3.30.13 What does Adam listen to?

It probably looks like I was here all day, but I was not and so I am again catching up.
Thank you to those who tweeted on my behalf. I will RT that tweet, but think it is better to do it not right now, in the middle of the night before Easter Sunday. Really not the ideal time. If we could send that again on Tuesday morning (EU time) when Europe starts being back from the holidays, please, RT it with me. And thanks for your help.


Mys*&@^#r, your post about Ryan Tedder is exactly what I was about to say. Tedder did Adele's Rumor has it and co produced on it, he also did Maroon 5's Overexposed album, certainly not targeting Adult contemporary there. He is one of the guys who loves to play with electronics, has a big toy box full of tools that he can deploy to create very different sounding music (anywhere from Carrie Underwood to Maroon 5) and he has produced tons of hits that did not sound like everything that we have already heard ten-thousand times. And he appreciates a good voice and knows what to do with it. So, I'd say yes to Ryan Tedder.

I agree with everyone on Dr. Luke. Drowns the vocals, over produces and is not a good match for Adam. Does good work with other artists, who need pop songs coming out of the factory, but with Adam, I have never seen it work.

 I thought when Adam said that he needs to learn to give back control or let go of it, that he may be talking about Max Martin. As far as I remember, Adam stated that he flew to NY to meet with MM and recorded WWFM and MM pretty much dictated how he wanted it done.  Obviously, it worked. It is difficult for me to say, whether that was just luck that it was the right song and the right lyrics at the right time (after AMAs) or whether it really was something that Max Martin is doing right. But, it is hard to argue with success. So it probably would be worth a try.

I would love to see Nile do something with Adam. Obviously Brian May would be great, even though that may be a very different direction of sound. I thought the Pharell songs were both good, Trespassing better than Kickin In, but that was promising too.

I would be interested in Rick Rubin's opinion on what Adam should do. I know he is over at Columbia and cashing in from 19 and 21, but it would be an interesting opinion, he thinks with an artist's mind and Adam is in many ways still on his journey to his own sound.
There are others, whose opinion might be interesting, producers, artists, and others I could think of, but I'll leave it at that.

In general, I do agree that the roll-out was the biggest problem with Trespassing, not the songs.
Most people never got to hear the really great songs on the album.

Not only were the single choices wrong and badly timed, the reasoning for the choices was wrong.

A lead single should define the sound of the upcoming album. It does not need to explain the philosophical concept of the album's storyline. Especially, when the lyrics don't tell that story and you need to wait til the video to get that part of the equation. Dark and light was the video storyline and that was also the album story. Totally lost on 99 % of Adam's target market.

Then came NCOE, which was a song that was written for Bruno Mars' personality, but was written in, as Bruno called it, the key of fuck and therefore could not be sung by him. So Adam got it. I like Bruno Mars. When I hear his songs, I want to be lying at the beach and holding a Pina Colada in my hand. Kind of like with Bob Marley. I don't expect meaningful lyrics, it's all about the good life.

Now you give this song to Adam. Adam is known for intelligent lyrics, gives you something to think about. Adam desperately tried to give those NCOE song a deeper meaning, tortured himself in multiple interviews to say something beyond the obvious, because Adam does get asked what his lyrics are about, people just assume that he has something to say.

Adam loves lyrics that can be interpreted in different ways, Adam loves to play with - big word coming - onomatopoeia. None of that was in that song, and then Dr. Luke did the rest of the damage, as discussed.

My problem is, who made that decision? Who understands Adam so little that they don't realize that this cannot work for Adam.
Smart Pop, is a term somebody recently wrote. I love that. Because its true. Adam's music is one of two major styles. It is fun, upbeat, sunny and dancable or it is deep and melancholic and emotional. But it always is smart music. Vocally interesting, lyrically interesting, and put together in a unique and interesting way. Whether it is pop or rock or funk or electronic does not seem to matter nearly as much as that the music relates to who he is and what he is about.

And that is why those comments that he should make less 'Look at Me' music so misplaced. First of all, every artist writes about themselves and every performer wants to be looked at, so this is silly just from the get-go. But especially for Adam, any advice that says..go neutral, then more people will listen to you, is imo just totally misplaced. You can't tell the butterfly to go look like a moth, because then he will be more common.
Does that eye-roll smiley work yet?

Adam is not only a butterfly, he is the Monrch butterfly among all butterflies. He flies the longest distances (between dark and light) and while he does get peoples attention, he also is elusive for those who don't invest in following him every step of the way.

ETA: Yes, I also thought there may be a few songs that were really good, but did not fit the new direction of the TSP album and therefore got stashed away that maybe may fit a bit better this time around. I don't think Adam likes doing that very much, but obviously it is in the interest of cost and time.


 

Yup, TY.