The 5th Album Thread V.1

[banballow]

I predict that it will be a bizarre mix of Folk and Yodeling.
... and it will be AWESOME!!

[Y2Jenn]

For a long time I heard fans talk about if she made this type of album old fans would come rushing back, it didn't happen

I've been wondering about that. Why haven't old fans been rushing back?

if she continue's on with this direction musically, she'll fade into obscurity like alanis has, she'll have to re-invent her sound and image to be relevant, something her role-model madonna has done constantly thru her 25+ years in music and something alanis did

Not exactly true. Two of Avril's contemporaries, P!nk and Kelly Clarkson, have never had to re-invent themselves in order to stay relevant.

(Okay, P!nk kind of re-invented herself for M!ssundaztood. But she hasn't changed her image or musical style since then.)

Most of the music industry is based on teenage audiences, name anyone current, most of their audiences are tweens.

Um...Madonna's fanbase isn't all teens and tweens.

Long-standing artists like Madonna, U2, the Stones, and AC/DC are forever current and popular because their audience is mostly adults. Sure, these artists are no longer relevant on the music charts. But they have undying longevity and success due to legions of loyal fans all over the world.

Unfortunately, Avril doesn't have this massive, die-hard fanbase to keep her going. Maybe if she hadn't made TBDT, and maybe if she hadn't stayed dormant for four years, she would've had a better chance maintaining her old fans as well as gaining new ones.

Truthfully, I don't know what Avril can do next. She's painted herself in a corner (with RCA being partly responsible). If tries to be all trendy, it will be either another TBDT freakshow, or a Christina Aguilera FAIL. Yet, if she continues with throwback-to-late-90s-pop/rock, it will send her down the road to the Sarah McLachlan land of obscurity.

Oh...And I would like to add that the general teen/tween audience is fickle. And each new generation of teens/tweens is different from the previous one. Teens and tweens will lap up anything that's all over social media. If Katy Perry and Ke$ha are having success catering to the teen/tween audience right now, that's fine. But what about 10-15 years from now? Today's teenyboppers would've already moved on to something else, and the fresh crop of teenyboppers will be downloading the latest iTunes craze. Jesse McCartney didn't last long, did he?

[DanTheSk8erMan]

Hmmm. Interesting to see what everyone has to say.
I think the noteworthy thing too, is that the album sales are doing decent in countries outside the USA. It's not really like USA is a cultured place anyway. Look how electronica/dubstep is finally hitting North America.... When it was popular throughout Europe back in like, maybe 5 years ago. We are kind of behind in the times musically, so maybe that's why her album sales are doing better overseas - theyre ready for a change from that? I don't know, don't quote me on that piece of evidence though.

I do agree she has a different sound for every album, some work better than others, and some are preferred more from fans.

I think she would lose alot of her fanbase with an urban sound, but would gain a new fanbase that would come-and-go.

I'm hoping her fifth album will have a bit more of an edge on it, but like how she did with Not Enough and Remember When sort of edge... Maybe throw in a few more electric guitars here and there.

I definitely wouldn't call Alanis a sell out with Jagged Little Pill. She's said COUNTLESS times that she didn't like her first few albums, and had absolutely no control over them. Jagged Little Pill was written when she was 19/20 and obviously her music taste would've changed. She didn't do it to "conform" because really, it is not a grunge album at all.

That's comparable to calling Let Go "punk". People called it grunge because it was different than a lot of female artists at the time. Just like they call Let Go punk because it was different from female artists of 2002.

And Madonna needs to stop re-inventing herself. I'ts kind of disturbing and pathetic to see a 50 year old still trying to use sex to sell. And since when has Avril said she viewed madonna as a role model?

If Avril re-invented herself like Madonna does, she may be popular on the charts - but considered a joke to a lot of musicicians. Madonna's not in it for the music, no matter what she says, she looks at making an album and a song as a marketing tool. She's 110% business. And I really hope it doesn't come to that with Avril.


Back on topic, I think album 5 could be cool if she did more songs like Stop Standing There and make it sort of an indie scene with that.

[DanTheSk8erMan]

Btw, I think Goodbye Lullaby would've brought back more old fans if they were wiser on which lead single they'd release. Alot of my friends hate What the Hell and were Avril fans pre-TBDT. I was basically the only one who held out hope for her. When What the Hell was released, alot shrugged it off.

But, after hearing it when I got the album, a few went out and bought their own copy. And now we sing it at the top of our lungs just like we did in 2005. Because Avril actually put herself into these songs, and she re-touched them. I think alot of old fans would recognize that, given the chance. So we'll have to wait what future singles are decided before we can conclude if this album will bring back old school fans. It's only been out for 1/2 a month.

[gabo]

Hmmm. Interesting to see what everyone has to say.
I think the noteworthy thing too, is that the album sales are doing decent in countries outside the USA. It's not really like USA is a cultured place anyway. Look how electronica/dubstep is finally hitting North America.... When it was popular throughout Europe back in like, maybe 5 years ago. We are kind of behind in the times musically, so maybe that's why her album sales are doing better overseas - theyre ready for a change from that? I don't know, don't quote me on that piece of evidence though.

I do agree she has a different sound for every album, some work better than others, and some are preferred more from fans.

I think she would lose alot of her fanbase with an urban sound, but would gain a new fanbase that would come-and-go.

I'm hoping her fifth album will have a bit more of an edge on it, but like how she did with Not Enough and Remember When sort of edge... Maybe throw in a few more electric guitars here and there.

I definitely wouldn't call Alanis a sell out with Jagged Little Pill. She's said COUNTLESS times that she didn't like her first few albums, and had absolutely no control over them. Jagged Little Pill was written when she was 19/20 and obviously her music taste would've changed. She didn't do it to "conform" because really, it is not a grunge album at all.

That's comparable to calling Let Go "punk". People called it grunge because it was different than a lot of female artists at the time. Just like they call Let Go punk because it was different from female artists of 2002.

And Madonna needs to stop re-inventing herself. I'ts kind of disturbing and pathetic to see a 50 year old still trying to use sex to sell. And since when has Avril said she viewed madonna as a role model?

If Avril re-invented herself like Madonna does, she may be popular on the charts - but considered a joke to a lot of musicicians. Madonna's not in it for the music, no matter what she says, she looks at making an album and a song as a marketing tool. She's 110% business. And I really hope it doesn't come to that with Avril.


Back on topic, I think album 5 could be cool if she did more songs like Stop Standing There and make it sort of an indie scene with that.

Alanis wasnt grunge at all! However she definitivily had in jagged and SIJ, songs with grunge and postgrunge edge, example of there are songs like You Oughta Know, Baba, Sympathetic Character, Would Not Come, Pollyanna Flower, Not The Doctor, All I Really Want, and more... So she wasn't called grunge just because she was different, she was called in that way because her music had kinda grunge sounds and stuff at least

[bryanisforever]

I think many old fans have switched their perspective of almost disliking her during the TBDT era to liking her again for GL era. But theyre not as hardcore fans anymore as they used to be during LG and UMS. Hopefully with the next few singles, Avril can sway the old hardcore fans who felt she sellout.

I'm hoping for a step in the more Hard Rock direction. I think Avril would do good with almost a Pretty Reckless music vibe, minus their image.

[Annie Was Here]

If Avril could squeeze on out a Let Go Part 2, I'd be a happy gal. I loved the grunge appeal of it. It wasn't all sweet and pretty, it had edge and angst to it, which I'm a sucker for.

Her next album could go anywhere. Considering she mentioned she had enough material for two records, she'll most likely use the songs she worked on with Alex Da Kid, (which are most likely hip-hop/pop inspired.)

But I'm sure she'll throw her Avril twist in the mix like she always does.

It's really anyone's guess at this point.

[Rebel101]

I think for the next album she'll go heavier...a lot heavier than in UMS. But in saying that, if she does, she might have to do an image make over, otherwise people aren't going to take it seriously.

[JACK516]

I think there will be Greatest Hits compilation

[Robertloveslavigne]

I think she shuld do and hopefully will do 1/3 self written songs, 1/3 meaningful songs with writers like Evan and Butch and 1/3 upbeat happy songs with peple like Alex or Max or Luke. I think a varied album is the best thing she could do at the moment.

[Orchidx]

The key word here is growth. She needs to mature more artistically so she could be able to re-invent herself in an interesting way without having to go through a TBDT part 2 or releasing a dance album. That kind of change is just too obvious and abnormal to go unnoticed and people will dub her a sellout if that happens.
She needs to explore and learn much more about music and really just find the inspiration inside of her. She needs to allow more of herself into her music.
Also, I'd like to see her work with other people to change it up a bit and gain a bit more experience out of it.

Her songwriting needs to improve the most. She can write decently but her lyrics still lack enough depth and definition you'd expect from someone who's been writing for over 10 years. I'm also kinda sick from her songs having almost the same content: breakups. She needs to write about other things and leave that aside for a minute. Moreover, she shouldn't be afraid to experiment instead of sticking to the same chord progression, key, etc.

As for her next album, like I said, any other direction would be just too blah. She can still release some poppy songs, but it can't be a pop tart of an album. I'd like to see an alternative and grungy direction influenced by some other genres, and some raw and adult pop-punk or heavier songs that would appeal to a more mature audience. But thanks to RCA, I don't think she'd get the chance. She has an interesting style that seems to fade away with every album she releases - I can't quite explain that, but nevermind.

[how does it feel]

I would almost put money on album #5 being more Upbeat and like TBDT. Avril said she wanted to use the songs she did with ADK and Alex said some of the songs were more Rock, other were more Hip-Hop. I think that's really awesome, experimenting with sound, because mark my works, if TBDT had been an introspective album like UMS or GL, you'd have people on here saying all the albums sound too similar and that Avril needs to experiment some more. I've never understood the negativity associated around TBDT, it was such a breath of fresh air and sounded like nothing in the charts at the time. I'll sum up what I reckon. Album #5 will come prominently after the Black Star Tour finishes, as Avril will want to escape the RCA trap as soon as possible. I think the album coming that soon is possible as she did it with LG and UMS, LG was released 2002, she toured till 2003, and pretty much immediately released UMS. Avril has also dropped hints such as saying she had enough material for two records. She will release a TBDT type album (But still a mix, as she said there's a song that she worked with Evan on called 'Gone', which will probably make the fifth record), Tour with that album so that means her RCA contract is done. Whatever happens after that is hard to tell! But we'll see .