It’s 1999, and Jewel is on top of the world. Her 1997 debut album Pieces of You had seen its sales top 9 million earlier that year, and her follow-up release, Spirit, had just topped 4 million in sales after just 8 months. Today, July 25th 1999, Jewel is on stage in Rome, New York performing at Woodstock ‘99, one of biggest concerts ever. The 25 year-old who grew up without tv in Alaska is singing her heart out in front of well over 100,000 delighted fans. It’s quite possible that life for the talented Ms. Kilcher could simply not get any better than this.

Now return to the present. In the 6 years since performing at Woodstock, Jewel has released a pair of albums of new material, This Way, and 0304. The combined sales for the 2 albums are less than 2 million.

What in the world happened?

The quick and easy answer is that Jewel made some bad marketing decisions. In 1998 and in 2000, Jewel released a pair of books, A Night Without Armor and Chasing Down the Dawn, that primarily consisted of poems. While neither were given rave reviews, a pair of poetry books from a young female folk/rock musician isn’t a total disconnect.

But her Joy-A Holiday Collection cd of Christmas music released in November of 1999 definitely missed the mark. There’s not much of a precedent for major artists releasing Holiday cds and then seeing their future album sales do anything but tank, and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened to Jewel. While Jewel had 15 million in sales from her first 2 albums when Joy was released, she’s managed less than 2 million in sales from her 2 post-Joy albums, This Way, and 0304. By 0304, she had totally sold-out, going pop, and donning a look that resembled being Britney’s older sister, and using 0304’s only hit, Intuition, to sell women’s razors. Her debut album, Pieces of You, has sold 11 million copies, and currently 0304 is hovering above 500,000 copies sold.

However, before we crucify Jewel for making some bad business decisions, we need to realize that many other female rockers are sitting at the crossroads that Jewel was at in 1999, and they too have some difficult career decisions to make. Tomorrow I’ll look at the pressures the music industry is putting on these artists, examine how one of Jewel’s contemporaries has maintained a consistent image and still has a successful career, and examine ways that Jewel could revitalize her career.

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