SOUNDS editor TK questions the relevance of album rollouts in this day and age...

I love a good album rollout. That buzz and anticipation from the moment my favourite artists announce their upcoming album to when it is finally released for the world to hear is a feeling that cannot be matched.

Shorter attention spans, faster news cycles, fewer barriers in place to reach your audience and the sheer amount of content available to consumers means that artists have to be more creative in order to stand out. Because of streaming, the album-rollout period has shortened considerably. Now, that can be seen as a good thing as we get the music sooner and don’t have to wait 5 years for a follow-up to Damn — oh, wait. However, from an artist’s perspective they now need to cram 3-6 months’ worth of marketing and exposure into a couple of weeks, or sometimes a few short days.

These days, some album rollouts begin with teasing snippets of songs on Instagram or TikTok in hopes of creating some sort of buzz with minimal effort. Something as simple as an artist changing their Instagram or Twitter profile picture could symbolise the start of a new era set to the sounds of new music coming soon. The Weeknd is arguably the best at this, with a slew of new haircuts and get-ups clearly signalling a new phase and therefore album is incoming.

For this piece though, I wanted to focus on a couple of the most high-profile rollout campaigns from the past few years, digging a little bit deeper into what made them so special.

Dark Fantasy

The artist formerly known as Kanye West has overseen many a protracted album rollout. Fans should be happy Donda even came out at all (see Turbo Grafx 16, Good Ass Job, Cruel Winter, Yandhi… the list goes on). 

That said, I wanted to focus on the rollout for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (herein referred to as MBDTF). It is the stuff of legend. I consider it the greatest album of the past 22 years and my favourite album of all time. A large part of this is down to the perfect rollout preceding its release. 

After the media backlash he faced in the wake of his Taylor Swift-directed outburst at the 2009 MTV VMAs, Kanye retreated to Hawaii where he assembled the Harlem Globetrotters of hip-hop to record what would be his fifth studio album. Mr. West re-emerged from the wilderness to give us Power, the first single of his then-upcoming album – we did not know much about the forthcoming record just yet, but Power’s critical and market reception was undeniable.

After the release of this first single, Kanye tweeted that every Friday would see the release of a brand-new song. And thus, G.O.O.D Fridays was born. Tracks like Christmas in Harlem, Devil in a New Dress, Runaway Love and Christian Dior Denim Flow (just to name a few) were released for free in the second half of 2010. As each G.O.O.D Friday passed, the anticipation for MBDTF grew and grew such that even before its release, there was no doubt the album was going to be successful. And so it was, selling nearly 500,000 copies in its first week with a debut at number 1 on the Billboard 200.

The Surprise Release

Not many acts can pull off the “surprise release.” These are the album drops that the general public, and even some industry insiders, have no idea it’s coming one day. Then the next day, there’s a full-length album from Beyonce on your phone. 

Mrs. Knowles-Carter had previously utilised the traditional promotional approach to great effect… Single. Video. Feature from husband and greatest rapper of all time. Interviews. Live performances. Superbowl half-time show. That last one isn’t for everyone. Levels.

But her 2013 self-titled album ushered in this type of rollout, or lack thereof.

Of course, there are risks in releasing a brand-new album with zero promotion. But not if you’re Beyonce. She is in a rare air of music superstardom. This album had a video for every song, but nobody outside of the circle of a few dozen people working on the project had any idea it even existed. Many artists have since gone on to imitate this surprise approach: Drake succeeded with the critically acclaimed If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Frank Ocean also put his own spin on it with his double-barrelled surprise release of visual album Endless immediately followed by the peerless Blond(e). I could write for ages on that particular saga, but for the sake of my word count I will just leave it at this: expertly planned and executed rollout.

Circling back to Beyonce, however, the Houston-born chart topper’s approach landed her another #1 album that has sold 5 million copies since its release. It even holds the Guinness World Record for fastest-selling album on iTunes. With songs like Flawless and Drunk in Love still ringing out to this day, this album rollout solidified Beyoncé’s position at the top of a totem pole she shows no sign of falling off of.

It (A)takes an Eternity to get to Utopia

I said I wanted to select a few album rollouts to look at what made them so special, but in a slight gear change, this part focuses on a new trend of album rollouts. The rise of social media, and the patience of diehard fans can allow an artist to tease information about an album for years without even releasing an official single. The curious tale of Lil Uzi Vert’s rollout for Eternal Atake is an example of an artist cultivating a loyal fan base to almost do the rollout for him.

Eternal Atake was initially announced in 2018; but we didn’t get the album for another 2 years. In the period between announcement and release, we witnessed several teases of the album, publicity stunts under the guise of social media antics, and snippets from unfinished demo tracks. And fans lapped it up. Eternal Atake was a constant Twitter trending topic as the anticipation for this album reached a sustained fever pitch. The album’s first single, Futsal Shuffle 2020 was released in December 2019 — the best part of a year and a half after the album’s release was first mooted. Nevertheless, when Eternal Atake was finally released in March 2020, it sold 280,000 copies in its first week and is still one of the most-streamed albums ever in history. This unorthodox album rollout clearly worked for Lil Uzi, who famously has one of the more unwavering sets of fans, so there was little doubt they were going to love it regardless.

Fast-forward to a similar approach taken by Travis Scott: a simple handwritten message that read “See you in Utopia” was posted on Scott’s Instagram on the two-year anniversary of his last release Astroworld — back in 2020. In the time since, the name Utopia has been branded all across social media, but it’s now 2022 and the album release does not feel much closer to release. It would be a safe bet to assume the 2021 Astroworld disaster has had a huge impact on this particular album rollout. A timely withdrawal from the public eye to reflect and process the trauma will do Travis a world of good.

Rare Air

If there’s anyone that belongs in that rare air category with Beyoncé, it’s Adele. Adele can do whatever she wants when it comes to teasing an album. The numbers and accolades that the N17 songstress has amassed in the past decade speak for themselves.

In October 2021, the number 30 was plastered on billboards and projected onto buildings and landmarks around the world. The more eagle-eyed observers connected the dots with the singer’s previous albums immediately: 19, 21 and 25 — each of which gave a snapshot of the performer’s life at the corresponding ages. 

What followed was what could be seen as a more “traditional” album marketing campaign: magazine and television interviews, recorded television performances, and a lead single whose video was a continuation of one of her biggest hits, Hello. It was a throwback to the early 2000s when an Oprah interview was one of the most powerful narrative-control tools in the industry. This was all underpinned by the deliberate use of social media to preview the upcoming music. 

Seemingly inevitably, 30 became the best-selling album of 2021, but I’m not sure how much should be attributed to the marketing campaign behind the album with Adele being part of that rare air I mentioned earlier — a group of maybe 5 - 10 artists who could release their albums with little to no warning or fanfare and still top the charts.

The rules don’t apply to these artists, and frankly, why should they? Because while the album rollout is still an important method in generating hype and anticipation, it’s the popularity of the artist coupled with the actual quality of the music that will usually get you much further.

credits

words — tk spiff

design — sâde popoola