Davis, chairman and chief executive officer of the BMG Label Group, said he has seen many entertainers lose their careers by not concentrating on finding hit songs — no matter who they are written by..."I don't care how many No. 1's you have written in the past, have you written a new No. 1?" When [Whitney] Houston came to him after her second or third album and asked if she should start writing songs, he said: "Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra didn't write, and they are among Time magazine's greatest artists of the century."

Let's break down the numerous ways Davis is wrong, shall we?

First, if you need any more proof that Clive has as little concern for music as he does for his morning cup of coffee, it does not even cross his mind that a singer might be more interested in pursuing a particular artistic vision than in getting a hit, or that ideally you should be able to do the two things simultaneously. Now, look, I understand that Clive's a businessman. He's the chairman, after all, and when he's hearing from the stockholders, they're not going to ask about compression quality. But if he's going to represent himself as someone who matters for music, as the boy with the golden ear, then he has to acknowledge that his job is to get between the artist and the moneymen to let the artist do what they want to do. The article invokes the Kelly Clarkson affair, and apparently Davis still thinks that an agressively underpromoted album that he publicly bad-mouthed sold a mere 700k units because the artist co-wrote some of the songs.

More importantly, though, it highlights just how behind the times Clive is. Besides the fact that singers co-writing with hit producers account for some of the biggest hits of the day, singers have been writing their own songs for some time now. For almost anyone getting into pop music, having the option to write your own songs goes without saying. So if you were a hot new artist, why would you want to sign with a label whose boss comes out and says your artistic ambitions are stupid and unprofitable?

I love pop songs written by professional songwriters. But surely there's room for both in this rapidly shrinking music business, right, Clive? I know you sit at that big old desk and every afternoon around three the shakes really start, and you can see the future laid before you, and it looks kinda like the post-apacolyptic scenes in the Terminator movies. But that's no reason to badmouth art, is it, Clive?

Clive Davis urges singers to stop writing songs [Reuters]

Videos consisting solely of live performance and publicity clips are on thin ice to begin with, as they basically have only editing to save them from total banality. And unfortunately, it seems that nobody at KC Express HQ read the Windows Media Maker help guide. There are a few meek dissolves toward the beginning of the video, but other than that the clip is an uninspired series of nondescript clips (Kelly posing for a photo shoot, doing a touchdown dance, etc.), most of which are inexplicably in black and white. Not even the classic tribute video sepia treatment! It's disheartening, to say the least.

All that being said, this is not by any means an assault on the Kelly Clarkson Express, who obviously have their hearts in the right place, but simply lack the resources to edit together a decent video. The real culprit in this tragedy is Clive Davis and his refusal to promote a song with as much potential as "How I Feel." While My December may not have been the hit machine that Davis was hoping for, he could have, at the very least, given this song a try on the radio. It's not stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks pop gold like "Since U Been Gone"—so few things are, really—but it's a better-than-decent song, and it's got something that so many other songs of its ilk lack: lyrics.

Obviously, most pop songs have articulations that form words, but "How I Feel" is like a good old-fashioned song where the singer actually says something of personal importance to him or her. I like that grating Colbie Caillat song as much as the next sucker, but the lyrics—despite their ostensibly very personal nature—are still high-sheen and empty. Not that Kelly Clarkson is all of a sudden Joni Mitchell these days, but there's certainly a heftier element to "How I Feel," and that comes in part from its less conventional, more specific lyrics. It's a solid pop song with just the slightest hint of integrity, and it's a real shame that its marketing has been left to enthusiastic but ultimately powerless fan clubs.

Maybe the solution here is a call to the tribute-video community, who tend to be unfailingly strange, yet occasionally successful in their music video adventures. After all, look what they did for "Breakaway."

The swanky black and gold square-shaped invitation has four pages of past dinner performers. The book opens with Alicia Keys, and continues with such Davis stalwarts as Whitney Houston, Rod Stewart, Annie Lennox, Barry Manilow, Fantasia and Jennifer Hudson.

But it's the fourth page that's most interesting. Diana Ross in the upper left hand corner. Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana are next to her. Below that pair is Clarkson, by herself. And to Clarkson's left is the duo of Usher and Kanye West.

Clarkson should be thrilled, and relieved. Her inclusion in the book is a telltale sign that Davis is ready to work with her again after that unfortunate mess. "She should be so lucky" is an expression that comes to mind.

Or, you know, perhaps Davis realized that this sort misstep was kind of normal for an artist who's still trying to grow past the 19 Entertainment-supplied box she was given, and low on the totem pole compared to other proteges of his who went astray.

Kelly Clarkson: All Is Forgiven [Fox 411]

It would be extremely charitable to consider what Davis does a form of artistic patronage, but even still, who is going to think more favorably of the Medici family than Michaelangelo, Raphael, or other artists who may share names with Ninja Turtles? I suppose the easy answer is "unhinged capitalists who only think in numbers and resent all forms of artistic ambition or expression," but maybe I'm being old-fashioned, and Friedman et al are on the same wavelength as those who insist that DJs and other people who manipulate and contextualize pop culture are the truly important artists in this Web 2.0 world.

Perhaps Clive Davis isn't just "the record industry's most astute executive maybe of all time, " but in fact the most important artist maybe of all time.

Y'know, maybe.

Kelly Clarkson Gets the Message, Returns to Pop [Fox News]

"There has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the release of "My December," much of which has focused on a supposed feud with my record label, in particular, Clive Davis. I want to set the record straight on this by saying that I want my band, my advisors, those close to me and my record label to be one big, tightly knit family. Like any family we will disagree and argue sometimes but, in the end, it's respect and admiration that will keep us together. A lot has been made in the press about my relationship with Clive. Much of this has been blown way out of proportion and taken out of context. Contrary to recent characterizations in the press, I'm well aware that Clive is one of the great record men of all time. He has been a key advisor and has been an important force in my success to date. He has also given me respect by releasing my new album when he was not obligated to do so. I really regret how this has turned out and I apologize to those whom I have done disservice. I would never intentionally hurt anyone. I love music, and I love the people I am blessed to work with. I am happy that my team is behind me and I look forward to the future."

KELLY CLARKSON // Special Announcement [kellyclarkson.com]

A common argument for why critics should beat up on mainstream pop music was the fact that it didn't need the help. Pop music had achieved such omnipresent dominance that championing it would be as individually insignificant an act as voting for a major-party Presidential candidate. But nowadays mainstream acts do seem to need the help, as major labels lack the funds to make them ubiquitous and the public cares more about voting for them than listening to them. Music's cultural importance has perhaps never been lower in America: while a TV show with a million viewers is considered a failure, you get a platinum plaque for selling a million albums. Sure, it costs more money and time to buy a CD than to watch a TV show—but that fact is precisely why we find ourselves in the present state of affairs.

And so as the record industry floats gently toward rock bottom, maybe critics are realizing that it's not just that things are changing, but that something has been lost, that a creative method is slowly ceasing to exist. Sure, the means were and are deplorable. But check out those ends! Without the supposedly artistically bankrupt major-label system of songwriters and producers for hire creating an artist's sound and style for—and/or with—them, we wouldn't have "Heartbreak Hotel," or "Like a Prayer," or "Since U Been Gone." And without the products of pop's manufacturing line, the music made by all those small, artistically respectable artists critics are supposed to champion might be very different—or might not even exist at all.

My December and Kelly Clarkson here represent the last change for the system to function at peak capacity, to match a hungry, adventurous, golden-eared young phenom with the best talent money can buy, and to produce an album like Off the Wall or a single like "Heart of Glass." Instead, in the view of most critics, it's just another crappy self-written rock album, and worse, one that doesn't even do the one thing rock albums can still uniquely do: exude bland authenticity (to confused white people). With Kelly going her own way, the era has perhaps officially ended for big-budget rock albums, and for all the sins of such gilded enterprises, a method's just a method, and this one produced some classics. In the end, its erasure means new rock bands' possibilities are circumscribed. Nevermore will a guitar act with members younger than 30 find itself in a $30,000-a-day studio with Desmond Child and the London Philharmonic. Even if that scenario doesn't sound too desirable to you, in a genre ossifying itself out of options, it's understandable that critics of all inclinations might lament its passing.

Because really, we can't fathom any other explanation for the seventeen ways that this cover is completely unflattering to Kelly Clarkson. (Her eyes! Her phantom right hand!) Please, Narvel Blackstock—make sure this never happens again.

New Magazine Covers! [Kevipod Music]

The Leak: Kelly Clarkson [MTV.com]

Kelly Clarkson is free this morning, ladies and gents. She dumped her manager, Jeff Kwatinetz of The Firm — the man who allegedly got her into all this trouble with Clive Davis. Kwatinetz, you see, is now singing "Since U Been Gone" for real.

It was Kwatinetz, as I told you last week, who convinced Kelly she was a miserable, unhappy singer-songwriter and not a shiny pop star whom everyone loved. The result was a forthcoming album, "My December," that would be perfect if it had a hum-able song on it.

Push came to shove, Clarkson saw the light and Kwatinetz —- who was briefly the fiancé of movie star Brittany Murphy — is out. Clive Davis wins, as usual, but not completely. (This is why he's Clive, and we're not.) He still has the album, which has been mastered and printed and is ready to go. Davis and his team will do the best they can to get a hit out of it.

I do think that the ever-astute Davis will convince Kelly to record a couple of extras for "My December" that he can reissue on a "special edition" version of the CD, perhaps in the early fall. This would not be unusual, and, that way, BMG won't be throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Of course, that special edition depends on whether or not My December sells well out of the box—if it has Linkin Park first-week numbers, talk of this special edition will likely be scuttled. (Let's just hope that if it doesn't have LP-like numbers, the bonus tracks don't include any collaborations with the still-selling band.)

An American Idol Free at Last [FOXNews, second item]
Earlier: The whole My December saga

The skirmish continued last week, the New York Post ran a piece claiming that Davis was out of touch and cramping Clarkson's style; today, in a sorta-surprising show of corporate dissonance, Fox 411 columnist Roger Friedman ran an item that opened with a comparison between Clarkson and Courtney Love (!), and went on to blame Clarkson's manager, Jeff Kwatinetz, for a good portion of the friction:

It was only this past weekend that RCA learned Kwatinetz is being listed by Clarkson as "executive producer" of the album. This indicates a new role for Kwatinetz, who is not the most popular member of the recording industry. Managers generally do not receive "EP" credits on albums. They are listed as managers.

In this case, though, Kwatinetz may regret what he's wished for. "My December" has already spawned one non-starter single in "Never Again," a kind of tough-chick rock song that failed to penetrate radio or video. After six weeks, it's already being pulled from rotations after not catching on.

Even though "My December" isn't ready for press copies, three of its songs can be heard on AOL (all of its lyrics are available, too). None of them has the bright catchy pop hooks of Clarkson's previous hits like "Since U Been Gone." One of them, "Sober," is kind of a rock dirge that boasts the refrain, "Three months ... and I'm still sober!"

Now, you'd think that someone with such "inside connections" would at least be able to get his hands on an advance copy of the album—or at least a copy of last week's Billboard, in which the charts show that "Never Again" was up from No. 17 to No. 9. Sure, that bounce is probably attributable to Clarkson's performance of the song on the American Idol finale, but the rush to bury "Never Again" after six weeks on the charts seems a bit premature—look at Pink's "U & Ur Hand," which possesses a similar chick-rock ferocity and had its own yo-yo ride up and down the charts.

Obviously, December is a big release for Sony BMG, although their expectations may be a bit too high in the current climate of depressed record sales. Breakaway, Clarkson's previous album, sold 5.7 million copies; an anonymous exec quoted in the piece is fretting that "Kelly will not sell anywhere near her previous numbers" with December, but then again, Norah Jones hasn't hit her previous-sold target, either. Is this fight really one between Kwatinetz and Davis, and Kelly is just caught in the middle? The piece's final anonymous quote—"Even if [December] fails, he'll work with Kelly again if she's ready to listen."—makes us wonder if the struggle here isn't executive-artist as much as it is executive-manager.

FOX 411: Kelly Clarkson: 'My December' Trouble [foxnews.com]

Our insider said, "She wrote all of the second album herself - including the hits 'Because of You,' 'Behind These Hazel Eyes' and 'Walk Away.' Clive hated 'Because of You' so much, he would routinely mock it in meetings. It was one of her most successful singles..."

Clarkson is not only one of Sony BMG's most profitable artists, having sold close to 15 million albums - she is also not a diva.

She hasn't demanded to renegotiate her deal with the label, our source said, even though "she only gets like $250,000 an album when she could get millions. She refuses to take more money because she wants artistic control. And she has always turned out to be right. If Clive had had his way, she wouldn't have sold nearly as many albums as she did.

As with all such anonymously sourced gossip-page tirades, this is all to be taken with a grain of salt. But could that $250,000-per-album rate be correct? We know those Idol contracts are cheap, but dang—that guy who used to get up and skank with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones was pulling down at least that much back in 1993!

MUSIC MOGUL CRAMPING KELLY [Page Six]