American Life Single Cliffhanger Problem

[newguy2001 50]

3 minutes ago, Prayer said:

It's easy to say in retrospective cause we know what happened, but "Die Another Day" had been another big hit all over the world for her just months earlier and it had been on that same electro vein that "American Life" also had (and "Music" before). So it was quite a conservative-don't rock the boat decision, really. Yes, it had the rap, but other than that it was simply an evolution of the same Mirwais sound she started three years before.

The video was the problem.

The video was fine, could have done with less of the violence and a little trimming, but once you separate it from the song, you are left with a dull, annoying quack sound draft song. She should have taken a risk and released the more folksy songs as singles, like Hollywood, Intervention, and Love Profusion to present the album. I think some people heard AL and were like "this electronic quackery again??!"

[Alpha 1,252]

56 minutes ago, Prayer said:

It's easy to say in retrospective cause we know what ended up happening, but "Die Another Day" had been another big hit all over the world for her just months earlier and it had been on that same electro vein that "American Life" also had (and "Music" before). So it was quite a conservative-don't rock the boat decision, really. Yes, it had the rap, but other than that it was simply an evolution of the same Mirwais sound she had started three years before.

The video was the problem.

Honestly I can't see any other better lead single on that album. Some people said "Nothing Fails" was the one, but I don't agree, launching the album with a ballad... I can't see it. And "Hollywood", while I love it as the second single, doesn't scream lead single material to me.

The video was the last of her problems. People hated the song and the album. Americans were not all on board with the Iraq war and alot of people were anti bush. People were not all of a sudden against Madonna because she spoke out against the war. Put on any track from the album at a party and it'll kill the vibe. I remember being in highschool and everyone thinking it was annoying and awful, they couldn't care less about politics at that age and it's not like a majority of Republicans were her fans to begin with. The album was gonna flop regardless of what single was chosen and them moving so slow was like watching a car wreck in slow motion.

[Prayer 14,630]

1 minute ago, Alpha said:

The video was the last of her problems. People hated the song and the album. Americans were not all on board with the Iraq war and alot of people were anti bush. People were not all of a sudden against Madonna because she spoke out against the war. Put on any track from the album at a party and it'll kill the vibe. I remember being in highschool and everyone thinking it was annoying and awful, they couldn't care less about politics at that age and it's not like a majority of Republicans were her fans to begin with. The album was gonna flop regardless of what single was chosen and them moving so slow was like watching a car wreck in slow motion.

It wasn't her most commercial album ever but let's not pretend like it was this abstract alternative, impossible to get, body of work either. I don't agree at all with the "it was going to flop anyway" narrative.

The video fiasco definitely hurt the whole campaign, actually it killed it completely in the US, while she was still getting Top 10s from that album all over the world.

But I agree it was a very confusing campaign and time, I think part of the reason of the Caresse firing was this.

[Alpha 1,252]

36 minutes ago, Prayer said:

It wasn't her most commercial album ever but let's not pretend like it was this abstract alternative, impossible to get, body of work either. I don't agree at all with the "it was going to flop anyway" narrative.

The video fiasco definitely hurt the whole campaign, actually it killed it completely in the US, while she was still getting Top 10s from that album all over the world.

But I agree it was a very confusing campaign and time, I think part of the reason of the Caresse firing was this.

You can disagree all you want but doesnt make it true. Also doesn't have to be abstract for people to not like it. It also didnt help that it was such a retread of Music but if Music was a bummer album. Also what other top 10 besides Hollywood? As far as I remember Love Profusion flopped in the UK and Nothing Fails wasnt some hit song in the territories it was released in. 

[Prayer 14,630]

21 minutes ago, Alpha said:

You can disagree all you want but doesnt make it true. Also doesn't have to be abstract for people to not like it. It also didnt help that it was such a retread of Music but if Music was a bummer album. Also what other top 10 besides Hollywood? As far as I remember Love Profusion flopped in the UK and Nothing Fails wasnt some hit song in the territories it was released in. 

Your highschool friends opinions memories don't validate your point either. There was a whole world beyond your inner kids circle and/or your personal memories from that time.

"American Life" singles worldwide Top 10 positions for you (main country charts):

- "American Life":

#1 Italy

#1 Denmark

#1 Portugal

#1 Switzerland

#2 UK

#2 Spain

#2 Greece

#2 Croatia

#3 Sweden

#3 Finland

#5 Canada

#5 Czech Republic

#7 Australia

#7 Ireland

#7 Austria

#9 Norway

#10 France

#10 Germany

#10 Belgium

- "Hollywood":

#2 UK

#2 Spain

#3 Italy

#3 Croatia

#4 Portugal

#5 Canada

#5 Czech Republic

#8 Finland

#10 Ireland

- "Nothing Fails":

#1 Spain

#7 Canada

#7 Italy

(Not released in the UK)

- "Love Profusion":

#1 Spain

#3 Canada

#3 Greece

#5 Italy

#7 Croatia

(+ #11 in the UK, hardly a flop)

[Alpha 1,252]

10 minutes ago, Prayer said:

Your highschool friends opinions memories don't validate your point either. There was a whole world beyond your inner kids circle and/or your personal memories from that time.

"American Life" singles worldwide Top 10 positions for you (main country charts):

- "American Life":

#5 Canada

#1 Italy

#1 Denmark

#1 Portugal

#1 Switzerland

#2 UK

#2 Spain

#2 Greece

#2 Croatia

#3 Sweden

#3 Finland

#5 Czech Republic

#7 Australia

#7 Ireland

#7 Austria

#9 Norway

#10 France

#10 Germany

#10 Belgium

- "Hollywood":

#2 UK

#2 Spain

#3 Italy

#3 Croatia

#4 Portugal

#5 Canada

#5 Czech Republic

#8 Finland

#10 Ireland

- "Nothing Fails":

#1 Spain

#7 Canada

#7 Italy

(Not released in the UK)

- "Love Profusion":

#1 Spain

#3 Canada

#3 Greece

#5 Italy

#7 Croatia

(+ #11 in the UK, hardly a flop)

Hardly smashes either other than the first two singles in the UK especially coming after a mega era so let's not pretend it was a huge lasting hit. It also was probably her first album that had singles totally forgotten other than AL but that's due to it being the first single with controversy. No offense to those countries but she's not gonna be bragging that those smaller markets did better. She was at least smart enough to do RIT. Who knows how the tour wouldve done if it was the American Life tour.

[Prayer 14,630]

10 minutes ago, Alpha said:

Hardly smashes either other than the first two singles in the UK especially coming after a mega era so let's not pretend it was a huge lasting hit. It also was probably her first album that had singles totally forgotten other than AL but that's due to it being the first single with controversy. No offense to those countries but she's not gonna be bragging that those smaller markets did better. She was at least smart enough to do RIT. Who knows how the tour wouldve done if it was the American Life tour.

No one said it was a huge lasting hit. Of course it wasn't her best era commercially.

But she fought it until the end and got some results for it, outside the US of course. Plus she got the Britney single in between, which was huge in Europe and Australia and the "Remixed & Revisited" EP.

[Alpha 1,252]

Just now, Prayer said:

No one said it was a huge lasting hit. Of course it wasn't her best era commercially.

But she fought it until the end and got results for it, outside the US of course. Plus she got the Britney single in between, which was huge in Europe and Australia.

But the results were medicore. Nothing would've changed that other than a completely different album.

[Prayer 14,630]

44 minutes ago, Alpha said:

But the results were medicore. Nothing would've changed that other than a completely different album.

You seem to be so caught up in the idea of the album being bad - cause you and your highschool friends didn't like it, so it got what it deserved - that you're incapable of seeing anything beyond that, even with facts presented.

"American Life" ended up selling 5 million copies worldwide - around the same "Erotica" and "Bedtime Stories" had done each of them, but all in a post-Napster world and with the whole old music industry collapsing.

While the album clearly underperformed in the US and did worse than "Music" and "Ray Of Light" generally, it wasn't the huge worldwide flop you're pretending it was.

It did extremely well in France (600.000 copies) and good in the UK (335.000) and Germany (200.000).

So yeah, I guess we can say some people actually liked it.

[Alpha 1,252]

21 minutes ago, Prayer said:

You seem to be so caught up in the idea of the album being bad - cause you and your highschool friends didn't like it, so it got what it deserved - that you're incapable of seeing anything beyond that, even with facts presented.

"American Life" ended up selling 5 million copies worldwide - around the same "Erotica" and "Bedtime Stories" had done each of them, but all in a post-Napster world and with the whole old music industry collapsing.

While the album clearly underperformed in the US and did worse than "Music" and "Ray Of Light" generally, it wasn't the huge worldwide flop you're pretending it was.

It did extremely well in France (600.000 copies) and good in the UK (335.000) and Germany (200.000).

So yeah, I guess we can say some people actually liked it.

Actually not at all. I was the gay freshman trying to rap about soy lattes wearing a camo-jacket trying to recreate the dance she does in the video. I actually pulled my groin because of it but we won't go there. And we HAVE to compare it to other work because she IS madonna. It also totally changed her trajectory and while in the early y2ks I thought it was her best album, after the dust has settled it definitely has become the sore spot. I have to wonder had it not flopped, what kind of Madonna would we be looking at right now. It also really signified her submissiveness towards Guy and was such a retread of Music just not as great. Maybe if Mirwais hadnt given her first #1 single since Take a Bow and first #1 album since Like a Prayer, we wouldn't have gotten such a repeat. 

[Donna 16,836]

I personally adore the American Life the album. Sure, it wasn't a typical Madonna album, but we definitely could see how she evolved into this album. Some of the Music album tracks started to take on this sound. I love the more folksy songs on the album especially "X-Static Process".  I agree the first single and the original video sorta killed any chance Madonna was going to smash with this album in the U.S.   Conservative news were all over the original video even though it was pulled before it got released.  Also, her interviews she unfortunately was asked about the volatile climate of the world.  People were just turned off by it and just assumed her album was Ant-American.  The album artwork certainly didn't help the assumption. It's too bad, because none of the songs have anything to do with the war that U.S. was heading into, nor was the album "anti-American".  Still, she move to London and spoke out against the administration and people just didn't connect with her. It's too bad because American Life is really a good album.  These days, many people who react to the album actually come away loving the album and how different it is to her previous albums. 

[BoyToyMark 359]

I adore the single run as is. A more commercial single run would probably have been Die Another Day, Hollywood, Nobody Knows Me and Love Profusion. American Life would be a great promo single for clubs and the tour.

In Australia, Die Another Day, American Life, Hollywood and Love Profusion were all played a lot and did well. I think has a lot more to with the political climate of the US at the time.

The Reinvention Tour would've been great here.

[Magic Pussy 242]

On 3/31/2024 at 6:30 PM, Starchild said:

I wouldn't change much about this project except the pulling of the original AL video (though I understand her reasoning), and releasing NF instead of LP.

 

Agreed. Pulling the original AL video was like her first self censoring but unlike Erotica/ SEX Book era when she was divorced and DAF, she had the safety of two kids under the age of 5 and a husband to consider. She must've really not thought the US was going to war bc of the $$$, time and impact of making that her album launching video. I suspect if she didn't have her family's safety to consider, I could see her going full steam ahead with promoting it. Aside from the AL video issue, it's admirable that she couldn't have been expecting the mass appeal of "Music" from this album. I'm sure it was tempting since "Ray of Light" and "Music" got a lot of people back in the Madonna tent. While there are musical elements carried over from "Music" from Mirwais, there were no bachelorette party bangers or go-go dancer friendly songs on AL, including remixes of "Hollywood". 

[MaDöner Kebab 6,908]

On 10/3/2023 at 9:25 PM, Drownedboy said:

The singles promo of that era was disastrous from the moment she canceled the american life video and release two great singles at the same time (nothing fails and love profussion) and nothing fails without a video, when they were not playing her anymore. Two amazing and very commercial songs flopping big time. It´s a shame cause great potential was there and overall she tried big with the promo of this one.

Three singles at the same time kinda 💀

Nothing Fails / Nobody Knows Me & Love Profusion

To answer the OP: I think there may have been plans to issue Nobody Knows Me as third single but when both, American Life and Hollywood tanked she had to release something that would connect more with US audiences again. Nothing Fails was definitely the best option despite being a bit of a boring single choice.

She asked people that attended Live & On The Record what the second single should be: Hollywood, Love Profusion or Mother And Father. So those were always options. I think the real switch came between Nothing Fails & Nobody Knows Me cause the remixes for NKM were released a little earlier.

[MaDöner Kebab 6,908]

1 hour ago, BoyToyMark said:

I adore the single run as is. A more commercial single run would probably have been Die Another Day, Hollywood, Nobody Knows Me and Love Profusion. American Life would be a great promo single for clubs and the tour.

In Australia, Die Another Day, American Life, Hollywood and Love Profusion were all played a lot and did well. I think has a lot more to with the political climate of the US at the time.

The Reinvention Tour would've been great here.

Nobody Knows Me was not a commercial single choice unless it was remixed and re-arranged entirely for the single mix.

I think Intervention, Love Profusion, Nothing Fails and possibly Mother And Father would have been the more commercially appealing choices. The first one especially. It’s like Nothing Fails but more uptempo. 

[Donna 16,836]

1 hour ago, BoyToyMark said:

I adore the single run as is. A more commercial single run would probably have been Die Another Day, Hollywood, Nobody Knows Me and Love Profusion. American Life would be a great promo single for clubs and the tour.

In Australia, Die Another Day, American Life, Hollywood and Love Profusion were all played a lot and did well. I think has a lot more to with the political climate of the US at the time.

The Reinvention Tour would've been great here.

I actually like the so called rap on American Life, especially on some of the remixes, when it's sped up. I will agree lyrically it sounds silly, but it's tongue and cheek indeed.  The song and album probably would have done better if it wasn't released at the time it was.  Still, it's a great album.  I think Nothing Fails probably would have been a better lead single for the album upon it's release.

[BoyToyMark 359]

Just now, McDonna said:

I actually like the so called rap on American Life, especially on some of the remixes, when it's sped up. I will agree lyrically it sounds silly, but it's tongue and cheek indeed.  The song and album probably would have done better if it wasn't released at the time it was.  Still, it's a great album.  I think Nothing Fails probably would have been a better lead single for the album upon it's release.

Oh I love American Life, the album and single, it made me a fan!

As much as I love Nothing Fails, it doesn't scream single to me.

[BoyToyMark 359]

24 minutes ago, MaDöner Kebab said:

Nobody Knows Me was not a commercial single choice unless it was remixed and re-arranged entirely for the single mix.

I think Intervention, Love Profusion, Nothing Fails and possibly Mother And Father would have been the more commercially appealing choices. The first one especially. It’s like Nothing Fails but more uptempo. 

But it is commercial enough, it's cool to have one song a bit different and I'm sure they would've done a single mix.

[Donna 16,836]

1 minute ago, BoyToyMark said:

Oh I love American Life, the album and single, it made me a fan!

As much as I love Nothing Fails, it doesn't scream single to me.

I think it would have been received much better if it was released instead of American Life.

[Donna 16,836]

1 minute ago, BoyToyMark said:

But itis commercial enough, it's cool to have one song a bit different and I'm sure they would've done a single mix.

I do agree Nobody Knows Me is pretty commercial and would have been a great single as well.

[MaDöner Kebab 6,908]

9 minutes ago, BoyToyMark said:

But it is commercial enough, it's cool to have one song a bit different and I'm sure they would've done a single mix.

It’s in the same vein as Impressive Instant which is a great song but if Hollywood and American Life didn’t click with audiences, neither would have Nobody Knows Me which has even less of a conventional song structure.

Nothing Fails also doesn’t scream single to me and I’m not particularly surprised it tanked. Thank god that wasn’t the lead single or anything like some deranged people suggested a few months ago when we were discussing the singles. 💀 I don’t remember who exactly it was but my god…

That’s like suggesting Oh Father should have bern the lead single from Like A Prayer.

[Veronica-Electronica 73]

I loved AL upon its release, listening to it on repeat. At that time I was so into folk music and electronica and the blend of these genres on this album hit the sweet spot for me, I found it really exciting

Madonna’s run on Ray of Light/Music/American Life/Confessions on a Dancefloor is God-tier for me.

As others have said, Nothing Fails deserved better treatment than it got. A video at least. The American Life and Hollywood videos were so promising. But man, I hated the Love Profusion video. And the packaging design across the singles for AL is pretty chaotic/not cohesive and uninspiring too. 

I would have loved to have seen the remix album come to fruition. I guess the Peter Rauhofer memoriam vinyl is as close as we’ll get to that, and I rushed out and bought that on RSD last year.

[Drownedboy 1,712]

13 hours ago, Veronica-Electronica said:

I loved AL upon its release, listening to it on repeat. At that time I was so into folk music and electronica and the blend of these genres on this album hit the sweet spot for me, I found it really exciting

Madonna’s run on Ray of Light/Music/American Life/Confessions on a Dancefloor is God-tier for me.

As others have said, Nothing Fails deserved better treatment than it got. A video at least. The American Life and Hollywood videos were so promising. But man, I hated the Love Profusion video. And the packaging design across the singles for AL is pretty chaotic/not cohesive and uninspiring too. 

I would have loved to have seen the remix album come to fruition. I guess the Peter Rauhofer memoriam vinyl is as close as we’ll get to that, and I rushed out and bought that on RSD last year.

Yes Nothing fails treatment was terrible, but by the time of the release of this single, I think she knew the album was lost. Love Profusion had great exposure in Spain, I remember, but nowadays it is totally forgotten. When the album came I though nothing fails was one of the best songs she had ever recorded and that it would be a classic for her, but then nothing happened. After the success of ROL and Music, AL dissapointment was huge for her so she did Reinvention tour and COADF. But I think the daring side of her died a bit after AL flop. With ROL and Music she was mainstream and very experimental at the same time, so it was a very special moment for her as an artist at that time. 

[BoyToyMark 359]

As much as I like the song I don't think Nothing Fails could've done more. It's a good album track. I think releasing Nothing Fails/Nobody Knows Me to the clubs was a good idea though.

Love Profusion was a smart move, radio friendly and great remixes and the proof is there, it sold much better. Even better if there were live performances of it.

The gap between Hollywood and Love Profusion was kind of lengthy though

[Veronica-Electronica 73]

9 hours ago, Drownedboy said:

Yes Nothing fails treatment was terrible, but by the time of the release of this single, I think she knew the album was lost. Love Profusion had great exposure in Spain, I remember, but nowadays it is totally forgotten. When the album came I though nothing fails was one of the best songs she had ever recorded and that it would be a classic for her, but then nothing happened. After the success of ROL and Music, AL dissapointment was huge for her so she did Reinvention tour and COADF. But I think the daring side of her died a bit after AL flop. With ROL and Music she was mainstream and very experimental at the same time, so it was a very special moment for her as an artist at that time. 

Yes, I agree that she seemed to take less risks (or at least, not take as many big risks) after the way AL was received, which is what I love about Madame X. It seemed truly unexpected. And even sonically I can find similarities between the two albums.