UPDATED with better math, but still maybe the biggest drop since before Madonna.
Janet Jackson– what have we done for her lately? Her “Unbreakable” album debuted last week at number 1 and sold 105,000 copies. Everyone was excited. I know I was. She got great press and great reviews.
But week 2 is a bust. “Unbreakable” fell 81.9%, from Number 1 to Number 7, and dropped to 19.3K copies. Ouch! Janet takes the record of biggest percentage drop from Madonna’s “MDNA.”
What happened? Well for one thing “Burn it Up,” the second single, with Missy Elliott, didn’t click anywhere. There was a brief buzz and then………….
Janet isn’t alone among 80s stars who can’t move product. Duran Duran’s “Paper Gods” came and went in the blink of an eye. And Prince’s recent album also sputtered out within two weeks. It’s hard out there!
It’s hard even if you’re a contemporary star. We still don’t know what happened to Sam Smith’s James Bond theme song, “The Writing’s on the Wall.” It died on impact with the real world. The single appears only on the “soft rock” radio chart at number 24, with almost no airplay.
