What went wrong with Jessica Simpson's music career?
https://www.quora.com/What-went-wrong-with-Jessica-Simpsons-music-career/answer/Matt-Cormier-2
The first being that she suffered in comparison to similar artists like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera who debut around the same time as her and achieved much greater commercial success and long-lasting popularity. Britney was considered a superstar with endless “girl next door” appeal and was massively popular and Christina earned critical acclaim and was praised for having a one of a kind voice. Jessica was always rated as third behind them and as having an average singing voice at best.share
The sales of her albums sort of proved that she wasn’t going to have a lasting career.
Her first album “Sweet Kisses” sold well, peaking at #25 on the Billboard albums chart and going 2X Platinum. Her debut single “I Wanna Love You Forever” reached #3 on the Billboard Singles Chart, her first and only top ten single. In the US alone the album sold two million copies. Her second album “Irresistible” was released in 2001 and peaked at #6 on the Billboard Albums Chart and was certified gold; but sold considerably less than her debut album selling around 755,000 in the US alone. Now, compare that to Britney Spear’s first two albums, “….Baby One More Time” debuted in 1999 (the same year as Sweet Kisses) and sold over 10 million albums and was certified 14X Platinum. Her second album “Oops… I Did It Again” sold over 9 million copies and was certified Diamond in the US.
Another big issue for Jessica Simpson was how quickly overexposed she became. Especially when she married 98 Degrees lead singer Nick Lachey and they co-starred on an immensely popular MTV reality show called “Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica” from 2003–2005. The show which documented the early years of their marriage was a massive hit for MTV and became a pop culture sensation. Jessica was portrayed as ditzy, self-involved and lacking in common sense; Nick was portrayed as a level-headed everyman with real world skills. The most famous scene in the shows history featured the couple eating lunch and Jessica who is having tuna fish asks a stunned Nick “Is this fish what I have or is it chicken? I know its tuna but it says chicken by the sea or chicken of the sea?”
Nick and Jessica became hugely famous because of this show; particularly Jessica whose third album “In This Skin” was released in the middle of the series run and saw increased success because of the show. It peaked at #2 on the billboard albums chart and sold 3 million copies in the US alone. At first the album did not fare well on the charts, debuting at #10 and sinking to the bottom of the charts. Selling only 565,000 copies in five months. However, during the holiday 2003 season due to exposure from the reality show the sales of the album suddenly jumped up and propelled her second single from the album “With You” into the top 10 on the singles chart, where it peaked at #14. Another single from the chart, a cover of “You Take My Breath Away” peaked at #20. The album was also reissued with several new tracks, further increasing sales.
However, the attention she got from the reality show soon turned against her as she became overexposed and her image took a massive beating. She was on the cover of nearly every tabloid between 2003 and 2007. When Nick and Jessica filed for divorce in 2005 the media and fans all sided with Nick Lachey and Jessica’s image was destroyed. When they had married, Nick was earning more money and was a bigger star. But by the time they divorced she was out-selling him and was a much bigger celebrity. She ended up having to pay him a settlement of nearly 12 million dollars.
The media coverage from the divorce and her subsequent relationships with other men destroyed her image and essentially killed her music career. Her next album “A Public Affair” sold only 500,000 copies in the USA and stalled at #5 on the billboard charts and her subsequent releases all sold a fraction of that.
She later tried a career in hosting reality competition shows and launching several consumer product lines; such as clothing lines and make-up lines. She has had much success in that arena with her fashion and make-up lines selling very well.