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MJD never said "many divas' global hits are very popular on other platforms"...etc., and the list you mentioned combines audio and video streams which is especially absurd since we're talking about a pre-MTV artist (Aretha).
Annoying stans, the burden of chart geeks...
I'd say the mid-90s, with Céline, Mariah, Shania, Alanis...etc., before that it was still largely male dominated I think, despite a couple of megastars like Madonna and Whitney.
Yes, though Madonna was a bit damaged by the Warner boycott of Youtube which, I think, hurted her a bit. Both Madonna and Janet Jackson I think are also hurt by their respective USA backlash from which they never truly recovered. Though Madonna still has Europe behind her, so she still has moderate result (though much weaker then one would expect from her) while Janet was never really popular in Europe, except for "Toghether Again", hence the extremely disappointing result in streaming
First, MJD said it was the fact that not all artists and genre perform equally well in distinct platforms, like Spotify and Apple Music for example
And I talking about some diva's hater old tricks.
Such as mixing up albums ans singles, even physical and digital for "record sales", or charts, creating "no.1s" of nor Billboard 200 or Hot 100, or making it seems only one platform in stream world.
Spotify is also one of audio platforms.
Do you think that the struggle of women being taken seriously as album seller is related to the women emancipation? I'll explain myself: until the sexual revolution women participation in the workforce was low, so women had generally low salaries or no salary at all. Since the 70's however things changed and by now most women have a job and and an income. Since usually diva's music is targeted at a female audience, can this explain the long struggle of female artist? Until the mid '80's female artists were usually seen as single sellers cause women had lower income, so diva's target audience being poorer would have a better chance at buying a cheapre product (single) than a more expensive one (full album). However, when things started to change in the 80's with more women entering the workforce and having higher income, than music diva's started to sell more albums as their target audience had higher purchasing power.
Yes, totally, it obviously played a big part in the change.
I'd also say Western mindsets were (slowly) changing and sexist/misoginystic views starting to be questioned, challenged or derided. I think this gave women more of a confidence to express themselves, when previously they would have shied away, for fear of derision or ridicule. With greater freedom to express themselves, you had more females giving music a go, which in turn lead to more female artists and more role models for the next generation of girls to relate to or aspire to be like.
Yes, in America, Like a Virgin was the first female album to sell over 5 million.
Madonna does better in Latin American and Europe than America. Not incredibly better, but better. Agreed that the US backlash really hurt both of them to this day.
Also, since there's been a lot of talk about Tina Turner in the past week, I think she has to be recognised as a major source of change in the 80's-90's perception of women in pop music. She hasn't sold as much as the big 5 in terms of records, but she was a smash when it came to live performances in that era. She showed the world that a woman alone can fill the Maracana with more than 100 thousand persons and was often beating of bands and males artists in the yearly box office rating. So, while Tin Turner cannot be compares to the big 5 in terms of sales she definitely played a huge role in showing that women could be as big as male and bands
Yes I saw that Like A Virgin was the 1st to sell 5 million US copies. But I always wondered how if Tapestry sold 20 million copies. Like did Tapestry sales come later on?
Yes, Tapestry had sold more than 5m in the US, by the time of Like A Virgin. The RIAA didn't introduce Multi Platinum awards until 1984 though and her label never seemed to be that bothered updating her certs. Tapestry sat at Gold from June 71 until it was bizarrely updated to just 2x Platinum in 93, (Platinum certs came in, in 76), before updating it to Diamond in 95.
As for Madonna she also was never very strong in Japan and East Asia, especially if compared to Mariah, Whitney and Celine. She had success there too, but not at the same level of the other three big Divas of her era and those markets are now huge in streaming which is good for Mariah, Whitney, Celine and, more recenti, Taylor Swift and bad for Madonna
