Speaking of Sabrina I do have to say that she kind of lost control over her branding and it’s going to be hard for her to have a smooth transition to a new era visual wise because her branding became too responsable for the key of her success. She hit it big with those retro cheeky sex innuendos and that’s fine. I am for once found it refreshing and fun - but I think she lost the mark in Men’s Best Friend and she didn’t want to take the criticism from it. To me, she should’ve never released her latest album. It wasn’t much of a difference from her previous one and it came too soon after her hit album and I think she could’ve promoted more singles off of that and take a rest before going to a new era cuz I think she’s exhausting the audience and it’s starting to showcase on the criticism. Her brand has become a little bit more male centered than she probably intended and her latest album was just not really good imo she had nothing to say it felt more like an attempt from her label to continue her hit era rather than give it a break. The criticism from her latest MV was valid too. Sabrina’s brand of the dumb blond girl is becoming way more important for her than her own music and that’s a problem in the long run because she’s going to have a hard time transitioning towards a visual that’s more mature.
For example, the way Olivia is handling her career is smart because she does take full 2 years to release a new album and promotes the hell out of her era until the public is hungry for more and it was smart of her to completely ditch the purple aesthetic and the four letter album name so fans get used to a change of aesthetics constantly.
it felt more like an attempt from her label to continue her hit era rather than give it a break.
this is a very unfortunate part of the music ecosystem right now - artists want the constant attention, labels wants the constant money, fans who can't get dopamine anywhere else want constant content. i think the work needs time to breathe and get chewed on and then digested - otherwise people feel like they need to immediately decide if something is Good or Bad because they don't have time to give it more focused and thorough attention. Swipe right or left on this album, the next one drops next week.
Sabrina’s brand of the dumb blond girl is becoming way more important for her than her own music
It's when the cheeky image she used to GREAT effect on A Nonsense Christmas gets shed as a pastiche cabaret persona and becomes the sincere core of her brand that she's lost the satirical edge that made it work in the first place. I also thought that ANC, for all of its sexy playful humor, was really women-focused for the most part. The duet with Chappell was peak culture at the time to me.
