WHY DIDN’T THEY SELL?

I look at today’s record industry like the trappings of a loan shark to being in debt. You get a budget but the record label is hoping that all funds will be recouped back in record sales. It’s like taking a gamble really on both accounts. A gamble has already been taken the day you get signed, and then, when you’re given a budget, you have to gamble with certain decisions you make to ensure that it’s used wisely (the producers you pick, costumes, etc).

However, if that mission fails miserably, you get dropped and fade away and never become heard of again. In fact, it’s not all sugar and candy being a pop star. You’re no different to being a sales person knocking on somone’s door trying to sell something. You really need to have marketability prowess in your skill to sell a product. You really need to know how to sell yourself as a sales person, or, you just won’t sell and you’ll lose your job. Some people have the gift of the gab and others don’t. Take Rihanna for instance. Not the greatest of singers; I can admit that. But her beauty and cleverly marketed image and well-packaged pop songs have taken her far, and her promo has been groundbreaking. However, when the record label doesn’t put much effort into your promotion, well, what was the point? And that’s been exactly the case with poor Tiffany Evans who only sold 4,700 copies of her debut album last week placing her at #134 on the Billboard 200. It didn’t matter that the 15-year-old is much talented than her peers and that her album was stellar with some of the tightest producers in the game. Lack of promotion played a big factor why the album did triple toilet water. Estelle‘s album ‘Shine’ did get some promotion in the US. She’s done interviews and appeared on a couple of high-profile TV shows, but I guess the Americans didn’t see the appeal as she only pushed 14,000 copies this week and is now certified double plastic. Lil Mama did slightly better but also had crap sales only managing to shift 19,000 copies, now certified as aluminum. So the question is, why aren’t they selling and who’s really to blame?

TODAYS ICKY ICKY RANDOM THOUGHTS (TELEVSION)….

Am I the only one depressed as shit that hottie Jensen Ackles is leaving Supernatural? Reportedly, he’s going to be replaced by Chad Michael Murray. This is some bullshit. They may as well end the show right there especially with Dean‘s soul about to enter the murky pits of hell since he made that deal with the devil in exchange for his brother’s life….

It’s like Michael Rosenbaum leaving Smallville. I know he’s not the main character of the show, but in my opinion, his character holds just as much momentum as Tom Welling‘s character. That said, the show will feel kind of sparse without Lex, who was a brilliant villain making him extremely hard to replace (he’ll be making cameo appearances in Season 8 as will Lana). The show is as good as dead but yet they’re still pushing for a Season 8 in September. I feel that when center characters leave a show, that’s when the show should end. Fans of that show grow up with that character. They become attached. They know the ins and outs of that character’s emotions, what makes them tick, and so forth. You start to know and bond with that character especially after all those years, so when they leave, it’s like a kick in the stomach. And that signals bad news for the show. After seven great years, the show had a great great run. During that time I went to college and graduated University throughout that show. In my opinion, they should have ended it at season 7 with Clarke finally transforming into Superman and flying off into the skies to fulfill his mission to save the world. It would have been the PERFECT finale to end the show. I just needed to vent that out. I think I’m going to make this a regular thing.

WHY RIHANNA GETS A PASS OVER SEXY STAGE ANTICS…..

I know I’m probably going to piss a lot of people off with this post but hey, it is what it is. Rihanna performed on stage during a concert in Arena Riga, Latvia this week. Here she is seen getting grinded against by two of her male dancers on stage:

Nothing wrong with theatrical bumping and grinding if you have limitations right? Many people would say Rihanna can’t sing (she can to me). By limitations, I mean not being as vocally gymnastic as say, someone like Beyonce or Christina Aguilera. So if she can’t impress the majority with her voice or stage presence, why can’t she wow an audience with sexy outfits and other raunchy antics like the ones above? She’s a beautiful girl with a flawless physique and I’m sure 90% of the hot bloodied males that actually pay to see her perform come to look at that. It’s not that much different from going to Stringfellows and paying for the same thing but without the polytechnics, male back-up dancers and so forth. If folks feel she’s not much of a singer or performer, what do folks expect her to do? Sing ‘Don’t Stop The Music’ dressed up as Mary Poppins? I don’t recall Rihanna promoting religion or saying she won’t wear sexy outfits as what Beyonce did earlier on in her career. Rihanna knows what the music industry is all about. Sex sells. And talent (unfortunately) takes a backseat to that. And she’s just following the rules.

Beyonce on the other hand, doesn’t need to resort to overly sexy antics or skimpy outfits on stage because she has the talent – both as a singer and stage entertainer. Her voice (and beauty) alone can carry her. But I think a lot of people get on Beyonce for promoting herself as the good lil Christian girl from Houston, and then saying her pastor gave her permission to wear crotch-flaunting outfits when I know for a fact that her religion doesn’t objectify women in that way AT ALL. Did that permission also come with doing a steamy bikini photoshoot for Sports Illustrated or rolling around in sand in an itsy bitsy bikini in the Flaws And All video? In many ways Beyonce has contradicted herself and people are inclined to never forget that. I think that when you enter an industry like the music one, you realise that sometimes you have to sell yourself short to get ahead. I’m pretty sure she’s regretting some of the things she’s said in the past, but that’s the way of the music industry I suppose.

OK, let me stop with this rant. There’s so much more I wanted to say, but um, I’ll stop right there.

SNOOP DOG: "UGLY WOMEN DON’T SELL RECORDS"….

Here’s a couple of shocking quotes taken from Snoop’s warped up consciousness of female singers in the industry via BET.com’s Hip Hop Vs. America blog. Snoop has it in his head that ONLY pretty women sell records:

Well, okay, if that were true, why is Amerie, Cassie, Christina Milian and Nicole Scherzinger struggling to go past triple cardboard? Pretty mute. Then he brings up the touchy subject of dark skinned vs light skinned yet again. Check out the ignorance: “How many ugly women selling records? None! Only the pretty ones sell records. Beyonce, Mary J, Keyshia Cole, the ugly ones don’t sell. I ain’t gon say no names, but they don’t sell records. They just be singing their little hearts out, but they don’t get no sales, cause they ugly. Now, that’s my fault? I can see this on TV now: ‘Snoop Dogg called me, ugly’. You beautiful on the inside, baby. What I wanna say to go on top of that, to the chocolate women, the dark-skinned women, I love ya’ll. I got a chocolate daughter at home. I always tell her chocolate is the best thing in the world”.

It is indeed, until she tries to become a huge aspiring singer, LOL. I hope he knows he was targeting his own daughter with his comments. He really didn’t put much thought into what he was saying. Daddy I want to become a huuuge singer like Beyonce. Um no, you don’t have the required physical attributes. TRAGIC. He just comes across as ignorant and dumb like many of the other rappers out today. And since when has Keyshia Cole and Mary J Blige been considered pretty? They’re not ugly but unlike Beyonce, they’re not placed on high regard for their “looks” either. In a way, I get what he’s saying to an extent – that prettier singers stand a better chance at success in the industry (the pretty singers who fail musically have their original jobs to fall back on – Christina Milian who was an actress before she became a singer has her acting career, Cassie who was a model before she became a singer has her modelling career, etc). I just feel he could have worded his comments much better without causing offense and therefore further igniting the inferiority/superiority complex between the light/dark skinned folks within the black community.

ps. Snoop is the LAST person on earth to be talking about somebody’s looks.