HomeOPINIONAdele: Saving the Music Industry or Slowing the Unavoidable Downfall

Adele: Saving the Music Industry or Slowing the Unavoidable Downfall

By NICHOLAS NEGRON
Opinion Editor

What does it take to become a household name? Well, it depends on the purpose. Politicians, religious leaders, actors, musicians, reality stars and the occasional viral sensation all enjoy the same notoriety of being the topic of diner conversation. How can the amount of “buzz” a person is generated be measured? Social media has done well to measure this in trending topics. Of course topics go in and out of trend, as do people. Today the media is so fast-paced, that stories rarely stick for longer than three days. Box office and album sales are at an all-time low. People simply do not have the time or money to invest 14 dollars for a new album, when they can either pirate it online, or obtain it legally through streaming services. Adele seems to be the only artist to maintain her household name status while commanding Billboard charts and shattering record sale.
Adele’s 25 sold 3.38 million copies in the first week of its release. This the absolute largest sales week for an album, since Nielsen Music began recording point of sale purchases in 1991. This completely shatters NYSNC’s album, No Strings Attached, which sold 2.42 million copies in its first week of release in 2000. With this, Adele is sure to top her own record of having the longest run for a woman atop the Billboard 200 chart. 21 had previously held the top spot on the chart for 24 nonconsecutive weeks.
There does not seem to be any competition stopping Adele from breaking this 24 week record. Justin Bieber, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and any other artist capable of a similar feet already released their respective albums in 2014 and 2015. The only semi threatening artist to detract attention away from 25 will be the anticipated release of Rihanna’s Anti. However, Adele may have scared Rihanna out of her wits. Talk show host Wendy Williams, reported that Rihanna moved her album release date farther back. This is in, order to not compete with Adele. If Anti was released the same week of 25, it would have been demolished. No amount of Kanye West produced beats, catchy choruses and overexposed nudity can crush the absolute powerhouse that is 25. It is also rumored that Rihanna will be releasing the album or at least music videos, exclusively on Tidal. Tidal is a music streaming service, owned partially by Jay-Z. This would alienate a large portion of Rihanna’s audience. As a subscriber of Apple Music, there is no way I would purchase Rihanna’s content, should it exclusively be offered to Tidal.
Adele decided to not release 25 on Apple Music, Spotify, or other streaming services. This clearly contributed to her humungous sales. However, Adele is an artist that crosses over multiple generations. Parents and children alike are listening to 25 on the way to and from school, work, and for relaxation. “Hello” plays on pop and adult contemporary radio. Her bluesy soulful voice is in the homes of every race and religion. I even heard “Rolling in the Deep” being played on a Spanish language radio station this weekend. The older generations still tend to purchase physical CD’s. This also attributes to the astronomical album sales.
While many say Adele is saving the music industry; others say it is simply slowing the inevitable demise. Piracy may not be as relevant now as it was in the days of Napster and LimeWire; but it is still a concern. Within the past four years, the world has taken a drastic turn to streaming music. Artists such as Taylor Swift have stood up for artist rights, when it comes to these services. What is disappointing about these “Adele saves the industry” taglines; is that it should not take one artist to do so. Adele is one in the thousands of musicians creating music today. She is one in the pool of maybe 250 musicians and bands receiving any relevancy on the charts, in awards or on social media. The music industry should, in theory, remain at a steady level of album and single sales. When a juggernaut artist, such as Adele, releases a single or an album that level spikes. Album and single sales as a whole, eventually drop down to its consistent level of purchases. Instead, record sales are slowly declining, month by month. The release of 25, shot the sale of album and single sales for the week through the roof. This number will slowly go lower, as the people who wanted to buy 25 already did so in its first week. Eventually, weekly album and single sales will continue its decline. It is completely correct to say Adele’s 25 is only slowing the unavoidable downfall of album and single sales.
Regardless of this all, 25 deserves the praise and sales it has generated it is an amazing album. Adel is truly one of the only artists who do not have to succumb to their record labels. During a press conference for Tidal, artist such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Jack White, Madonna, Chris Martin and J. Cole were announced as “owners”. They are believed to be the 1 percent of music artists that do not have to answer to a label. I would argue that Adele is in the .25 percent range of artists who truly answer to nobody. She is the only artist that has not succumb to any form of music streaming. Any other musician would have succumbed to the pressure. Not, Adele; she is pure music making, record breaking magic.

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