Lightning Bolt: the official album thread

[dimejinky99]

Not sure. It brought them a whole slew of new fans over here that's for sure.
I was the pj go to guy for a good while afterwards. Which was tough cos what do you recommend after that? I usually said get yield and no code and you're still around after those you're ready for the other stuff.

[Kral]

Not sure if this is legit or anything , but I found this link to what's allegedly a song off of album 10 on my Facebook. If someone knows what it is, I'd like to know

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbsKOicNejI&sns=em

Sounds more like a solo effort to me.

That's a song by someone named John Willemse. I don't think he sounds like Ed at all.

Yeah at first it sounded off, but I couldn't be sure, so I left it to the experts to decide.

Nice try, John Willemse.

I guess you got me!!

[Thejambi]

I really wish i could wipe my knowledge of Pearl Jam and come into it fresh right now. I think it would be a fascinating exploration.

That's what won backspacer so many new fans.
New people who didn't know anything about them. Most of them under 21 too

Which ones?

All 3 of them

It was a successful record whether you liked it or not.

It was successful. I just have not ever met or chatted with too many new fans because of it.

[harmless]

a whole slew of new fans over here that's for sure.

Really?

the pj go to guy for a good while afterwards.

Really?

[Jorge]

Having attended PJ shows in 2005 and 2013 in Argentina, I can say that there definitely seemed to be a lot more young people at the latter. Also, several female friends of mine who normally wouldn't care about the band were all over "Just Breathe", so... I dunno.

[digster]

I really wish i could wipe my knowledge of Pearl Jam and come into it fresh right now. I think it would be a fascinating exploration.

That's what won backspacer so many new fans.
New people who didn't know anything about them. Most of them under 21 too

Which ones?

All 3 of them

It was a successful record whether you liked it or not.

It was successful. I just have not ever met or chatted with too many new fans because of it.

Backspacer did about as well as every other PJ record in the past two decades as done. All the nutsos buy it the first week, it has a big opening, and then it goes away. If we're going by personal acquaintances and stuff like that, I've not met a single person that got into PJ because of Backspacer.

[harmless]

Having attended PJ shows in 2005 and 2013 in Argentina, I can say that there definitely seemed to be a lot more young people at the latter. Also, several female friends of mine who normally wouldn't care about the band were all over "Just Breathe", so... I dunno.

I'm glad PJ filtered the shit out of that one.

[McParadigm]

Backspacer did about as well as every other PJ record in the past two decades as done. All the nutsos buy it the first week, it has a big opening, and then it goes away. If we're going by personal acquaintances and stuff like that, I've not met a single person that got into PJ because of Backspacer.

It was the first album of theirs since Yield to be among the 100 biggest selling albums of the year it came out.

[digster]

That may have more with a record industry sinking further and further into the toilet than a big uptick in PJ popularity. PJ has a large amount of people, more than most acts, that are going to buy their record no matter what.

I think if Backspacer had been this big success for the band, we'd know it. Somebody put up the records sold by the band, and I'm pretty sure it's been a steady downhill slope since Yield (it might have picked back up a bit at S/T).

[harmless]

Yeah I feel as if, if Backspacer had been this massive commercial success, they'd want to repeat the idea in the next album. At least so far, that doesn't seem to be happening. I think there's an element of Backspacer in the new album already, but it's the good stuff. I hope.

[stip]

That may have more with a record industry sinking further and further into the toilet than a big uptick in PJ popularity. PJ has a large amount of people, more than most acts, that are going to buy their record no matter what.

I think if Backspacer had been this big success for the band, we'd know it. Somebody put up the records sold by the band, and I'm pretty sure it's been a steady downhill slope since Yield (it might have picked back up a bit at S/T).

backspacer did a bit better, but not by a lot. On the other hand, even maintaining in a period of decline is something. And it easily produced their greatest success with singles in a long long time.

Obviously it didn't turn them into green day, so there are limits.

[Heathen]

That may have more with a record industry sinking further and further into the toilet than a big uptick in PJ popularity. PJ has a large amount of people, more than most acts, that are going to buy their record no matter what.

I think if Backspacer had been this big success for the band, we'd know it. Somebody put up the records sold by the band, and I'm pretty sure it's been a steady downhill slope since Yield (it might have picked back up a bit at S/T).

backspacer did a bit better, but not by a lot. On the other hand, even maintaining in a period of decline is something. And it easily produced their greatest success with singles in a long long time.

Obviously it didn't turn them into green day, so there are limits.

cue in Lightning Bolt

[stip]

has mind your manners reached 2 million downloads yet? I can only assume it has.

[sweeper]

They sort've limited their sales upside the second they took the Target exclusive with Backspacer. You're never going to maximize sales by only offering the album at a store that isn't a destination for buying music.

What they did was maximize the $$$ they personally made since Target apparently gave them a crazy deal to be the sole distributor. I think PJ was more than willing to sacrifice unit sales as a tradeoff.

[McParadigm]

That may have more with a record industry sinking further and further into the toilet than a big uptick in PJ popularity. PJ has a large amount of people, more than most acts, that are going to buy their record no matter what.

I think if Backspacer had been this big success for the band, we'd know it. Somebody put up the records sold by the band, and I'm pretty sure it's been a steady downhill slope since Yield (it might have picked back up a bit at S/T).

With file sharing ongoing, a reduced interest in purchasing full albums taking place, and streaming media becoming more and more embraced as a way to enjoy music, actual album sales are a much worse way to evaluate an album's impact than to look at it's success relative to the market. Record sales aren't declining because people aren't listening to music...they're declining because they aren't buying records.

Put another way, Lady Gaga's 'Fame' was the fourth biggest selling album of 2009, with 2.24 million copies sold (compared to Backspacer's 600,000). Not factored into that sales tally are about 60% of the more than 15 million digitally downloaded songs, because they were to accounts that didn't purchase enough songs to credit an album sale. Furthermore (and we won't even bother trying to guess at how many copies were illegally downloaded) the album was among the top spins at streaming media sites.

In other words, the #4 selling album also one of the top 5 download generating sets at itunes, was probably right around the #4 most streamed album online....see the pattern? Where it sat in the sales market was a pretty good indicator of its overall impact.

[Thejambi]

They sort've limited their sales upside the second they took the Target exclusive with Backspacer. You're never going to maximize sales by only offering the album at a store that isn't a destination for buying music.

What they did was maximize the $$$ they personally made since Target apparently gave them a crazy deal to be the sole distributor. I think PJ was more than willing to sacrifice unit sales as a tradeoff.

I believe it was down to Target vs. Best buy but Best Buy wouldn't allow indie shops to also carry Backspacer. My memory is hazy.

[Thejambi]

has mind your manners reached 2 million downloads yet? I can only assume it has.

That would require 2 million pre orders of Lighting Bowlt though wouldnt it?

[E.H. Ruddock]

It's not on the Billboard Hot 100 yet? It's got to be more popular than anything Alan Thicke's kid does.

[digster]

With file sharing ongoing, a reduced interest in purchasing full albums taking place, and streaming media becoming more and more embraced as a way to enjoy music, actual album sales are a much worse way to evaluate an album's impact than to look at it's success relative to the market. Record sales aren't declining because people aren't listening to music...they're declining because they aren't buying records.

Put another way, Lady Gaga's 'Fame' was the fourth biggest selling album of 2009, with 2.24 million copies sold (compared to Backspacer's 600,000). Not factored into that sales tally are about 60% of the more than 15 million digitally downloaded songs, because they were to accounts that didn't purchase enough songs to credit an album sale. Furthermore (and we won't even bother trying to guess at how many copies were illegally downloaded) the album was among the top spins at streaming media sites.

In other words, the #4 selling album also one of the top 5 download generating sets at itunes, was probably right around the #4 most streamed album online....see the pattern? Where it sat in the sales market was a pretty good indicator of its overall impact.

Well, my comment was in response to you using Backspacer's record sales as a marker as it's success relative to their past albums. I agree it's not a great way to judge the popularity of a band. There's no sure-fire way to really judge how Backspacer did in comparison to PJ's past work. However, there are a ton of caveats in your Lady Gaga argument. For example, it doesn't take into account that illegal downloading trends among Gaga fans could be far higher than PJ fans (an older fanbase would tend towards buying the album more? I have no idea).

But there's no perfect way to judge it, so I'll use the same argument I'd use for when it's argued that Backspacer did better critically than their past records. If it was true that Backspacer was this big success that brought in a whole new fanbase, if it was that big a gamechanger for them, we'd know it by now. Some sort of consensus would have formed, we would have recognized the effect it had. Instead we're trying to figure it out by record sales, which is as you said a very imperfect tool to judge with.

I agree with stip that maintaining their sales is victory enough in this climate; again, I think it has to do with the fact that PJ has a very loyal hardcore fanbase that will give their records a shot.

[McParadigm]

If it was true that Backspacer was this big success that brought in a whole new fanbase, if it was that big a gamechanger for them, we'd know it by now. Some sort of consensus would have formed, we would have recognized the effect it had.

There's a difference between "successful" and "game changer." Saying it did as well, relative to market, as Yield...is saying exactly that. It was as big a presence in the market as that record was.

They're also past the days of bringing huge numbers of new fans in, even if an album does really well. Rather, a successful record just adjusts the overall perception of the band among casual fans. I doubt the Rolling Stones fanclub saw a huge spike in its membership as a result of Start Me Up, which was released just as far into their career as Backspacer was for PJ.

Obligatory Jaggering:

Spoiler: show