Female vocalists like Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera often maintain a formula of an up-tempo first lead single with a slow ballad follow-up.
Girls Aloud chose to use "The Show", a dance-pop and electropop song, as their lead single for their second album, What Will the Neighbours Say?, following the fact that their previous singles from their debut album Sound of the Underground were "quite down and moody"[citation needed] according to band member Cheryl.
Artists may release a lead single that has a message they want to convey to listeners instead of a song with more commercial potential, such as Fall Out Boy who chose to release "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" over the radio-friendly "Thnks fr th Mmrs".
[4] Japanese artists such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro and B'z may release four to eight singles before their albums to achieve record-breaking debut-week sales.
For example, Usher issued the lead single "Love in This Club" four months before the May 29, 2008, release of Here I Stand.
In South Korean music, the term "title track" is sometimes used interchangeably with "lead single".