‘Glambert’s’ Record Sales Indicate Not All Publicity is Good Publicity

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"View" host Barbara Walters claimed "any publicity is good publicity" to "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert this morning, but the record sales of his first album tell a different story.

While "For Your Entertainment" sold 198,000 copies and took the number three spot on the Billboard charts during its debut week, sales dropped 74 percent in its second week, causing the album to tumble to number 22 on the charts. It was the biggest drop on the Top 200 chart.

"If you're an Adam Lambert partisan, you can try to spin it all you want, but that's just bad," reported USA Today's Brian Mansfield on Dec. 9. He also noted that only sales of Susan Boyle's album dropped more than Lambert, but even Boyle "still outsold Adam by a margin of more than 10-1."

Music reports previously hypothesized that Lambert's sexually explicit performance on the Nov. 22 American Music Awards wouldn't have a negative effect on the sales of "For Your Entertainment," which dropped Nov. 23.

"But even with all this Adam Lambert AMA video controversy swirling about, Adam Lambert's debut album ‘For Your Entertainment' is having great sales numbers," wrote the Associated Content's Mary Zeiher on Nov. 27

"Label and distribution sources project that ‘For Your Entertainment' could see about 225,000 units in its first week," reported Billboard magazine.

"And with Black Friday and heavy shopping after Thanksgiving, sales could be even greater," crowed Monica Stern-Morales at Celebrity Café on Nov. 25.

"As evidenced by Miley Cyrus just a few months ago, a little controversy rarely hurts in the sales department. Adam Lambert is on track to beat retail expectations for his RCA release," noted the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 25.

But, the numbers show that the sales weren't that great. The 198,000 copies Lambert sold in its first week fell far short of the 225,000 copies Billboard magazine projected.

USA Today's Mansfield numbered Lambert's days as a force on the charts. He wrote:

Adam still hasn't found a foothold at radio, which he'll need if he wants to have solid week-to-week sales going forward after the holiday sales season. One of the major television networks clearly has doubts about his value to them, and the other networks will find amusement in booking him so they can thumb their noses at ABC for only so long. If he doesn't deliver a hit, those big network-TV opportunities (save maybe for Fox) will start drying up soon. In other words, the days of Adam Lambert as a perceived phenom are quickly drawing to a close. He needs a hit, and he needs it quickly.

Lambert told the "View" ladies that his AMA performance "brought awareness and visibility" to him, but that it "might not have been the exact visibility [he] was looking for."

"People have been so caught up in talking about this scandal and ABC pulling me off and this and that that they're not focusing on [the album], and that's what I'm about," he continued.

If record sales are any indication people understand that Lambert is about shocking his audiences and provocative behavior. And they're not buying into it.

While I have yet to hear a thing by Adam played on local radio stations, my Granddaughter heard TFM played on Randy Jackson's top 40 radio show a couple of weeks ago. Adam has an album full of hits that the stations need to start playing. I am starting to get suspicious of the radio stations and wonder if there is continued prejudice going on. However, it seems like Lady GaGa's music has only just been played on radio in the last few months. She continues to meet with a lot of controversy. Seems a lot of people like well-scrubbed, highly predictable, and sugary sweet performances in the U.S. I think it's the dare devils like Adam and GaGa who are the trend setters in music and the most exciting to watch live. Adam will continue to push the envelope, but I hope his record sales survive the AMA incident.

There's a push on Twitter tonight to get FYE trending. As I tried to explain on there....personally I think FYE and WDYWFM are ''old'' now. If I Had You was used in a Poll and it did well.I hope Adam releases it next....it's a dance number and may get people to forget about FYE and the AMAs because if we are honest that is what that song is famous for now.

If I had you is a great song, of course, like all of them. Too bad that FYE may have a stigma as it's a great dance/club song. Maybe it will do better out of the U.S. I would love to see If I had you performed live. Maybe at New Year's? Here's to a new beginning in 2010.