Why Van Halen can't win with their new album!

[Fever]

There are still a few classic rock bands that with the right marketing can sell albums by the bucketload, even with the download availability problem. Journey proved that you can still do it with Revelation and the 're-recorded' greatest hits package.

Don't underestimate the number of guitarists out there who'll follow Eddie Van Halen to the ends of the earth. Add in Jimmy Iovine and Interscope records and you could have a US Billboard number one album....if the quality is there.

Just for the record, Van Halen haven't put anything off. They haven't announced a release date that subsequently wasn't honoured or even officially confirmed that they're recording an album. That's down to the press and eager music fans.

What do you consider bucketload? Revelation had some good sales and I bought it, but I don't think it even sold a million copies in the U.S.(last I checked it was around 800,000). I am not sure of the worldwide total. And Eclipse had fewer sales.

 

[coltrane2]

I'd say 800,000 is a few buckets, yeah? No one in hard rock is ever going to get back to that 10 million Bon Jovi/ Guns N Roses/ Whitesbake territory again. Shit, in the late eighties even LA Guns we're clocking 4 million for the odd album (Cocked and Loaded I think hit that in the US).

What I mean is heavy rotation, Billboard top 20, in the public eye.

 

[AboutAGirl]

It doesn't matter how great it is ,albums by classic rock bands just don't sell like they used to.

If it's truly great it'll sell again. People like Neil Young and Tom Petty have shown that if your new material doesn't suck then you can still make waves. Heck, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith have proven it, too. It's just that over 99% of artists can't come up with anything but crap after they've already put out 10+ albums.

 

[Fever]

If it's truly great it'll sell again. People like Neil Young and Tom Petty have shown that if your new material doesn't suck then you can still make waves. Heck, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith have proven it, too. It's just that over 99% of artists can't come up with anything but crap after they've already put out 10+ albums.

Mojo was a good album ,but it wasn't the seller that the classic Petty albums were.It sold a lot that first week but it wasn't a top 10 album that long.Bon Jovi and Aerosmith have not had chart topping albums either.I am not saying these albums are bad but classic rock bands do not put out chart topping albums anymore.It doesn't matter how good the albums are.I have Mojo and it's very good, but it wasn't a chart topper.

I love it when one of the classic rock bands I listened when I was younger comes out with something new.I buy the new albums from Petty,Journey.Lynyrd Skynyrd,Foreigner etc. but my brother,who likes these same bands, has no interest in buying anything new from these bands.I am sure he is not the only one that feels that way.

 

[AboutAGirl]

Jovi's last 4 albums have all been top selling, the last two hit #1 on Billboard and the two before that hit #2, all in the 00s. Aerosmith hasn't been active lately but when they were putting out good material they were still hitting it big. I would argue the reason most new classic rock albums don't sell well is because they're not good enough, not because people won't buy new albums by classic rock artists. The good ones sell at least decently well.

 

[Riff Raff]

As far as Van Halen goes, talk is cheap, they have been going in circles about whether to put an album out. Would be more excited for a Black Sabbath record to be honest.

 

[Mr. Bob Dobolina]

At some point fans become more interested in what a band has done rather than what they're doing.

 

[coltrane2]

Van Halen haven't talked at all and as far as going round in circles, they only started recording it in January 2011. As I say, they have not even announced a release date to miss. It boils down to music fans in the second decade of the 21st century expecting to open their presents and play with their toys before Christmas.

Patience on this one and I'll bet i'm posting "I told you so" on this very thread in less than three months.

 

[E-Z]

Eddy sucks nowadays so who cares if theres another VAN HALEN album dudes

The one that all you dudes missed (cos it didn't sell) was VAN HALEN III released in 1998 featuring Gary Cherone ex-EXTREME which i (still) like and that dear old Martin Popoff panned on first listening to but i actually rate over most of the other stuff that they ever put out maybe except for the first 3 albums- VAN HALEN, VAN HALEN II & WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST

 

[Riff Raff]

Van Halen are better off not even putting an album out then putting out a potentially disastrous one. Given a lot of the stuff I have read here of late about VH it seems they can't even make up their minds.