Absolutel no disparagement intended whatsoever for either Adam or Taylor. I think Adam is super talented’ ¦.but I do think fans tend to get carried away.

Sorry aek, I didn’t even know who started the discussion, I just couldn’t imagine why they were being compared, but I agree that fans get carried away sometimes. I think I did not really understand the gist of the debate so I will bow out of it.

Taylor danced and entertained a bit but it was mild compared to the spectacles that Adam comes up with. Also Adam has received unprecedented media attention and industry attention. It’s not just fans excited about Adam, it’s a whole lot of knowledgable people in the music industry and media.

I’m not a big Adam fan, just kinda, but I think the attention he’s getting is unprecedented and he has fewer detractors than I think Taylor, Clay, and Blake had, for instance. I really fail to see the basis for comparisons to Taylor but whatever.

I find most people on this site to be incredibly smart. So again, it shocks me to imagine Taylor and Adam receiving similar responses here.

It’s true. The last phenomenon similar to Adam I’ve seen on *this* blog was definitely Taylor. They both were going to “change the music industry.” They both were “the new Elvis.” …

The thing is, most really intense fandom is abmout who people fall in sexual love with, seems to me. (and most of it is sublimated, which makes it even stronger, lol!) People are speaking out of their own responses, and of course that doesn’t say anything one way or that other about performer’s actual commercial prospects, which depend on completely different stuff. You never know what’s going to happen. Keeps it interesting.

Ok. I am in my early 30s but I like Adam because of the star qualities I already mentioned in this site. Adam may be actually on the advantage if he has fans who are in their 40’s and above (as someone has mentioned) because these women belong to the earning class. They have money to spare for CDs and concerts.

Didn’t help Taylor.

I have a feeling that, while the young tend to have less money, they tend to spend way higher percentages of their money on stuff like music, jeans, etc. While older people spend more, but it’s on stuff like sofas, carpets, trips, mulch, SUVs, ect.

Seems like we went through a lot of this conversation back in Season 5, and when you looked at the data, it appeared that, while everybody up through their 60s was buying music, teens and 20somethings were actually buying the most.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when I read this thread yesterday I could have sworn the person that initially talked about the comparison between Adam and Taylor (was it aek?) was a big Adam fan. I thought he/she was just cautioning fans to temper their expectations a bit. So no disparagement intended, I don’t think.

Absolutel no disparagement intended whatsoever for either Adam or Taylor. I think Adam is super talented….but I do think fans tend to get carried away.

No, I don’t see the comparisons at all, except perhaps as a subtle way to try to disparage Adam and the expectations surrounding him.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when I read this thread yesterday I could have sworn the person that initially talked about the comparison between Adam and Taylor (was it aek?) was a big Adam fan. I thought he/she was just cautioning fans to temper their expectations a bit. So no disparagement intended, I don’t think.

It’s like Frank Sinatra says, if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.

PS I see someone posted sales figures for music but in terms of tour revenue potential, my feeling is it’s the US baby. Why do you think AC/DC started their latest tour with North America – they filled huge stadium after huge stadium here on the first leg so came around for a second leg to do it again.

Though all my nieces and nephews seem to be into the hip hop stuff, the nieces finally having outgrown Hillary Duff and Hannah Montana. Some new guy called Drake, a Canadian guy who is the new hot thing. But perhaps that will change in 5 years again.

Yes another blackheart here, talking about Idol last night with some friends I haven’t seen in a long time and the consensus was split on AL.

I don’t get the comparisons to Taylor in particular. Taylor danced and was entertaining, but never did he put on hug shows like Adam did, and Taylor never had the widespread media enthusiasm that Adam has generated. Taylor always had detractors among fans, viewers, and the media, especially from those who thought Daughtry should have won. Taylor never had the overall high expectations of superstardom and wild success that are predicted for Adam.

No, I don’t see the comparisons at all, except perhaps as a subtle way to try to disparage Adam and the expectations surrounding him. And when it comes to Clay, while he had fervent fans, he also had a lot of scorn in the media and from non-fans. And while there was some excitement for Blake, there was also derision about his beat-boxing and the excitement was not far-reaching.

While there was excitement for other Idols, like for David Cook, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the level of media expectation and excitement for anyone as I’m seeing for Adam. To me as a viewer, this media sensation that is Adam is unprecedented, and there is not the scorn and amusement that existed for Clay and Taylor. People really, really expect Adam to be a superstar, including many in the industry and the media, so I think this level of excitement is new to Idol and will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

I agree both are “visual performers”. Translating that visual performing talent into cd sales may or may not happen. So far Taylor has not had the massive success(at least not in cd sales) that others have had. It remains to be seen if Adam will be more successful. I believe it will depend on the label’s support. I think Taylor had a tough road because in addition to his genre of music not being currently popular, I think he was pretty adamant about his music selections. I think there was likely compromise but I believe it was likely after much head banging with TPTB(just my opinion based on what I have read over the last few years). I think if the label had fully supported Taylor and he had gotten radioplay his Cd sales would have been greater. If Adam has their support I don’t think he will have a problem.

I agree with aek- lots of similarities between Taylor and Adam post AI discussion on MJ’s.

I also agree that Taylor puts on one incredible live show(I have been to more than I should admit to) and if you get a chance go see him live(the tickets aren’t terribly expensive these days). And if you haven’t seen him live I don’t think you can imagine how good he might be.

I like to hope I am an intelligent Taylor fan. If we measure it in education I’ve got my MBA and my CPA. Should we compare ACT scores?

Taylor actually was pretty strategic in his song choices. He would be fun Taylor one week to appease those fans and then serious Taylor the next week to keep those fans.

Actually, that performance of PTFMWB was even more strategic. That was Top 5 night when AI shows normally (when the judges don’t hog all the time) goes to 2 performances a night. He did PTFMWB for the fans that liked dancing-monkey Taylor and “Something” (by the Beatles”) for his second number to appeal to those who loved him singing ballads. He would continue to follow this approach until he won. He treated his two performances as a mini-concert and I’m not sure you can properly evaluate what he was doing without looking at both of them.

This is one of the things I hated this year. Normally, by the time you get to Top 5, the Idols get more freedom. Matt commented that the reason he threw his falsetto and riffs into every song is that he only got one chance to impress each week. Imagine if he got two songs. He could have left the riffs/falsetto out of one song. Adam could have done one ballad, one OTT performance. Kris would have played every instrument in the orchestra. LOL. Anyway.

GlamGirlLee I thought he tripped and was having a seizure at the end.

LMAO at that one!! It is really odd, isn’t it. Somehow even though I watched every minute of AI5, I really had forgotten about Taylor’s stange preformances. No wonder Simon didn’t take him seriously.

AI5 was a strange season for me — my favs wents out #3 Elliott Yamin and #4 Daughtry — so I really didn’t care who won at all. And I still watched.

At least this year, my 3 — Kradison — took #1, #2 and #4. Very cool.

aek: And yes, intelligent people like Taylor, too.

I agree and like Taylor too. So, hopefully I am one of the intelligent people. : )
And I also agree Taylor is really very good in concert — particurly his acoustic concert tour was good.

Thanks, Q3, for the reference to Taylor’s version of PTFMWB. What was that weird thing he (Taylor) was wearing? Did he just come from ROTC training? I thought he tripped and was having a seizure at the end. Having said that, if I saw someone do Taylor-like antics at a party, I would have thought he was a hoot.

Taylor actually was pretty strategic in his song choices. He would be fun Taylor one week to appease those fans and then serious Taylor the next week to keep those fans.

Perhaps even the frump was strategic…I remember Taylor once said that one of the AI vocal coaches once said to him when he was munching on the food they have out for the idols, “You better watch it, you’re getting a belly.” And he replied, “Middle America loves my belly, I’ll lose weight once the show is over.” And he did. lol.

I don’t think RCA will let Adam make the album that he wants to make, at least not for his first album, and that it will probably be more pop heavy than he wants it to be, which will be different from Taylor, who stuck with the style that he likes.

I didn’t get the sense Adam doesn’t want pop-heavy in his first album. In fact, I pegged him to try to do predominently dance-pop-rock for debut album with some fusion flavors. His pre-idol (non Citizen Vein stuff) recording demos were all pop unless I missed some other jewel, in which case I have to go hunt them down. :tongue1_tb:

Didn’t he say he picked the older songs because they showcased his vocals better? Throughout the whole competition he was more focused on setting himself apart from the rest and getting the exposure, showing what is capable of doing instead of specifically what he will be doing. I don’t think pop-dance songs would have cut it in a “singing” competition – although how much of a singing competition AI really is debatable. First of all, old fart Simon would have torn him to shreds. Apparently, the older songs with bigger vocals strategy worked since producers like RedOne sought him out.

IDK, but speculating is fun anyway. :cool1_tb:

I agree with babybell32 that Taylor is not similar to either Kris or Adam. They sound so different, but I disagree on that visually Taylor and Adam are similar. Except for the fact that they both like to work the audience, at least the visual effects are drastically different. Tayor spells frump, fun but nevertheless frump, to me. Adam is edgy, Kris, clean-cut GQ, short GQ.

Now, I am going to listen to Ain’t No Sunshine…

agree with you that Taylor has very little in common with Kris or Adam. My point was simply that saying Taylor = Adam because they both are ‘entertainers’  is the same as saying Taylor = Kris because the both play acoustic guitar. A superficial comparison.

I never said that Taylor equals Adam, or the other way around. I said they have very little in common besides being performers/entertainers, and that neither of them can translate that to a cd or to the radio. Which is one thing that hurt Taylor, besides not getting played on the radio.

I also said that like Taylor, Adam is interested in a style that’s not being currently played on the radio, at least that’s my impression based on how he describes his sound. Of course I don’t know what his sound will be, since he hasn’t even produced the album yet. I also said that I don’t think RCA will let Adam make the album that he wants to make, at least not for his first album, and that it will probably be more pop heavy than he wants it to be, which will be different from Taylor, who stuck with the style that he likes.

None of that, IMO, reads that Taylor equals Adam.

babybelle32: Opinions may vary, but I don’t think Taylor is similar to either Kris or Adam in terms of their music. Unlike Taylor, Kris’ style is very commercial and currently what’s being played on the radio, that’s a huge difference. It’s also something that makes Taylor have more in common with Adam than with Kris. The type of record that Adam says he wants to make, and frankly I don’t think RCA will let him make it, is not currently what’s being heard on the radio. But, that still doesn’t change the fact that the two sound nothing alike. Playing an instrument doesn’t mean that you sound like someone else who plays an instrument, so I don’t even know how that comes into play.

Yes, I guess we will never agree on everything, but I agree with a lot of what you wrote.

I agree with you that Taylor has very little in common with Kris or Adam. My point was simply that saying Taylor = Adam because they both are “entertainers” is the same as saying Taylor = Kris because the both play acoustic guitar. A superficial comparison.

I also agree with you that Kris is more contemporary than Taylor, and Kris has more commercial potential. He reminds me of James Morrison (a compliment). I think that 19/Jive will push Kris more toward the commercial pop space but I hope they leave Kris be Kris.

But I don’t agree that because Adam want to make music that has a distinctive style, he wants to produce an album filled with music that is “not currently what’s being heard on the radio”. He has consistently talked about doing a multi-genre album, with electronica-dance, pop-rock, hip hop fusion — and the radio is filled with that. Adam’s also working with producers and writers who currently have hits on the pop charts in the US, Europe and Asia — and they are the people who were on his list — not RCA’s list.

Very little is certain — but I know one thing — we’ll get all the answers in the Fall. Till then I guess it is fun to speculate.

I agree that Adam and Taylor both are performers/entertainers and both did some classic rock on Idol. But I can’t picture Adam ever playing the harmonica and I can’t imagine Taylor doing a credible performance of ‘Tracks of My Tears’ , a cover of Dilana’s ‘Ring of Fire, or Gary Jules’ Mad World.

I actually can see Taylor doing a good cover of these three songs. It wouldn’t be anything like Adam’s, but I could see him reworking those to fit his own style. The Aerosmith and singing with Queen…not so much. But then again, Taylor shared the stage with Snoop Dogg, so who knows? lol.

I couldn’t get all of the links to work, but I did listen to Taylor’s Ain’t No Sunshine…I enjoyed it. The sound quality is not that good because I think it’s from a live pre idol performance in a bar, but it does show a side of Taylor that people didn’t see on Idol. Thanks.

Valentin432: There is a ton of money to make outside of the US, it’s just tougher because these are entire different countries with their own culture, values’ ¦.

I don’t think there are any easy markets in the world, The US market is big, but it is also very complex and fragmented. The top two selling US genres are Country and Hip Hop/Urban — might as well be two different countries because I can’t think of any cross-over acts.

Europe has a population of over 800 million. It should be a bigger market. Music sales should be almost three times as big, but they’re not.

Actual per capita music spending in the US and Western Europe is about the same. (Almost all of the legal European music sales are from EU countries with a population of just under 500 million. And legal sales of music are almost non-existant in Russia and most of Eastern Europe.)

Simiilarly, most of the legal (measured) music sales in Asia come from Japan, Korea, Signapore and a handful of other countries.

China is growing but most experts believe that over 95% of Chinese physical music sales are of pirated material and almost no legal downloads are sold there. It’s so bad there that many popular Chinese artists use CD as promo materials and make their money from concerts and merchandise sales.

Finally, I think as the conversion from physical media to digital continues, the world may end up looking more like the Chinese market — artists making their money from concerts and merchandise.

Implying that artists aren’t successfull until they have sold in the US and that you couldn’t earn a lot of money without being popular here.
IMO it’s completely false and there are a lot of artists who are happy to sell in their own country and are fairly wealthy.

I don’t think I implied that artists aren’t successful unless they make it in the US, if I did, I didn’t mean to. What I did say is that by the estimates that I have seen, the people in this country spend more money on entertainment than any other country, and that’s why so many artists from other countries try to break into the market in this country. In fact, I stressed the fact that it is about the money, and not about trying to become a credible artist.

I actually think Taylor has more in common with Kris. Except that Taylor actually got the majority of press and buzz when he won, and Kris did not. In Taylor’s acoustic concerts, he does really stripped down, clean versions of songs and plays a lot of instuments.

Opinions may vary, but I don’t think Taylor is similar to either Kris or Adam in terms of their music. Unlike Taylor, Kris’ style is very commercial and currently what’s being played on the radio, that’s a huge difference. It’s also something that makes Taylor have more in common with Adam than with Kris. The type of record that Adam says he wants to make, and frankly I don’t think RCA will let him make it, is not currently what’s being heard on the radio. But, that still doesn’t change the fact that the two sound nothing alike. Playing an instrument doesn’t mean that you sound like someone else who plays an instrument, so I don’t even know how that comes into play.

I never compared Adam and Taylor’s musical genres or even the sound of their voices, I did point out one of the things that they have in common that people like, and that’s there visual style, unfortunately for them, that visual style can’t be translated via a cd or the radio.

There is a demographic component that is very important for any voting show and AI clearly favorize one type of contestant that Kris matches perfectly.

Maybe demographics played a part in Kris’s win. IDK. Who does? However, there is one thing that cannot be denied re: the win. Every. other. year. a big voice has won. This has been the bottom line for AI. This yr. it finally changed and I think that’s a pretty big deal.

I think he (Adam) is very talented. As a daily reader on this blog in the days and months after Season 5, if you could go back now and read many of the posts regarding Taylor, you’d be surprised at the similarities about what is being said about Adam.

Adam and Taylor are two different people, but I think one way in which they are similar is that both are more performers/entertainers and not just singers.

I agree that Adam and Taylor both are performers/entertainers and both did some classic rock on Idol. But I can’t picture Adam ever playing the harmonica and I can’t imagine Taylor doing a credible performance of “Tracks of My Tears”, a cover of Dilana’s “Ring of Fire, or Gary Jules’ Mad World. And I really can’t imagine Taylor singing WLL or Aerosmith’s “Crying” — or sincing with Queen.

Adam and Taylor both performed “Play That Funky Music White Boy” on Idol. The preformances and style are very different. (Note: this is one of my least fav Adam performance and a song I hate.)

Here’s Taylor’s version of PTFMWB:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uzD–noRE8

And Adam’s:

http://fr.truveo.com/Adam-Lambert-‘Play-That-Funky-Music-White/id/3122110998

I actually think Taylor has more in common with Kris. Except that Taylor actually got the majority of press and buzz when he won, and Kris did not. In Taylor’s acoustic concerts, he does really stripped down, clean versions of songs and plays a lot of instuments. Taylor does a very nice acoustic version of “Ain’t No Sunshine”. All I could find was a bad video of a live performance, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rMIOAf30k

And here’s Kris’ (IMO) better version of the same song:

Robbie Williams is a good example, because he has been trying really hard to break into the industry here. If he can make more money outside of the US, why is he acting like the US market is the pinnacle. The same goes for groups like the Sugar Babes, who have been the best selling female group worldwide over the past decade or so, but I’m not sure their sales compare to the top groups here, and they are continuously treated like they haven’t made it unless they make it here.

They try to do it because the US is a huge country that represents a quarter of the total music market.

My point was that you said that:

the US is where the money is, that’s why so many acts from other countries try to make it here

Implying that artists aren’t successfull until they have sold in the US and that you couldn’t earn a lot of money without being popular here.
IMO it’s completely false and there are a lot of artists who are happy to sell in their own country and are fairly wealthy.
It would be like me saying that Carrie Underwood isn’t a successfull artist because she has 0 international appeal.

Here comes MissAnalia:

MissAnaliaAllison sang So What, Cry Baby and Barracuda! I was in tears with Cry Baby! She’s amazing!!!
half a minute ago from TwitterFon

MissAnaliaDanny don’t know first, second Maria Maria and Wish
half a minute ago from TwitterFon

MissAnaliaAdam open with Whole Gotta Love, Starlight, Mad World, Slow Ride with Allison and Bowie set.
less than 5 seconds ago from TwitterFon

when asked about slow ride:
MissAnalia: More amazing than in the show! They were so happy and enjoy it!

Kris open with Heartless, No Bonderies, Match 20 song, ain’t no sunshine and Hey Jude!
less than 10 seconds ago from TwitterFon

MissAnaliaAt the end all together Dont stop believing! Bubbles at the end! :0)
less than 10 seconds ago from TwitterFon

ETA:
MissAnaliaFour songs PYT, Maria Maria, What hurst the most and Wish RT @whatever0569: @MissAnalia Danny is only singing 3 songs?
5 minutes ago from TwitterFon

MissAnaliaThe Top 10 yes, Dont stop believing at the end! RT @JosyLoosBR: @MissAnalia hummm just one group song?
7 minutes ago from TwitterFon

sAnaliaLike five minutes RT @MissGolightly22: @MissAnalia Hey! How long was the Bowie set? Time estimate in minutes?
10 minutes ago from TwitterFon