Ruben Studdard released three albums before getting dropped. Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee got a year and a half on their post-Idol contracts before being let go. Now 2007 American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis has been cast away by Arista, less than a year after they announced signing him. How long will Jive give David Archuleta to find a niche? Six months?
Lewis claims that he never wanted to sign to a major in the first place (I mean, who goes on American Idol wanting corporate assistance in becoming rich and famous?), but whether it’s a sign that execs aren’t going to suffer some “creative control” fool following Kelly Clarkson’s My December, or that one shot is all you get in the current marketplace, news like this will probably make next year’s contestants even more complacent about actually winning the competition once they’ve made the top 12 and achieved enough name recognition to shop for a label that will let them live out whatever their ridiculous artistic ambitions are.
The question remains: what will become of Blake Lewis? Will he find a home willing to encourage his whimsical ways? Will the lack of the necessary flash and budget force him to abandon his dramatic R & B and settle for a Broadway cameo? While the answers are blatantly “nothing much,” “no,” and “maybe he can play Prez in The Wire: The Musical,” I feel sorry that we’ll probably never see a freak like him reach so high on American Idol again.
Blake Lewis Dropped From Arista [MJ's Big Blog]
Blake Lewis – Break Anotha [Dailymotion]
Screw that – if I was a contestant I’d sign with Arista and HOPE to get dropped! That’s a nice advance check these kids are getting to pocket…
Wherever Blake goes, I hope he brings whomever designed his album cover with him…
Dayyyyyyyyyamn! That was fast…
* Audio Day Dream hit stores only on 4 December 2007
* Blake performed on the Results show during Top 16 week
Interestingly, Blake had the highest individual and total digital download figures for last year’s Idols (before his and Jordin’s “real” material came out, that is), so it sounds to me that the material on the CD was just not up to snuff. We know that labels are pulling the trigger very quickly on CDs with singles that don’t “stick” right away — Her Name Is Nicole, anyone? — so I guess we now know that the window really is only about 6 months wide.
That’s an awfully short ride. In the film industry, they let M. Night Shyamalan increasingly bad films for years without cutting him off.
[blog.newsok.com]
Blake had (and still has, I hope) potential, and his album was just as good if not better than Jordin’s. Unfortunately until I saw him months later performing during the semis, I hadn’t seen a single piece of promo for the album.
He definitely strikes me as more of an independent artist anyway, playing smaller venues and able to sell well but not at the gold/platinum level that Idol can’t see past. I’m not going to say this was “good” for him but I’m sure that he’ll sign with an independent label, which I think will be much more fitting.
Judging from that video, maybe he should just hook up with J.C. Chasez and make the most ADD-influenced album of 2009.