There is no productive discussion. The site is mostly dominated by Archie fans and a few leftover Sanjaya fans. So all they do is bash Blake for his anti Archie and anti Sanjaya statements.

If this is true, there should be hundreds of comments there hating Blake. But there are 6 in total. Rickey’s is dominated by fans from every idol and general idol fans. There is a negative indifference towards Blake across idol boards. And when did fanjayas become the “leftovers?”

You can say idol fanbase is not that important in getting a success career, but there are 25 million audience for the show. Alienating every possible fanbase like Blake did is not going to get him anywhere.

About the album cover and music video, I remember they are Blake’s own idea since he have the artistic control. So now the label is to blame for his own idea?

Thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s no way an R&D person worth their salt allows an artist to run with that cover. They just kind of pushed him into the big ol pool of public opinion and let him sink or swim on his own, really.

sunchick I very much agree with you here, and with what you posted earlier. The same thing happened with his video. They could have made a video on a low budget and still came out okay. Look at Coldplays Speed of Light video, or Jessie; can’t think of his last name…touring with Jordin, his video was produced by the same guy. Though that video…a whole different topic. He and Jordin started with a very small fan base after idol…Jive took what little she had and built on it. Blake for all the reasons mentioned above, was not able to. I do think the majority of his fans bought his CD, there just wasn’t that many. You can go off of the response of the tour…which he did seem to get the best of, but not that many people went to the tour to begin with. Blake’s problem was like pj stated above that he didn’t appeal to the masses. Not the first idol for that to happen to and surely not the last.

People say they have not purchased his music because of the way he acts. I see no reason to doubt their claims. People have varied reasons for purchasing CDs and there is no à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“right criteriaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  in my mind. So long as they enjoy their purchases for whatever reason, they have used their own à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“right criteriaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  IMO. Otherwise, everybody would be buying the same CDs and this world would be a boring world.

I agree with you that maybe some buy records because they think people are “nice” or don’t because the perceive them as “assholes.” I wasn’t trying to invalidate any of that. However, my point was that I doubt Blake’s likeability factor affected his sales in any significant way. I think the likeability factor only goes so far.

I seriously doubt the Idol fans who were turned off by him would have made a huge difference. Just like fans buying multiple copies will not change things. Blake needed to appeal to the mainstream, and he didn’t. The music didn’t appeal to the masses. That doesn’t make it bad. You can argue it was lack of support or whatever, but I don’t think it was his personality. Most people don’t even know anything about his radio interviews.

There is no productive discussion. The site is mostly dominated by Archie fans and a few leftover Sanjaya fans. So all they do is bash Blake for his anti Archie and anti Sanjaya statements. I also donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t hold much value on comments (5) from people that are à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Happyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  about another personà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s misfortune.

Actually a lot of archies had said that they bought Blake ´s album… Blake anti Archie comments make noise but so did, Gina ´s and Hayley, in TMZ, and Constantine were totally more insulting than those made by Blake… I don ´t think much of Archie ´s fans even know about this cut in Blake ´s tour,or that there was a tour… if you visit fanbase forums nobody had mention the issue…

I ventured into Rickeyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s and there are 5 replies in total to Blakeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s news. And people are happy that Karma finds Blake again.

Not sure what the point of this statement is. Anyone that is a Blake fan totally ignores Rickey’s site, because every Blake thread just turns into a Blake bashfest. There is no productive discussion. The site is mostly dominated by Archie fans and a few leftover Sanjaya fans. So all they do is bash Blake for his anti Archie and anti Sanjaya statements. I also don’t hold much value on comments (5) from people that are “Happy” about another person’s misfortune.

I don’t know whether there is real beef between him and 19 if they ask him back.

The beef was with Clive and the record label, not 19, as 19M was not and is not Bo’s management. He’s managed by some peeps out of Nashville, who obviously did a great thing negotiating a guest spot for him on Idol.

ETA: BTW, Sooo many AI fans hate Clive Davis and it starts all the way back with Clay Aiken. It’s a long story. .

All that said, I think if Know My Name was the first single, and it had a huge radio push and decent video, similar to Tattoo, that Blake’s career might have turned out differently. Maybe.

Can’t say that Blake is going to be invited back next season, though.

I ventured into Rickeyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s and there are 5 replies in total to Blakeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s news. And people are happy that Karma finds Blake again.

I wouldn ´t take fans at Rickey as a reference… after all they are more passionate that normal fans… I wasn ´t a fan of Blake ´s music style, because is had an old feel to it in my opinion… to electronic or whatever… it wans ´t the kind of music that will get popular… I think in a previous related Blake post someone point out that his song where being play in discos…

I seriously don ´t think that being a “bad” guy had anything to do with him not selling…I mean I don ´t think Sanyaya (sp) and Archie ´s fanbase are strong enough to hurt another contestat…

So, Blakeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“nicenessà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  or lack thereof shouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t be an issue and probably had nothing to do with his sales.

People buy things for different reasons. I just bought a set of dishes because I thought they looked nice. Somebody else might buy dishes because of their high quality. Some other people might buy dishes because they are cheap. Some other people might buy dishes because they saw them in a movie. Which group of people used the correct criteria for purchasing dishes? They all did. They bought dishes. So long as the function and meet our needs, who cares why somebody bought them?

Some people on this board have expressed that they have purchased CDs because they had a positive impression on somebody. I presume that it makes them feel good that they did this and helps them to enjoy the CD. More power to them. That’s one sale. That’s sales.

I can see arguing that one sale isn’t significant, but a sale is a sale. I don’t think all Artists go on the View just so they can meet Elizabeth and the gang. They go because they want to move units. They go because they want people to become interested in their product. Same with all those radio interviews. If you come off as a complete a$$ and your performance isn’t up to par, you will turn off some of those potential customers. Granted, some people will think you are cool for being an a$$ and that might get you some customers. It’s a balancing act. All I can say is that I have spent the last year watching fans drift away from Blake for one thing or another (e.g. he lost a lot of fans on the general pop music boards for what were perceived to be anti-gay comments). The Internet community is small, but losing those devoted fans doesn’t help and it certainly won’t help in the future.

People say they have not purchased his music because of the way he acts. I see no reason to doubt their claims. People have varied reasons for purchasing CDs and there is no “right criteria” in my mind. So long as they enjoy their purchases for whatever reason, they have used their own “right criteria” IMO. Otherwise, everybody would be buying the same CDs and this world would be a boring world.

MTV article author can hardly contain his/her disdain for Blake. Had Blake be a nice guy, maybe these writers could cut this pathetic guy some slack.

Nah.

I could find a ton of articles like that about lots of Idols, “nice” or no. Just being an Idol is a set up for ridicule. It’s too easy. Notice other Idols who lost their record deals are included in the article and and are targets of the writer’s sarcasm as well.

I’d bet my house that the writer has no idea about the BIG internet brouhaha over Blake Lewis and the terrible, terrible things he’s said in interviews.

He found an easy opportunity for snark (an Idol losing his record contract), and ran with it.

Bo Bice is included in that article, and he’s an interesting example – An Idol who is as nice as pie and lost his record contract after a year–despite his album going gold. I’m not going to recount the story here, but 19 totally screwed that guy over. And such a nice guy. It was sad.

MTV article author can hardly contain his/her disdain for Blake. Had Blake be a nice guy, maybe these writers could cut this pathetic guy some slack.

I ventured into Rickey’s and there are 5 replies in total to Blake’s news. And people are happy that Karma finds Blake again.

Being nice cannot get you everything. But if Blake still thinks there is no relation between being a tool and his fail, some pattern is probably going to continue.

Or maybe it’s not a factor at all.

It’s a tough business, and I look forward to the next phase of his career. I like that he’s honest, a hard worker, and I happen to enjoy his music. He’ll land on his feet, I think.

If being a nice guy and enjoying universal good will in the Idol world sold records, Ace would have done better. No? I also enjoy Ace’s album quite a bit. Sadly, I think both he and Blake are a bit too retro for current tastes.

ETA: So, all y’all who like to buy albums based on “niceness” I suggest you check out Ace’s and put your money where it counts! Heh.

He did too many things to turn off the fans of the “cute guy” including talking about eating his boogers. I guess he went for “edgy and yes, I think it hurt his career. I wish him well because he seems in a lousy place right now.

**although that still doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t explain why Constantine has been able to hang on for so long on the fringes of the entertainment biz. He must have some serious dirt on some people. p

LOL

**although that still doesn’t explain why Constantine has been able to hang on for so long on the fringes of the entertainment biz. He must have some serious dirt on some people. p

But for the record, Blake is a nice guy. I’ve met him, we chatted, he’s fun and engaging and generally nice.

It’s a fact the music industry is not doing well at all. That’s Blake problem #1. His #2 problem, in my opinion is that his music doesn’t appeal to a vast crowd. I love ADD, and I’m usually not into that kind of music. But I love ADD nonetheless. Many out there won’t even listen to his album because it is categorized into hip hop/pop/electro/whatever. And while I love ADD, I too agree it’s not for everyone. So the fact that the kind of music he favors and put out on ADD does not appeal to a large crowd is a problem for record sale, for sure. Couple that with the severe lack of promo, and yeah, ADD was done and over with almost before it even came out.

Blake needs to find a good team that will be willing to work for and with him to promote the hell out of whatever he’s putting out. I don’t think Blake needs to filter what he says – sure he might offend some people, but the fact that he is honest and speaks his mind also appeals to many, so to me it’s a trade-off. It certainly wouldn’t hurt if he produced music that would appeal to a larger mass – look how well he did on the dance charts – but at the same time, he needs to put out music that he’ll be happy with. So that’s a difficult balance to achieve.

The general public who saw him performing poorly live on TV and heard him sing poorly on the radio shows and heard and/or read him being a jerk in interviews were not inspired to buy his music.

There have been artists that I had never heard of until I saw them on TV or listened to them doing radio interviews but then became interested in them and checked them out. They had something that made me like them and want to hear more from them and read more about them. I then bought their music.

One group I had not heard of until I was home sick one day and saw them on Good Morning America. Of course they were talented, but they were funny, nice, grateful and seem to be having the time of their lives doing what they loved. I became a fan that day and have since bought just about everything that they’ve put out, before and after I saw them that day. Eight years later, I’m still a fan.

IMO, seeing Blake poorly perform his singles live on TV and hearing/reading his interviews killed most of the general public’s interest in him and in his CD. Hence, he was dropped.

I also didn’t understand why he was touring now for an album that dropped so long ago. Didn’t make sense to me.

I met Blake several times and found him to be, a bit cocky? Sure. A little bit of a swaggert? Yeah. But still, overall a pretty nice guy–energetic and fun to talk to. He was obviously close to many of his castmates–I met all of them backstage last year during the Idol tour–Gina, Chris and Haley in particular. But Chris S and Phil seemed really fond of him too. I met his family, and those folks are even nicer.

I met Constantine several times, and man that guy IS a total narcissistic a-hole. Not only was he rude and condescending to me, but I felt a bad vibe all the way around. And yes, this guy, who is a total jerk continues to make a living. So much for nice guys finishing first.

The last thing I’d like to mention is the idea of Blake being hard to get along with. Who knows? I heard tons of rumors about Taylor–a guy who measures his words to the press–being a pill to work with behind the scenes, but never heard anything like that about Blake. Maybe he was, but I’ve never heard that or read it anywhere.

Being opinionated and speaking without a filter doesn’t necessarily make a person hard to get a long with.

especially someone like Clive who has shown in the past that he can be vindictive and pull the plug on supporting any artist who doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t tow the line.

Exactly. Look how badly he treated Kelly Clarkson when she didn’t tow the line when it came to the direction of “My December”. And SHE was a multi-platinum selling artist.

He was complaining about Clive and Break Anotha long before he got dropped. Probably not the best idea to risk alienating the people that gave you a golden opportunity, especially someone like Clive who has shown in the past that he can be vindictive and pull the plug on supporting any artist who doesn’t tow the line.

Actually, now that I think about it, he started complaining about Clive and Break Anotha around the time he was promoting his second single. Actually, most of the negative stuff he said in the press was during the time he was promoting “How Many Words.” By that time, you could stick a fork in ADD. It was already done.

Blake was selling something; America wasn’t buying. But I think it had more to do with the music and his performances on the various talk shows than anything he had to say in the press about his peers or his minders.