Life Wasted video sucked...you were totally right. Awful video.
CD's are going away
I bought albums like a fiend growing up but my kids don't.
They all seem to know of Pearl Jam though (not just because of me), and they still have an aura of coolness amongst kids even if they don't know much of their music. (They are still current and are not looked at as an "old persons band) - Sort of a Led Zeppelinish respect.
Avocado is good, but Into the Wild is way better. That is a good sign.
I liked Avocado more when it came out than now.
Yield is my favourite.
Save You is my favorite song live. (today at least)
I would say Pearl Jam is now a worldwide cultural movement/ experience and can't be measured by album sales.
Ashbury Park 9/18/21
LA 5/06/21, 5/07/21
Phoenix 05/09/22
NYC 9/11/22
Denver 9/22/22
I've just done the math and realize I've basically been a fan for as long as this guy has been alive.
Holy shit I feel old.
for the least they could possibly do
I think you're ass backwards. Most PJ fans love Avocado because it's full of generic crap they can relate to. Life Wasted? Severed Hand? WWS? Come Back? Some of the lamest riffs they've ever come up with. Releasing Life Wasted as a video was a horrible idea, because there is nothing interesting about that song at all. It's the most generic Pearl Jam song ever, and it's no suprise that it brought them ZERO new fans. And to think that people wanted Come Back to be a single. Ha! Yeah right. Let's release the weakest song on the album as a single because it's reminds me of my dead grandmother. That oughta bring some new fans out of the woodwork. NOT.
Only two or three songs on Avocado stand out as being truly excellent. Riot Act sounds like like Sgt Pepper in comparison. And we all know how much that "fans" love that one. :rolleyes:
You are kinda high here sir, only kinda though- as you nailed "Come Back" as being a bit ridicluous, or "generic crap" howeva... Life Wasted is a great song, the video stayed true to PJ ethics/ Worldwide Suicide is a lame riff? Do you have a reason for saying how a punk-rock raver ala the super-awesome "Grievance" after being Townshed-ified is "lame", other than you are an idiot looking to see how many negative nancy comments you can get out :>)Face it, Life Wasted,WWS,Comatose,Severed,MITS is the best album explosion PJ has ever done, certainly up their with the best any straight ahead rock act has done recently. We live in an era, that unless you act retarded like Green Day did with American Idiot (doing interviews with Teen magz etc..) you are not going to get "new fans" which people hereapparently equate with album sales. They did get new fans as they do every tour. I can name names if you like.
Album sales equations are bogus, as people just steal music nowadays. I do it, you do it, your dead grandmother does it. It makes judging record sales with the 90-s era untenable.
A fella used to email me with PJ's Neilsen soundscans, I think it has done 700,000+, defintely maybe going on 800,000. Keep in mind the era we live in and I would unscientfically say that, by the year 2000 standards, that would be roughly equivalent to 1,200,000 million sold. Almost Yield like gang!
Nah
Wanna fight?
Me personally...am listening to it right now!
Tampa 00'
West Palm Beach 03'
House of Blues 03'
Tampa 03'
Kissimmee 04'
West Palm Beach 08'
Tampa 08'
Eddie Vedder Clearwater both nights 2012
Avocado was a great album, but if success means marketing and dumbing down to that crowd, then I don't want to see PJ sell millions of records.
Well said
Well I agree, I did not start the post, but I always enjoy a good debate and figured this a good topic.
no more shows