Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Image by asterix611 via Flickr

Whitney Houston has been making the headlines for her triumphs as well as for nearly drop kicking her comeback efforts with a less than stellar performance on Good Morning America.  Oh yeah and then there’s I Look to You, her first new album of original material since 2002’s Just Whitney.

I Look to You has so far garnered generally positive reviews but many reviewers have singled out one notable aspect: rarely does Whitney actually address the ups and downs that caused her image and career to nosedive.  In the end, we’re left with a satisfying and certainly welcoming comeback that does little to shed any new light on Whitney Houston aside from hearing her now slightly huskier voice again.

These reviews got me thinking of Britney Spears.  Britney has built a successful career out of using her sex appeal, dance moves and the right team of producers to craft appealing pop music.  And still, we have yet to know anything about Britney except for her public meltdowns and that one heartbreaking moment when she broke down in tears and admitted she was “sad” in her “Britney: For the Record” documentary.

Madonna once told Britney “I’d rather see you bare your soul” (see: “Me Against the Music”) but even now after the release of Circus,  we don’t know very much about Britney Spears except for the all the names people use to refer to her as she stated on “Piece of Me’”.

Being a confessional singer/musician doesn’t necessarily have to translate into a sacrifice of album sales.  Madonna proved this when she released the deeply personal Ray of Light album back in 1998.  Tori Amos may not appear on the radio nor achieve major sales figures anymore but most people will agree that her songs like “Me and a Gun” are amazing pieces of music.  Below is the video for Madonna’s “Drowned World / Substitute for Love” video which was not released here in the states.

Perhaps the current pop music landscape simply doesn’t allow music artists to say how they really feel.  After all, Kelly Clarkson tried it and nobody cared.  Mariah Carey may not necessarily fall under the category of pop music but I question why a woman who’s now pushing forty can’t release something a bit more mature than a song where she feels the need to attack Eminem (see: “Obsessed”).  Did she forget about the tremendous success she enjoyed with “We Belong Together”?

I can thoroughly enjoy a frothy pop song as much as the next person but is getting personal in pop music a surefire way of obliterating any remote chance of getting radio airplay?  I always thought that music was at least partially about discovering songs that you can identify with and often reflect your own life experiences.

I used to be one of those people who purchased an album after listening to a single tune, particularly when I was young. I’d say about six or seven out of ten times whenever I did this there was, as usual, the one hit tune and the rest would be mostly filler.

Times have changed and I’m older and most of the music I purchase comes from money I work to earn which means I need to be much more selective about who I choose to support. Then again, artists can’t really get away with releasing an album full of subpar material and just one really good tune, especially when major labels sometimes have to settle with an album selling less than 500,000 copies and achieving gold status.

Today I went on a shopping excursion intending to purchase computer peripherals when I started browsing the shelves of the store that has a red circular logo. Most of the time they have reduced items temporarily on sale, which varies between albums nobody bought to surprising gems, such as when I found Coldplay’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends there, which I immediately purchased.

Let me stop for a second by making a contradictory statement: I purchased Coldplay’s latest after listening to “Viva la Vida”. I suppose I did perhaps listen to the free “Violet Hills” tune they were giving away but it was “Viva la Vida” that made me want to purchase the album. The thing about Coldplay however is that they’re one of those established bands where you almost know for a fact that whatever material they decide to release is going to be nothing less than excellent. That is unless you decide to go and do something crazy like Garth Brooks and his questionable “Garth Brooks in….The Life of Chris Gaines” stunt back in 1999.

It’s also worth noting that when I happened to spot Coldplay on sale I was already very well aware of the heaps of critical acclaim the album had received, which also swayed my purchasing decision beyond the temporarily more affordable price of course.

Critical reviews and accolades have also influenced me to purchase an album on a whim as I did so today during this aforementioned shopping excursion. Last night I was reading my May issue of Blender. Every issue they focus on an up and coming artist that happens to be the latest…”musical act of the month”.

May’s issue of Blender focused on Santogold Santigold, an artist that sounded vaguely familiar. Apparently Santigold is something of a slightly easier to digest version of M.I.A., an artist who I also discovered through Blender and is finally (and thankfully) getting the popular recognition she deserved way back when she first released Piracy Funds Terrorism mixtape. After reading that Santigold received Bjork’s seal of approval I figured I’d keep a lookout in case I ever came across her self-titled album which consequently I did and purchased without knowing at all what it sounded like.

Santigold was among four other albums I ended up purchasing on sale, the other ones being Nine Inch Nails – The Slip (copy number 93,485), Sarah Brightman – Symphony, the deluxe version of Maroon 5 – It Won’t Be Soon Before Long and We Started Nothing from The Ting Tings. In the Ting Tings’ case, I heard a remix of “That’s Not My Name” I downloaded for free from Zune Marketplace and I found it a little too catchy.

So ten bucks was all it took to make me renege on my decision not to purchase an album based on a single tune or in Santigold’s case any tune but for that price I figured it was worth helping out some musicians who could use what little royalties they get from album sales these days.

What does it take for you to make an album purchase? The one catchy tune and word of mouth or professionally written accolades from people who “know” what music is all about? I have yet to listen to Santigold nor do I have any clue what The Ting Tings sound like beyond “That’s Not My Name” but if the money is there and the music sounds good, why not help someone trying to make a living by doing what they love?

I’m almost certain I’ve mentioned it before but for purposes of the topic at hand, I’ll reiterate that my listening to popular radio these days is limited. The varieties of tunes that were played back in the day has now been reduced to a few tunes played every fifteen minutes that sound just like everything else that’s out there.

To further solidify the fact that radio caters strictly to the “manufactured song du jour”, I was reading Billboard’s weekly song reviews and confirmed what I had already known for some time. Janet Jackson’s “Can’t B Good” was, among others, one of the songs being reviewed. It should be noted that this is Ms. Jackson’s fourth release from her “Discipline” album.

Now I will say that I took issue with Janet’s choice to ramp up the raunch ever since she split from her longtime secret husband Rene Elizondo and some of her output sounded like it catered heavily towards trying to grab the attention of popular radio. In fact, I didn’t find a single tune I liked off of “20 Y.O.“, the only thing that grabbed my interest was the creative contest that was held which allowed fans to create cover art using old photos of Janet.

Normally I end up liking the first singles Janet releases to radio off of the albums she’s about to promote so I was pleasantly surprised when I heard “Feedback” and liked it. True, it wasn’t anything groundbreaking but it was definitely creative and incredibly catchy so I figured its inclusion–and Janet’s long overdue return to pop radio–would only be a matter of time.

Well, it turns out neither “Feedback” nor the following singles (“Rock With U” and “Luv”) made a blip and while I’m on her side in hoping the same fate doesn’t await this latest single, I don’t see it happening.

As such, it’s a situation that’s affected numerous artists. Madonna’s second single “Give it 2 Me” off of “Hard Candy” is not getting any airplay although she at least has the luxury of having “4 Minutes” being played every now and then on radio.

But what did Madonna have to do? She made an album that practically screams “I’m trying to court popular radio listeners”, not that I find any less entertaining mind you.

Has anyone heard any new tunes from Alanis Morissette since “Uninvited”? Heck, does anyone know she recently released her album post Ryan Reynolds breakup album “Flavors of Entanglement“? Did Tracy Chapman or Fiona Apple receive any sort of airplay after “Give Me One Reason” and “Criminal”, respectively? Is anyone aware Kylie Minogue released her album “X here in the states to zero fanfare? When was the last Bjork got any kind of radio recognition. True her music is a bit out there for some but she is quite talented, although in her case she doesn’t survive based on chart figures. This is all due at least partially because popular radio is too preoccupied playing gimmicky drivel like Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl”.

I’ll be the first one to admit that I enjoy manufactured pop music with no artistic merit but I think some of these artists that have musical chops and can write their own lyrics and in some cases music also deserve the time of day. Instead they choose to release albums that are squarely aimed at trying to get some radio airplay.

I do know that these days labels are very critical with album sales and it’s tougher for the average artist to ship enough units in order to achieve gold status and nearly impossible to go platinum which often leads to a speedy pink slip from the label. Then again if the artist is focused squarely on sales, they’re probably not in the business for the right reasons in my opinion.

Madonna is no longer associated with the traditional label ever since she signed that major multimillion dollar deal with Live Nation so I can’t yet say how much sales will factor into her future album sales. Speaking of which, Shakira is also in talks to ink a similar deal, albeit not one with as many zeros at the end. I’m sure Island Records will keep Janet around for the next go ’round or who knows, she might also deflect to Live Nation.

The old adage says “diversity is the spice of life” and radio supposedly plays music that’s “hot” so why am I being force fed junk that sounds like the same thing I heard before?