Music industry – One step closer to being accurate
ABBA has the perfect profile of a large selling compilation acts with so-so studio album sales along with massive singles hit. To get into blockbuster sales status, one of their compilation thus barely needs to be their main available hit package during a large enough time span. This happened with Gold.
Bodyguard is the kind of album that requires no introduction. Everybody knows the movie, everybody knows Whitney Houston, everybody knows I Will Always Love You.
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During the first half of the 90s, singles charts were flooded by Eurodance tracks. Not many acts of this genre achieved success in the albums side, virtually none except Ace Of Base.
Before 1993, Alain Souchon released eight studio albums. He got a few hits, nice sales in elitist public but no widespread appeal. This all changed that year with C’Est Déjà Ca album that contained his iconic song Foule Sentimentale.
I would be lying if I tell you Mariah Carey was well known in France when Music Box was released in 1993. She was pretty much the opposite of a star – none of her albums charted, she received no certification and only one of her singles made the Top 20, I’ll Be There, mostly thanks to the original Jackson 5 song being famous.
In 1990, Jean-Jacques Goldman already proved switching from solo albums to be a part of a trio was a brilliant idea as he repeated his past success easily. In 1993, at the time of releasing a second studio album, the trio Fredericks Goldman Jones target was proving themselves successful in the long run.
In the same way several divas exploded internationally at the time, years 1988-1991 saw the first two female superstars in France emerge: Mylène Farmer and Patricia Kaas. They released two million selling albums each in those years. With 1993 record Je Te Dis Vous, Patricia Kaas was the first to face the three-peat challenge.
If the period 1997-2002 saw many albums reach blockbuster status, in the first half of the 90s much less albums got really big, but they did it in an incredible fashion. First Patrick Bruel in 1990 with Alors Regarde, second Francis Cabrel in 1994 with Samedi Soir Sur La Terre, third Celine Dion in 1995 with D’Eux.
First released in October 1994, the Cranberries album No Need To Argue was the follow up of an album that failed to make any kind of impact. It made itself no impact when issued, completely missing charts.
In a year 1994 full of successful soundtracks – Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Farinelli – the album from Disney blockbuster movie The Lion King topped them all.