Why did "Libertad" flop?

[GeraldFord]

Wonder what this will mean for the future of the band...

Buckcherry's second CD bombed, and they came back strong with album #3, but that could be merely an anomaly.

[martyngnr]

Wonder what this will mean for the future of the band...

Buckcherry's second CD bombed, and they came back strong with album #3, but that could be merely an anomaly.

Buckcherry came back on a much smaller scale though. Look at the opportunities VR had to get a huge audience.

Top (or very near) of the bill at LOADS of major festivals purely because of the Slash/GNR link.

The were on Live 8 in London at prime time with millions of people watching around the world

Then they go missing for 2 years instead of capitalizing on such huge exposure. So what happens - nothing. They were giving away loads of gig tickets as competition prizes 2 days before some of the UK tour dates.

Can't see them recovering from this. 

[Wheres Izzy]

Wonder what this will mean for the future of the band...

Buckcherry's second CD bombed, and they came back strong with album #3, but that could be merely an anomaly.

I still think "Timebomb" is far and away Buckcherry's best. But you also have to remember when comparing 2nd album flops with them and VR that Buckcherry broke up for 4 years and came back with 60% of the lineup changed before their 3rd album.

[lynn1961]

If VR want to do better next time maybe they should go back to those Izzy Stradlin demos that Weiland didnt like!

fire Scott, fire Matt, and fire that bald dude.? ?Get Izzy, and get a decent drummer.? ? They'd be a cool band.

But, wait....who's going to sing lead?  Izzy & Duff? 

[Jim Bob]

If VR want to do better next time maybe they should go back to those Izzy Stradlin demos that Weiland didnt like!

fire Scott, fire Matt, and fire that bald dude.   Get Izzy, and get a decent drummer.    They'd be a cool band.

But, wait....who's going to sing lead?  Izzy & Duff? 

If I had to pick, Izzy.  But neither, they should have a different singer.  Not someone from the grunge era.  Bach would have been a good fit but I'm glad he didn't join up with them.

[D]

Buckcherry came back strong with their last album cause they had a novelty song "Crazy Bitch" that people really got behind.  U take Crazy Bitch off, and that album doesn't go aluminum.

[JimBobTTD]

Buckcherry came back strong with their last album cause they had a novelty song "Crazy Bitch" that people really got behind.? U take Crazy Bitch off, and that album doesn't go aluminum.

I have had vacuum cleaners which have sucked less than that song.

[LunsJail]

Buckcherry came back strong with their last album cause they had a novelty song "Crazy Bitch" that people really got behind.? U take Crazy Bitch off, and that album doesn't go aluminum.

I have had vacuum cleaners which have sucked less than that song.

  Thank you. Why do people think that's a good song?

[DEAD HORSE]

Buckcherry came back strong with their last album cause they had a novelty song "Crazy Bitch" that people really got behind.? U take Crazy Bitch off, and that album doesn't go aluminum.

I have had vacuum cleaners which have sucked less than that song.

   True tho, people say this is a "good" song 'cause its a "rock & roll" song, that's all really, catchy song with stupid lyrics. to me is more pop than rock.

[Darkburst]

I can tell you all this, rock n' roll sales are down across the board. The genre is not as strong as it used to be. Once it was almost a religion, now it's as disposable as anything else made these days. People aren't connecting with it like they were in the past.

[sexkitten]

Unfortunately that's the state of rock and roll today.? You've got to appeal to the masses, and the masses wouldn't know good music if it punched them in the face.

Well said...the biggest selling albums are hip hop and it makes me sick!

[makane]

Okay, after spending a few months lingering on the charts, it's safe to say that VR's second album bombed, selling less than a quarter of the debut. But why did it bomb?

1. Bad choice of the first single. "She Builds Quick Machines" is a solid song, but nothing exceptional. It's kind of generic and wasn't a good way to get people interested in the album.

2. Not enough promotion. "Libertad" just kind of came out--without a lot of buzz or hype.

3. The band took too long getting it out. All the fanfare and initial hype kind of died down three years after the well received debut.

4. The songs weren't good enough. I still can't listen 3 songs without having the need to skip. The album has a _few_ good tracks, bunch of mediocore tracks and a few shitty tracks.

Really frustrating to play the cd when you constantly think "ah not this again". I guess contraband is kinda the same without the "shitty" tracks. You can actually listen the whole cd (contraband) without going "why the fuck did they do this?".? (She Mine, American Man, Pills Demons & Etc. & Can't Get It Out Of My Head ?!?!)
 
drunk, frustrated blablablaa...

[makane]

I can tell you all this, rock n' roll sales are down across the board. The genre is not as strong as it used to be. Once it was almost a religion, now it's as disposable as anything else made these days. People aren't connecting with it like they were in the past.

"The genre is not as strong as it used to be."

People would connect and buy, but there's nothing there.

This concerning "mtv/moderd rock" mostly atm. There are actually good bands out there, but the mainstream is just hollow.

[Irish gunner II]

So it was a flop just because the album didn't sell enough units to be considered a big hit is it ? I have some stuff in my collection from one band that was on the strip in the late eighties that very few people seem to know about called "Royal Court of China" and from what I have heard it didnt sell well, but I think it's great. I hate that success is based on the number of albums a band sells. It's a sad state of affairs when the so called music channels today wouldnt know music if it jumped up and bit them.

As Duff said in the "seven days in Rio" video that I have seen, some of his favourite albums haven't sold millions of copies yet he likes them and that was what mattered to him, and I feel the same way.? Albums sales hold no bearing on whether I like a album or band, and I won't go buy an album just because it has sold millions.

And also I think the music industry as a whole is severally lacking something and with record labels pricing albums at over inflated prices, most kids trying to get into music can't afford to buy the stuff, which has led to a rise in illegal downloads which has not helped the injured animal that the scene is at the moment.

Well that's my two cents on the matter.

[kimberly]

So it was a flop just because the album didn't sell enough units to be considered a big hit is it ? I have some stuff in my collection from one band that was on the strip in the late eighties that very few people seem to know about called "Royal Court of China" and from what I have heard it didnt sell well, but I think it's great. I hate that success is based on the number of albums a band sells. It's a sad state of affairs when the so called music channels today wouldnt know music if it jumped up and bit them.

As Duff said in the "seven days in Rio" video that I have seen, some of his favourite albums haven't sold millions of copies yet he likes them and that was what mattered to him, and I feel the same way.? Albums sales hold no bearing on whether I like a album or band, and I won't go buy an album just because it has sold millions.

And also I think the music industry as a whole is severally lacking something and with record labels pricing albums at over inflated prices, most kids trying to get into music can't afford to buy the stuff, which has led to a rise in illegal downloads which has not helped the injured animal that the scene is at the moment.

Well that's my two cents on the matter.

I agree with you, however it's just a matter of what people are interested in and eventually that's what the music channels are going to grab onto, and they'll mostlikely base what they're going to play on radioplay, requests and albumsales, and I don't think I can really blame them for that. If there'd be, lets say 100.000 R&B fans watching their channel and 100 metalheads, who would you cater to? I know I'd go for the R&B fans because you'd have to keep that channel running with as much viewers as possible and I'd give the metalheads a couple of hours a week of airplay for their genre.

The flipside of the story is that because it's not getting a lot of airplay or attention in general that people don't really broaden their horizon, so to speak, when it comes to other genres. I personally once only listened to that popmusic stuff and fell in love with some guy who wore Slayer and GNR shirts and whatnot...I wanted to have something to talk about so I figured 'I might aswell check those bands out'  otherwise I probably would've never gotten into Slayer.

With VR everything was just a little to hyped up to me..I read all those interviews where they were all saying stuff like 'this is the best stuff we ever did' and 'we never pushed ourselves this hard to make a record' so I thought: well this is going to be awesome! when I actually heard the record I wasn't really feeling it, and I'm still not...I liked Contraband better.

[Bill 213]

She Builds Quick Machines was simply put, a crap song and to use it as the first single (the first track that is going to draw people to your album) was disasterous. 

[wewantslash]

well to answer the original question, to me it didnt sell well cos personally i want to see slash with axl & axl with slash thats it. possibly some more ppl are like me, are we the major part int this case...humm very possible.
will be the same for axl's solo band called guns n' roses. of course he'll sell more for sure cos he has the name & cos its been 15 years but should be a flop too for sure if chinese ever comes out one day, plus the fact that ppl dont buy records anymore. or possibly i am all wrong but thats my case.

[Fingers]

Bad first choice for single-Slither seemed to catch on for people very quickly-I remember in Detroit at State Theater, people singing along to chorus of Slither (This was about a week before album was released!)-Fall to Pieces was also played to death on VH1-I just think Contraband was way better-Libertad is a fair to good album, but there wasn't really a song i played over and over-I'd like to see them go heavier if there is another album

[Smoking Guns]

Bad first choice for single-Slither seemed to catch on for people very quickly-I remember in Detroit at State Theater, people singing along to chorus of Slither (This was about a week before album was released!)-Fall to Pieces was also played to death on VH1-I just think Contraband was way better-Libertad is a fair to good album, but there wasn't really a song i played over and over-I'd like to see them go heavier if there is another album

Slither has become a classic hard rock song.  It has aged well!

[Fingers]

It has-I remember I didn't get it at first, but it is a great song