Topic summary
Surprise release
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Surprise album.
2014–2015: Increasing adoption
Music critics described varying reactions to surprise albums in this period. Some described the surprise release as an innovative strategy that benefited fans, artists and record labels alike. Others said that while surprise albums were originally unusual and exciting events, their rising prevalence had led to a collective fatigue. Salon's Nico Lang described the surprise release strategy as having become "broken" and "gimmicky" in 2015, given that many artists merely surprise-released teasers, which stood in contrast to Beyoncé, whose surprise album was effective because of its fully secretive development. NME's Jeremy Allen wrote that some artists' attempts at surprise releases fell short of expectations that year—including Tyler, The Creator's Cherry Bomb and Earl Sweatshirt's I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside—as they relied too heavily on the surprise format to capture attention. Allen added that surprise releases could get fans' hopes up unrealistically, citing Rihanna's teased release of "Bitch Better Have My Money", where fans anticipated the release of a full album rather than a single.