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With the economy in a crunch, American Idol creator and 19 Recordings bigwig Simon Fuller has dusted off his thinking cap and is sending Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta on the stage together once more. Records don’t just sell themselves these days, after all.
Ryan Seacrest announced the Ryan, Rock My Town contest this morning, wherein fans of the Season 8 Idol finalists basically have to go to Seacrest’s site and demand that the threesome come play a gig on their turf. The city with the most requests wins the concert. (In other words, Adam Lambert theoretically could play in Peoria.) That said, the demanding doesn’t really involve much more than typing in your zip code.
Over the next three weeks, each of the three Idol alum’s records will be released—Allen’s on November 17, Lambert’s November 24 and Iraheta’s December 1. As Kris tells it to New York Magazine, the process of making his self-titled set didn’t come without a few hiccups:
Well, when you’re recording an album, artists have what they feel like is good music, and the label, they’re trying to sell the album. So those two ideas clash sometimes, but in the end it always works out. When you put the two together, that’s a good thing. You want the artist to have good music and a good album, and the label wants it to sell as well. Sometimes that was a little hard to deal with. I had to come to some compromises with the label, but it all turned out really well. Absolutely no hard feelings at all toward the label.
Ah, the dreaded “c” word—compromise! But, easy there, Kris—don’t go getting all Kelly Clarkson right out of gate!
At any rate, the 2009 Idol Summer Tour wrapped September 15. So this could be the last time you see these three together again. Ever.
“So this could be the last time you see these three together again. Ever.”
At least until the finale show of Season 9 next May!!!
Comporomise ain’t a word, chump.
The idea of someone “getting all Kelly Clarkson” seems appealing enough to me. What’s your problem with it, Robbie?
(Of course you won’t answer a direct question because you are just a program.)
@brasstax: Everyone’s hilarious comments about the “writers” of this “blog” might just keep me reading for a week or so til we all disappear.
I have not been able to finish reading any of these “articles”/press releases. I want to cry.
Another suspicious sign: Those top stories at the top haven’t changed at all today.
(Though that may be a good thing. It helps me remember the good times.)
@brasstax:
Makes sense to me. I’m thinking of starting a blog talking about music I’ve never heard before, I think it would be a better read.
I just can’t believe how awful this is. It’s so much worse than I ever would have expected. I guess I am slowly beginning to accept that it’s not a gag or a warm-up. Fucking hell.
@ObtuseIntolerant: Take a deep breath and try to calm down.
This goes for everyone else, too.
It’s been a few hours since the guard changed – and while I am annoyed at (a) the lack of a warning, (b) the lack of introductions, and (c) the quality of the posts today, I think everyone is getting a little too dramatic over this and is maybe being just a little bit too harsh on the new editors or whatever they are.
(And no, I’m not a third robot sent in to support Robbie and Becky through positive comments…OR AM I? Dun dun dun…)
when did records sell themselves?
@chachwitablog:
Fair point about giving them a chance, first day and all. However, the jump in topic, quality…the list goes on…is quite big. Maybe there is going to be an adjustment period on both sides, but any previous changes in writers have usually been stylistic/down to who is writting the article. They all seemed to sing off the same song sheet.
The shift/change/jump in content, style….its a BIG list…over the last 24 hours has been huge. I feel like a diver with the bends.
@chachwitablog: i agree with you to an extent. it’s a blog, on the internet, relax. on the other hand it’s a pretty big fuck you to the dedicated readers/commenters.
i know a lot of blog conglomorates will argue that the commenters are the “vocal minority” as a way to lessen the importance of their opinion but in the case of idolator i think that’s bullshit. and this is nothing less than insulting to us. maura may have covered way more pop bullshit than i was interested in (which i would imagine may have also been due to pressure from buzznet) but she always covered it with an earnest and unique perspective. the posts today are nothing short of disasterous. the writers appear to have little or no professional background or training, lack wit or insight, and yet are still smug as fuck with no right to be so. it’s like blog-writing as determined by disaffected teen focus groups, buzznet created a matrix based on god knows what and determined THIS was what the world needed in terms of music blogs? back to the drawing board.
@chachwitablog: Obvs, there’s nothing we can do about these changes. So in the grand tradition of the internet, we’re going to complain endlessly and fill the comment sections with our whinging.
Which, not ironically, will probably make the Buzznet overlords happy. We’re just feeding their evil, beastly plan.
We should all just pull up stakes and get the hell out of here. No amount of slapping the hackbots will reverse this change. And yet! I want to stop leaving comments, I do. But, like [insert cliche here about impulsive actions] I can’t quite pull myself away. Because, obviously, we all need a punching bag today. So here we are.
@chachwitablog: Nah, man. This is just awful. Sorry.
@michaela: But I think it’s a little overly dramatic to be talking about leaving idolator forever after ONE DAY of the new editor(s). That’s all.
@sicksteanein: Really? THAT awful? Let’s see – two posts about American Idol, a post making fun of Alicia Keys’s new dreadful album art, a new GaGa video, chart news…looks exactly how I would have expected idolator to look today, Maura or not. Now, the CONTENT of these posts may be problematic. So far the writing is pretty bunk. But I think those who are basically saying “Maura would have NEVER posted something about Britney!” are going just a wee bit too far.
I’m only saying that the topics have not really changed, or at least that it is way too early to make any claim about the GaGa-ification of idolator after only one day of posting. What if there just wasn’t any worthwhile Bon Jovi news today, like there was yesterday?
I mean, or we could just not give the “new idolator” a chance. We are the internet, after all.
Something I wanted to add is that some of these comments (not necessarily in this post) make me feel like no matter WHAT was posted today, post-Maura, we’d have comments attacking it.
For example, the Britney post was derided for being basically just Britney PR. As opposed to the GaGa post by Maura yesterday complimenting GaGa for releasing her “Fame Monster” as a solo EP instead of a deluxe edition. I imagine that if some of today’s posts (not just topic, but writing content) were made by Maura, we wouldn’t be seeing complaints like those we’re seeing today.* Surely not the sheer volume of angry comments that there are today.
*I know, I know, “Maura would never have made posts as stupid as the ones today.” But I think you should be able to get my point.
@chachwitablog:
Agreed, 100%.
Here’s my guess: Buzznet set about to drop the last of Idolator’s Gawker baggage and create a more breezy, newsy Stereogum for poptimists. They probably expected to burn off most of their old audience right away, and acquire a new one gradually. That would explain the lack of introductions or commenter engagement, which is so obvious that I wonder if isn’t Buzznet’s idea.
I loved Maura’s writing, but if Buzznet wants to do something different, your beef is with them. Taking it out on the new writers isn’t really fair. It can take a long time to find a confidant voice, particularly in such a hostile setting, writing almost exclusively for people who have recently been redistricted out of your site’s target audience. I enjoy a good e-mobbing, but the extent of this just makes the old Idolator regulars look heartless.
(Full disclosure: I am not a computer program, but I do know one of the new contributors personally, and consider that person a friend and a talented humorist.)
@chachwitablog: Gaga completely changing the format of an anticipated release is news worthy of comment. If Britney had left “Toxic” off her greatest hits album, it would also be news worthy of comment. Britney simply releasing a greatest hits album is NOT news worthy of comment.
These people have an editorial tin ear. Nothing they’ve written today has been the least bit engaging. I mean, they didn’t even introduce themselves. They didn’t respond to comments (even this morning, before they grew increasingly nasty). They’re just throwing shit out to see what sticks, I guess. Unfortunately, nothing has.
@brasstax: True – but I’m going to at least wait a week to see if any of the shit has stuck by then.
And while you’re right about GaGa (and that is VERY exciting news in my opinion), my other point was that even if Robbie had made that post today, it would probably be slammed, and even if Maura had made the Britney post yesterday, it probably wouldn’t have been. (It probably would have just had no comments, or at worst, one person asking what was newsworthy about it.)
@chachwitablog: Actually, it’s the content of these posts I have a problem with. I can get news from anywhere. I read idolator for its view on these topics.
So you’re basically agreeing with me.
Did you read the “Livebloggin” post? First of all, it wasn’t funny at all even though the eds were clearly aiming for humour. Secondly, it was the kind of snark I hear from tons of other sites. I come here to indulge in my pop culture leanings, not listen to a couple of kids make fun of them.
The whole vibe of the site has changed with these new eds. And we’ve gone through editorial changes before as people have mentioned but the mantra of the site has remained intact. This is clearly a change in tone and quality.
@sicksteanein: While I’ll admit it has only been one day, and I will check back, I completely concur with you on the Livebloggin post. Did you ever see that unfunny SNL Weekend Update skit with the blogger who just made fun of a celebrity and then stated “bitch, please”?
Yeah, I’d take her over today. I hope it gets better, but I have a feeling a lot of people aren’t holding out for it. Until someone starts an ex-Idolator-commenter blog, I guess we’ll all always have the comments to bitch.
I think Simon wants to give Kris and Allison careers a boost by having Adam appear with them once again. The only music selling is Adam’s. The only one anyone is talking about is Adam. There’s nothing in the entertainment news about the other two and Adam is all over the news, the radio, the movies, the magazines, the tv, etc. I don’t think it’s going to help the other two unless the music they put out is actually any good. But so far I’m loving Adam’s “Time For Miracles” and “For Your Entertainment”!
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