These Are The Best-Selling Musicians' Biggest Album Flops

Quick Links

• Queen: Hot Space (1982)

• Christina Aguilera: Bionic (2010)

• U2: Songs of Innocence (2014)

• Shania Twain: Now (2018)

• Britney Spears: Britney Jean (2013)

• Mariah Carey: Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse (2014)

• Elton John: Victim Of Love (1979)

• Katy Perry: Smile (2020)

Highlights

• Best-selling musicians sometimes experience album flops; negative reviews and poor sales don't always reflect their overall success.
• Queen's Hot Space and Katy Perry's Smile were highly anticipated albums that failed to meet sales expectations.
• Factors like experimental styles, controversial distribution methods, and personal challenges can contribute to disappointing album performances for popular musicians.

Music is a divine thing, and to achieve divinity, the best-selling musicians endeavor to create it precisely, in order to hit the right notes and enchant the audience.

Despite years of striving and extensive experience delighting fans, even the most popular musicians sometimes fail miserably ... but their reputation and ability to enrapture the crowd are a saving grace.

There are many examples where, despite negative reviews and poor critical ratings, a best-selling musician's album received millions in sales.

By the same token, there are some rare instances when legendary musicians failed miserably, and even their biggest fans couldn't prevent an album from becoming a gigantic financial failure, or "flop."

Let’s explore instances where wildly popular and acclaimed musicians surprisingly fell short of expectations, releasing albums that fell flat on the charts, unable to manage substantial sales.

8 Queen: Hot Space (1982)

More than eight hundred thousand units sold is a significant achievement for emerging artists, but this is Queen, one of the greatest bands in the history of rock.

One year before Hot Space was issued, Queen released compilations of their hit songs album under the name Greatest Hits, which sold 25 million copies.

Additionally, their album, The Game (1980) garnered twelve million copies sold.

Queen has sold 300 million albums, and the total net worth of Queen members is $635 million.

The net worth of John Deacon is $170 million, Roger Taylor has amassed $200 million, Brian May has collected $200 million, and the legendary musician Freddie Mercury was able to accumulate $55 million.

Sadly, Freddie Mercury left the world in 1991, at the relatively young age of 45.

In 1970, Queen began their career, but by the early 1980s, they were invincible, establishing themselves as the biggest rock band in the world.

In their prime, they were selling millions, but an unexpected event occurred.

Hot Space couldn't sell a million copies, becoming the most disappointing album in Queen's career.

The tenth studio album from this great band was a kind of experimental album, and people rejected their pop dance version of the album.

7 Christina Aguilera: Bionic (2010)

Dazzling five-time Grammy Award winner Christina Aguilera's beginning was not easy; her road to fame started when she was just eleven years old.

Aguilera used to participate in reality shows, aiming to achieve the fame she deserved.

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Her rightful recognition arrived when she was 19 years old in 1999, with the release of the song "Genie In A Bottle," and it seemed like the real genie in a bottle was fulfilling all her wishes.

Her first song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks and became the second best-selling single of 1999.

Christina Aguilera's net worth is $160 million, with the majority of her wealth acquired through her music career.

Christina Aguilera was heralded as the "The Voice Of A Generation" after her first hit (due to "her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes"), and she didn’t look back.

Her first album, Christina Aguilera, sold a whopping 14 million copies, and her 2002 album Stripped sold ten million.

Everything was going well for the New York-born singer, but her Bionic album dropped and, despite millions of followers, she couldn’t sell millions, which was a uniquely unpleasant experience for the chart-topping songstress.

According to the Washington Post, Bionicdidn't live up to expectations; with respect to the album's reception, critics surmised that Aguilera tried too hard to be innovative.

Some songs on the album stood out as particularly unpopular, such as "Sex for Breakfast," though some critics praised her for a bold new approach.

6 U2: Songs of Innocence (2014)

Irish rock band U2 is among the greatest and most acclaimed modern bands in the world.

U2 was formed way back in 1976, and is still intact after nearly half a century.

U2 has sold 175 million copies worldwide, accounting for all of their releases. Their albums are known to create havoc in the musical world, and are typically met with eager anticipation.

The album Joshua Tree sold 25 million copies, while Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind sold 18 and twelve million copies respectively.

The collective net worth of U2 is about $1.85 billion.

Larry Mullen Jr. has a net worth of $350 million, while Adam Clayton and the Edge each have an estimated net worth of $400 million.

U2's mononymous lead singer Bono has a net worth of $700 million.

U2 routinely sold millions of albums, then they released Songs Of Innocence; U2 decided to try something new when they teamed up with Apple to promote their album.

Famously, Apple released Songs Of Innocence via iTunes, in what would unfortunately come to be known as the "U2 iTunes controversy."

In late 2022, Bono again apologized for the manner in which the album was distributed.

Variety described the center of the controversy – that U2's Songs Of Innocence was added to the iTunes libraries of all users – and quoted Bono as he looked back on the disastrous incident:

What ensued shortly after was a controversy that many iTunes users can recall, with customers discovering the album on their phone, with no explanation as to how they’d received it.

"As one social media wisecracker put it, ‘Woke up this morning to find Bono in my kitchen, drinking my coffee, wearing my dressing gown, reading my paper.’ Or, less kind, ‘The free U2 album is overpriced.'

"Mea Culpa," Bono said of the reaction at the time. “If just getting our music to people who like our music was the idea, that was a good idea. But if the idea was getting our music to people who might not have had a remote interest in our music, maybe there might be some pushback.

"At first I thought this was just an internet squall, but quickly realized we’d bumped into a serious discussion about big tech ... I take full responsibility. Not Guy O, not Edge, not Adam, not Larry, not Tim Cook, not Eddy Cue. I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite."

Despite some well liked songs, fans felt that Songs Of Innocence was forced upon half a billion people, and they quickly turned their ire toward the album itself, the band, and Apple.

Music pundits ultimately believed U2's Songs Of Innocence flopped because of Apple's unorthodox means of distributing it.

5 Shania Twain: Now (2018)

The top-selling female artist in country music, Shania Twain, released her self-titled album and sold more than a million copies.

However, her second album The Woman In Me led to her superstar status, by attracting 20 million album buyers.

Major success occurred when her album Come On Over broke all records and became the eighth highest-selling album of all time, selling an astonishing 40 million copies.

Shania Twain's net worth is a whopping $400 million, earned through her music and television appearances.

Shania Twain was enjoying her blockbuster career, but unfortunately, she contracted Lyme disease caused by a tick bite, leading to a temporary loss of her voice.

To regain her vocal range, she underwent several surgeries, but feared the possibility she would "never be able to sing again."

This warrior came back after 15 years with the album Now, but a 15-year break and her bout with Lyme disease represented massive roadblocks.

Her Now album failed in terms of sales (and listeners noticed a change in her voice) but Shania Twain is determined to reclaim her position at the top of the charts.

4 Britney Spears: Britney Jean (2013)

The princess of pop, Britney Spears, is one of the greatest pop singers of the 1990s and 2000s, managing to stand out in what was a golden age in the genre.

With more than 175 million sales, from 1999 to 2003, she created four albums and sold 60 million copies.

Forbescrowned Spears as the "Most Powerful Celebrity" in 2002.

Britney Spears' net worth is estimated at a scant $60 million, whereas her fellow singers have amassed way more than that.

She couldn't increase her net worth because, from 2008 through 2021, her father controlled her finances and life due to a controversial conservatorship.

Unfortunately, Britney Spears' rapidly ascendant musical career took an abrupt downturn after she shaved her head and appeared to have a high-profile breakdown in the mid-2000s.

A conservatorship controversy arose after her father filed a petition to seize control of her career, citing her alleged instability.

Against her will, her father Jamie Spears and an attorney became her conservators, gaining legal control over every aspect of her life for 13 years.

Over time, fans began investigating, and Spears' plight became more well known, leading to what was known as the "Free Britney Movement," a collective effort to draw attention to and end the strict conservatorship.

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Through those challenging times, Britney continued making music and earned millions; she was famously granted just $2,000 per week through her conservators for the duration of the arrangement.

In 2007, 2008, and 2011, she released albums, each reaping a million or more in sales.

However, in 2013, her fans witnessed a significant decline in her music, perhaps a result of the hardships she was facing.

The Guardian gave Britney Jean just two stars, but praised some songs that were effective, and the album received mixed reviews from the public.

3 Mariah Carey: Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse (2014)

Mariah Carey is the highest-certified female musician and the tenth highest-certified person worldwide.

Mariah has sold an estimated 220 million copies throughout her musical career.

The five-time Grammy Award winner was the most in-demand singer in the 1990s, and sold 127 million copies of her albums in the last decade of the twentieth century.

Mariah Carey's staggering net worth is approaching $350 million.

The New York-born music superstar earned her most wealth through her incredible musical talent.

No album by Mariah Carey has garnered fewer than a million buyers, but when Me. I Am Mariah. The Elusive Chanteuse was released, it disappointed both record labels and Mariah herself, as it only managed to sell 58,000 copies.

Mariah was hopeful that her album would pick up the pace, but it vanished from the market and charts instantly.

Her fourteenth studio album became the most disappointing album of her life.

2 Elton John: Victim Of Love (1979)

One more shocking entry from a legend and best-selling musician is on this "album flops" list.

The failure of Victim Of Love was a shock to everyone, because the 1970s were a golden era for Elton John.

Elton sold Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 31 million times in 1973, and two albums from his Greatest Hits sold more than 23 million times in the same decade.

Elton John's net worth is estimated at around $550 million, primarily amassed through his music and acting career.

In the late '70s, Elton John released Victim Of Love, and the album quickly became the victim of public disapproval.

Fans completely rejected this album, and critics were equally harsh.

Elton John also eventually rejected this work; he didn't include any songs from this album on his greatest hits or career highlight releases.

1 Katy Perry: Smile (2020)

The modern musical wizardess, the Queen of Camp, Katy Perry, faced disappointment in the relatively recent year of 2020.

People anticipated that the singer of the song "Roar" would easily sell a million copies in a week.

Her album dropped after three years of waiting, with fans eagerly awaiting her new album.

Katy Perry is one of the highest-earning entertainers in the world, with an estimated net worth of $340 million.

In September 2023, Forbes decreed her the richest "self-made woman" in America.

The pop superstar charged $25 million for judging one season of American Idol .

Katy Perry released her album Smile in 2020, and in the first week, she only managed to sell 50,000 copies.

Moreover, out of those 50,000 sales, 35,000 sales were attributed to merchandise bundles – in other words, if anyone bought anything from Katy Perry's website, they received a copy of the album for free.

Critics and fans completely rejected her sixth studio album, rendering harsh criticism, such as "nonsensical lyrics" or "vulgar songs."

Despite this, fans continue to support her – but by many metrics, it appears Katy Perry's musical popularity is declining.

Some have speculated Perry's political activism has adversely impacted her career, while others suggested she lost interest in music because she is so engrossed in making money through her TV appearances.

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Finally, a gentle reminder: Despite having millions of followers worldwide and numerous chart-topping songs in their collection, even the world's best-selling musicians can fail.

Musicians strive hard. Sometimes their efforts enchant the world, but at other times, they face disappointment, poor sales, and harsh criticism.

There is no certain formula or secret behind best-selling musicians' hits, as the finicky public has rejected albums for being too ambitious as well as for innovating too little.

However, the best-selling musicians tend to overcome an album flop, soon returning to make people dance and be inspired through their talent and art, as all of the above have done.

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