What has happened to Shawn Mendes' Wonder Era?
By late 2020, Shawn Mendes announced his fourth album, *Wonder*, and by this time he had gone from being a nobody to becoming one of the biggest and most profitable male pop stars of our generation in basically like, 5 years.
From 2015 to 2018, Shawn Mendes released three studio albums, each debuting at number one and selling progressively more copies: *Handwritten* (119,000 copies), *Illuminate* (145,000), and *Shawn Mendes* (182,000).
The *Handwritten* era featured "Stitches," his breakout song that reached number 4.
Then his second album had even bigger hits with all three singles peaking in the top 15. Treat you better at 6, mercy at 15 and there’s nothing holding me back at 6.
The self-titled third album included his biggest hit and to date only number 1, "Senorita," and other hits like "If I Can't Have You - 2," and "in my blood - 11."
Not to mention, cumulatively, Shawn Mendes’s tours have grossed about $160 million from just three tours. All of this success before he was 23, so you would think that, going into his next album he might experience similar successes, if not more. Well that's not what happened.
*Wonder*, his fourth album, still peaked at number one, but with nearly 100,000 less copies than his previous album—basically 50% less—and it had barely any hits. The lead single, "Wonder," peaked at 18 and quickly fell off the charts after just 11 weeks. The next single, a collaboration with Justin Bieber called "Monster," also underperformed.
So what happened? Why did the wonder album fail to connect with fans this time around, what turned fans and the general public off? Which pop star allegedly stole his spot and What does Shawn Mendes need to do, in the future to maintain his relevance long-term ?
Poor single reception and single choices.
The single from this album didn't really stick around for too long. And after the album had been released a lot of people thought that the wrong songs were picked to push the album, mostly the lead single. People just didn't like Wonder as the lead single.
Higher was one a lot of people thought would be a good choice and I kind of agree. And I also think a piece of you would have been a good single choice. Teach me how to love was another option I saw as a potential single to push the album. I don't know about that one, it's kind of corny and cringy to me but I still enjoy it and I would have done well with a good promotion.
Bad promotion.
Speaking of promotion, a lot of fans felt like island records did not invest as much into the promotion of the album as they have with his previous albums. I saw a few people saying that they could have picked a really good song and given it the senorita treatment.
But the thing is senorita already had massive fans interest and general public attention because of how he and Camila were acting in the video and at that time, their relationship had not been confirmed, which is why the island and republic were able to push the song so hard. Because it fed into people’s curiosity and thirst for those two to be in a relationship.
Styles is the new Mendes.
Harry Styles replaced Shawn Mendes and took his spot. Here me out. And what I mean by this is that, before Harry became the male pop star to pay attention to.
Shawn was the guy to look to but we all know how 2020 was sort of like Harry breakout year as a proper pop star watermelon sugar and adore you were the biggest songs by a male pop star, aside from everything the weeknd came out with.
Nobody cared.
Aside from hardcore fans, people weren't checking for the album like that. A few fans either really loved it or absolutely hated it saying he hadn't evolved very much and was doing basically the same thing he did on the previous album but with a different sound.
I talked about this in my video about Nicki Minaj and ice spice. It's better to have people passionately hate your art, because that shows that at some level they kind of care, and then on the next cycle you can improve and prove your naysayers wrong. But for people to not care enough to have an opinion on your art?, that means you're basically on the road to irrelevance. And that's just not acceptable.
Obviously Shawn is not irrelevant but it’s still not a good sign. And for those who did listen, some described the music as "unseasoned chicken," "bland and uninspired," and even "the audio equivalent of moldy white bread."
The Tragic Reception to his Documentary. People dragged this film. They called it Shallow and self pitying. Saying it lacked the emotional impact and personal insight seen in other pop star documentaries like Taylor Swift's *Miss Americana* and that it came across as self-serious yet ultimately superficial, all from a person whose content is not particularly distinctive. And this was pretty much the opinion of every one who wasn't obsessed with what Shawn was saying.
