ross fan base

[daviddh]

so i was watching an interview/ docu on Cher
one of the music execs stated Cher has a fan base and that every album has sold at least 500,000 .
it seems likewise for Streisand,Dolly and a few others
my questions is , where is Diana Ross fan base.
i know we are still here but i dont see the results in her sales. she seems to have lost her fan base or why is it not resulting in better album sales.
is she just out of touch.
i always see her doing the same old tv show such as the View,Today but never on the shows that attract a younger audience.
i feel like her music is not reaching the younger buying audience.
was really hoping her song If the World Just Danced took off.
any thoughts

[RanRan79]

Interesting question. I haven't done any real research, so my thoughts are based solely on the way things appear to me online.

My guess is that Diana's buying public- those who purchase her contemporary albums- over the last 30+ years has primarily been her gay audience. I think straight men like myself are the exception, at least as far as I can tell online. I would venture that prior to the 90s, Diana's buying public was almost "everybody". She had a huge fandom of Black fans, White fans, straight fans, gay fans, etc. They all converged together, bought the good music, the good albums and the concert tickets.

As time wore on, many of the fans reached ages where buying the latest album of anyone was no longer a priority. Also a sizable portion of her audience became "nostalgia holics", people who wanted to recreate their youths. You know, the folks who are always at all the doowop PBS special shows. Lol So they'll pay to see Diana today in order to hear the Supremes songs, the 70s hits, maybe, just maybe, a few of the 80s stuff, but couldn't care less about anything after that. The huge audience she once had has been lost to time.

Also factor in that a lot of the buying public now are in their teens, 20s, 30s and have their own "legends" to focus on. I think Cher is always doing just enough to maintain a presence, even with the youth. Dolly too. I don't know about Streisand. Diana dropped an album and didn't do one bit of American television to promote it. Says a lot.

[after you]

Who’s fault is that when she never recorded nothing for fifteen years no excuses for that , fifteen years is a lifetime , if you don’t do anything your forgotten which was quite unfortunate

[copley]

Good heavens, we actually agree

[after you]

It’s true , plus so many fans have up on her begging to record for years and years we where all let down , while all the other Divas where doing there thing we where left helpless and with our hope , she could of recorded some of the best music in those years we where left to abandon ship, because there was no skipper

[daviddh]

ahhh i think you hit the nail on the coffin.
Dolly and Cher have continued to record and are on a variety of tv shows but Diana has been a no show.
thx for your thoughts,....i agree

[thanxal]

It’s her life and her career. She should have the unquestioned ability to decide exactly what she wants. She’s earned it. I’m no crazy DR devotee [[see any post here), but every single person should have the ability to say when they will stop working. Unfortunately here in the US too many elderly have to keep working or else they die. Maybe she has decided to take the “glide path”. Maybe she doesn’t want to have the grind that Cher has. People should be allowed to enjoy their lives, stars or not.

[carlo]

Interesting that Cher was mentioned. I think Cher is different than Diana, in the sense that she has always been willing to take on projects that result in her not always receiving top-billing. Thinking of some of her movies, like Silkwood, where she was a supporting actress, and it reignited her acting career, and career in general, in the 80s. More recently, she did Burlesque and the Mammia Mia sequel, both of which she did not have a leading role, but they were both vehicles for bringing renewed attention to her music career. She even capitalized on the Mamma Mia sequel by releasing an album of ABBA covers. She has always been willing to steer her ship with the tides, not against it. I think that has worked in her favour. Diana is much more picky with what she's willing to do. That being said, part of it has to do with Diana balancing her family life. Although I do think if she had been more open to certain opportunities, she probably would have enjoyed even more success in the 80's and beyond, and wouldn't have had to work as hard. Cher was still playing to arenas in the US, during her previous tour before covid.

[milven]

Carlo, your post reminds me of a quote about Cher that says,
" The only thing that will be left after a nuclear holocaust is Cher and cockroaches.” Cher herself has mentioned this quote and found it amusing, but I don't know who actually said it. Maybe a comedy show.

But Cher is making sure that she remains relevant.

[Ollie9]

It was never quite the same Diana after she came out of rehab during 2003. She seemed to lose some of her drive and interest which is perhaps understandable.
A totally revamped show might have helped in keeping her more relevant, but i honestly think that after four decades on the stage and in the public eye she just wanted an easy life.

[jim aka jtigre99]

It is a shame that Diana Ross' fanbase doesn't seem to be as strong as it used to be. I can certainly only guess it is because of her focus on family [[although they are all old enough to fend for themselves now) and her reluctance to do any acting in films, etc. in a supporting role[[Streisand has even done that in the Meet The Parents franchise). If The World Just Danced was a small step in the right direction. But Cher, Dolly and others are always present in the media and reinventing their public personae to stay relevant. Ross did seem to step back after RTL and her rehab stint, focusing on a self help and self love message which probably isn't something the general public is wanting to hear from a legend.
Her last 2 releases just didn't deliver the splash that a new project by Cher, Dolly or Streisand would have. Maybe she no longer has that desire to compete and push herself to be the only focus of attention and has decided to focus on something else in her golden years. Perhaps in rehab she did some self reflection and felt that maybe her all consuming push in her career cost her some personal happiness. One thing, she is a wonderful Mother even if she no longer is as relevant as Cher or Dolly and I am sure she is proud of her main accomplishment of her children.

[PeaceNHarmony]

I think most of Diana's true fans realize that she has made the conscience decision to focus most of her life on her large family and tour/record as the spirit moves her. Of the other performers mentioned Diana is the only one with a large family; the others are probably more desirous to fill their time and as such more willing to do the sort of years-long flogging it takes nowadays to stay in the public eye.

[Circa 1824]

I am a fan of the old Diana Ross, not the stale version we get today.

[jobeterob]

I think most of Diana's true fans realize that she has made the conscience decision to focus most of her life on her large family and tour/record as the spirit moves her. Of the other performers mentioned Diana is the only one with a large family; the others are probably more desirous to fill their time and as such more willing to do the sort of years-long flogging it takes nowadays to stay in the public eye.

I think this is accurate; I can certainly related to it. I don’t think there is any interest in months away filming.

Also, there is some difference between Diana and these women in that she seems to love performing more than them plus they don’t really have the storied single success she did

[thanxal]

It is a shame that Diana Ross' fanbase doesn't seem to be as strong as it used to be.

We just have to be honest. I could change your quote to:
"It is a shame that Diana Ross' fanbase doesn't seem to be as alive as it used to be."
Many of her fans have passed on, no doubt, especially if they were fans of the early Supremes era.

[Ollie9]

We just have to be honest. I could change your quote to:
"It is a shame that Diana Ross' fanbase doesn't seem to be as alive as it used to be."
Many of her fans have passed on, no doubt, especially if they were fans of the early Supremes era.

One could also say the same of the other ladies mentioned. Bottom line being Diana became stale. Dull and boring albums such as “I Love You”, and a concert presentation that rarely changed in song selection or even stage patter.
I don’t necessarily blame her if that’s what she wanted, but there was a price to pay.

[sup_fan]

Diana made a variety of decisions throughout her career that resulted in where she is today. in regards to films, Diana wouldn't consider ensemble work or taking a smaller part. she also decided to put much more focus on her family life rather than heavily pushing her career forward. her personality is also more informed by her father's personality and so there's an aloofness or distance that some people have read as self-centeredness or rudeness. she was fostering a Diva persona years or decades before the word came into the general lexicon as a positive. diana can also be a very tough taskmaster, given how she's a perfectionist.

Cher's persona started out as sort of the flower child/folks singer mold. even when she was glammed up by Mackie or singing disco or rock, there was still this down home/casualness about her. they're just different people

and while you can point to cher's career successes in the 80s and late 90s/00s, i think you can just as easily point to diana's family successes. this is no judgement on Chaz's journey but more on the fact there's much more acknowledgement of strain between mother and child with Cher then there EVER was with Diana. Part of it could be dealing with a gay or trans child in the 70s, 80s and 90s which was a different time for all of us. but my impression is that if one of Diana's children emerged as gay or non-binary or trans or whatever, the personal relationship would remain strong.

as for music, cher has certainly had LONG periods of not being highly relevant in a pop market. lots of ups and downs too. supposedly the whole Believe project came about because she's had so little pop success in the 90s. the idea was to do a dance album targeted at her ever present gay audience. Electropop was big at the time and so they explored that avenue. meanwhile Diana was focusing more on adult r&b with Take Me Higher back in 96.

it does make an interesting What If to explore the idea of a producer going to Diana in 98 with "let's make a dance album targeted at your loyal gay base" and then bringing Diana more into the contemporary dance genre.

[marybrewster]

I wonder how different Diana's career might have been in the late 80's, early 90's if she hadn't married Arne and had Ross and Evan.

We all know Diana is "Mom first". But by the time her boys were born, her daughters were into their teen years, which would have given Diana more flexibility to take on bigger projects; perhaps more movies and more recording.

[sup_fan]

I wonder how different Diana's career might have been in the late 80's, early 90's if she hadn't married Arne and had Ross and Evan.

We all know Diana is "Mom first". But by the time her boys were born, her daughters were into their teen years, which would have given Diana more flexibility to take on bigger projects; perhaps more movies and more recording.

supposedly while Diana was working on Out of Darkness, she had the boys go live with their dad. since it was such a demanding and stressful piece to work on, and i would imagine she was having to really dive into the situation of mental problems. all of this could easily make it hard for her to be with the boys or for them to understand that mother is doing.

I wonder if by the 90s some of that incessant drive was decreasing. she had made a LOT of money, made a LOT of records, done a LOT of tours, etc. at a certain point, perhaps she was like "ok i've sort of done enough. i'm going to pull back from 110% to just 90%"

[carlo]

That's a good assessment, sup_fan. As much as I think Diana could have taken other opportunities presented to her over the years, there's no denying she continued to work hard but prioritized her family, as I also mentioned earlier. I think she really did put a lot of effort into trying to make the Take Me Higher album a success. Same can be said for Force Behind the Power. She tried different sounds and genres in the 90s. I think at some point, she decided on some level [whether it was a conscious or unconscious decision], "I've tried everything, while trying to stay authentic to myself as an artist and as a person...if no one wants this stuff I'm creating, I might as well go back to touring and giving people what they want...performing my hits."

That being said, I think the song Take Me Higher has become a bit more of a camp classic, over the years. People seem to react to it strongly at her shows, and I still see people talking about that album online, on social media and the forums [ie. Pop Justice forum].

I think it's a double sided issue. The fan base has dwindled and Diana has not fully leaned into her campiness, as much as she could. I think about Liza Minnelli in Arrested Development or her cameo in the Sex and the City movie sequel. Cher has done similar things. Diana just doesn't want to, for better or worse...

[jobeterob]

I think Diana has a large casual fan base; taking a look at the pictures from her concerts, there are people of every look and style.

She has that hugely committed gay fan base but I don't think it's that large in terms of her overall fan base; it is hugely committed though.

As well as most of you, I think at some stage she accepted what she had accomplished and was very happy with it - certainly by the time of the 75th birthday and after the awards she got like the Presidential Medal and a lot of the Lifetime Achievement Awards.

I'm told again and again that in the end, the amount of money you have doesn't matter that much, the success you've had doesn't matter that much, but the relationships and how things are in your life matter the most. However, I always think it is easy to say that if you have a very comfortable, more than middle class life style.

[Boogiedown]

jobetebe rob:
She has that hugely committed gay fan base but I don't think it's that large in terms of her overall fan base; it is hugely committed though.

Noticing the girlfriends of NYC were sorely missing in the crowd for the Rockefeller performance.

They don't do that 7:00 AM thing ....nothing before brunch....

[sup_fan]

That's a good assessment, sup_fan. As much as I think Diana could have taken other opportunities presented to her over the years, there's no denying she continued to work hard but prioritized her family, as I also mentioned earlier. I think she really did put a lot of effort into trying to make the Take Me Higher album a success. Same can be said for Force Behind the Power. She tried different sounds and genres in the 90s. I think at some point, she decided on some level [whether it was a conscious or unconscious decision], "I've tried everything, while trying to stay authentic to myself as an artist and as a person...if no one wants this stuff I'm creating, I might as well go back to touring and giving people what they want...performing my hits."

That being said, I think the song Take Me Higher has become a bit more of a camp classic, over the years. People seem to react to it strongly at her shows, and I still see people talking about that album online, on social media and the forums [ie. Pop Justice forum].

I think it's a double sided issue. The fan base has dwindled and Diana has not fully leaned into her campiness, as much as she could. I think about Liza Minnelli in Arrested Development or her cameo in the Sex and the City movie sequel. Cher has done similar things. Diana just doesn't want to, for better or worse...

agreed - Diana would never have done what Cher did in Will and Grace. although she did do that I Will Survive video with all the drag queens dressed like her.

didn't diana do an episode of American Idol? she occasionally appeared [[not as herself but her legend) in shows like America's Next Top Model and Project Runway as part of challenges. it would have been great to have her as a guest judge on PR, given her whole Mahogany thing. But again, i think it just wasn't of interest.

[daviddh]

i always thought , why doesnt Diana appear on Will and Grace
why does she always appear on the view and not Rosie and or Ellen , both who were very popular.
why hasn't she appeared on Netflix, PBS etc.
her choice, but... the end result is what it is.
a lot of valid points. thanks

[carlo]

didn't diana do an episode of American Idol? she occasionally appeared [[not as herself but her legend) in shows like America's Next Top Model and Project Runway as part of challenges. it would have been great to have her as a guest judge on PR, given her whole Mahogany thing. But again, i think it just wasn't of interest.

Yeah exactly. RuPaul said on his podcast a few years ago that he and his team had tried and tried to have Diana on RuPaul's Drag Race, as an honourary guest judge...but they never heard back from her camp.

I think she is intentionally strategic in terms of limiting her public appearances and exposure, because she knows it will be that much more valued, if and when she decides to do a rare appearance or interview, on a bigger scale. However, when you're constantly doing zero PR [I'm talking about the last 15 years], then you're just doing yourself a disservice. Beyonce has interestingly been the same way in recent years. Zero interviews or press. I guess they figure they've already played the game...been there, done that.

[Spreadinglove21]

agreed - Diana would never have done what Cher did in Will and Grace. although she did do that I Will Survive video with all the drag queens dressed like her.

didn't diana do an episode of American Idol? she occasionally appeared [[not as herself but her legend) in shows like America's Next Top Model and Project Runway as part of challenges. it would have been great to have her as a guest judge on PR, given her whole Mahogany thing. But again, i think it just wasn't of interest.

Yeah she did an American Idol around the time I Love You came out. While the show was still a huge ratings draw. Theme of the week was Diana Ross songs and she "coached" the contestants. And then she performed More Today than Yesterday on the Results show but it was not her best performance to say the least.