As one of R&B’s brightest stars Tamar Braxton had good reason to have high hopes for her latest studio album ‘Calling All Lovers.’
Alas, those hopes did little to convince the general public to support the album when it was released leaving her with one of the lowest opening week numbers in the genre’s recent history.
Now, she has shared fresh thoughts on the matter.
Unfortunately, we don’t think the music was the problem.
Though he run on television is to thank for the career she has today we’d say Braxton suffered from a severe case of overexposure by the time ‘Lovers’ hit stores.
In short, her audience became so used to “experiencing” her for free on television throughout the year that they became desensitised to any real promotion she employed on the same platform.
It’s a shame because the project is a great body of work (looking at you TC)
However, we also think her now resolved feud with K. Michelle (which saw her mock artists who were unable to sell over 100,000 units in a week) threw her brand into “messy” waters and- believe it or not- made her the villain in the pair’s well publicised story.
It didn’t help that her own sales were also being thrown into question when her more clued-up critics noted how strange it was that her iTunes #1 single ‘Love & War’ failed to crack the Top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Add to this the fact that she is said to be feuding with a number of the people and platforms who pushed her to success it becomes pretty clear-rather unfortunately- that the problem isn’t Tamar’s music…but Tamar herself.
Unfortunately, the music industry’s structure often sees perception outweigh reality. For Tamar, this means that despite outselling (and in some cases “out singing”) the likes of Ciara, Jennifer Lopez, Tinashe, Kelly Rowland and Brandy, the “feuding” and the “shading” places her beneath them in the court of public opinion.
Don’t agree?
Well, how many of you are aware that Tinashe‘s ‘All Hands on Deck‘ didn’t sell enough copies to impact the Billboard Hot 100, or that ‘Love & War‘ moved more units in its first week than Ciara’s last two LPs did when combined in the same amount of time.
Or that Jennifer Lopez‘ ‘Booty’ (which peaked at #18 on the Hot 100) only reached that position because 92% of its “sales” were actually from free streaming points.
You didn’t?
Therein lies the power of perception.
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The album is horrible, Tamar! Learn to humble yourself and maybe people will support you!!!
You fool that album was great as is Janets too. I bought both albums on the same day of release and absolutely loved them. The industry just refuses to support the real r&b artists. Mainstream level the r&b scene is dry as f***. Chris, Trey, and Aug ain’t ding s*** we haven’t already seen while Miguel, Frank, Luke, ect are overlooked for their talent. But have no problem pushing Sam and Adele when there are also Tyrese, Jill Scott, Tamia, Tamar ect.
Simple things, I love you, circles, king, if I don’t have you and angels and demons are all good songs, she could’ve scrapped the rest but the more I listen to it, songs like “raise the bar” and “catfish” continue to grow on me…this is a actually a solid album.
I don’t think she was reflecting on the album sales but rather people thinking the album flopped because it was bad. She sold almost 50k without hardly promo other the Real, Wendy Williams and posting about it on social media. Why Epic didn’t have a TV spot for Calling All Lovers while she was on DWTS is beyond me, she didn’t interview and perform on any major talk show or do any big magazine covers. Yeah I do agree public perception is key, people were feeling like they see too much to care about her album but at the same time, a lot of those other artists aren’t seen regularly like Brandy, Monica, Ciara, Kelly Rowland, Tinashe and Jazmine Sullivan but they still flopped. The public doesn’t like artists throwing shade but at the same time, they love it. I think Tamar needs to leave Epic and find a label who knows how to market her to the right audience. She’s 38, but her music would do better commercially for an artist who’s in their early/mid 20s minus her ballads and honestly, they should just push her as a ballad artist and she’ll do well, leave the club bangers and party songs alone
Five other labels already dropped her who will take her. There is a reason they picked Toni nobody is seeing that.
The album itself was great, it just lack promotion and special appearances from Tamar performing some of the songs. But please let us not act like the industry is in any favor of the R&B artists nowadays. Like you can’t even compare today r&b scene to the 90’s and early twenties. So dry as f*** …on theses bs award shows besides BET and Soul Train they don’t even invite the r&b artists to perform, then throws Beyonce and Rihanna in the category without acknowledging other r&b female artists like Tinashe, Jhene, Jill, and Tamar.. but have no problem embracing the whites who do our genre -> JT, JB, Sam, and Adele all while the black artists who make similar songs or even better ones than theirs get paid dust. So I’ll say this.. F*** the industry.
I’s all about quantity now not quality. We went from having Whitney, Mariah, Lisa Fischer, Janet, Toni, TLC, Destiny’s Child, Aaliyah, Monica,Brandy, Chante Moore, Mary J Blige, Faith Evans, Ashanti, Tamia, Lauryn Hill, Angie Stone, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, ect to all the bs of today’s standards.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Unfortunately, we’ve lived and loved the best years of R&B…the 90’s and early 2000’s. It will never be that way again. The game truly has changed.
Sorry but she was on TV with this album and all over the radio promoting it. The industry don’t buy music we and if your album is not good we ani’t buying it.
Sales doesn’t always reflect artistry. In some cases it does but not always. She shouldn’t worry just try and try again
You are absolutely right, top of that it’s not too late to get the other tracks shine/promo/videos they rightfully deserve.
Maybe she should have waiting until DWS was over. She is spreading herself too thin. I just read her show will be back with Vince. I haven’t watched it and don’t plan too. I still like Toni better than her and a lot of her sounds it sounds like she tries to sound like her.
The album slays. Tamar sings DOWN.
I think the real problem is that she pissed somebody off at her label. I don’t know whose bad side she is on or how she got herself there but that seems to be the reason for all of this. She even said she didn’t think the album would ever come out. And it kept getting pushed back. When the album was finally released, the label chose to make her compete with Janet Jackson’s comeback album. It’s like her label purposely set her up to fail. She needs to get back on their good side somehow because they might blackball her to the point that no other label wants her. I enjoyed Calling All Lovers & Love and War, so I want her to win.
That’s what you heard from her lots of artist get their dates push back and come out and sale way more than 38k. People are just not feeling her she is just not a superstar. There are a lot great singers out there but it takes more than that. And Tamar don’t have it.
Tamar did this album and I was pretty disappointed with her sales tbh.. she is singing down…a lot of people blame the lack of promotion… a lot of people blame Epic.. idk wat happened but Id just keep puttin out music if I was her
The music wasn’t the problem. It is actually one of the year’s best albums.. It was the fact that there was a year span between the “first” lead single and the album…THEN your label thought it was a good idea to go head-to-head with an ICON.
I like Tamar but she’s no Brandy and She’s not idolize or an icon like Kelly Rowland , she doesn’t dance or look better then Ciara nor is she creatively different Like Tinashe. Sorry but she’s a reality star that can sing
and you are a pretend ANALyzing ass critic. boop
I think it was the music. It wasn’t bad, but the songs weren’t great — too many decent album cuts and no epic ballads. Tamar needed another Love & War type ballad or something like Deborah C**’s Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here. She also needed something to serve in pop markets, like a good dance tune or something. How about a feature with a current hip hop artist? Oh, and I seriously need this woman to remake Centipede by Rebbie Jackson.
when you WANT to listen to an album from start to finish. now that is a successful body of work. i wasn’t a huge fan of tamar, but seeing how genuine she is, and seeing how she slays with the vocals and also! not just the vocals but she serves real emotion and vocals and emotion have to mix! ppl forget. cough cough maybe the reason why christina aguialiara doesn’t have that much success with selling albums right now because i see her on the surface, i still don’t know if theres depth to her even though her voice is incredible. however the point I’m trying to make is, this album wasn’t amazing! a new stream of “rhythmic pop” albums are coming which i still don’t know what that is, but no one can tell me they didn’t like at least ONE song from this album. she served every genre, stream and beat.
**must been good to you
Too many eggs.
She was all over the place doing this that and everything. The music promo couldn’t be put 1St in the vital build up weeks because DWTS, The Real etc was just too much for her. Her vocals live suffer because not well rested and now illness.
The album is very R&B but such great vocal songs. Free Fallin my jam right now.
Will there be any more videos?
God knows how too humble wild tongues. Ask Rousey!!
1. Lack of effectual radio and TV promotion (i.e. GMA, Kelly and Michael, Today Show etc.)
2. Album mismanagement by Epic and Streamline
3. Poor single choices in the sense that Catfish, If I Don’t Have You, and Let Me Know achieved moderate success on Urban/Urban AC formats but Tamar needed a single to push on the Pop/Rhythmic formats.
4. Tamar being too busy (BFV, DWTS, The Real) to give her project the meticulous attention it deserved as well as lack of confidence in “Calling All Lovers” as a body of work.
To sum it up Epic/Streamline, Management, and Tamar are all equally responsible for the general public’s lukewarm reception of “Calling All Lovers”.
I actually agree with the article i seen this coming for tamar
I think it has more to do with how marketable she is as an artist,Tamar has several platforms that should’ve been used to promote her music and some of them have been used to promote her music.Tamar has been touring it seems like since Love&War,she’s been on two reality shows,she was on DWTS, and she has the talk show.Tamar has also performed on on several televised award/shows. Being a great singer isn’t enough, if that was the case she wouldn’t have flopped in an era where true talent was still appreciated(The 90’s), some people just aren’t meant to sell that much. It doesn’t mean she’s not talented just means she’s not marketable.She’s had plenty of promo,people just weren’t interested.There is only so much your label can do as far as promo goes, you’d think with her being everywhere she’d at least do 100K opening week.4 flops in a row now for her.
Or maybe we just don’t like HER. She was bragging about that small success of the last album to the point that she even said that Toni was jealous of her. I don’t care what anyone says, she and Fatty played Toni, had her thinking that the show was going to help her career, when it was really to launch Tamar’s. They played Toni to get the show picked up because she was the ONLY celeb in that family.
Ppl aren’t here for her music. Just because her shows are successful doesn’t mean that the ppl who watch are interested in her music. Ppl like her personality and antics, I don’t get how but…
By the numbers that were released from this album, I now think truly Vince brought the bulk of her last album. Tamar was throwing nothing but shade on other artist from K. Michele to Beyoncé only apologize when she was told about herself.
I’m a little late to the conversation but decided to do some research on the album this morning after a friend texted me commentary about the album. I personally love the album and I think circles is her best vocal work on the album. If you have ever survived the woes of tumultuous love, but carry scars, this album will
Resonate with your heart…. And soul. I didn’t buy the album because I am an Apple Music subscriber and can stream it everytime I get in my car and I do. With all the ways we can legally acquire music, direct album sells hardly seems like an efficient way to measure an albums success. I’m sure if we only look at one measure, we are missing the full picture.