8.31.11 Adam News & Info

The Voice
8.31.11 by Q3

For about 2-1/2 years I have been obsessed (yes, I admit it and I am just fine with it) with Adam Lambert. I have come up with all kinds of explanations but it always just comes down to “The Voice”.

Obsessed: to haunt or excessively preoccupy the mind.[/i]

I appreciate many other singers. I am in awe of the skill and talent of a few. But Adam is the only singer I have ever bothered to follow. Adam is the only singer that has made me care in this way.

I ask myself, “Myself, why?” And I have no answer.

So I have a real challenge for you – help me figure it out? What is it about Adam Lambert that make him so different than other singers?




The artist and material success
8.31.11 by juniemoon

People think that at the top there isn’t much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top. – Robert de Niro



As we await more definite release dates and news about Adam’s next single and his second album, it’s been fun for me to learn about and consider what makes Adam an artist vs. a mere pop culture diva. Last week I got lots of interesting comments on blogs about how Adam embraces freedom of expression, and about how he lives the lifestyle of an artist. Today I wanted to learn about how material success figures in to being an artist.

First of all, there is a widespread belief in our culture that to be an artist, you have to make a living from your art. This belief is frequently used as a club with which to beat aspiring artists into giving up their art and getting a “real job.” In fact, making an income – from art or accounting or anything else – requires the skills of an entrepreneur or a business person. Making a living is a separate activity from one’s art.

Adam was an artist for several years before he made a living from his music. He will, hopefully, continue to be an artist for many years to come, even if something awful happened and he stopped making an income from his music for a while. This is exactly what happened to Tony Bennett and Mel Torme, two of the greatest vocalists of the jazz era. At the height of the rock era, Bennett and Torme both lost their audiences and could not get bookings, not even in Las Vegas. Literally no one, it seemed, wanted to hear their music anymore.



Needless to say, despair enveloped both men. Torme, whose hard-headedness and practicality belied his nickname “The Velvet Fog,” considered quitting music altogether and retraining as an airline pilot. Fortunately, his artist’s instinct prevailed and he took to cabaret clubs and jazz festivals, rebuilding a passionate if small fan base. Torme’s work paid off in spades in the late 80s when a devoted fan, the magician and comic Harry Anderson, became the star of a hit TV sitcom, Night Court. Anderson incorporated his fandom into the character he played on the show, Judge Harry Stone. Eventually the many Torme references led to guest appearances for Torme on Night Court and other shows, a new appreciation for his music, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.



Bennett’s story is even more remarkable. One of the best jazz vocalists of his generation, Bennett literally became physically ill when his label forced him in 1970 to record an album of covers of pop hits like Eleanor Rigby, MacArthur Park, and Little Green Apples, and pose for ludicrous psychedelic album art. By 1974 he had been dropped by his label and his management. Desperate to record jazz music, he started his own label and recorded two albums of some of the best music of his career in a collaboration with pianist Bill Evans. Both albums (now considered classics) were major flops. Bennett’s life went off the rails. He took to drugs and drinking, ended his first marriage and a short-lived second one, and had his house seized by the IRS.



Finally Bennett called his adult son Danny in desperation. “I’m lost,” he told his son. “It seems like people don’t want to hear the music I make.” Danny was an astute businessman and quickly jumped into the music business. He followed Torme’s example, booking his father into small clubs and tiny theaters, often overseas or on college campuses. Realizing that several generations had come of age with no exposure to great classic composers like Gershwin and Porter, he urged his father to forget he was ever a star and concentrate on interpreting great American music, with no compromises. He booked Tony in interviews on college radio stations and appearances on shows with cult appeal to young people such as The Muppet Show and the MTV awards, where he performed with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. By the late 80s Bennett had enough fans to persuade another label to take him on and allow him creative control over his work. Two of the resulting albums won Grammys in the best Traditional Pop category, his first since the early 1960s. Finally, the famed 1994 appearance on MTV Unplugged caused a seemingly sudden explosion of love and appreciation for Bennett as the torchbearer for the classic American songbook – an iconic comeback 15 years in the making.

Right now, with Adam’s second album in the works, many of us are anxious and speculating about the selling of Adam’s art. The selling of Adam’s art began with his Idol journey. All artists need a break to get started, and Idol gave Adam a chance to succeed that he didn’t have before, something to make up for the fact that he had artistry but virtually no audience and no platform. If Idol were a piece of real estate it would be #1 in location, location, location. By making it on Idol Adam was able to bypass years of attempting to make a living in seedy nightclubs and third-rate venues.

But as Lee Dewyze could tell you, location isn’t enough to make you succeed. The best location in the world isn’t enough without fans willing to pull out their wallets and buy your art. Adam has built a remarkable fan base who will pre-order everything he does and wait by the mailbox for his new music. For Album #2 he will need many, many more to buy his music, starting with casual fans who might download a song or two if they hear him on the radio. As much as we might hate it, these impulse purchasers will make or break the success of Album #2, and there is little we as hardcore fans can do to help. Understanding, finding, and selling to a mass audience has little to do with art or passion and everything to do with marketing – which is where RCA and Adam’s new management company come in.



Almost all artists worry deeply about selling and Adam is certainly no exception. In interviews when Adam is asked about the main differences between his old life and his new life, he often says, “Money.” Though he does not seem especially materialistic, he does love expensive clothes and you can bet he gets a kick out of plunking down $1800 for a pair of boots. In a larger sense, Adam is certainly aware of the dire situation in today’s music industry. He knows he has to make money for a lot of people to keep doing what he loves.

If Adam is extremely successful with Album #2 as we all dream he will be, material success will present another kind of challenge. A paradox of art is that if you are too successful doing what you love, you may have no more time to do what you love. When faced with this paradox, some artists, fearful that the success will evaporate any minute, make themselves sick trying to meet the impossibly high demands for their work (see Elvis). More often an artist faced with the paradox simply sells out (as Sting has often been accused of doing). The artist’s paradox is so difficult because it forces the artist to choose between the artistic endeavor and the business endeavor.

Which is why the dramatic stories of Bennett and Torme are so instructive. When musical tastes changed, very few people wanted to hear their music at all. Unable to stomach artistic death, both mourned the end of their previous success, then turned their attention to producing fine quality music for the few still willing to listen. Because they performed before small but musically astute crowds, they stopped trying to recapture their lost hits and reconnected with more complex music that they loved. In the end this approach led to new projects that would never have been created before, projects in which they did not have to cut corners or hasten the creation or production process.



Naturally we all want Adam’s new album to be a smashing success and there is every reason to think it will be! From everything we are hearing, Adam is stretching himself artistically to the best of his abilities. But any artist, no matter how great or famed, encounters very serious difficulties along the way. On this journey there will be discouraging moments. There are going to be doubters and clueless critics. There are going to be homophobes. There are going to be other entertainers who want what Adam wants and with whom he has to compete.

When we wonder if Adam will “make it,” we are really wondering if he has what it takes to make art and sell it at the same time. The true test of Adam as an artist is whether he freely expresses his personality through his music and communicates with our hearts and our dancing feet. I believe artistic success for Album #2 is a sure thing. The true test of Adam as a business person is whether people will buy what he is selling. We wait and hope.







A nice treat

Merrycello Meredith
In case you missed it before, here is my (late) vid of OOL from Ste Agathe: youtube.com/watch?v=rAs3kQ…







If you follow RCA Promotions on Twitter….

You will need to now follow a new account. RCA has consolidated RCAPromo and Jive Promo into RCAMusicPromo…..

RCAMusicPromo To all @jivepromo and @rcapromo followers pls join us at @rcamusicpromo






Upcoming Events

Check the Adamtopia calendar for more events and links to more info.

??: Behind the scenes video of Adam #2 recording sessions to be released.

September 2011 Date TBD, unconfirmed Adam will be a guest judge on Project Runway. His episode was taped on 7.14.11.


Probable per Adam mid-October: New single released

9.16.11 Last day to order PEACE Penny Royal Adam Lambert Signature Design to benefit Trevor Project.

9.23.2011 Premiere of Majors & Minors on the Hub Network.
Adam Lambert, Avril Lavigne, Colbie Caillat and Claude Kelly are joining The Hub's latest reality series Majors & Minors. They will serve as mentors (the "majors") to young talent on the upcoming fall series, premiering Friday, Sept. 23.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/adam-lambert-avril-lavigne-colbie-217026

October or November 2011 (Date and Time TBA) MTV Talk@Playground with Adam and SKINGRAFT'S Johnny Cota. Will be broadcast internationally.

November 2011 Adam's second album released NOT CONFIRMED, may be early December.
8.26.11 per Adam Lambert Twitter - no release date set.


Every Saturday from New Zealand -- Adam Lambert Hour -- Live 7:00PM EDT US.
Link: www.adamlamberthour.co.nr/

Check out the ALH page for podcast of previous shows.
This is the only weekly Adam Lambert show in the world.


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