Thread by @kirimixer, Little Mix' career is in danger -- a thread on the current [...]

Little Mix' career is in danger -- a thread on the current situation of Little Mix with a lot of explanations

Two Singles released this year, none of them reached top 5 (yet), making Woman Like Me Little Mix' last top 5 single to date. It was also Syco's last full managed song. Since the label switch, Little Mix is struggling to stay in the charts. so what is going on??

I will divide the thread into 3 parts, the fandom (to get dragged), the label / the promo (to get praised), and the girls (to be cancelled). This thread will explained what happened & sometimes what to do or not to do in order to help the girls.

I will try to be the less biaised possible. I will probably talk about other artists & other fandoms but I will try my best to stay impartial and respectful. The goal isn't to create another war. So these being said, we can start the thread :

THE FANDOM.
Back to 2018, when Woman Like Me was announced, everybody, Mixers and general public, was waiting for this collab. This was predicted to be the song that would make Little Mix crack the USA as it's something that EVERYBODY was waiting little mix to do.

But because of the label switch, this occasion was turned down. Leaving Mixers & the general public once again disappointed due to another fail. Little Mix has been trying (more or less) to crack the USA since years.

They used to be held up by their label (i will talk about it in another thread) but this song felt like the ultimate disappointment as it was originally planned to be a US focused single. & it was not the first disappointment

Salute US leg that was cancelled, Black Magic that wasn't a huge hit, Touch that was a US focused single but with a messy promo, Dangerous Woman Opening tour. All these chances were very badly managed (sometimes in purpose but we will talk about it in another thread)

People got tired of Little Mix, literally, constantly trying & failling, as hard as it is to hear, it's the truth. This was the moment when a big amount of people kinda left the fandom. Among the ones that left because they were disappointed by the era, success or music wise,

The ones that left because they were tired of stanning Little Mix & never see them "win" &The ones that left because other girlgroups were starting to become popular in the world as Little Mix were losing popularity.

On stan twitter, Little Mix, who used be to at least appreciated, were getting ignored/called old/ they should disband (...) Stan twitter loves only successful people, the moment you're going through a less successful era, they turn their back on you.

Everytime Little Mix is releasing something that failed to reach the success people were expecting, people is giving less attention to the girls to the point that Little Mix has been forgotten. Even PopCrave used to not post news on them/post them on their 2nd account

You will tell me : "but kiri, not everyone stan people for their sales, there is people that love little mix for their music, their friendship, their messages, their performances, their talent, their idk what else"

& you're right, there are another category of people that say "stan Little Mix" but aren't part of the fandom anymore. They usually stan other artists & put Little Mix on the side. They still listen to them (do they?) but they aren't in the fandom anymore & thats dangerous.

As they aren't focused on Little Mix as they used to do, they don't vote anymore, they don't join streaming / watching parties anymore, they don't request anymore & We can't blame them.

The final point is the general public. Little Mix has always being overshadowed by a girlgroup, Fifth Harmony at the beginning, Twice/Blackpink/RedVelvet more recently. As we are praising women, we shouldn't compare the girlgroup.

But in real life it feels like the general public can't like 2 girlgroups at the same time. They focus on the most popular & ignore the others. (this is one of the reason why Little mix has never cracked USA, we will talk about it in another thread).

I mean you can like LM and dislike BP, or like TW & dislike RV, because it's not your style, you don't like their songs or idk. But not because one is selling less than another... This is something veeeeery common on Twitter, I used to be like that too back then.

At the end of the day, between the fandom that reduced because of the disappointment, the stan twitter that are dragging the girls as there are less popular than used to be, & the general public that ignore the girls because they are more successful girlgroups, it's a disaster.

Now what, the fandom is way less powerful than they used to be. A part of the fandom is only there for the notice, and a big part of the fandom isn't requesting, voting, streaming. It makes everything way more difficult, even more nowadays.

The fandom is very important nowadays, they are more or less responsible for the commercial performance for the debut days of their artist's single. But we can't blame the fandom because of a flop song (even though we do). There is something even more important : the LABEL.

THE LABEL
Here is something VEEEEEEEEEERY touchy. Since the label switch everything is very difficult to predict. Little Mix was moved to RCA, they said they feel better on this label as they have more control on what is going on in their career.

But since they moved to RCA, their singles sales decreased, they never got Gold certfications in the UK. They didn't do a lot of performances out of the UK (only Australia, Brazil, Netherlands).

Also there is Columbia, as it is their US label, RCA UK can't book promo in the USA. (I will make a whole thread about it) (i know i said it too many times)

Columbia is refusing to give them money, why? Because they don't find Little Mix interesting enough to give them budget & on 1 hand we can understand. Almost 10 years in the industry, A lot of failed opportunities (this is their fault too), no Tour there, a fandom that faded away

The new trend are Kpop, Columbia signed BTS, and now they are looking for a Kpop girlgroup to promote them in the USA. Their "girlgroup" budget isn't going to little mix (i will talk about how labels (especially Syco & Columbia) manages their artist in another thread)

So no US promo. Now, RCA UK is only giving UK promo. & You will ask why? There are plenty of other countries where Little Mix are/used to be big. Japan, Brazil, Canada, South Korea, Germany... But there is something you missed.

Little Mix singles like Bounce Back or Think about us failed to be hits even in the UK, despite performances on big UK stages (Graham Northon, The Voice Kids, BBC the one). They lost their popularity also in the UK during 2019.

LM5 was a very R&B-Pop album that wasn't made for the UK general public, it was a big turning point as GD was mainly pop/ tropical pop. The Album was US focused thats why it was originally planned to be promoted there.

But as it failed to be a hit album in the US AND in the UK, the girls career is in danger. They can't go in other countries, do big promo there if they don't have the UK in their pocket as a back up industry.

This is (also) why the girls went back to Pop, & that the promo is very UK focused. But the girls are in a sticky situation. Due to the pandemic they arent able to do performances when it's their main advantage. They werent even able to meet to record their album.

Not only this but the Search, that was a good way to bring spotlights on the girls at least in the UK, has been postponed. So the girls had to promote 2 new singles with nothing else than radios & digital promotions (Playlists, Social networks ..).

"But now that they can meet, why can't they do like Chloe x Halle that are doing pre tapped performances to send them to TV Shows??" Differents reasons :

1 - Chloe x Halle are sisters, they are probably living together, they don't have to respect the detachment, they can record everything with no mask, in their own house. While each of Little Mix members are living in their own house everywhere in the UK

2 - USA shows are allowing pre tapped performances, it's usually the US Awards that allowed these kind of performances. But in the UK, there is no UK awards until October, and for now no UK TV Shows are allowing pre tapped performances (from home)

Also, it seems like RCA is focusing on keeping the girls "alive" with not a lot of budget to collect the budget initially planned for the lead single AND the money they gained from the 2 previous singles to promote the "original" lead single with the help of The Search.

It's very disappointing because, as the girls are yet to gain back their popularity in the UK, the singles aren't doing good on their own. But on the other hand it's better to focus all the bugdet on a good looking mv, several performances & a big promo supported by The Search

Im not trying to defend RCA, as i am a bit disappointed by Holiday campaign but none of these two first singles are supporting something when the next one, that is the lead single chosen by the label, is supposed to support the album that will come later after.

The girls career is struggling to survive and it's very frustrating to see it but for now Little Mix were deprived of their performances, their TV shows and all the promo. But on the other hands the girls can be blamed for some reasons :

THE GIRLS
As RCA is rumored to give more creative control to the girls, they are the one that wrote the 2 first songs we heard. But people were very disappointed by Holiday & Break Up Song music wise. Why? TOO SAFE.

Lyrics wise, the general public compared Break Up Song to Shout Out To My Ex & Holiday To Touch. The girls have been criticized for trying to do a Glory Days era 2.0 (music wise). I mean in pop music, the main theme is love, & after doing LM5 that deals with serious matters-

They wanted to do something a bit lighter, we can understand, but the music critics talked about the fact they always treat this theme the same way with the same vocabulary & the same "angle". This is something very debatable, im not giving my opinion here again.

The next point is very touchy : little mix presence on social network. The girls aren't very active on social networks like Twitter, there were a full day (after Holiday release) when the girls didn't tweet at all.

There is a reason, The girls said that, for their mental health, they decided not to come a lot on Twitter. But, in this pandemic, digital promotion is crucial & we can't get rid of social network promotion. Im not saying they should or they shouldn't come tho, im just explaining

Final point : Interviews. This point is linked to the fact that the industry is giving up on Little Mix. Their interviews are EMPTY. always the same questions, always the same answers and always the same disinterest from the general public.

Usually, little mix has a hot topic that everyone want to know more about. on LM5 it was Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan. During Glory Days it was their success in the USA & in general. During Get weird it was their relationships...

They used to have a topic that the general public was interested in, but now it seems like they don't know what to talk about. Radio Hosts always ask the same questions about the pandemic, the lockdown, their dogs and then their new single.

The problem is, if the whole single promo is focused on radio tours and the radio interviews aren't interesting then the promo failed & is inefficient. We wonder why they don't talk more about Syco's treatment but some of us things there is a non-disclosure agreement

So, to end this veeery long thread, if the girls can't perform can't interact with the fandom that is fading away, can't draw attention of the general public during radio interviews that is their only way to promote their songs, can't get good promo. Their career is in danger

I talked a lot about the next thread, it will talk about the way & the reason why Little Mix was held back in Europe. Why Columbia isn't giving them budget & also what can happens in the next years for the USA & Little Mix

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