5.29.11 Adam News & Info

His last tweet - that is a HUGE glass of vodka! Hope he can walk onto the plane.

adamlambert

Heavy pour. #nostrovia say.ly/WCQmIO
5 minutes ago via WhoSay

That same quote caught my eye as well, as it seems to be a recurring meme in the Season 8 Fan Wars. I'm used to seeing Kris fans saying that, but was rather surprised to see Lyndsey Parker trot it out.

I'm sure Q3, for one, has a much more informed opinion than I, but it seemed to me that Kris received every bit of the support he was entitled to as the AI winner. Someone on another board took the time to compile lists of Kris's television promo appearances versus Adam's (with David Cook's thrown in there as well) - I believe for album promo. Kris actually had a significantly longer list than Adam, and it was very much comparable with David's promo. Jive also effectively worked LLWD to radio (if memory serves, it had a slow start much as WWfM did, so I would guess Jive had to do some work to get it the required spins to catch on).

I believe one thing that skewed perceptions may have been the amount of attention Adam received that was in some way self-generated, as opposed to label-generated or management-generated. Rolling Stone's cover story offer, the Young Hollywood Award, and the Barbara Walters 10 Most Interesting People special came to him, as opposed to being solicited for him. I've been under the impression the AMA performance was the same, although I don't know how such things work and could be wrong. And, of course, post-AMA press was a cottage industry unto itself for while.

Plus, as kittykay noted, Adam busted his ass to network and keep his name out there. He must have been a dream client for 19 and RCA in that respect. Where his detractors saw "famewhore," they must have seen a young artist with the necessary industry savvy and drive to do whatever he could to promote himself, not just sit back and wait for promotional opportunities to be arranged for him. What made it even better was that he was so damn good at it. I'm sure I remember reading that his Grammy red carpet fashion correspondent gig with ET was initiated by him. He proposed it to ET, and personally, I thought it was a stroke of genius. Unlike, say, his labelmate and fellow new artist Ke$ha, he did not have any role in the Grammy ceremony, so he created one for himself. He got some TV face time, had the opportunity to interact with some of music's biggest names, and forged a nice symbiotic relationship with TV's foremost entertainment news magazine while he was at it. It was a win-win all around, and he could take full credit for it.

RCA Ed has complimented Adam on how hard he works to come up with new goodies to share with his fans. I'm willing to bet his lobbying was absolutely instrumental in RCA's release of the remixes, the acoustic EP and the DVD/CD.

Yes, Adam was brought back to mentor on AI, where Kris was not (nor was any other AI alumnus, for whatever reason). Yes, Adam received international promotion, where Kris did not (probably because the Sony foreign subsidiaries expressed no interest in him). But neither of those things was the norm for 19/RCA, and both had everything to do with attributes that Adam possessed that Kris did not.

So to my mind, Adam's ability and willingness to work hard on his own behalf probably inspired RCA and 19 to work hard on his behalf, too. The fact that he knocked every promotional opportunity he was given out of the park didn't hurt, either (I know opinions vary on the AMA performance in that regard, but while there was certainly a downside, I suspect the long term effect was much more positive than not). And, let's face it, he's media-friendly and compelling in a way that Kris Allen just isn't. He's cute, nice and talented, but "cute, nice and talented" isn't enough to generate web clicks, magazine sales or TV ratings. Adam's ability to be a hoopla magnet serves him damn well, and to say he gets more press and attention just because he receives more backing from 19 and RCA is to miss the point.

BTW, NoAngel, as much as I hate to make this overly long post even longer, I must add my voice to the chorus of compliments for this week's column. Adam has worked so hard for the right to stand there on the AI red carpet and pose happily with his significant other just as Kris Allen stood on that same red carpet with his own. To go from negotiating the minefield that was the release of "those photos" at the start of his AI run 2 1/2 years ago to posing proudly with his boyfriend at the finale celebration for AI must have felt like a sweet, sweet victory to him. Yes, things are changing, but I truly believe that Adam is an agent, as well as a beneficiary, of that change. When all is said and done, the significance of his career will go far beyond how many albums and concert tickets he sold during its course. I know it in the very fiber of my being.