If “Illmatic” by Nas, one of the most influential albums in history to many aspiring rappers, came out this very day—people would think it was a “flop” because it sold only 59,000 copies its first week and debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200 chart. If people say that Megan Thee Stallion’s album “Megan” did poorly even though it sold 64,000 total album units its first week, it is undeniable that by today’s standards, “Illmatic” apparently did not do well.
However, despite its ‘low’ album sales for the first week, “Illmatic” still had a lot of significance for those who followed it. At the time where most of the attention was on releases by West Coast artists, Nas managed to return the attention back to East Coast Hip Hop. The album single handedly set a new standard for storytelling in rap music alongside lyricism.
All of this would be forgotten if it had been released today, all that significance would hinder when some fans got a hold of Nas’ first week sales. This obsession with artists having to chart high and have hundreds of thousands of sales is killing the conversations and perceptions surrounding music and its quality.
People, especially those on social media, actually go out of their way to wait for Spotify stat updates to drop, obsessively tracking the top 100 charts. They know exactly how many number ones a pop star has and even know exactly how the chart point system works, and they manipulate rankings accordingly, just to make sure that their favorite is better than someone else’s.
Many people base an album’s merit not on the artist’s talent or music quality—things that should truly matter when talking about music artists— but on how many sales they have received or how high they charted. When Billboard listed Beyoncé as number one on their “Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century,” Taylor Swift fans (Swifties) detested her placement and believed that Swift should have been number one instead.
Of course, what the Swifties said is their own opinion and no one should take that away from them. However, the reason why the Swifties kept popping up in those hate tweets against the list was that Taylor Swift “outsells” Beyoncé. They could not name any iconic pop culture moments that pits Swift over Beyoncé or try to argue that she was more talented than Beyoncé, only that Swift sells more and has the greater amounts of number ones.
Even Billboard themselves acknowledged that Taylor Swift has the advantage in the numbers game and she still did not make the cut. Fans have it hammered into their heads that an artist that does better on the charts is more talented than someone who does not, but people need to stop equating numbers with talent.
There are many popular songs that did not even get a whiff of that number one debut spot. Take “Run the World (Girls)” by Beyoncé, a globally known song. One would think that a song that popular would have debuted number one, right? Nope, not even close. The song debuted as number 33 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2011.
Or how about Cassie’s song “Long Way 2 Go?” The beat of the song is incredibly recognizable, and there are hundreds of remixes where people take the melody and put it alongside another song. Even with all the popularity and traction with Cassie’s song, it barely even reached the US Billboard Hot 100 with its position of number 97.
The list goes on: “Toxic” by Britney Spears reached number nine, “What Makes You Beautiful” from One Direction debuted at number four and Rihanna’s “Pour It Up” peaked at number 19. Using the same mentality that some people have, all of these incredibly popular and well-known songs are nothing but flops, because they did not reach number one on the chart. See how extreme that is?
A lot of people believe that if an artist does not immediately debut at number one and have thousands of sales, they are unsuccessful. (RZ’Naisa Self)
New and upcoming artists are not even exempt from this harsh criteria. FLO, an English girl group, had their debut album, “Access All Areas,” released on Nov. 15, 2024. The album charted at number 163 on the Billboard 200— for a debut album, this is not as bad as some people positioned it to be.
Some took it upon themselves to bash FLO because their debut album— emphasis on debut— did not chart somewhere from one to ten. All this is doing is putting unrealistic expectations on newer artists and making it seem like a number one should be the bare minimum.
Instead of taking the album as the piece of art that it is, there were some people who pulled out their calculators and determined their sales. When people realize that music is more than that, that is when conversations surrounding the music industry will get better.
Stop listening to music with a calculator. A record’s merit is not always about how many number ones an artist can get or how many sales they did their first week… not everything is a battle.
When it gets to the point that only chat numbers are being used to fuel a pointless stan battle, that is when it gets too far. Every week that the Billboard charts gets updated should not be a stan war. The sooner conversations move from quality over quantity, the better. When they can not argue talent, they argue numbers.
Instead of rushing to see how many sales an artist can get, sit down and just let the music speak for itself.
