Deep Dive: What Makes a Perfect Lead Single
Choosing the lead single for your upcoming album release is a decision that holds a lot of weight. This song sets the precedent for the rest of the album; it gets listeners excited for, or nervous for, your upcoming project. It’s a decision that many of the biggest artists have mastered and some seem to miss the mark often.
One of the most notable single debacles of late involved Billie Eilish’s most recent release, her album ‘Happier Than Ever.’ Social media users took to criticizing Eilish’s singles, “Your Power,” “NDA,” and “Lost Cause.” Twitter user @tomlinseokk tweeted: “Happier than ever (the album) is actually pretty good, the singles didn’t do justice to it.” Fans were consequently hesitant about her third LP.
Music is art, and is therefore subjective in about every way. One of the things that makes choosing singles so tricky is that they are chosen based on what the artist believes will have the greatest mass appeal– that is, the song that will appeal to the music taste of the general public. This used to mean the most radio friendly single, or the song that most conformed to the typical pop structure. However, radio is losing its power. In today’s streaming age, radio reflects what is popular on streaming platforms or trending on social media. Radio used to be the medium setting those trends.
What is successful on social media isn’t necessarily what would have become popular on the radio a few years ago. It is more important for artists to drop singles with the shock factor that will help the song go viral. This is partially why we see many singles being more risky, than the “safe” pop single we used to be accustomed to hearing. Fans are put-off at first, then have to listen more and more in order to get used to the song. Even this leads to more streams. Or, fans are shockingly impressed by the track, i.e. “Happier Than Ever,” leading to viral success and charts topped.
In Eilish’s case, I believe her single choices worked well for the success of ‘Happier Than Ever.’ The more mellow singles that were resemblant of her signature sound set fans up for an even greater surprise when hearing the song “Happier Than Ever.” The powerful, emotional track that showed off a new range for Eilish made fans intrigued by the remainder of the album. Consequently, “Happier Than Ever’ stands atop the Billboard 200 albums chart for a second week, earning 85,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending August 12.
It is a common belief amongst Swifties that Taylor Swift’s singles don’t always do credit to her work. “Me!” was a rather confusing lead single choice, however her intentions behind the release were clear. The album preceding ‘Lover,’ ‘Reputation,’ was a dark album, with more mature themes engraved throughout. However, throughout Swift’s career she has impressively appealed to a range of audiences, from young children to millennials. “Me!” was the song that Swift felt she owed to her younger audience after dedicating her entire previous album to more mature sounding tracks. “Me!” was fun and harmless, but felt immature to some audiences. Fans had similar feelings towards “You Need to Calm Down.” Fans rallied for tracks like “Cruel Summer” that they believed would have been better fit for the single.
So how do you know if you’re choosing the right singles for your upcoming release? Well, Eilish and Swift have slightly more room for error given their already established platform. However, they set an important precedent. Pick the single that will stand out most in the sea of music being released every day– the song that will catch the most attention and create the most shock value rather than the “safest bet.” Recent successes such as “Happier Than Ever” and “Driver’s License” prove that authenticity is key, and the more people relate to the track, the more areas they will find in their social media posts to use the track. Artists are taking more risks and they are paying off. The days of standard pop singles are gone.