Buderschnookie ‘“ I think you are referring to the more rational fans out there. I’d like to think I’m in that group with you. But there are some very scary peeps out there that have projected their own idealized version of Adam onto him. He’ll never live up to who they *want* him to be, and their reaction to his album cover I can only describe as hysteria.

Thankfully I have not run into too much of that, but if I did I would back out slowly and leave no trace of ever having been there.
It’s hard enough for me to know what is right for me on this earth without concerning myself with what is right for a complete stranger. Pedestal positioning a fantasy never makes for clear thought anyway- it is always a construct.
And I see nothing wrong with such a fantasy as long as it remains in one’s own head and not verbalized or God forbid put in print.

Yeah, I know the thread is dead…

justjude
10/29/2009 at 5:32 am
I think there is a collective conciousness among a large group of Adam fans that makes them feel they have parental rights to ’scold or control
self expression by Adam. It is, almost, as though their guidlines are’ ¦..I will love and support you as long as you are never totally honest and as long as you never become the version that ‘you have of yourself ,and your art,’  but what we want you to be for us’ ¦.’ our fantasy’ !!!!
So disturbing on so many levels, especially, as some of the fantasies border on being highly risque or worse.
I am so glad that he did twitter about At least getting your attention!!
I too, was shocked when I first saw the cover because it challenges me
to re examine ‘why’  I might be shocked ?Am I really that shallow ,or do I have a hidden level of predjudice to non conformity of common traditional values??
On the conclusion of my reflection, I am thinking’ ¦’ ¦..Thank you Adam for being in our collective face! You may be ‘The Crack in the Cosmic Egg’ . Some of us will be a part of the evolution of love and acceptance
of all the wonderful differences of Humans!!!!!

Justjude, I love your post. I think it sums up how I’ve been feeling about much of the fan reaction to the album cover. Not the haters; expected that. And not the folks here at MJs that think the cover is a bad business decision because it will alienate new fans. It’s the more fanatical, obsessive peeps that seem to think *they* know what’s best for Adam – that as long as he walks the invisible line they have set (i.e. fingers in ears “nah nah nah I can’t hear you reminding me that you’re gay…it’s hot in fanfic but can’t have you getting too far out of our fantasies”) they will follow him to the ends of the earth. Step out of the predetermined “comfort zone” THEY have set for him and it’s under the bus with him!

I’m having more trouble articulating this whole thing than I thought I would. But I think you did it for me.

PS: Buderschnookie – I think you are referring to the more rational fans out there. I’d like to think I’m in that group with you. But there are some very scary peeps out there that have projected their own idealized version of Adam onto him. He’ll never live up to who they *want* him to be, and their reaction to his album cover I can only describe as hysteria.

Adam is a beautiful person in and out, intelligent, fierce and ozzing with talent. All we should do is believe and shell out some money to buy his album. LOL!

I think there is a collective conciousness among a large group of Adam fans that makes them feel they have parental rights to ’scold or control
self expression by Adam. It is, almost, as though their guidlines are’ ¦..I will love and support you as long as you are never totally honest and as long as you never become the version that ‘you have of yourself ,and your art,’  but what we want you to be for us’ ¦.’ our fantasy’ !!!!
So disturbing on so many levels, especially, as some of the fantasies border on being highly risque or worse.

My experience within Adam fandom has been completely the opposite.
Most of us enjoy him precisely because he won’t be controlled and because his vision of himself is 100% his own.

http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/2009/10/28/get-the-look-adam-lamberts-truly-outrageous-for-your-entertainment-album-cover/

Anyway, I LOVE ridiculous. I LIVE by ridiculous. And I love that the art direction for For Your Entertainment was basically like “Um, so, let’s take Prince’s Purple Rain album art, Rihanna’s Rated R cover art, and Steel Panther’s Death To All But Metal cover art, add Kate Gosselin’s wig but spray paint it blue, mkay? But let’s ALSO paint Adam’s nails black too, because that’s always symbolically dark.” I also love that it looks like the kind of mural you’d see airbrushed onto the wall of a crumbling skating rink. The only thing that truly makes no sense is the budget-looking font used for Adam Lambert’s name. I think my accountant uses the same font. Boring! MOAR SPARKLES PLZE!

Has anyone in the thread ‘“ sorry can’t possible wade through 1,200 posts ‘“ brought up the idea that maybe the back cover artwork on the CD, which is usually covered with liner notes, could be a completely different photo (not to mention the booklet inside) but the back in particular could be the opposite or something again so new and so Adam we can’t conceive of it yet?

I have seen it discussed that the cover could be part of a concept that we will not fully understand until we see all the album work, yes. But honestly I couldn’t tell you if I saw it here or somewhere else.
So the back cover could be Butch Adam, and the inside (hope it’s a doozy “Library” thingie like Muse was) is everything from Michelin Man to Puss ‘n Boots?

Somehow nothing would surprise me at this point.

It’s still brilliant.

I want to hear the music, see the back cover, and look at all the artwork, now!

the poster you quoted seemed to be saying that those who liked the album cover were lying or pretending just to support Adam. I find that just as offensive as people questioning(if they do) why you dislike it so much.

Me too. It’s the same thing really just aimed in the opposite direction — assuming an ulterior motive as opposed to accepting a stated opinion as genuine.

It’s interesting to me too that some would characterize “one side” as presenting more “compelling” reasons for their opinions of the cover. For me, it’s a matter of appeal, not argument or analysis. I’m not going to convince anyone that the cover “logically” is good, I’m not even going to try. Why would I? I’m merely going to tell you that I like it and find it expressive and appealing — that I find beauty in it, if I do — and that I do not see it as offensive or objectionable. If you find it to be the latter, how would anything I say “compel” you to “see” it differently?

Could I find all kinds of things to criticize, if I wanted to? I suspect so, but I don’t know, I haven’t actually tried. Why do that when it pleases me? For this, I choose to synthesize with my eyes, not analyze it using critical thought. I guess, for me, it’s a left brain, right brain distinction. Who really knows.

I am a fan, but I do not feel he’s superhuman, without error, or above criticism. Quite the contrary. Regardless, I’m not going to spam comments or twitter with hate for either Adam or the people involved in his various creations if I don’t like them. I’ve been a fan of plenty of folks whose efforts or works have not always pleased me, and I just never felt the need to bombard them directly with pointed criticisms to be sure they knew and understood my view of it. But that’s me.

Adam is limiting versus expanding his audience. And, yes, that frustrates me BECAUSE I think he’s going to be a great artist, and hate to see a potential exodus of potential fans

there is no way Adam will “lose an audience” over an album cover. the only way he is going to lose is if his album sucks or worse, is mediocre.

ETA: TFM went up a couple of spots on Itunes to #79.

I’m not sure, but I think I now know what ‘pearl clutching’  means. Actually, could someone help me out with that? Clarification? Does it refer to the worried hang wringing of mature women who wear pearls? (LOL) Or maybe it’s something much ruder than that and I’m just too innocent to realize it?

From Urban Dictionary:

An uptight person, usually but not always female, usually but not always of conservative mores, who reacts with shock, feigned or otherwise, at other people’s violations of decorum, propriety, morality, and so forth.
Someone got up at the PTA meeting and suggested the school hand out condoms to teenagers. The pearl clutchers in the audience nearly went into cardiac arrest.

gangreen29
10/28/2009 at 11:37 am

I think the problem is that campy does not make a very good homage. If you want to pay tribute to something from the past you don’t at the same time poke fun at it. That is why the cover appears so muddled. It is too cheesy to be a proper homage, but does not push the envelope nearly enough to be effective satire.

You expressed what I’m thinking exactly. Spooky.

For me, Adam’s cover comes across not as an homage but as a cheap imitation, minus the edge. And it makes me wonder what the music will be like.

http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/30692859/adam_lamberts_for_your_entertain/photo/1
rollingstone rocks! hahaha

LOL these are great…thanks for posting this!

HoppersSkippersMiners
10/28/2009 at 3:17 pm
Hey Rowe -

I’ll ‘put another dime in the jukebox, baby’ , before I go back to RL.

I’ve expressed anger at this album cover in this thread. But not for the art (ok, I really don’t like the art either, but that’s not the current point!). My frustration has been that I think by using this particular cover, Adam is limiting versus expanding his audience. And, yes, that frustrates me BECAUSE I think he’s going to be a great artist, and hate to see a potential exodus of potential fans who are inherently turned off by the artwork. So shoot me, I want Adam to have both critical acclaim AND sales.

[shrug] So, yeah, I’m bitterly disappointed about the cover. At Adam himself? Nope. At this business decision? Yep. And yes, I do realize that album covers are not the end-all-be-all that they used to be. However, Adam’s a new artist. It just doesn’t strike me as good business savvy to be that provocative this early in the game. Or, if you are, USE BETTER ART!!!

(((HSM))) I can totally dig what you are saying here. I respect your opinion, and you may be right. It may be a *terrible* business decision. You are within your rights to feel angry. I’m sorry that you believe this is detrimental to him at this early stage of his career. Are you right or wrong, I don’t know.

But I think, if I read your post properly, you realize yours is not the kind of “anger” I was referring to. You sound perfectly rational to me! Sure, hate the album art…and/or the decision by Adam and his team to put it out. In fact, I recall you were one of the first ones yesterday to express your outright dislike of (ok, bitter disappointment at) the cover. Totally valid. Just like my enjoyment of the photo and the concept (whether executed poorly or not) is equally valid. I like that people CAN say what they think about the cover, hopefully mostly respectful of each other, here at MJs and at other sites.

What I find to be the puzzling ‘anger’ phenomenon (and I guess had I been a previous follower of AI I might have expected it) is the overriding sense of BETRAYAL some fans are hurling directly at Adam and his team. This “OMG How Could You Do This To Us, Adam” “OMG How Could You Do This To Adam, Fuko/RCA/19″ hysteria that I saw last night – predominently on Twitter. I don’t mean the usual suspects hating on Adam at Yahoo, EW, and the other blogs and article comment sites. Nor do I mean general “love it/hate it” opinions. It’s the end-of-the-world beatdown in the twitterverse and interwebz which give me a distinct image of fans with tear-streaked faces, renting the front of their sackcloth garments, threatening to slit their wrists over the injustice! I feel like I’m in an alternate universe, with the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It’s curious and scary, all at the same time.

Anyway, not sure it came across that I didn’t specifically mean “here” at MJs – more the twitter thang, which I think is what got to Adam and caused his response today. It makes me a little sad he felt compelled to “explain” himself but I would too, had I been subjected to thousands of tweets from strangers that were more than a little unsettling. Makes me all the more happy I’m not a celebrity!

ETA: looks like the comments are now in the right order…

Just checked Amazon UK and Adam has soared up to 183 ‘“ still with no publicity but no doubt we in the uk are loving the cover! To put it in context Kris is currently 1,958.

He has moved up on Amazon also….For Your Entertainment is now #8.

Interesting eye stuff. Apparently somebody’s made a composite of the left eye and the left eye flipped, and then the right eye and the right eye flipped, showing the way alien/feminine nature of one and the kinda boy-next-door quality of the other ‘ ¦. I guess it’s all in the makeup, lol. (not surprising that for Adam it would be all in the makeup, I guess!)

Masculine

Feminine

Buderschnookie, I think whoever posted that comment has a point. Sometimes the fandom DOES get over-invested and even constructive criticism consequentially gets essentially banned.

Yes, fandom gets overinvested, OTT, and downright ridiculous.
But that is no reason to ever call them out as “illogical, stupid, irrational, and bordering on crazy and violent.”
That speaks not to their opinions but to their person.
I just thought that was verboten.

As is boards on boards. I only risk commenting on it because I found it so utterly offensive.