Okay the title sounds stupid, but considering BBTM blew him up, what was a bigger era for Abel?

yea, what else would be its competition?

BBTM really escalated his career so it’s a debate imo

After Hours & it’s not even close

Blinding Lights is objectively his biggest hit but I do feel like I saw/heard him more around BBTM, getting the 50 Shades soundtrack was a huge moment

See thats what I was thinking.. ofc After Hours was f***ing massive.. but so was BBTM

It’s definitely After Hours lol

yea but After Hours was a whole different level

lol would it be farfetched to say its the biggest song of the 2010s

yes, cuz 95% of its run is in the 2020s

Abso-fucking-lutely

BBTM is the era which put him on the map and After Hours is his biggest era in every way

After Hours had 2 hits, BBTM had the one that started his run (Often), a huge collab not on the album (Love Me Harder) and then 3 major hits. May not be bigger, but BBTM felt bigger.

A monumental way to wrap the decade, the cherry on top

;

As for the topic, I personally don't care about his commercial success, I only care about the artistic content of his work and the replayability.
He's been active ~10 years, his growth as an artist has left much to be desired, (actually, he stopped pushing the bar after he dropped KissLand in 2012, but anyways, this is a discussion for another day)
-- thus said, I, in my humble opinion consider 2011 his biggest era, mixtapes Abel remains unsurpassed. He left the world breathless when he did what nobody before dared, three full-body projects in a year, three projects which are a photo finish, if you put them to race with one-another as which is the best.
And while at it, The Weeknd did to dark RnB genre what Nirvana did to grunge.

A lot of recency bias will favor After Hours but BBTM was a massive era. It was even more impressive because the competition was stacked and After Hours was just there because no one else was pushing a studio album like that. Everything from the live performances, the videos and even the actual music was better (not by much but better)

crazy how BBTM is 4x platinum while After Hours is 2x.

bruh After Hours released 5 years later BBTM ofc its less than it lmaoo. Also AH is eligible for 3x platinum now

blinding lights will be remembered as one of the greatest hit singles of all time.

But it’s impact against The Hills

Starboy era was the perfect balance of mainstream and indie. Not his biggest but I remember putting each single on at a party the day after it came out and the place went apeshit

Was in a casino the first time I heard it

Literally perfect

BBTM is his biggest era. Blinding Lights is his biggest song

Every other AH single isn’t even close to that in terms of lasting appeal: In Your Eyes, Save Your Tears, Heartless, Hardest to Love had a chance but the label pussied out

Alone again underrated AF

FAM! After hours going crazyyyy on my speakers rn, im deadass hearing sounds i aint even peep before 💯

&& bruhhh, i just played this bih with. the. Captions. on.... WHAT IN THE F*** ABLE

🐐
this s*** really hit differently on the weeknd