Why did Adele’s career go straight down the shitter?

She’s great, but that last album just didn’t have what her first three did. Maybe a better and more stable personal life don’t always translate to great songwriting.

All of them, even the last one has won at least one Grammy. She’s 16/25 which is not a bad record at all.

TS has been popular since I was in high school, but she became huge after her pop crossover with 1989. It doesn’t hurt that she’s good with shady tactics in marketing either. She’s a decent songwriter don’t get me wrong, but I never would’ve thought she would become a global phenomenon.

[quote] She’s a decent songwriter

No, she's really not.

Maybe she should knock up Barbra and ask for a duet???

She's overrated and boring as fuck

[quote] Maybe she should knock up Barbra

Talk about a ship that has sailed!

After raking in jillions from her Las Vegas residency she announced she was taking a “long” break. Girl can afford to.

Ozempic. You wouldn’t BELIEVE how much went down the shitter.

Well first of all, she’s simply not active enough to stay relevant. With only 3 albums in 14 years, Adele is the least prolific of her generation. She’s not Michael Jackson and even he struggled to recapture momentum after long absences.

Second, her albums after “21” were cultural events and novelty. I remember when “25” came out and it was in the impulse aisle at Target during Black Friday and I struck up a conservation about it with a few other women in line and we all decided to buy it. She sold about 4 copies in that line not out of love for her music but because it was the thing to buy.

And third, on a personal level, she lost her edge. People think Adele built her whole career on ballads, but her real breakthrough was Rolling in the Deep she never tried to follow up. Someone Like You only became a smash because it rode the momentum of that lead single; on its own, it would’ve been overlooked. No artist has sustained a career on ballads alone in the last 30 years, and the fact that she never chased another big upbeat song is a big reason her music lost commercial momentum.

And yes she did have an upbeat song on R8 called “Send My Love to Your New Lover” and it was a piece of shit. It sounded like a song from a Pixar movie. When I heard that song, all I could see was a montage of animals in a zoo singing along to it in a Pixar movie.

R1 I think a lot of it is studio politics.

“19” and “21” were primarily XL Recordings and Columbia was the distributor so there was more creative freedom going on. She was somewhat of an “indie” act.

With “25” and “30”, her albums got the major label treatment. They’re as shallow and curated as Celine Dion’s albums.

Her talent and weight were proportional to one another.

Once that bitch got all skeletal and anemic, so did her singing.

8 years between albums, losing weight and shedding the fat girl fanbase, canceling tours to focus on the black dick. Not to mention every song is some neverending slow ballad.

R9, I don’t even know the song, but your post made me laugh. Great image.

[quote] Once that bitch got all skeletal and anemic, so did her singing.

Send My Leftovers (To Your New La Ha Va), R11.

I dunno. That was weird.

She's still A List. She just rarely releases. Like Sade from the 80s/90s.

Adele, Taylor, Beyonce, and Gaga are permanent A list from that mid 00s pop star class. (Rihanna too, but she retired.)

What’s the problem? Not everyone stays at the tippy top forever. She should enjoy herself and put a Vegas act together if she wants/needs to work.

Now, now, R17, we’ll have none of your measured, sober, intelligent response here.

The big question for Datalounge is whether she’ll sign with MGM when her RKO contract is up.

I love her voice and her but not every song off of her first three albums. The last album was shit. Really boring and meh. She did lose probably half of her fat girl fan base but still has die hard fans. Canceling shows in Vegas at the last second was a terrible look. It made me like her way less.

Her temporary star power came from being young and single and in possession of a voice that could convey a lot of emotion and pain.

That was the lure and the reason for her early-2010s fan base.

She was always a not-good songwriter. She’s not a prolific artist in terms of output. And now that’s she’s a 37yo married mom who has to sing carefully because of vocal nodes caused by damage she racked up back in her Rolling In The Deep years…. well, the question is better asked, Is there any reason to think Adele’s career wouldn’t have gone down the shitter?

Hmm…by the way her last album has been described, I think I’ll like it. Worth a listen.

R8 "the fact that she never chased another big upbeat song is a big reason her music lost commercial momentum"

That's all it takes R8? Just release a disco track?

Why doesn’t she just lipsynch the difficult parts of songs and sing the rest live?

I just want to say in regards to these down the shitter threads that success in show business isn't supposed to be about achieving eternal stardom. It's about individuals finding niches according to what they have to offer and what's in demand at a given point in time, and these conditions are constantly changing. That's why the classic trade paper is called "Variety," not "The Same Damn Thing All The Time."

There was a group of British females in the 2000's who hit it big, but Adele remained. Winehouse, Joss Stone and Duffy were others.

I wonder if Amy Winehouse would have maintained her superstardom had she not OD'd.

She pissed off a lot of fans with the Vegas cancellation

How about do an album of standards and re-brand herself as a saloon singer?

Skinny Cunt.

R24 I consider someone’s career “in the shitter” if they either had a ton of hype and then never backed it up despite continuing working (Alex Pettyfer for example.) or someone who was once big, wants the same career, but is a total fuckup (Amanda Bynes, Whitney Houston). Adele has all the money she needs. She hasn’t had any album fail.

She ruined her voice by smoking too much and needing surgery to fix it. Her music also got really boring. And she lost a ton of weight, which made her less "relatable" to her fanbase of cows.

The cackling cockney shtick got old fast.

She ruined her career with having a child

I get the impression she's just a bit lazy. Yes she can afford to be, she never needs to work again, but she often talks about taking long breaks and I get the impression she just can't really be arsed.

Her fat bitch fanbase can’t stand her now.

She should just make a living doing ads for weight loss drugs.

r33 I think that's mostly it. So many artists get lazy once they've had a run of success. They have all the money in the world and get caught up in the rich and famous lifestyle and just can't be bothered to put the work in anymore.

Whatever you may think of Madonna, that bitch has always worked her ass off regardless of her incredible success and wealth.

R29 “30” was a huge decline.

“21” sold 31 million, “25” sold 23 million, “30” sold 5 million

How was the quality of the music? Lower sales has nothing to do with good music, R37.

R36 Very true. I also wonder if she's worried she'll never produce anything close to her top hits and that's another reason to not bother trying. Why risk sullying her legacy?

When you're that successful and loaded, you call the shots, not your record label.

Adele still has a career

Maybe she can get a daytime talk show.

For me, its the whiny ass 'woe is me' music that bores the fuck out of me. Stop lamenting your exes. Jesus Christ.

And make something upbeat. For her voice, bring in some funk, doo-wop, R&B elements, in a contemporary sense, and she'd probably have another hit. Not that hard...

People on DL say the dumbest shit. This woman has never had a flop album, has released 4 successful studio albums, 2 of which broke all type of sales records and not just for the digital age. So she doesn’t release music every 2 years like many A list artists. The way them stadium venues be filled, mama don’t need to. Plus not everybody is Prince or Beyonce who are so passionate about music they are constantly releasing new stuff.

I don't think anyone's saying she should release an album every year, but when you look at the timescales of her four albums I think it's clear she could do more if she really wanted to.

19 (2008)

21 (2011)

25 (2015)

30 (2021)

Which then naturally leads to questions as to why she hasn't or doesn't want to. The talent is clearly there.

R44 Dude she releases an album every 4-5 years average. That used to actually be very common for singer songwriter type artists. I rather an artist take their time than rush and release garbage. Not that I have even bought an Adele album since 21; not big into adult contemporary but I fucks with Adele heavily.

Adele couldn't hold a candle to Alison Moyet, who had a ballsy, gut-busting belt that you could hear across the English Channel. Unfortunately, Moyet was another plus-sized girl which probably limited her appeal. But, damn, that bitch could sing!!

R45 “25” and “30” were garbage.

[quote] Dude she releases an album every 4-5 years average. That used to actually be very common for singer songwriter type artists.

Dude, what are you talking about? Look at Hall & Oates, Billy Joel, Elton John and a slew of other's discographies. Some were releasing a new album every year, not 4-5.

Michael Jackson started the trend of artists releasing albums every 4-5 years and treating them as “events” instead of new music.

Most artists up until the 2000s were releasing new material every 1-2 years.

Never learned how to sing properly and has now destroyed her voice beyond repair?

Ponderous, dull music that all sounds like a dirge.

Ugh. It’s like eating cold tuna casserole.

It’s supposed to be cold.

[quote]Dude she releases an album every 4-5 years average. That used to actually be very common for singer songwriter type artists.

True, but it's been 4 years since her last and she said she has no plans for any new music for a long time.

She has always said she will take off 5 years between albums.

She’s like Sade. When an albums comes up, she’ll be a star again

Who does she think she is? Janet Jackson?

R54 Not really. “25” was a huge drop.

I mean, she’s unique but Norah Jones existed before her. Adele just had a little bit more commercial appeal and personality to drag out the momentum.

But she’s been living off the success of “21” and nothing after.

I think it’s normal that motivation falls away somewhat one you’ve reached the pinnacle of your career (platinum albums, Grammys, millions of dollars).

The ones who keep going for decades like Madonna are psychos who can’t pull back and enjoy themselves

I never found anything special about her voice.

I think her Hollywood makeover probably harmed things, too.

In the early part of her career she was very down to earth... overweight/homely with no pretension and a great sense of humour.

But since she moved to the US she lost all the weight (probably ozempic but it wasn't widely known about then), started dressing well and had a total makeover - new haircut, face full of make up, etc. She then became out of touch and essentially one of the rich ones in many people's eyes.

Talented woman. Too many dirge-y songs.

Emotional issues, fat, and most of all, vocal problems.

[quote] The ones who keep going for decades like Madonna are psychos who can’t pull back and enjoy themselves

Or perhaps some actually enjoy what they do for a living. Not everyone wants to just secure the bag and retire to get fat and lazy.

I think her last album only garnered one hit song

She ate her career.

She's very tiresome. The way the media acted about her album releases was stomach turning, for the most part, like they were waiting with bated breath for angels to cry out in the heavens. I think Adele bought into some of that, too, because her manner of speaking in interviews and on stage became very "cringe," like she knew she had been christened some kind of music royalty. This was amplified by eventual dramatic announcements about not making music for a long time, as if the peasants worshipping at her hooves would commit mass suicide over being deprived of her output. I never saw what the big deal with her was.