 The game of He said/She said continues, as Hi Fi responds to Adam Lambert’s latest statement regarding the release of On With The Show,
“As we’ve already outlined, releasing this music was always the plan. That plan was changed by 19 Recordings after Adam won America over with his extraordinary talent. It’s a shame that his management/record company choose to disavow their client’s work and discredit him as a songwriter. As an independent company whose role it is to help put this out, we at Hi Fi think this is an absolute slap in the face to Wilshire Records. That small indie music company, run by an experienced music producer, Malcolm Welsford, thrives on finding, nurturing and championing new talent, and now they find themselves at a tremendous potential loss. Adam’s songwriting partner, Monte Pittman now finds himself at a tremendous potential loss. Via the press, in the words of the musician they dedicated so much time and money to, they are being told that their work with Adam should never see the light of day.”
Hi Fi’s statement continues: “We apologize for what has become a tiresome tit for tat, particularly on a day that we mourn the loss of a truly original, game-changing entertainer, but unfortunately, each statement released in Adam’s name contains a different story. We remain steadfast in our assertion that we seek only to share the music Adam wrote, according to plan, so his fans know the depth of his talent and see that he will be handsomely rewarded for his work.”
Hi Fi claims that it has a signed recording contract with Adam dated Feb. 12, 2008. The label has already made one of the CD’s tracks, “Want,” available on iTunes.
If (If–don’t kill me) Adam signed a recording contract with Wilshire, he violated the terms of his Idol contract which stipulates a contestant can’t have current management or label contract. Not that 19 would do anything about it now, with so much money–and their reputation–at stake.
I’m not going to speculate on the contract claims, but I do believe Hi Fi has all their ducks in a row as far as the release of Adam’s music is concerned. At some point, Adam signed something, allowing Hi Fi/Wilshire to release this music. He seems to regret it now–and who could blame him–he has no input in how these unfinished demos will be released. But, sign away he did. He’s not a victim.
It’s time, I think, for all parties to shut the hell up. In the end, it’s not a big deal. Fans can buy it, or not. But, without any significant promotion, the fans who are upset by this can console themselves–the music will likely die a quick death.
Hi Fi’s self-serving statements are becoming increasingly more annoying (Michael Jackson? Really?!?), but they are only business people trying to make a buck, they aren’t evil do-ers out to destroy Adam.
Adam might have more to worry about from the sharks at 19R/RCA. These guys–they’re all the same.
Well, the thing is “global superstar” is a combination of things — talent, but also marketing, having just the right company behind you that is able to push you forward in just the right way, hitting the “right moment,” having the exact right songs written by and for you and produced in the exact right way to hit the moment, having the right look, having producers that give you aural and visual stuff that strikes just the right chord with a lot of audiences, etc. So I think it’s quite possible that a “global superstar” could go by a lot of people without being “noticed” — because even if you notice an extreme talent, you have no way of knowing whether all of these other things will come together.
Plus, plenty of people with brilliant talents never become big stars at all. When you’re trying to work your way up, you only have a certain selection of jobs — and the job of “superstar” isn’t one of them. There are jobs in bands, in musical theater, in little cabarets in your town. Your brilliant talent — even if it is absolutely genius quality — may not be exactly the right fit for any of those roles or venues, or others may be jealous of you and try to shove you aside, or your inexperience may make you unable to showcase your brilliance properly, or you may be too adventurous to be fully recognized by most people, or the local critic or record producer may be sick of that particular venue or genre and not show up to a performance to see you.
And then you can put out your own demos — but they will virtually never be brilliantly produced and they may have to fall into line behind the not-as-brilliant but good demo that was sent to the label by the company president’s brother-in-law’s nephew. And maybe your genre isn’t the “hot” one right at the moment that it arrives at the record label, and perhaps they aren’t able to recognize that your style could, in fact, be the next one to take the world by storm, because everybody, even normally very talented trendspotters, has blind spots. Or maybe you come onto the radar screen but people decline to take a chance on you because they think maybe you don’t have the right look or they decide that the world may not be ready to fully embrace an out gay performer who has pictures around of himself in drag or because they figure that you’re a little too short, or chubby, or too white or too black, or too old….
There are about a billion reasons why somebody with genius-level talent may not *ever* get “discovered” in an industry like music. Even if that person does have the potential to be a “global superstar.” And for those who get discovered, the combination of factors that could actually make that person the “global superstar” are so numerous, and so many are completely 100 percent out of the person’s control and even out of their corporate sponsor’s control (or ability to predict) that saying someone doesn’t have the *talent* to become a global superstar just because they haven’t become one doesn’t make any sense.
Why didn’t anybody publish Emily Dickinson’s poetry? Why didn’t Herman Melville sell more than a handful of copies of Moby Dick in his lifetime? … and in both cases they were later granted “global superstardom” that lasted at least a *century.* But at the time, hardly anybody noticed.
I think that all the stuff about “global superstar” boils down to is — A lot of people think that Adam is mad talented and very charismatic. But being those things doesn’t even guarantee that he would ever have been discovered, let alone guarantee any particular kind of future.
Van Gogh is also a pretty good example of that–he only sold one painting during his lifetime, and that one was only sold because his brother was an art dealer.
This. Adam is, in many eyes, amazingly and unusually gifted, but even now it’s not guaranteed that he’ll be a global star. I’m just really glad that he’s been discovered and is making an album.
Interesting to hear from perspectives in Denmark, btw.
Part of Adam’s problem was that musical theatre is filled with multi talented triple threats so standing out isn’t easy. Most of his colleagues would blow most AI contestants off the stage. I am anticipating more musical theatre types trying out for AI this year. If they are smart and frustrated, they should.
Ty Taylor is a great stage presence, sexy, edgy with a killer voice. But even exposure on Rockstar INXS hasn’t really changed his career – people loved Ty but he couldn’t shake that musical theatre thang which wouldn’t work for that particular band. They needed a more organic lead singer. Ty was already doing headline roles in musical theatre before the show, he continues to do the same – I am not sure if he wanted a solo career or not or whether he has pursued it. I got a chance to see him perform solo in a special gig for some of the Rockstar INXS contestants in Toronto and he was incredible – he even performed an original song he had written and we thought it was dynamite – Ty surprised us with that one.
However Rockstar only got a small fraction of the viewership of American Idol so it is not surprising that many of the extremely talented people that performed on both shows, INXS and Supernova are still struggling. Probably Suzie McNeil from Season 1, perhaps Marty Casey is a very close 2nd, and Ryan Star from Season 2 have come the farthest and they still got a long way to go. And again Suzie, Marty and Ryan would blow most AI contestants off the stage.
My impression of AI voters is that they don’t want a true star. Like everything in today’s celebrity culture, they want someone to whom they can relate. Someone that embodies their view of themselves. Someone they can take home to dinner, have a bear with or even date. Obama had to go boiling and drink bear to prove to people that he wasn’t better than them so that he could get elected. Clinton was reduced to downing shot of whiskey for god’s sake.
When it comes to the American populace voting, what I see as foreigner, is that they vote for the familiar rather than the stellar.
I’m not saying that Adam will be a global star, no one can know that in today’s fluxing music market.
What I am saying is that the logic of gaging future global, or local, success based on the response of the AI voting public has been proven flawed for many years now.
Amen about how all these mega-talented, uber-hardworking people from Rockstar are great evidence that you can have the right stuff and do the right stuff and still not fully “make it.”
And when you think of JD, who got the INXS gig, – I agree that they wanted the “organic” thing that he has (and I do think he’s really talented). But I would bet the band also resonated with some of his out-of-control, neurotic, needy stuff cause it reminded them a bit of their beloved Hutchence….So there are all these intangibles involved, too, that people making the choices that lead you to stardom may not even be aware of.
Agreed lucy success in the music business is the ultimate crap shoot, bwah.
In terms of INXS, though, the grassy knoll is a few football fields long, a lot of fans are not satisfied they are getting the total story from any side right now and the sadder thing is JD is writing some great stuff which he is sharing with fans online. Despite his flaws, that boy is like a cat and I think he has some lives yet.
These shows do show that there is a great deal of undiscovered brilliant talent out there and Idol and Rockstar doesn’t even scratch the surface.
I realize that true genius might be overlooked and perhaps only recognized by the masses posthumously. Van Gogh is certainly a tragic example. In addition to loving his art, his very “human” story resonated deeply with me. Adam, without doubt, is talented — genius, well that’s debatable.
I live in Connecticut, so Proposition 8, is California’s deal. It appears California is more conservative than the worldview realizes. I’m not here to debate politics. In the theatrical world, in the art/literary world, in the show business world in general, I’m certain being gay is not a foreign concept. Nor is it a foreign concept in a household in Texas or Montana or North Carolina or Maine.
I do not believe Adam being gay held him back in the industry. That just doesn’t fly for me at all. Adam lived openly as a gay man as I live openly as a heterosexual woman. I don’t mention my sexuality ever second of every waking moment. No one cares. We all live our lives, struggling to make our mortgages, car payments, rent, seeking employment, finding love, dying…
The media decided to run with the gay thing. The media chose to judge most Americans as being homophobic. The media tried to force feed us this crap over and over again. It appears many of Adam’s fans swallowed it. America, in fact, chose Adam Lambert over Danny Gokey, basing it on, I would hope, talent and not that Danny was a conservative Christian. Or are we all prejudice in our own unique way?
Adam is a young man, hoping to have a long music career. Was exploiting his sexuality his decision or a decision that the media and producers made for him? Not one person that I know mentioned Adam was gay. It was always about the music and personal taste.
On another front, all I can say is whoa, Mayfair, just, I don’t even know. I’m always amazed by generalizations that fly so freely. Not to get all patriotic, but I think we do damn well here in America, melding a variety of cultures, religions, and political viewpoints.
We could have a thousand testimonials from people all over the world, stating Adam is the greatest. Kris’s fans worldwide would attest the same about him. He does have them, as well.
I balk at fanaticism, find it disturbing on all levels. The mindset freaks me out — so much bad comes from it.
Bottom line is: all we can do is wait and see about Wilshire, Hi-Fi, as well as, Adam Lambert’s future success. I hope he can rise above it all.
Great post, lucy. Very thorough and insightful and I agree with everything you wrote.
And you make an important point. Adam wasn’t just a gay artist; he was an openly gay artist with no intention of ever going back in the closet. While a lot of the reasons you cite represent hurdles, I would argue that the issue of his gayness was one of the higher hurdles Adam faced. The whole “why didn’t Adam make it big before” question just seems to tacitly ignore that point. Like it never mattered. But it did. Emphasis on the past tense.
Bottom line: I think Adam would be the first to admit that he came on this show with something to prove. Something to prove to the agents and the record companies and the producers who were unwilling to take a chance on him because of his sexual orientation. He bypassed them all and went directly to the people and put his outsized talent out there for the world to see and fearlessly “put on a show.” Some of my favorite Idol moments were watching Simon’s reaction to the fans’ reactions to an Adam performance. That slow Cheshire cat grin would start spreading over his face and you just knew he was getting it.
Although he didn’t win, Adam was HUGELY successful on this basically (no matter how hard it tries not to be) cheesy show pitched squarely to small town Middle America. As Adam has said, you don’t get a record deal unless you have a fanbase. Adam proved he has a fanbase, because he had to … because those agents, producers and record companies thought his being openly gay might get in the way of acquiring a fanbase. Wrong.
Now (hopefully) the gay issue is on a back burner. It may never go away completely, but at least it’s manageable, on a low simmer. And the fact that it is no longer a controlling issue is exciting and one of the reasons I’m so hopeful about Adam’s future prospects. Because in so many other areas Adam is strong and evolved: his beautifully trained voice, his performance instincts and polish, his confidence, his musical knowledge, his business savvy. Now that this sexual orientation/fanbase hurdle (which never should have been a hurdle in the first place) has been removed, Adam is in a flat out sprint. Yeah, I’m liking his chances a lot.
A small aside…
Adam mentioned he was a little frustrated doing “the Ten Commandments” because the director and producer spoke to him about “Is Anybody Listening?” sounding too gay and to tone it down.
So, yeah. It hasn’t been an easy road for Adam.
123abc456
Jun 27th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Please enlighten us on exactly what they have done since Idol (?). Unless I am reading this incorrectly, they haven’t had a chance to do anything yet since Idol except some interviews and rehearsing for the tour.
I would also like to agree with the person who previously stated about Daughtry, AI votes do not determine album sales.
BTW: I would still love to see the iTunes sales figures for AI8. What’s the big deal about not revealing them? :ponder_tb:
I’ve been keeping track of post-finale sales garnered from Brian Mansfield and Kirsten. Top 200 Digital Track Chart.
As of week ending 6/21/09, Kris has sold singles/albums — $1,058,279.70
As of week ending 6/21/09, Adam has sold singles/albums — $901,641.00
The album compilation was a complete the album deal, meaning any singles that had been purchased during Idol would not be repurchased when buying the Album compilation. In other words when buying the Album compilation, you pay for only the singles you did not have already. Because of this I believe these totals are close to an accurate assessment of singles sold during and post Idol. These figures do not reflect Ringtones (Kris was #1 for several days), videos (Adam did well here, Kris also made a strong showing), I-tune pass and singles/albums that fell off the Top 200 digital chart.
Of course, not engraved in stone.
So you’re assuming that everyone who bought singles also bought albums? Sorry, I think that’s a flawed assumption and therefore your figures are not reliable. I agree with anna in vegas, though, I would love to see the true numbers.
The figures are reliable for post-idol sales. You may believe my assumption is flawed concerning the complete the album, that’s your perogative. But the post-idol figures are accurate based on numbers available, whether it is to your liking or not. I don’t believe you will ever see the TRUE numbers. David Cook fans have been pining for them for a year or more now.
Rickey from Rickey.org stated that Adam fans are “completists” when he saw Adam’s album sales were higher than Kris’s, but the single sales were lower. I ‘ve read many negative reactions concerning both Kris and Adam’s sales as not being all that impressive, especially when compared to David Cook. I think they’re both doing well.
There is an ADD on All Access under cool new music for Adam’s single ‘Want’ from Hi Fi/Wilshire records.
http://www.allaccess.com/
IMO Adam’s early works album won’t affect his RCA album sales. If anything fans will have the opportunity to purchase both albums. And you never know, Adam’s pre-idol album might be better than his RCA album. With the exception of “Want” which is a badly written song with a with a repetitive chorus, there might be some good music on Adam’s summer release album. Personally I am going to listen to snippets from both albums and purchase the songs I like the best.
And if Adam Lambert does have a contract with another label, it would be in 19E’s best interest not to manage him after the tour. 19E 19M does not need this headache and all the accusations that will follow when this blows up in the press. The management of American Idol is indeed in a very precarious position if Adam has a contract with another record company. If Adam has been honest then there won’t be a problem. But if Adam lied or forgot about this alleged contract, then I see no reason for 19E to extend their relationship with someone that was not truthful, because it will hurt their reputation.
Also, Adam already has a recording contract with RCA and I’m sure RCA and another management firm will be able to manage him properly.
Didn’t catch in first edit — prerogative. Sorry.
Chatty Cathy tonight. LOL As far as the fanbase hurdle, every one of those kids had that same hurdle. Whether they were a Jewish Gay kid from California or a Christian Heterosexual kid from Arkansas, establishing a fanbase was a challenge for each and every one of them. Although, many of Adam’s fans seem to view his “gayness” as a disadvantage in the Idol game, his steady advancement each week proved this wrong. Viewers either loved or hated Adam Lambert’s style — his singing, as well as, presentation. My older sister loved Adam, couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do from week to week. As they say, to each his own. Of course, there will always be bigots, haters, Kris hasn’t been immuned from them either — reverse bigotry is still bigotry.
As far as Wilshire was concerned, there was more to it than Adam being openly gay and not wanting to invest money in him. The record industry has promoted and stood behind far more “outrageous” people, than a nice, well-mannered glam-goth kid who happens to be gay. JMO
In your original statement, you were making claims about sales during and post Idol. Since to me your basic premise is flawed (Rickey is a nice guy, but he runs an AI blog and doesn’t have any more access to in-season sales numbers than anyone else), projecting from post sales numbers and making conclusions about overall season totals is inherently unreliable in my view. As for whether your post Idol numbers have been calculated corrected, I have no idea. And, truthfully, I don’t care because I’ve moved on and am more excited about what both these guys, Adam and Kris – and Allison too – will do in November.
As far as your other posts go, the sense I get is that you don’t believe homophobia really exists in this country or, to the extent that it does, it’s been artificially manufactured by the media. That’s cool. To each his own, mileage varying and all that. I don’t want to get into a dog-chasing-tail kind of argument. I kinda wish I lived in your world though.
LaurelG, I never said homophobia didn’t exist. My brother-in-law is gay. I’m sure he has stories to tell. My point was that in the entertainment industry, being gay doesn’t seem to hold back talented people. There was a claim stated here that Wilshire didn’t promote Adam, work with him because he was gay. I found that statement suspect/flawed.
We could take each of those kids and point out some area that did not meet some “Middle America” criteria. This “middle America” label is pretty condescending to alot of people out there. The word “christain ” has been flung around on here with such vehemence, bordering on hate. No matter what side of the fence, it still sounds and feels the same.
What about the unwed mother?
What about the Puerto Rican kid?
What about the Indian kid from NC?
What about the young African-American woman with three small kids?
What about the divorced mother with a small child?
What about the bi-racial kid?
What about the sight-impaired kid?
What about the conservative christian guy?
In the long run, the contest came down to the two talented pretty boys. There were alot of factors that got them there. For me it was talent, personality, joy of music, kindness and class showed toward everyone…all those tangibles and intangibles.
My world is no different than your world, I just try not to raise up one while putting down another. Kris said it quite succinctly, “Why can’t everyone just get along?”
And as far as the numbers, I did make an assumption, which could not be proven with the data I had available. I apologize.
To bring this back on topic, Wilshire didn’t jump on the Adam bandwagon, now they have — it’s business.
Oh, yeah, and the media did play a huge role in this no matter how you look at it.
YMMV
Evanjane:
Being openly gay does, in fact, often make it more difficult for artists to sell in the US. The Scissor Sisters are enormous stars in Europe–not here. Mika is a huge international star, but there are tons of people here who have no idea who he is. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and there are probably major labels willing to sign openly gay people, but if you take the general difficulty of getting signed at all, no matter how talented you are, and add this on top of that, it’s difficult.
I wonder how many young artists out there in the past, knowing A.I. strict rules that you could not have a current contract, would have liked to have had the chance to get the kind of publicity only A.I. and national television can give them, to really get recognized. Maybe they werent’ selling much if anything or not getting any publicity and all they needed was exposure. Perhaps, some tried out and were accepted but later disqualified because they found out they were still signed.
There are a lot to struggling artists out there just needing exposure. I remember Carly Smithson, everyone was bashing her at the beginning as being a “professional” having had a contract with some record company, yada, yada. she was dubbed a “plant.” I think there were a couple of others people attacked also as being “professionals” or having put out singles, indies, etc. Carly sold like 1,000 albums and that’s it and her contract expired before she auditioned. Sure these people just don’t wake up one morning and decide they are going to audition for A.I. They’ve been working on their craft and all are struggling artists and broke.
What is A.I. going to do with Adam, he’s put them in a terrible position.