Talk:Roxette/Archive 1

Hit Singles Format
Someone should really put the hit singles list in a table format. The list style format makes it all cluttered, especially when you look at the peak spots in various countries for each song.

Partially agree
I partially agree. While Roxette is surely NOT some obscure band - not even remotely close to it, look at their four No.1s in the US and NINETEEN Top 40 hits in UK - the article is obviously just overly detailed It should be much more concise, that''s for sure. And Introduction sucks... By the way, I can't seem to be able to edit it - I get a message error. Is it because it doesn't have separate "edit" option for it? Scholar91 19:01, 25 July 2006 (UTC)Scholar91

POV
This is overall a good article, but it has a somewhat derogatory tone through-out. To say that "Roxette's popularity can be difficult to understand", about a band that has sold over 40 million records seems odd. Tha same tone is repeated through-out the text.--85.225.41.189 09:28, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Agreed - that's what got me to this talk page to see if it was being discussed. I can't quite pinpoint it, but the article does seem strangely toned. And yes, I'm sure there are quite many people out there who can understand the popularity of the band without any difficulty. The article also seems quite USA-centric, which is strange since (as far as I know) the band was most popular here in scandinavia. I'd say this calls for a retoning and viewpoint alteration. So although indeed very comprehensive, certainly not a featured article without further editing. --195.148.72.88 00:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Admittedly, this is a USA-centric article, but I did try to find as much as I could about Roxette's performance on the U.K. and Swedish charts. the U.S. was not only a goal of Per Gessle's but a reality in the history of Roxette ... in fact, a big one, no matter where in the world you are. If you're a fan of Roxette, most likely it's going to be important to you that the group managed as much success in the States as it did, in fact garnering four No. 1s when it couldn't even achieve one in the U.K. And some of what I wrote was inspired by critics from Rolling Stone and AllMusic.com. A fan may not think it's so difficult to appreciate or understand Roxette's brief but nonetheless broad mainstream appeal, but anyone else, even someone who mildly liked Roxette back in the '80s and '90s, very well might. The group has never made music like or had critical or commercial success similar to U2 or the Rolling Stones, for example, and never sought to break boundaries or fuse distinctly different musical styles into something brand new. In fact, the group hasn't even been credited for pop craft or a historical significance to the same extent as compatriots ABBA, a group that had even less of a rock influence than Roxette. Furthermore, Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle have not shied away from the charge that their music lacks emotional depth. They make it very clear that theirs is about a traditional "pop" music sound, something that came before them and, in various forms, has outlasted them. To hear Fredriksson's 2004 English-language solo album The Change shows just how far a cry she as a solo artist fares from she as co-lead of Roxette. One of the themes I tried to establish was that Roxette's all-too-brief hold on mainstream U.K./U.S. radio was impressive nonetheless. The group gets no individual credit or notice in the U.S. as a musical entity. "It Must Have Been Love" gets played on adult contemporary radio, and every once in a while "The Look" shows up as backdrop in a VH-1 special. But you never hear people say, "Remember Roxette?" They can't be classified as One-Hit-Wonders, but they also can't be classified as Arena Legends, at least not here in the U.S. When you fall somewhere in the middle like that, sometimes it's all too easy to just disappear.
 * --Andrew Harmon 1:23 p.m. (EST-USA) Feb. 22, 2006
 * Your analysis is interesting, but it's exactly that: Your analysis. Your interpretation of others'opinions, which comes very close to original research. Comparing Roxette and ABBA's trajectories in an attempt to gain some historical perspective on the band's career is not very encyclopedic. --RicardoC 08:20, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
 * If the problems with the article as is are so intrinsically troublesome to you -- and to others who may feel that I or anyone else contributing to this entry already have caused harm to the members of Roxette as the topic of this entry -- you should re-write the article. I added weight to an all-too-brief entry in 2005, providing as much research and detail as I could. Perhaps the article is too journalistic and not encyclopedic enough. I have no interest in providing further edits, and I don't believe that a nearly 2-year-long discussion in which people use non-encyclopedic terms like "sucks" is healthy or worthwhile -- that serves a far greater disservice to the band than anything I wrote here. Have at it, and enjoy the feedback you get.
 * --Andrew Harmon 8:22 p.m. (EST-USA) Jan. 6, 2007.
 * I do agree - the introductory paragraph is expressing a personal point of view, contesting the popularity of the band and its "infectious lightweight sound". As part of an ecyclopedia, this article it should not question their carreer or music quality. 200.153.251.187 19:43, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

What nobody seems to understand - or be aware of - is how a major part of their commercial decline in the US was obviously tied to trouble (read = cluelessness) with the US arm of EMI/Capitol. A band that has 6 of its first 7 singles go to either #1 or #2, suddenly stops selling overnight? Even when, if anything, the general tone of their music goes with, not against, the current musical climate? (ie, less emphasis on the "power ballads", more of the power-pop aspects), and their worldwide sales continue to be very healthy? (And lest this be taken as a specific sour grapes argument, check into the worldwide vs. US sales and profile of Crowded House and the Pet Shop Boys during roughly the same period - two other EMI/Capitol artists.)

Image
I have found no reason why this image is copyvio. I have found no arguments on Possibly unfree images, (perhaps I looked in the wrong places...?) The image description on the German page, quick link here: shows that the author himself uploaded the image. If you go to commons, where this image is from, and click on the first version you will see a very large image that is unlikely to have been scanned (IMHO).

On commons, the author (in German) explains that he allows the image to be used on wikipedia. For these reasons, I see no reason not to have this nice image on English wikipedia too...

--Fred chessplayer 02:19, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * This article needs a new picture. What happened to the old one? - Aphasia83 (talk) 17:17, 18 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I've talked to a fellow Roxette fan who agreed to donate one of his pictures from Marie's guest appearance at Per's gig in Amsterdam 2009. The picture's in the article now. - Aphasia83 (talk) 11:47, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Edits
I have been editing this article beyond reason and have finished for now. Anyone who may have been reading this during the edits and noticing nit-picky changes in the past week, please forgive me. I did a lot of research to find this information out and wanted to make sure that there was a comprehensive history of Roxette since otherwise one has to do what I did, dig around, in order to find out things in any complete way. There's always more to know, but, for now, I hope the article proves comprehensive — at least satisfactory — enough.

--Andrew Harmon 4 p.m. (EST-USA) Aug. 18, 2005


 * Nice work! Featured article? Stefan 02:23, August 19, 2005 (UTC)

More Edits
I have continued the edits, I have added information about the new album.

Editing
--User:Kojack0 I will try to get some more information about each of the singles listed on this page and my aim in improving this Wiki is to ensure there are no red edit links on the page!

The article needs heavy and healthy editing. It is so overly detailed and written in that "eyes wide open" fan-derived celebratory tone. It reads more like a "love letter" from Roxette fans not an encyclopedia entry. It should be more balanced, more critical, more analytical....

Scholar91 20:14, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Discography
All the album titles and their text need to go under a separate section named "Discography" or something like that.

Skypher 10:58, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup
This article really needs clean up especially with regards to discography. There needs to either be a seperate discography article or there should be albums and singles charts in a table format. Can someone work on that? --Mezaco 23:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

---Well it looks like it has already been cleaned up to me.

Rox Box / 20th Year Anniversary
---Should these be combined? You should also put the year (month day and year) of their 20th year.

Trivia
---I have some trivia about pronunciation errors that Roxette make in some songs. Should I add them to the trivia? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.131.36.144 (talk) 01:26, 12 January 2007 (UTC).

Dreadful!
This article is terrible, even more so as it is for such a successful and high profile bandPaul75 (talk) 23:05, 21 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree. --Superunknown (talk) 13:01, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I have stuck on a whole bunch of references, and edited some of the text down, to make it a bit more concise. "Look Sharp" and "Compilations and solo albums" sections are probably still to long though. The article is really over burdened with chart positions so some of them could be chopped out. An obvious problem is the lack of images in the article, unfortunately I don't have any :( Mattg82 (talk) 23:08, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Roxette´s sales in the US
Please note that Roxette´s sales in the US were not the 2.5 millions that it reads in the article. Look Sharp! sold around 1.500.000 according to recent information given by Per Gessle. Joyride sold 1.000.000 copies. Tourism sold almost 300.000 copies. Favorites from the Crash! Boom! Bang! (which was a smaller version of Crash! Boom! Bang! only available as a special deal at the McDonald's restaurant chain in the US) sold another 1.000.000 copies.

In 2000 Edel Records released a Greatest Hits in the US (and few other countries) It eventually sold 600.000 copies worldwide. I would not be surprised if most of them were sold in the US... Biggest markets like Europe (except Sweden) didn´t get that release, and in other importants markets for Roxette like South America, that compilation was released only in Argentina.

According to Per Gessle, their last compilation "A collection of Roxette Hits" has sold 35.000 copies in the US... Nothing for a big market of course, but I wanted to include that info here... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.188.113.77 (talk) 03:55, 31 January 2009 (UTC)


 * You are correct with Look Sharp! sales. It gained Platinum status (million sales) in 1990 + 400,000 since SoundScan was implemented (1991). I will amend the total shortly. If you can give me a website that verifies the sales of Favorites from Crash then I can add it to the references list. Reference #7 in the article which points to here, only gives sales of 78,000 for Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! (Edel-2000) You can add the sales for Roxette Hits if you wish, as that is the correct total. Mattg82 (talk) 17:56, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Roxette Tour
why did delete roxette's articles tours???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.138.216.227 (talk) 06:28, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Album details
I'm a huge Roxette fan - have every original album except Myths (a collection of demos)... I came here looking for a separate discography of their compilation albums, but I only find some info on 'Pop Hits' and 'Balled Hits' burried deep within the article. Actually, I think that info about how many sales these (OR ANY COMPILATIONS ALBUMS) got, is really boring... I don't care about how many compilation CDs they sold, it's more important getting background on the 6 studio albums (my view anyway) and what inspired the original songs, CD track lineups etc. But, a small list of their Compilation albums (without any boring menial sales details) is what I wanted tonight, but never found... I'm surprised at this, just go to other famous acts on Wikipedia (Cyndi Lauper for example) and you'll see ALL their CDs. Again, this is only my view, so thanks for letting me share it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.192.8.80 (talk) 14:34, 5 September 2009 (UTC)


 * The article has a wikilink for every Rox album including compilations. Also if you scroll down to Discography and click on Roxette discography then that page also has wikilinks to everything Roxette has released. As you can see by looking at the discography, each album has its own page with everyone of them having track listings.


 * I could be wrong, but I don't think there is a whole lot of detailed information on Roxette. There are hardly any books on Rox, are never written about in newspapers outside of Sweden and any news is almost exclusively limited to thedailyroxette So to find anything interesting to improve the article(s) is hard. Mattg82 (talk) 00:18, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

User 76.121.146.43
Why do you think Roxette formed in 1985? There is no evidence to support this. Per & Marie first recorded together as Roxette in 86 and released Pearls of Passion in the same year. Please refrain from making further edits to Roxette's page until you have sources to back up your claim that they formed in 85. Although I don't think you will find any such sources. If you go to Roxette's official webpage and click on biography you'll see that they formed in 86. Also international or worldwide success didn't happen until the second album Look Sharp and single "The Look" was released in the late 80s(88/89). Pearls of Passion(86) was only released in Sweden. Therefore writing that international success started in the mid 80s is false. Finally mide is spelt mid. Mattg82 (talk) 20:44, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Roxette's sales figures
To any editors: Please do not change/inflate Roxette's sales figures without any discussion first, thank you.

Using this Expressen article as a guide, this is how many each album has sold:


 * Pearls of Passion 800,000
 * Look Sharp! 9 million approx
 * Joyride 11 million approx
 * Tourism 6 million approx
 * Crash! Boom! Bang! 5 million approx
 * Favourites from Crash! Boom! Bang! 1 million approx (US)
 * Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! 6 million approx
 * Baladas En Español 1 million +
 * Have a Nice Day 2.2 million +
 * Room Service 2 million ?
 * The Ballad Hits 1 million +
 * The Pop Hits ?
 * The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06 ?
 * A Collection of Roxette Hits - Their 20 Greatest Songs! ?


 * Total: 45 million. Sales for last three albums unknown.

Using available certification databases this is what Roxette have sold country by country:


 * US certified sales: 2,000,000 Albums, 1,000,000 Singles, 50,000 Videos
 * UK certified sales: 1,460,000 Albums, 200,000 Singles
 * German certified sales: 5,100,000 Albums, 500,000 Singles, 25,000 Videos
 * Canadian certified sales: 1,250,000 Albums, 150,000 Singles (Database currently offline.)
 * Brazilian certified sales: 450,000 Albums
 * Dutch certified sales: 300,000 Albums
 * Swiss certified sales: 595,000 Albums
 * Austrian certified sales: 400,000 Albums, 75,000 Singles
 * Swedish certified sales: 690,000 Albums, 285,000 Singles
 * Finnish certified sales: 307,349
 * Argentinian certified sales: 90,000 Albums, 16,000 Videos
 * Norwegian certified sales: 15,000 Albums
 * Polish certified sales: 100,000 Albums


 * Total: 15.1 million in certified units from above markets.

Further evidence:


 * Japan: 250,000 for Crash! Boom! Bang!. (Billboard magazine)
 * Japan: 150,000 for Don't Bore Us Get to the Chorus. (Billboard magazine) (Same article as above but on page 67)
 * South America: 1.08 million upto 1992. (Billboard magazine)
 * Argentina: 4x Platinum (240,000) for Joyide & Platinum? for Look Sharp. (?) (The source above I believe already includes these figures, I've not included these in the total figure below to avoid double counting)
 * Argentina: 65,000 for Crash! Boom! Bang! (Billboard magazine)


 * South Africa: 1 million albums (Times Live)
 * Sweden: 500,000 for Look Sharp (Associated Press) (3xPlatinum (300,000) according to Sverigetopplistan.se, 200,000 additional know units)
 * Sweden: 280,000 for Pearls of Passion (The global jukebox: the international music industry - Page 126)
 * US (Soundscan): 754,000 uncertified sales. (Unfortunately Billboard web pages supporting this are not available atm.)


 * Total: 3.8+ million additional known sales.

With the evidence above I don't believe Roxette's total sales would come to 70 or 75 million records. I am aware of missing and incorrect certifications but there still wouldn't be enough to justify a figure of 70/75m atm, thanks :) Mattg82 (talk) 00:15, 24 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Last updated: 21:16, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Discussion
'''Hi there! ''' I see that someone changed the numbers to 70 million again. In the meantime I found some more recent (than the old 60 million quotes) media sources for 75 million sales: From 2006 www.hd.se and 2009 www.aftonbladet.se Could anybody please link these?

Pumadog (talk) 17:08, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi PD, I have updated this talk page and have added all the certifications available to us. This is for the benefit of anyone who reads this page and are not aware of any further discussions elsewhere.


 * As for the sources provided, I have made a comment on Harout72's talkpage, please carry on the discussion there, thanks. :) Mattg82 (talk) 00:15, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

Sales in Argentina
Saying that Roxette sold 90.000 albums in Argentina is RIDICULOUS ("Joyride" by itself sold even more). I know there's no official figures at the CAPIF website for the early albums, but it's a well-known fact there was no official sales chart in the early 90's. CAPIF's website is not totally complete either.

Just watched again the TV programme were they got the awards. The EMI people said "Joyride" have sold 250.000 copies, so the album was awarded 4xPlatinum (60.000 x 4 = 240.000). By then, the best-selling English language album ever in the country. They also say that, according to the market tendencies, they expect a total of 400.000 copies being sold by the end of 1992.

They also got awards for "Look Sharp!". But they do not mention how many copies have been sold or what kind of awards they were (gold or platinum). I am quite sure "Tourism" and "CBB" have sold well too.

Faezdel (talk) 14:21, 24 October 2010 (UTC)


 * I've found the TV programme where they were given the awards and I have put the link to it above. Also added Polish & Norwegian certs. Mattg82 (talk) 00:43, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

We shouldn't worry too much as to what kind of sales Roxette may have generated in smaller markets like Argentina as it would take six to eight small markets of similar size to generate the same amount of sales as the UK (the third largest market in the world) can alone. And the developed markets all post their certifications once the records (albums/singles) reach the required level. Newer records always take some time to process, older records, however, once disappeared from the charts or sell at a slow rate which would not push the sales to the next certification-award-level anytime soon, the record companies submit the required fees to obtain the certifications. Surely, there are remainder units that exist between the first and second platinum-award-levels (for example) that we cannot see by simply looking at certifications, but that doesn't mean that the 14.8 million from above markets would ever turn into double that amount (29.6 million) if we had access to them. In other words, 60 million in sales, however one looks at it, is more realistic than the previous 70 million. By the way, I'm not sure about Argentina's sales figures posted above (250,000 for Joyride or 4x Platinum), I don't speak Spanish; therefore, I can't understand much what they state in the Youtube footage, but it does sound to me they present certification-awards of combined sales of number of Latin American countries (Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina), but again like I said I'm not sure.--Harout72 (talk) 17:22, 27 October 2010 (UTC)


 * I would be surprised if they combined sales from a number of countries. Chile are under IFPI for instance. Mattg82 (talk) 17:59, 3 December 2010 (UTC)


 * As we know, YouTube normally should not be used as a source as stated at WP:RSE; therefore, I have posted the YouTube footage at WP:RSN. If the folks there approve of the reliability of the footage, then we could use that on here to support Argentina's certifications. I have also asked if someone who speaks Spanish could confirm whether or not the quadruple certification-awards presented in the footage are for Argentina only or for various south American markets. However, until it gets clarified at WP:RSN, the footage should be kept out as a source.--Harout72 (talk) 03:53, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Relative to a-ha
You may be interested in Talk:A-ha/Archives/2013. Yaris678 (talk) 13:30, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

EMI Recognise sales of 70 million
In the official press release EMI, Roxette's record label recognise worldwide sales of 70 million, this should be took as the genuine figure as they are the most reliable source being the bands official record label worldwide for the duration of their career.

http://www.emimusic.com/blog/2010/roxette-turn-on-the-charm/


 * Primary sources such as record label and official sites are not to be used when citing record sales, as record labels are known for inflating sales figures. Mattg82 (talk) 18:51, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Swedish Government awards over 70 million sales
Earlier this year Roxette received a special Music Export Prize "for extraordinary achievements in promoting and spreading Swedish music abroad". The official press release authenticates Roxette's sales of "over 50 million albums and 20 million singles". I think the government checked sources. ;) Pumadog (talk) 15:19, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Music samples
Currently there are four music samples in this article: "Almost Unreal" and all three singles from Room Service. I think it would be better if these samples had been swapped out with other samples of more notable Roxette songs like "The Look" and "It Must Have Been Love", and maybe a single from Charm School as well. Thoughts? - Aphasia83 (talk) 23:40, 29 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Yeah, go for it and change them. I would put "The Look" in but I'll leave the song choices up to you. Mattg82 (talk) 23:16, 4 August 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, I've added samples of "The Look" and "She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)" to their respective sections of the article. At the same time I took out two of the three samples from Room Service, leaving "Real Sugar". - Aphasia83 (talk) 15:27, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Roxette. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20111006085130/http://roxette20.eu/~rx/tgraphy/rxt.php to http://roxette20.eu/~rx/tgraphy/rxt.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 03:47, 28 August 2015 (UTC)