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You can slice it any way you want but what should have been
multi Platinum CD for Kat, was a flop. Why or how did this happen? This is only my opinion and there are few facts to back it up but I think you'll agree, it seems logical.Here are my
thoughts on that and a few other things gone awry.
You know things weren’t for going to well for Katharine when
Kellie Pickler, 6th place finishing Country singer, is outselling
her almost 2 to 1. Kellie did get a head start on Kat and she does have her
second video out already, but at this stage Katharine should be so far ahead of
Kellie, she’d need GPS to find her.
What went wrong? Well this, I believe, is what went wrong.
Contrary to popular belief, the artist has a massive amount of decision in what
goes on their CD when RCA signs them. The winner does not have quite as much
freedom, but the rest do. This season a record 4 Idols were signed by 19/RCA; Taylor of course, Kat,
Chris, and Kellie. In what should have been a route for Kat, she is dragging
the bottom.
From what I read, Clive had Kat listen to numerous ballads
for her CD. But after listening and listening, she decided to go a totally
different direction; R&B. R&B? Never mind that she never showed a hint
of this on the show. Most of her fans, count me as one, were anticipating “Over
the Rainbow” and got “Open Toes”.
Now before I go any further let me state for the record, at
first I did not like this CD at all save a couple songs. But I felt obligated
as a hard core fan to give it a chance. And the more I listened the more I
liked it. It is now to the point I not only do I like it, I love and appreciate
it, and it’s probably my 3rd or 4th favorite Idol CD
ever. The shear mastery of her singing is a sight (and sound) to behold. Would
I buy another CD like this from Kat? Without question. Will I wait for a CD
full of ballads like “Ordinary World”? I salivate at the thought.
But I digress. Only Kat’s hardcore fans were willing to give
it a try. The casual fans heard the first few songs on YouTube and online and
said, as AOL does when you log off “GoodBye!” Clive being the wise old man he
is, even though sometimes it seems like he’s in his own world, was skeptical
enough of this CD he had two songs “Dangerous” and “I Lost You” put on a special CD
marketed through WalMart to ease America and her fans into the “New” Katharine.
They then let “Open Toes” and a few more I can’t remember “find” their way on
YouTube. If you go back and read the comments, the bad well outweighed the
good.
My guess is that Clive thought he might be able to make this
CD sell or I do believe he would have lowered the boom. The current scuffle
Clive is going through with Kelly on her new CD, has me a bit worried for
Kelly. Because as senile as Clive seems sometimes, like I said earlier, he
knows what he is doing. As an example,
Kelly’s new song “Never Again” is not one of my faves but more importantly, one
of my good friends who is a Kelly freak, simply can not stand it. And he vows
if the CD is all like this he will not buy it.
But then again, Kelly is at a point where she gets what she wants. But
as in Chris’s song “Home” “….Be careful what you wish for…..”
But back to Kat. She is such a talent, that Clive, I
believe, was willing, it seems without much of a fight, to let her have her
way. There are 4 ballads on this CD but only one, in my opinion, is truly Katharine,
and that’s “Ordinary World”. A CD chocked full of numbers like this and we
would have had a Chris/Kat fight in CD sales. In other words, we would have
gotten the final we were looking for at last season’s end. And personally, I think
Kat would have won hands down as Clay did over Ruben.
Thus arises a problem. Even leaking songs from the CD,
didn’t help it catch on. And if you go back and think, no Idol ever got this
benefit. And no matter how much parading of Kat on TV, and there was a lot of
it. (I was happy for it).it didn’t seem to help. Kat even got to be the first
person ever to sing live in the Rose Bowl Parade. There was every opportunity
to make this CD platinum. What could have helped at least a little was that
extra Idol finale push. And as we know that never happened. It just wasn’t to
be. You see the issue here was, fans of the show saw the ads for a Porsche and
got a Fiat. Not that a Fiat won’t get you where your going but it ain’t nothing
like a Porsche. And a lot of fans
wanted that Porsche and didn’t even want to test drive the Fiat.
“Over it” was not enough to convince them otherwise. Will
“Love Story”? I’m thinking ……..no. I do hope she gets another go at it and I
feel Clive believes in her enough to give her that chance. The thing is, the CD
has to be 3 things; well produced, great songs, and last but not least, what
you’d expect it to be. That is exactly why Carrie Underwood has sold over 5.6
million copies of her debut CD. And you can bet Carrie’s 2nd CD will
sell about 1 million the first week especially if they market it with a great first
single.
On a slightly different subject but sorta the same. A couple
of weeks ago Kat was reported as saying she really didn’t like “Over it” and
she could now say that because its time had come and gone. While this is a
minor thing it could end up being a major thing. What is someone to think about
buying a CD when the artist herself disses it? Again not major but this is the
kind of thing she shouldn’t be saying. Like her political views (which I’ll get
to in a minute) you can think it but don’t say it. It sounds like you are
trying to make excuses why the CD isn’t doing well.
Next we get to movie parts. From what I’ve read and heard
Kat was up for a couple of roles with major film studios yet turned them down
because she was waiting to get a major role or starring role. So now she will
be starring in the dark romantic comedy “The Last Caller”. So great. She got
her starring role. But with the film having a budget of 5-8 million dollars
this could be one we never get to see unless DVD comes calling. It could very
well be a great film but just like a good book, if it’s put in a drawer and not
read ……well. My feeling is she should have taken the minor roles with major
studios first. This would have, I’m sure, led to bigger starring roles. If say
this film does make it to a theatre near you and is terrible or a flop, I’m
thinking the studios will be more hesitant to use her in the future. Whereas if
she is in a major movie with a minor role and the movie flops it won’t be on
her. Just my dumb opinion. So here’s hoping “The Last Caller” won’t be Kat’s
last call.
Now last but certainly not least. I started this over on
KatharineFans.com and am finishing it here. This past week Kat was flanking
Hilary Clinton at her “Club 44” gathering in Wash. DC.
Club 44 is the name given to this event meaning the 44th
prez. For starters Katharine was embarrassed on the radio before she even got
to sing on stage. But was even more embarrassed when she sang. The crowd was
not on her side. And I don’t know why anyone ever thought that group would be.
This is about the same group that hates American Idol. But as I said over on
KatFans, this is the worst thing anyone starting out their career could do. It
is difficult enough to withstand airing you political views when you are an
established artist. Ask The Dixie Chicks and
Babs.
For Kat, fan aggregation is absolutely necessary. This was
exactly the opposite. It was a major, major mistake to participate in this
rally. Two things you should keep to yourself when starting a career in the
public eye or really even maintaining one, except of course politics, is never
let your political affiliation or religious beliefs be known to anyone but you.
That’s kinda why we still have those curtains up at the polls. You not only
risk alienating ½ of your fans you could very well piss off half of the other
half.
Politics are personal as is religion. That’s why they say,
and for good reason, “Don’t talk politics or religion amongst friends and
neighbors or soon you’ll have neither”. It doesn’t matter whether Kat did this
for Hilary or Rudy, it will have the same effect. Someone on KatFans actually
said “And yes, if it had been for any Republican instead, I would have been
disgusted and would definitely have stopped being a fan.” See what I mean. This
is supposed to be a real fan here. Not realizing what she did, she is making my
point dead on with that statement. This is why you just don’t do it. And until
I start doing political commentary no one will ever know my political or
religious views and I’m not even any kind of big-time.
So has it been a year of Bad Decisions, Bad Guidance or Bad
Luck? I think that it shouldn’t be hard to figure out by now. I just hope the
bad decisions stop now. Oooops! I gave it away.
Idolhead Ed
Is it season 7 yet?