Talk:Fleetwood Mac (1975 album)

Record?

The album "set a record for most weeks on the chart before reaching the top position". Okay, what was the record? dbenbenn | talk 22:04, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Exactly that. What it's saying is that this album spent the most weeks on Billboard before it actually hit #1. The Person Who Is Strange 02:53, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Ratings

I'm going to add Christagau's and take off Rolling Stone's, because they have it confused with the 1967 Fleetwood Mac album. The Person Who Is Strange 02:55, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

13 Million?

I really don't know if that's true. According to the RIAA site, this album has only been certified for five million copies. Granted, that certification is 24 years old from 1986, but no recertification has occurred, so I don't see where that information is factual or verifiable. Any thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.190.235.253 (talk) 15:55, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Citations

"To avoid confusion, it is often referred to as 'The White Album', in reference both to the album's artwork and to The Beatles' own self-titled album.[3][3]" The source cited twice at the end of this sentence does not actually say anything about why the album is sometimes referred to as "The White Album." I also don't think this source can be considered reliable (it's a blog), so I'm just going to rewrite this sentence and replace the source with a more reliable one. Vj7102 (talk) 20:54, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

"Until the release of this album, Fleetwood Mac's albums generally sold around 300,000 – 350,000 copies apiece.[citation needed]" This sentence has been flagged for needing a citation since 2010. When searching for this information online, the only sources supporting this claim were published after 2010, meaning these sources probably got their information from this Wikipedia article. I'm going to remove this sentence, as I can't seem to find any reliable sources supporting it. Vj7102 (talk) 16:34, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Genre issue

Further to your post at WP Music, @Bretonbanquet: I don't imagine Christgau's necessarily branding the album "easy listening" (i.e., Adult Contemporary), but the fact is he does use those words while summing up. Bud Scoppa's contemporary review in Circus mentions "pop": "you'd think this once-definitive British blues band was a Southern California pop group – and you'd be right"; "[Buckingham] owns a durable, boy-next-door tenor and a songwriting style that imaginatively exploits pop conventions." (The review's at Rock's Backpages – here – available on subscription only, unless this is one of their free pieces.)

In another 1975 review, in Phonograph Record, Ben Edmonds also talks about the band embracing pop, via Christine McVie's input: "The crucial element in the taking of this [more song-oriented] direction has been Christine McVie, who had the same blues roots everybody else did but countered with a pop sensibility … Her pop inclinations blossomed with the last album’s ‘Come A Little Bit Closer’, which may’ve been the undiscovered pop gem of 1974 and remains eminently ripe for a smash cover job. Her songs on this album, most notably ‘Forever’ and ‘Say You Love Me’, strike the most operative balance of her influences yet."

Scoppa again, this time in Rolling Stone: "The four songs written and sung by Christine McVie make it clearer than ever that she's one of the best female vocalists in pop, and a deft song craftswoman as well. 'Say You Love Me', 'Over My Head', 'Sugar Daddy' and 'Warm Ways' transform conventional pop-song structures into durably attractive and believably genuine pieces – each sounds like an ideal radio song." It's only my interpretation (yours too perhaps), but I think that mention of "sounds like an ideal radio song" is really what Christgau's saying with "easy listening". Anyway, I suggest "pop" should replace easy listening in the infobox, because I don't see that we're obligated to go with each and every genre that's been attributed to a musical work, particularly if a genre seems wrong. I suppose the question is, does anyone else term it "easy listening"? JG66 (talk) 02:07, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

I agree with all of that, JG66. Pop seems to me to be both a more accurate genre to use, and a more widely sourced one. I did ask the editor who added easy listening if he could find any other source to support it, but I got nowhere. I really doubt one exists, though I may be wrong. I share your interpretation of what Christgau is saying, and although I rarely agree with Christgau, I sincerely doubt he meant the easy listening genre as we know it. I'd go with replacing easy listening with pop – let's see if anyone else has an opinion. Bretonbanquet (talk) 02:15, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Not a huge admirer of Christgau myself, but only because I often find that the meaning in those Consumer Guide Reviews is too ambiguous. (I'm sure it would be fine if one's familiar with his style or owns a book or two of his.) I think it's unfortunate that AllMusic sidebar genres are deemed unreliable. Rather than a blanket rule, I think we should merely advise some caution with those sidebar genres, because in this case, AM's "rock, pop" would seem spot on.

Anyway, more references to "pop", from MusicHound's 1999 album guide: "Rumours, with 11 great songs and no duds, is as good as mainstream pop gets. Fleetwood Mac, with 'Landslide,' 'Rhiannon,' 'Over My Head,' and 'I'm So Afraid,' nearly matches that standard. Tusk is more an eccentric masterpiece than a pop masterpiece, with Buckingham running wild and reinventing lo-fi …" JG66 (talk) 02:49, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Oh, just found this from a 2004 Mojo review: "seamless California pop, emphasizing that the band was no longer a blues outfit." JG66 (talk) 12:37, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your input – much appreciated. I agree with you about the AllMusic genre sidebar as I always found it to be pretty reliable myself. The easy listening genre has been removed and pop added, so I'm happy with that. This album would certainly have been considered pop at the time, possibly rock. If there's a source for rock out there, maybe it could be added. Thanks again, Bretonbanquet (talk) 19:20, 11 August 2015 (UTC)