Either way, it wasn't just a rumor. Sony is just caving to the pressure and press. If she were a cult artists like Fiona Apple, we'd have an Extraordinary Machine on our hands: a disc that wouldn't come out for at least a year after it was made. But because it's chart-topping, platinum-selling Kelly Clarkson...

The Playlist

Clarkson's previous hits, especially the expertly constructed "Since U Been Gone," have gained her surprising cachet among indie-rock fans. According to Ted Leo, an indie-rock elder statesman whose hard-to-find cover of Clarkson's hit has become a cult classic (and laid bare the song's borrowings from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' punk ballad "Maps"), what's interesting is the artfulness of their larceny.

"The song is great, and Kelly Clarkson sings it fantastically, but one of the things that makes it great is what a cheap trick it is - it was a perfectly cynical amalgamation of everything that was 'hot' and 'edgy' in pop music that year," he commented.

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Thatgirl