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Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
Guns N' Roses Out Of Ammo Already?
By: Don KayeAccording to industry website Hits Daily Double, the new Guns N'Roses album, Chinese Democracy, looks likely to sell a total of around 56,000 copies in its second week of release, causing it to fall out of the Billboard album chart's Top 10. If that number proves accurate, the album will experience a 78 percent drop from its first week sales of 261,000 -- an unheard-of decline even in these dying days of the CD industry. Full sales figures will be released on Wednesday (December 10th).
Analysts have already begun going over what happened to Chinese Democracy, which arrived on November 23rd as a Best Buy exclusive after a wait of more than 15 years. The most immediate comparison has been to AC/DC's new Black Ice, which also came out through a single retailer, in this case Wal-Mart, and sold nearly 800,000 copies in its first week after an eight-year gap between albums.
But AC/DC did interviews, online initiatives and TV appearances to promote their album, also launching a major North American tour days after its arrival. Guns N'Roses has not scheduled any live dates, and frontman Axl Rose -- the band's sole remaining original member -- has not done a single interview or made any appearances to help with his record's marketing or even justify using the Guns N'Roses brand for what sounds more like a Rose solo outing.
Some have also suggested that Best Buy was far less experienced at this sort of release, while Wal-Mart pioneered it with albums from the Eagles and Garth Brooks. The retailer paid $14 million for 1.6 million copies of the Guns N' Roses album, according to Hits.
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
The public decided long ago that they didn't think THIS was GNR. People seem to think this happened overnight, but ever since they re-appeared with the 2001 lineup people refused to see them as GNR. If they released the album then it still wouldn't have been a huge success.
I disagree. The public(at the time) was willing to give this a chance. He talked about rebuilding the band from scratch. In 2000-01, he basically had a supergroup. The few shows were well received and got media attention. While the 2002 tour eventually imploded, they actually started out with a killer buzz. The VMAs caused a major buzz. Its only in hindsight that people are able to say "that was a failure. Everyone hated it, especially the freak!". The public was ready to embrace that lineup. The mistake of course was going on a tour without the album. It showed that he wasn't taking it seriously.
Then we get years of silence, excuses, band members leaving, people joining, leaks that helped deflate the myth,etc. After all that, only the hardcores stuck around. Nobody else cared anymore.
The sad thing about all this is that its the album we would have got back then. We'll never truly know the potential this album had simply because it was released at the wrong time. Put this album in stores in summer 2002 and its an entirely different ballgame.
- Gunslinger
- Rep: 88
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
I agree with James on this, had CD been released back in 2002 it would have been a much bigger hit. Many of the fans (let alone we diehards) got really pissed off by all the excuses, delays, blown chances, etc. The album went from myth to joke in the public's eye. Losing the key members of the lineup didn't help any either. I think the death nail was Axl saying "this year" in 2006. The "Tuesdays left" countdown didn't help. That year was the last chance CD had to get maximum effect. I still think the album can (and probably will) be saved to some degree but it will take some participation by Axl, some better promo and a video would go a long way. Of course a video may not be possible...we don't even know if there is a band left to do a video.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
I don't think 2002 was the time at all. There are massive problems with the 2002 situation:
1. Axl's voice in 2002 for whatever reason was really bad. If it was damaged or he was trying something new I don't know. But it wasn't right.
2. His new style of hip hop clothes didn't really suit him.
3. Robin looked bad. And he played Slash's solos worse. Bucket looks freaky but backs it up with impossible skills. Robin was looking freaky and backing it up with a poor cover tune.
4. Further to the above...the reliance of the old material did not help. You want the public to accept a new band you either need to present a lot of new material showcasing the new band or play the old material faithfully and impressively. This band played the iconic guitar parts wrong and axl sang in a new voice to go with it.
5. Bumble's additions to the songs would be lost and a lot of these really elevate the leaks IMHO.
In short 2002 was the marketing time yes, but by 2006 the band had more shit together....Axl looked cool and classic but modern from his old look in a way that suited the genre, Robin was playing better, Axl's voice was fixed. The loss of bucket was a shame though.
What we needed was the impossible - the 2006 situation but with bucket still around and with the full new album done - all in 2002 and it just wasn't ready at that stage.
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
I think you guys are looking too far into it. This has become a 2002 GN'R vs. 2006 GN'R war.
James is right. Bottom line, the time to strike for oil was 2001-02. Axl blew it. When he lost Bucket, his chances at a re-invention were finished.
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_ … deb2054e55
"Guns N' Roses' pan-European reign is thus limited to one week, as "Chinese Democracy" (Black Frog/Geffen/Universal) falls into runner-up spot."
number 2 on Europe Chart this week behind Britany. World Chart comes out tomorrow.
- ShoGunslinger
- Rep: 1
Re: Chinese Democracy Chart Positions Thread
It seems that I remember AFD kinda doing much of nothing for almost a year. "Jungle" was only shown late night on MTV and not causing too much of a stir. Suddenly the SCo'M video starts getting heavy rotation on MTV and the album takes off...almost a year later! Chinese Democracy may have the same type of gestation period (like a time released pill, maybe it just hasn't kicked in yet). All I'm sayin' is don't sweat the album sales just yet. Hopefully a video, "Street of Dreams" or "Catcher" could be the Sweet Child o' Mine for CD. If mTV (lower case "M" because music is the last thing that channel has on it's mind) puts the hypothetical video into rotation who knows? Chinese Democracy in my opinion is a great album and no less than I expected from this great band! The world will know...they just gotta shake the Fall Out Boy, Beyonce', Kanye crap outta their ears!
