Music Notes: Then vs. Now

Tiny little fun fact: Alanis Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill (1995) has sold more copies than Taylor Swift's entire discography.

Always bringing you the really pertinent news,

Mike

P.S. The purpose of this little post might be to test out the spiffy new ad B&H built exclusively for us...

(If you can't see a link ad with an image above this line, would you let me know please? Thanks!)

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

David: "What's your source for that fun fact? Just curious."

Ken (partial comment): "Someone's been reading the New York Times Sunday Magazine."

Jan Steinman: "'Alanis Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill (1995) has sold more copies than Taylor Swift's entire discography'...and is now a Broadway play!"

Comments

[John Krumm]

While the B&H link worked, the ad image does not show.

[MikeR]

What spiffy new ad? I see, over the Patreon box, two icons that look like pages torn in half. Maybe they symbolize broken links?

I am using Firefox on Windows 10, if that helps.

I went over to Chrome, and I see a B&H ad under your last line of texts ... and the broken windows above Patreon.

[Mark Roberts]

Well that's ... ironic.

[Craig]

While I'm not a fan of Taylor's, I'd rather listen to her than Alanis Morissette. But the two of them have one thing in common: they both write angry songs about their ex-boyfriends without ever taking any responsibility for their own decisions to get involved with those men in the first place. The lack of self-awareness and self-analysis makes them both pretty shallow and boring. But it probably contributes to their popularity, since most people are the same way. People like hearing a message like "I couldn't help it, it's all your fault" as long as it's directed at someone else.

[JG]

Paying for music ... what a novel concept! 8^/

[Michael Houghton]

The ad turned up in my RSS feed just fine (via Feedly).

Taylor Swift can write an earworm, eh: You Need To Calm Down is genius. But in general I prefer Allie X or Emily Blue.

[Robert Roaldi]

I can see the ad.

[adamct]

That's a fun fact, but obviously needs to be taken with a grain of salt the size of Alaska, given that Taylor Swift operates in the age of subscription music streaming services. People may still be buying albums that aren't available on the major platforms, but I'm willing to bet the vast, vast, vast majority of current pop music fans only listen through streaming services (or other electronic means that don't involve buying an album -- read into that what you will). So...not an apples-to-apples comparison.

[robert e]

That's tricky math. I think those numbers (and rank) depends a lot on who is counting and what they're counting. (Certified vs shipped, physical vs digital, etc.)

Nice ad, though!

[Chris May]

Isn't that ironic? Well, not really. But then again, most of the stuff in Alanis' song wasn't either. Which she herself admitted in a classic performance with James Corden:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GVJpOmaDyU

[Ronny A Nilsen]

There is a link, but image is not working/showing. But possible klick through to B&H from link in broken image.

[Moose]

Huh? Who?

[Benjamin Marks]

Mike: cannot see the image. Running Firefox 66.0.3 (64 bit) on a Linux laptop.

[Glenn Allenspach]

In the immortal words of Sgt. Shultz, “I see nnnothing!”

[c.d.embrey]

Never ever heard either of them sing. So I checked-out a Morissette song on U-Tube. She has a voice I voice I find to be more irritating than fingernails rubbed on a black board.

Many of my favorite singers are woman. Linda Ronstadt, Grace Slick, Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris, Exene Cervenka, Joan Jett, Patsy Montana, Tish Hinojosa, Ella Fitzgerald ...

[kevin willoughby]

I cannot see the new B&H ad in my standard browser (Chrome Version 78.0.3904.108 (Official Build) (64-bit)). I can see the long-standing B&H ad in the upper right of all you pages.

I suspect this may have something to do with the fact that I disable javascript in my standard browser. I tried on a different browser that allows javascript and saw the ad.

[Dave Stewart]

The ad showed up, after turning off the Ad Blocker, but this UK based reader is very unlikely to ever use B&H.

[mike plews]

I hope this is not too off topic. It's a piece John Chapman and I did over the holiday.
Kanesville Collectables is even more cool than it looks.

https://www.wowt.com/video?vid=565625482

[Vince]

Hmmm. According to whom? Wikipedia (yes, I know, but all of these numbers are footnoted and sourced to the places that officially report sales) says JLP has sold 33m worldwide, but Ms. Swift has sold 46.5m worldwide combined (7m+12m+6m+6m+10m+4.5m+1m). Those are both actual sales, not "equivalents" in the now streaming world in which we live. If streaming is counted, I suspect TS would lap AM at least once and maybe twice.

(I see the ad.)

[PaulW]

Once I turned off my ad blocker (uBlock), the spiffy new ad showed up and the link worked. With the ad blocker on, I saw nothing but your text. I'm using Chrome.

[Patrick J Dodds]

Ad not showing on laptop - but then I use AdBlock. It shows up on my phone (Pixel 3).

[Roger Bradbury]

The spiffy new ad is there, the link works. It doesn't open in a new window. Is that what you wanted?

I'm in England, using Safari 13.0.3.

[Jim Hart]

Mike, without AdBlock running I can see the ad and the link works just fine. The link, when it opens, doesn't open a new tab, it opens up in TOP tab. With AdBlock running I can't see the ad at all. Maybe you could program a request to turn off ad blockers?

BTW - Who's Taylor Swift?

HTH

Jim

[Marty Knapp]

Neither link or image showed in my Brave browser, but that's what that browser is supposed to do. (remove ads & ad trackers) In Safari browser, both showed up.

[wts]

I use the AdGuard program to kill Internet ads. It was necessary to disable it for TOP in both the Chrome and Brave (brave.com) browsers. Furthermore, in the Brave browser it was also necessary to disable Brave's built-in "Shield". Then the B&H '50s style Cyber Week ad is visible in all its glory.
Is it possible when clicking on the ad that the B&H page open in a new tab instead of replacing TOP?
BTW the Patreon logo in the right column does not display, only the broken window symbol. The Patreon link, however, does work. This also replaces TOP rather than open a new tab.

[Gordon Lewis]

I see neither an ad nor a link. FWIW, I'm at work at the moment and viewing this in the Chrome web browser. No need to publish this, it's just FYI.

[RubyT]

To Craig's comment: I cannot speak about Taylor Swift, I am too old to be familiar with her work. However, Alanis is being sold short here. The line "I couldn't help it, it's all your fault" is from "Head Over Feet," and does capture the sort of goony things people say in the flush of new love.

The song that stands out, although it is not on "Jagged Little Pill," is "Hands Clean." Such a vivid portrait of being groomed by a pedophile from the perspective of the child is no average pop song.

[MikeR]

no link, no image. Firefox, Win 10, this time on my laptop

[Stumpy]

No, can't see any link or ad with any image above any line.

Opera, Win 7 Pro 64 bit. No intention of ever going to constant spying all rights signed away 10.

[Sixblockseast]

I saw the ad image on my (mobile) chrome browser. And immediately proceeded to buy a Peak Design wrist strap. Thanks for the excuse ;)

[David J Burbach]

Shows on my mac using Safari (and the link works)
but not on my PC using Google Chrome.

[John Camp]

"Tiny little fun fact: Alanis Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill (1995) has sold more copies than Taylor Swift's entire discography."

Nope.

[Bob G.]

Perfect, Moose. +1

[Scott]

Ad looks perfect in Chrome OS (Chromebook) and in Chrome on Android 10. I hope to be clicking on it in the near future.

[William Lewis]

No image no link. I am, however, using a beta of the new MS browser, Edge, based on Google Chrome (Version 80.0.345.0 (Official build) dev (64-bit)) and I don't trust my lack to mean much.

Good luck with it!

[Henning Wulff]

The ad is fine and the link works fine. The only negative is that the B&H page doesn't open in a new window, which I think it should.

[Peter Cooke]

Cannot see ad or link.

[Lars Jansen]

No images, only broken link stuff, although there is under the left one a link to an image. Mind, I block all third party cookies (which by definition includes all advertising networks) and any tracking stuff as well (again, all advertising networks). I do see the B&H image on the top of the right column.

Don't mind you adding adverts to the blog (gotta keep the chimney smoking), but do have a problem with all that tracking stuff that come with most of them and any Facebook connections.

[John Krumm]

I had to disable "Privacy Badger" for this site (It blocks tracking). Now I can see it.

[Franz Amador]

No ad or link "above this line" though there is a "Purchases through TOP" image in the right margin. (Chrome on Windows 10)

[robert e]

P.S. I had to turn off my tracking blocker (ublock origin) in order to see the ad. It makes sense--a customized ad with a customized landing page graphic (and potentially other customizations) is going to need some way to distinguish among web traffic. A tracking cookie is not the only way to do this, but for potential uses like custom selections, discounts or traffic data, it's probably the most convenient method.

Readers may need to whitelist B&H or the ad service (if they use one) in order to see and use the ad, whether in the browser itself or in third-party browser extension or add-ons.

[Stephen McCullough]

Fascinating statistic. Good for Alanis, even though as others (an I, below) question the comparison.

Seems to me Alanis has a head start here, and as others have pointed out that was back when most purchases were of entire albums.

As for Taylor and her songs being angry about ex-boyfriends, that's simply a summary of her music based on ignorance. The vast majority of her songs are not negative, about boys or any other topic.

How might I know this? My kid has been an avid fan for years, and early on I was her escort to concerts. And ended up enjoying every moment of the performance by a young woman who has written the majority of the music and lyrics, plays multiple instruments, and is much admired by several generations of musicians (just ask The Boss).

Apart from all that, the music is just fun for many people.

[Paul Farr]

I Can't see a link or advert. I've randomly clicked all over in case its not visible - but to no avail. Using Edge on Windows 10 and based in UK if that helps.

[Peter Croft]

I can't see it.

[Yann P]

I don't see anything, neither image nor link, on Firefox on my Android phone...

[Gordon Lewis]

I think I've figured out why I wasn't seeing the B&H ad: my browser has an ad blocker extension. When I turned the ad blocker off I could see the ad. You might want to pass this on to other readers who aren't seeing it but may want to.