Kelly was done recording by Oct. 24. The album was originally supposed to be released in November. However the due date was pushed back and the mixing took a bit longer as Kelly wanted to get it right by not rushing it.

She’s still on the Billboard top 200 at number 75. And more so, no artists is selling very much right now as the industry is in a slump. The number 1 spot for this week was a debut and only sold a little over 100,000. Kelly sold over 200,000 in her AIW debut. She’s right on track with everyone else. Jordin Sparks debut this week only sold 48,000. Kelly sold more than that in her 3rd week. And she hasn’t been steadily falling either. She’s remained around that number for the past few months. There have so far only been 1 or 2 albums reach the million mark this year.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/07/29/clarksons-producer-i-would-never-dupe-kelly/

“Already Gone” is one of the best song I’ve written or produced since “Bleeding Love” and stands tall on it’s own merits apart from “Halo”.

I challenge people to listen and form their own opinions.”

Hmm. I’m not following the numbers closely, but the new record has sold around 600,000 after 3 months out, and the first two singles did about 2.5 million combined, IIR (just over gold for Hook, 2x platinum for Suck? And both made the Top40 top 10. The videos got good play. Already Gone is wait and see.

She’s only selling about 6,000 albums a week now (and steadily falling). At that rate it will take her until Christmas to hit 700,000.

Come on! This is Kelly Freaking Clarkson we’re talking about. The last album I understand was a special case, so she gets a pass for its results. But, this record was supposed to be her Britney-like comeback, when she like the phoenix rose from the ashes. It’s been promoted out the wazoo, and it still is highly unlikely to even get close to platinum.

Try to spin it any way you want, but for a star of Kelly Clarkson’s (former) wattage, this is a massive letdown. It shows her star has been eclipsed by new, up-and-coming ladies of pop. She’s just another name in the crowded landscape of pop music, and that name will have even less lustre two years (or whenever) down the road when she puts out her next record.

I don’t know how any of this is Kelly’s fault, beyond her “daring” to speak up about it now that the label has made the decision to make AG her next single. Maybe if more artists spoke up about things like this instead of submitting to their labels then we’d have less crappy corporate-driven music. I mean, sure every song Stargate made sounded the same, and I guess it was good for the labels that could save money and effort by churning out those songs and reaping the profit, but that wasn’t a good thing for the state of music, was it?

Update: A rep for Kelly’s label tells us, “Kelly Clarkson is a valued member of the RCA Records family, we are very proud of her album “All I Ever Wanted” and happily continue to promote the record and support Kelly and her music.

MJ – I know Kelly said this but it’s not ringing true for me. Beyonce’s album came out in November. In December Kelly blogged that her album was still in the mixing stages so it’s not possible that it had already gone to print. I guess it’s possible Kelly didn’t hear Halo but it was certainly out there before her album went to print.

Kelly said she didn’t hear the song until after her album went to print. I think it’s quite possible that she’s not one to keep up with every album that gets released–even by her so-called competition. She was a pretty busy gal at the time.

Hmm. I’m not following the numbers closely, but the new record has sold around 600,000 after 3 months out, and the first two singles did about 2.5 million combined, IIR (just over gold for Hook, 2x platinum for Suck? And both made the Top40 top 10. The videos got good play. Already Gone is wait and see.

And even the much-maligned My December has been certified platinum in three countries (including the U.S.) and gold in two more. And the dissed single Never Again has sold 991,000 digital downloads And people don’t exactly seem to hate it (although, to be fair, I suppose it’s getting positive reviews from a somewhat different group of people than those who loved her other albums more, but is that really so bad?) For example, “The album scored 64/100 on MetaCritic — a site that sort of takes the average of critical reviews to come up with a score — indicating generally positive reviews. The score is on par with her previous albums, including Thankful, that scored 62/100.” (all according to Wikipedia.)

Not to say that she is very diplomatic. She’s not. But I don’t really see that this stuff makes her a has-been with no taste or sense of what she’s doing who ought to just shut up and do everything she’s told because she’s already passed her prime and has put out a series of crap albums, which seems to be where some of the conversation about the current flap is heading.

On Tedder — I completely understand why you’d figure it’s fine to repeat yourself in the very repeat-heavy pop music world. But what I don’t understand is why, as a person who’s brought in to do contract work with somebody else, you wouldn’t think you needed to tell those “cowriters” that you were, in fact, starting off the writing session with the exact same track that you’d used with somebody else. … Well, I do understand — you’d figure that chances are high they’d refuse to work with that track! But maybe that ought to tell you something. Tweak it a little more before you use it for a second time, for god’s sake.

I’m unclear how the subject came up in that Canadian interview in the first place. Did Kelly spontaneously call attention to it, or did the interviewer point it out?

Very good question. The matter was given its own sidebar in the article, with no context, separate and disconnected from the rest of the interview. I wondered when I first read it if perhaps she thought it was “off the record” when she was talking about it. But she has since made a reference to it in a backstage video she made at the David Letterman show, so she doesn’t seem to regret talking about it. I too would love to know what exactly prompted her to discuss it with the CBC interviewer.

It seems to me by the accounts given, that Kelly heard Beyonce’s ‘Halo’ and recognized the extreme similarity – same song, same composer, different lyrics. Kelly tried to head it off at the pass before the comparisons were made by media and fans.

Should she have been concerned that people might accuse her of ripping off Beyonce? I think yes. Kelly came into the spotlight from a TV show that is all about doing covers of successful mainstream artists and finding the next ‘fill in the blank’ hitmaker.

I’m unclear how the subject came up in that Canadian interview in the first place. Did Kelly spontaneously call attention to it, or did the interviewer point it out?

Could Kelly have handled the media aspect differently or better. Probably. Do I respect her integrity? Yes.

Hmm. I’m not following the numbers closely, but the new record has sold around 600,000 after 3 months out, and the first two singles did about 2.5 million combined, IIR (just over gold for Hook, 2x platinum for Suck? And both made the Top40 top 10. The videos got good play. Already Gone is wait and see.

It seems on Idol boards the conversation always comes back to the legendary “disappointment factor” that supposedly afflicts the music industry. If the label just cares about money (no emotional factor), then this album is already a good investment for them, bringing in some solid dollars in a period of historic market lows and hitting a lot of ears.

If there is some sort of personality/emotional/brand/control war going on where RCA or her management really can’t get over that she’s not repeating her all time peak sales, I suppose it’s possible they’d get alienated, I guess? Otherwise, this doesn’t make much sense as a description of an attitude that business people would have. Ten million bucks or so in sales (even assuming, somewhat illogically, that she didn’t sell more off this album) plus tour revenue is good eatin’ at a time when the majority of records produced are losing money.

If RCA is that emotionally fragile about it, then some other label would presumably not pass .

My December is the only Kelly album that I actually own, and I know other people for whom that’s also true. I would be a lot less interested in her today if she hadn’t made *that* album . .

That is an interesting point.

It’s not like pop artists who have a huge album generally are easily able to keep repeating that success time after time. There’s often a decline in numbers over time. I’m not sure that if Kelly did exactly what the label seems to expect –turn out copies of either past hits (based on Since U Been Gone) or other current pop hits (all things Tedder), how exactly that would lead to a repeat of “Breakaway” sales.

Kelly does seem like someone with strong opinions and a streak of rashness, but I think her struggle to remain interesting and invested in her music makes at least as much sense as the label’s push to repeat past formulas.

And of course, I’m primarily a music listener, not a stockholder of RCA. It is funny the Stockholm syndrome that gets a few Idol addicts to identify more closely with the viewpoints of massive international conglomerates and wealthy executives more then . . . what songs they enjoy hearing, or that a human might want to sing.

Keel
Jul 29th, 2009 at 2:54 am
As a casual Kelly fan who doesn’t follow her every move, I’ve got to say that all this, coupled with the stuff that’s happened before with My December and the air-brushing stuff, etc. , gives the impression that Kelly’s a bit of a drama queen. I mean even if you start out being on her side on the Clive/My December crappola, at some point it gets tiresome having to listen to the poor little rich pop princess complaining about how her label keeps mistreating her. As someone above said, it’s pop music, not high art. Yet every time I hear about her in the news, it’s all about how she’s fighting for her music against the big bad record label. She’s like the victimest victim that’s ever been victim’d. Are we still expected to fist-pump and yell, you go Kelly every.single.time this happens? It’s starting to feel kind of manipulative frankly.

Pop music is just as artistic as any other form of music and should not be dimissed. I sincerely hope that you are trying to be “ironic” with your statement about Kelly being the “victimest victim that’s ever been victim’d”. Kelly was not biting the hand that feeds her, she was fighting for control of her music, her image, her art. Essentially that tool Clive Davis was forcing her to stand up and perform these songs, be the face of music that she did not believe in. Then when Kelly stood up for herself, what does Clive do? He does what every power hungry controller does, he single handedly killed the project. Never Again was doing ok and moving up the charts until the controversy about the My December album came out, and Clive in his bitter anger pretty much stated that the album is dark, it contained no radio hits, yada yada yada…thus, radio did not feel compelled to play the singles from the album. The fact that “Sober” was not a huge hit is a crime.

MJ – I know Kelly said this but it’s not ringing true for me. Beyonce’s album came out in November. In December Kelly blogged that her album was still in the mixing stages so it’s not possible that it had already gone to print. I guess it’s possible Kelly didn’t hear Halo but it was certainly out there before her album went to print.

http://iamkelly.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/happy-holidays/

“anyway, just waiting for all the songs for the new album to be mixed and mastered. it’s pretty much taking forever but i want it done right so i’m not gonna rush them ‘ ¦.too much”

According to her blog she was done recording by October 24th so that is before Beyonce’s album came out but Kelly’s album definitely went to print after Beyonce’s album came out.

Then why didn’t she fight to keep it off the album, though? As an artist, you know any song that makes your record could potentially be sent to radio.

Didn’t she say that the album was already being printed when she found out, and that it was too late?

On My December — I didn’t know the thing about the single not testing well (of course, I’m a little skeptical about how much “testing well” means — Elliott’s recent single tested *extremely* well and got a couple of the most major pre-radio-play plaudits that any song can get — and yet nobody played it! So it wouldn’t surprise me — in fact, I know it’s sometime true — that a single that tests well is not played because of lack of major-label backing, while singles that test relatively badly *get* radio play because of the same backing. How do we know whether any given single is being dropped because of the testing or because of lack of label support? Especially when Clive is the one intervening …)

But I guess the thing for me is: Why does every album somebody makes *have* to be a big pop-radio hit and pop-radio-friendly all over the place just to be acceptable? Hadn’t she already made quite a bit of money for them with her previous albums? When you’ve already done that, why aren’t you allowed to make a different kind of album once in a while that may not get a lot of top-40 play and may sell less but that, in fact, pulls in another kind of fan? My December is the only Kelly album that I actually own, and I know other people for whom that’s also true. I would be a lot less interested in her today if she hadn’t made *that* album, so it’s not as if her making it was a complete waste.

Well, I’m not sure I think it’s *this* good ‘” but I agree that it’s a darned good album. And, in fact, wasn’t a single doing pretty well until Clive decided to step in and trash Kelly over the album? Seems to me that was the history. So we don’t actually even know how well it could have done had the label actually supporting it instead of dissing it and tossing it aside because it wasn’t the exact same thing as they’d had success with before. That’s why Clive tried to kill the album and certainly succeeded in stopping *some* momentum

I completely agree. And Clive didn’t kill some of the momentum, he killed nearly all of it. What was that, an ego explosion? Because no matter how many times I look back at it, I don’t see how it benefited the label at all, not to mention Kelly.

I don’t think Kelly’s a drama queen at all. She’s honest and a bit headstrong. I see her as conflicted, because she cares about her artisty but at the same time can’t quite let go of her pop success. But IMO it’s time of her to find another label that can help her reconcile both and be supportive and respectful of her.

Oh, the deliciousness of it all!

Hey, Ryan! Even a tone-deaf ninja turtle can hear the “similarities.” So, nice try, eh?

#2 As for Kelly looking “disinterested”. I don’t get that from her. I do get that she gives 100% in all he performances IN SPITE of Backhanded support from her label. They support the commerical product, and NOT Kelly. So it is easy to see why Kelly would feel the way she does. *IF* she did feel disinterested, thank RCA.

#3 It is clear, and has been clear since she wanted to release My December as is, that the label would punish her. Kelly’s dispute helped her image, but she lost the war because without support from the label, and the backhanded deals major labels make with radio, you see the results, a very good album that underperformed sales wise. Had RCA just shut up and let her release the album without putting the whammy on it by driving home the point that there were no commerical hits on it, it would have done better. If the label publically states there are no strong radio hits on it why would radio programmers bother to play it? They have their excuse created for them.

In this instance, Kelly had every right to voice her concern, RCA, Beyone and Tedder would receive little of the harsh criticism, but Kelly would be lit on fire if and when the press started putting it all together. She was correct, people would question her artistic integrity, which would diminish her hard work.

So, speak your mind Kelly. As much as RCA has helped you, they’ve also backed the bus over you more times than necessary.

Kelly needs to embrace being a pop star or go indie. The whole “I want credibility but I’m willing to trade that in for radio hits” yet then complain about it is really wearing thin.

Then why didn’t she fight to keep it off the album, though? As an artist, you know any song that makes your record could potentially be sent to radio.

Kelly didn’t hear “Halo” until after her album went to print. It was too late, then to have it removed. She loved the song. But at the time she recorded it for her album, she thought it was unique.

This little “spat” should never have left the boardroom at RCA..never ever. Kelly is doing a disservice to her label, the people that have supported her, Beyonce, Ryan Tedder, and the music buying public. No matter what she thinks or feels the issue is, it shouldn’t be for public consumption.

I agree Halo and Kelly’s song sound very much alike to my untrained ears. But then I think that many of Tedder’s songs are very very similar. But for the general public to pull out every one of his songs and to “find” some other song that he, according to them, obviously plagerized is a journey into futility. I am sure that someone with a damn good ear could take a dozen songs off of the top 40 and find music from the past that resembles it. My trivia laden brain is so full of music from the last 50 years that if I were to write a song I am sure that I would unintentionally steal a sound from another song.

I listen to so many albums where the songs contained on the CD are eerily similar to each other. We have all experienced that.

As I have said before, Kelly needs to take her millions, buy out her contract and go on hiatus for a bit until she figures out who Kelly is and who Kelly wants to be. She is no longer the pop princess “queen” and she looks and acts very disinterested, IMHO, when she is singing a lot of her current stuff. I am sure she can stay in the top tier of the business, but only if she finds something that will suit her persona…until then she is walking a very slippery slope. My advice to Kelly is to keep her mouth shut…she continually tries to divert blame and she just cries “wolf” to often these days.

I disagree. For better and worse Kelly is denting pop culture consciousness as the girl who keeps thumbing her nose at her label.

And nobody cares. Seriously, I’m not being flip. But, Kelly may be impressing her fans with her gumption, but the music-buying/ music-listening public honestly doesn’t give a crap about her career dramas. Especially, if her music isn’t out there to be mass-consumed, which soon it won’t be, if she continues on her current track….

Perez is full of shit.