Why did Faith Hill's career go straight down the shitter?

Drugs and other mental health issues probably.

Seems unlikely, R1.

She had a good run, but she was never anything special as a singer - plus, she became a mom and probably had other priorities. Listening to her songs today - they're not terrible, but very formulaic.

Taylor Swift happened.

Younger and sexier

She waited too long between albums. She released Breathe in 1999 but didn’t follow up till 2002 with Cry. At that time in music, artists had to release albums every year or every other year to stay relevant in the pop spectrum unless they already had a legacy. She was new in the crossover world and had to maintain that momentum but failed to. But she definitely has an amazing voice.

Even as a kid I remember that Breathe song being everywhere and I think it was a huge hit for her, right? I do remember reading that she put a hold on her career to focus on raising her family but it could also be she wasn't as popular anymore.

She already seemed like someone’s mom by the time “Breathe” became popular.

Just wasn’t going to last in the TRL era.

Todd in the Shadows (YouTube) on "Cry" and the end of Faith Hill's career. It's good video. He basically says she tried to be Celine Dion and found out.

I would post the link, but Datalounge won't let me.

The torturous "This Kiss" is still heard in every store that has canned music playing.

Married well and lives a happy life.

The dream.

Cry was one of my favorite songs on the album by the artist who wrote it. He had a single called Spaceship that was released and played heavily on an alternative radio where I live and I absolutely love that song and the whole album. Her version changes some words and makes it stupid.

Anyway that album and like four others that came out the same year really spoke to my heart and are still some of my favorites today.

A lot of her went a long way.

Two words. Carrie. Underwood.

[quote] Younger and sexier

Faith was absolutely stunning in her day.

We just did this OP.

So I just googled her. Apparently she’s one of the leads on one of those Yellowstone shows.

Years ago, I read here at the good ole DL, she and Alan Jackson had a fling before she married Tim McGraw.

Jackson was married and didn’t leave his wife for her.

We were to infer she was on the rebound with McGraw.

R14 It’s no coincidence that Faith’s last album came out the very year Carrie Underwood debuted. They look the same, have similar voices and sing exactly the same kind of music. Faith was traded in for a newer model, just like Carrie was eventually traded in for Taylor/Kelsea Ballerini/Maren Morris.

And who could forget Faith’s visceral reaction to being replaced by young upstart Carrie?

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are intelligent liberals. That can't be good for a Country and Western career, but since they have more money than God, they'll be fine 🙂

We need to put Faith’s awards reaction in some context. This was the beginning of the reality show/talent contest show crossover into mainstream celebrity. People still thought those shows were a joke. So for a pro like Faith to lose to a talent contest winner was stunning.

R22 And for a pro like Faith to lose her ever loving shit on live television in front of millions of people, was also stunning.

Faith’s last album Fireflies is one of my favorites. If memory serves it did fine and sold a million copies or so, but wasn’t a blockbuster hit like the Faith or Breathe albums had been. Carrie’s debut (released the same year as Fireflies) sold something like ten million copies.

Faith Hill doesn't like it when you grab her man either 😂

Fireflies failed to produce a hit single, which led its underperforming. Mississippi Girl peaked at #29 and sank like a stone.

She had kids to raise. But she can always sell clothes and dish sponges.

She tried for a comeback in 2012 and it failed to amount to anything. American Heart peaked at #35 on the country chart and didn’t even touch the Hot 100. That same year, Carrie Underwood released Blown Away, which went on to be the best selling country album of the year and produced four hit singles. Faith’s moment had well and truly passed.

Faith is a nice person and a staunch liberal. Carrie is a nasty bitch who is notorious in Nashville for being aloof, cold and difficult. Carrie is also a deplorable Trumptard who doesn’t believe in abortion. Most damning - Dolly Parton notoriously cannot stand Carrie and refused to duet with her a few years ago. And Dolly gets along with everyone (including Faith).

Faith Hill FTW.

It’s not just Faith. Artists who find a high level of success early on often keep the same sound entirely or mostly keep it but just morph enough to keep up with the new recording tech/trends because honestly that’s what makes them (and their labels) money. Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts both come to mind as artists who found that thing that made them different and popular and then just stuck to it, hard. I’m not criticizing at all, it’s a business.

The new Trainwreckords episode is about Faith Hill. Lots of great videos from Todd in the Shadows... highly recommend to my fellow nitpicky, hypercritical DLers.

Maybe it was that stupid stepford wives movie that couldn't decide on a plot or even if the wives were robots or clones or what.

She had big success in the 90s and early aughts. Most artists, even those who make it big like Faith Hill, rarely hold onto it for decades and decades and decades. The DL worships most of those, few, female artists here almost exclusively. Her career didn’t go down the shutter. It played out over time.

Am I the only one who thinks that Faith was just fucking around at that award show? I mean, she does it right to the camera.

One of the last songs she did before her semi retirement was this duet with Reba

I think that, too, r34.

Allegedly she had the Carrie Fisher affliction BP in combination with lots of Coca Cola.

I think she could make a comeback. Lots of people remember her with nostalgia. She was about the biggest universally loved music star from 1998 to 9/11. Nostalgia is big now. If she went back to the studio and did the Breathe formula something could happen.

This Kiss & Breathe were huge songs. Massive hits.

I can't believe someone on here claimed Taylor is sexier than Faith. Must be blind. Faith career went down the shitter because she was second fiddle to Shania Twain. Shania was even sexier than Faith but her music had much larger crossover appeal globally. Faith was just second rate compared to her.

29 Posts before it became a Trump thread. You must do better.

You’re late R41.

Did it go down the shitter? or did she simply just step back.

R40 Faith’s music was better

R44, was it though? I'm not sure about the albums but in terms of singles, Shania has more memorable ones--Any Man of Mine, You're Still the One, Man (I Feel like a Woman), That Don't Impress Me Much, etc.

Shania could never really sing. Martina McBride is the one who had some real pipes. She seems to have just faded away too. I've seen Martina in concert a few times. It's hard to believe but she's even better than her in studio stuff.

Most artists only last a few albums. Not everyone is Madonna and Beyonce and Taylor Swift.

She totally do this, especially since Shania exposed herself and lost her voice permanently. Faith could sweep the floor with that bitch.

R46 in the last 5-10 years Martina’s voice is shot to shit

[quote] I can't believe someone on here claimed Taylor is sexier than Faith

Taylor’s a generic cute blonde but Faith Hill was as hot as hell in her prime. All the straight men loved her rolling around in the sheets in the Breathe video.

R50 more meat was beat to Faith Hill in 1999 than at a butcher in Staten Island.

Great song from her 2nd album when she was still considered country.

*Straight Down the Shitter*. 🤣 my dad use to say that and it always made me laugh.

R54 most witticisms on DL come from their blue collar childhoods.

^ Well, smell her

Shania was given credit for co-writing all her songs with her husband, legendary producer Mutt Lange. Whether or not it was actually true is debatable, but it did put her in a different category. She and Mutt together were a great story.

R31 is a must watch. WOW! That guy sets a narrative and produces his YouTube videos better than VH1 Behind the Music. Truly impressive and an analysis of a Diva’s career that gay men will truly appreciate.

I will agree about Martina's voice. I think it's because she took some vocal training way too late and everything she did live was just full throttle. That takes it's toll. My favorite Faith songs are I Will and This Kiss. She put out a lot of good stuff too. Could you imagine Shania doing something like this?

R59 woof! Her voice is blown. Starts at 2:10

Martina might be the ultimate Frau singer

R60 Martina needs to hire about 3 big black gospel women to do backup and pad her thin ass vocals

Todd in the Shadows' video on her "Cry" album sums it up: She tried something different after the music industry had shifted, and it blew up in her face.

R34 If you carefully analyze the clip in slo-mo you can see that she says "Oh" to herself right before storming away, as in "Oh shit, I didn't know the camera was still on".

Faith’s career died in 2002 with the Cry album, which swiftly undid a decade’s worth of goodwill. But to be fair to Faith, 2002 was a brutal time for women in pop. Liz Phair’s self-titled, Jewel’s 0304, Madonna’s American Life and Faith’s Cry were all released within a year of each other. There was blood in the water for any female who the public perceived as “pulling a Britney.”

It seems all the women of 90s country disappeared at the same time. Faith, Shania, Leann, Trisha, Martina… that sound just wasn’t trendy anymore. And the ones who tried to pivot (Faith, Leann) were eviscerated for it. There was no winning.

After the public mauling she got for Cry, Faith tried to prove she was still the same ol’ southern sweetie pie with Mississippi Girl, but it seemed desperate and pandering and calculated and by that point it was too little, too late.

Both she and McGraw were great in 1883. That was only 2 years ago.

Faith came out of the gate second. She’s the Christina to Shania’s Britney.

Yes, she had a superior voice, but she had what? Two crossover songs?

People love to draw the comparison between Faith and Shania but they’re not very similar. Faith was more like a countrified Celine Dion.

My dad the first time he saw Faith Hill on TV: “I’d die on this Hill.”

My mom: “It’s not like you’ll ever get to climb it.”

I thought Faith was more sexy because of her statuesque confidence and natural effervescence. Shania was hit but a little too pluckish to feel totally sexy to me. All the little talking on songs. " Like your Brad Pitt, Cool!" , and other coquettish speaking in songs sounds infantile to me.

Hot*

Faith Hill always reminds me of Jessica Simpson. She has an incredible voice and technical talent, one that really lends itself to ballads and doesn’t work so well with more casual or “fun” pop songs (the kind Shania excels at). But there is a shallowness that doesn’t work for that same style of music, which makes it harder to thread the needle. You need a big sounding song that demonstrates their talent and range, but a topic that doesn’t require too much emotion. That’s why “Breathe” and Jessica’s “I Wanna Love You Forever” were such powerhouse hits, but the second they try to branch out to a more intense topic the same power flops and sounds disingenuous.

They both had pop “this is the real me” songs and albums that didn’t take off, too. Because everyone saw right through it.

I remember really liking Mississippi Girl when it came out so learning that it was an attempt at damage control post-Cry is certainly something.

I loathe Faith Hill. There’s just something about her that doesn’t seem “real,” like she's just showy. I can’t stand Carrie Underwood either. I prefer country singers like Miranda Lambert or Reba, as they seem a little more down to earth to me.

I have respect for her and her husband for being vocal open liberals in a town where that's hard to be and yet most of the hard core country establishment still likes and respects both of them both. That tells me they are somewhat genuine.

R34 The camera was fucking standing in front of her face for 5 minutes while they waited for the winner to be announced.

I remember watching this live. Faith just finished performing. It was rare that the person who just performed doesn't win the award following their performance.

Personally, I don't think she was joking - she would have I think laughed or smiled after, not walk out of frame pissed off.

Also I'll never forget that LeAnn Rimes didn't get the memo it was supposedly a joke and wrote a whole long ass letter on her website about how Carrie hadn't earned the right to be in country music or to win awards.

Sure it was a joke. That was not the face of someone joking. I don’t buy it for a second that it wasn’t a genuine reaction and I don’t care what she says now.

To be honest only til they started winning awards did I ever look at her and the other chubby girl that won AI as anything other than show contestants.

One hit wonder Jessica Andrews said Faith wanted to record one of her songs for Cry, and that when Faith was told “no,” she locked herself in her car sobbing and refused to come out until the producer agreed to let her have it. Even after all that, Faith wasn’t allowed to release her version.

R81 This was the song. It wouldn’t have helped Faith’s album, which was DOA.

I love them all but my heart belongs to Patty Loveless

Thought she’d age more gracefully than this.

She looks like Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Someone in the last thread called her a raisin with veneers, which seems apt.

The Cry album is mostly overproduced drek but it did include one lovely country ballad. Considering all the backlash at the time, it’s shocking this wasn’t rush released as the single with a big glossy video, as it was her only chance at course correction. It’s still a fan favorite and Faith performs it at all her shows.

I like Faith but can never fully forgive her for her horrendous cover of Take Another Little Piece of My Heart.

I preferred Deana Carter. Less plastic, wrote her own stuff, just as pretty as Faith.

“Did I Shave My Legs for This?” is one of the best country albums of the 90s.

Love Deana You Still Shake me is my favorite she does. Let's not forget Pam Tillis.

Wynonna, Pam Tillis, Teri Clark, Lorrie Morgan, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Suzy Bogguss, Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Martraca Berg, Gretchen Peters, Faith Hill, Kathy Mattea, Tanta Tucker, Shania Twain, Reba McIntyre, Deana Carter, Carlene Carter, Mindy Mcready, pretty well covers the female country artists I loved in the 90s.

I love Tanta Tucker too!

Yeah. The 90s were the golden age for female country singers. Fuck, even Mary Chapin Carpenter got her own TV special. I don't think females ruled the charts like they did in the 90s before or since. Any genre.

Pam's Maybe it Was Memphis was my high school jam. "A lonely boy far from home." It seemed so romantic.

R60 Poor Martina.

Martraca Berg saw more success as a songwriter but Ive enjoyed all of her albums. The first time I heard her was while I was working a Saturday night closing shift at McDonalds. I was 18 and listening to KSOP one of three local country stations. Back in the Saddle came on either CMT or maybe the Box and I was giddy about it. I lived for anytime they'd group up for a song like this.

Martina is a closet alcoholic according to people I know in Nashville. Could explain the damage to her voice.

R96 Yeah there were reports they had to empty all the minibars on her tour with The Judds last year.

I always loved the hot mess the Judds became. Until Mrs. Judd killed herself. Then it hurt. Wynona never did enough to distance herself from those two. My god watching their family dynamics on their many Oprah appearnces....good lord I always left thinking poor Wy. Oprah used to just let the train wreck keep rolling loving every second of it. Oprah knows the good drama when she sees it.

Poor Wy R98? You mean Poor Wy the nasty Trump loving repub. Ashley Judd is the liberal one and the only one worth keeping.

99 replies before it's a Trump thread. You're way late.

I like Lee Ann Womack's voice.

I agree that there is something generic about Faith Hill, like Jessica Simpson.

Husband Tim McGraw.

Looking very Dallas Buyers Club R102.

Nasty hag.

Fun fact: This One’s for the Girls was written for Faith, but was submitted too late for inclusion on Cry. So, it was given to Martina McBride, becoming her biggest crossover hit ever. Faith’s background vocals can still be heard on the song and she is credited as a backup vocalist in the booklet.

Interesting to think what could have been, had Faith launched with this instead.

Let’s talk about all of their political affiliations instead of music, please revise the discussion accordingly!

Can R104 go start a Wynonna thread?

[quote] Faith Hill always reminds me of Jessica Simpson

OUCH. Faith always had substance to back up her style.

Jessica Simpson is a screamer. She always sounds like she’s screaming.