Too Little, Too Late
“You know it’s just ‘Too Little Too Late’”; a lyric coined in 2006 for pop artist, JoJo, defined by the Collins dictionary as “blaming someone for not doing enough to prevent a problem and for taking action only after the problem had become very bad.” Twelve years have passed since the track dented the top three of the Billboard Hot 100, and still – to this day – it’s relatability is omnipresent in our everyday decision-making.
Take Troye Sivan as an example – or perhaps a vast number of them. Despite frequent warnings from every professional in the field about the necessity of a digital back-up, Sivan failed on all fronts, almost resulting in a complete loss of artwork, nudes and other less-important files. And similarly, the ignorance stretches to the field of audio streaming. Label executive, Christina Aguilera, posted some advice on her Twitter account last week – in short, saying that artists should aim to stream over the majority of a week, and not rely on one final last-minute push to make up the majority of their chart points. Advice, unfortunately, ignored by Sivan as he made an outstanding effort, in the hopes of boosting the numbers of single, ‘Lights in Our Way’ (#2) and album, ‘afterdance’ (#3). But alas, it was ‘Too Little, Too Late’.
Fortunately for Sivan, ‘Lights’ certainly weren’t in his way. Instead, it was Perrie Edwards… again. Edwards learned today’s lesson quickly in life, and grasping the nettle with both hands, looked to Katy Perry – once again – for a remix of her third single, ‘X2Y’. Originally peaking at #3 as a solo-track, the remix tops the Hot Singles Chart with incredible performance on both digital and streaming metrics. Never one to miss an opportunity, Edwards’s self-titled début album also rises back to the pole position on the Top Albums Chart. But, it appears there’s always lessons to be learned. This week, Edwards announced her retirement from the music industry – despite warnings from her label, fans and other artists within the industry; that – perhaps – came, ‘Too Little, Too Late’…
Another pioneer of the ‘Too Little, Too Late’ movement, is none other than Rihanna. It appears that she always falls at the last hurdle or misses out on a prime opportunity. Whilst only a measly four chart-points behind Edwards earlier this morning, she finds herself a distant twenty-one points behind, in the final tally; with ‘Fire to Die For’ (#3). ‘Fire’ features Shawn Mendes; another artist who seems to suffer from this unfortunate fate – as ‘Vibrate’, which looked set for a top-five début this morning, enters at a disappointing number-seven. Earlier this season, Mendes announced a collaboration with Katy Perry – who refuted the claim and stated she wouldn’t return to music until the following year; a claim but nothing else, evidenced by this week’s number-one single. ‘Too Little, Too Late’, Mendes; ‘Too Little, Too Late’.
Where do we begin with Aguilera? Having reported Aguilera’s personal stance on the streaming metric previously, one would assume that Aguilera employs this with her own releases, surely? As Lana Del Rey would say, the answer is ‘No’. Aguilera’s lead track, ‘Give You My Body’, from her upcoming studio album, was seen accelerating up the charts in the early-afternoon, landing itself at a healthy number-four. While, her attempt for number-one was ‘Too Little, Too Late’, there can be some respect for those who continue to rise, as opposed to the so-called “Free Fallers”; described perfectly by Kesha and her aptly-titled single ‘Free Falling’. While she did manage to improve on her disastrous début week performance, the track – which was slated for the number-three spot – still fails to crack the top-five (#6). Fortunately for Kesha, this is not another example of ‘Too Little, Too Late’. Unfortunately, she appears to be an example of ‘Too Much, Too Early’ instead.
From ‘Too Little, Too Late’ to ‘Too Much, Too Early’ to ‘Just Too Fucking Little’; we look to Jennifer Lopez’s début record; ‘Tomorrow’. The twelve-track set – which contains the three colossal bombs, ‘You’re Not Mine’ (#21), ‘Peter Pan’ (#27) & ‘Thirsty Girl’ (#21) – apparently, suffering from a ‘Fainting Heart’, flops into the number-seven position on the Top Albums Chart this week; with pitiful digital sales and a missing streaming presence that even the best sniffer dog couldn’t track. One can only hope that this ‘Fragile Woman’ will learn how to use Twitter one day. But not today; maybe ‘Tomorrow’.
Our final example of the ‘Too Little, Too Late’ is last week’s number-one artist, P!nk. Her former number-one hit, ‘Don’t Stay Out (Too Late)’ falls to number-five, as her first number-one album, ‘Shipwrecked: Out of Time’ slips to the number-three spot. However, this example doesn’t relate to her music releases, but rather the current chart system. As system analyst, P!nk was tasked with coming up with planned amendments for future years – but unfortunately, she came up with those ‘Too Little, Too Late’, resulting in a tonne of work over the next few months. When asked for comment, she responded; “Buy & stream ‘Delicious’”.