Starlets Hit the High Notes

From Music Sensation to the Big Screen The hottest accessory for young starlets this year isn't a piece of jewelry or a pair of shoes. The must-have perk is something a bit harder to come by -- a recording contract.

The door to what Mike Joy calls the Oval Office is open, and there will be more than enough summons to be written. Real singers need experience and plenty of training. My voice teacher will probably be writing summons for these teen starlets to appear in the Oval Office because none of these starlets have talent. ^..^ :-)

Here's what I think:

Renée Fleming, Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Denyce Graves, (and even my voice teacher and ourselves who are classically trained) would not have received a deal this quickly. It takes years of experience to hit those notes. These new pop stars are being sent fast-track to stardom without regards for anything.

For the record, NASCAR won't allow a driver with no racing experience or anyone under 18 to start in a National Series (Nextel Cup, Busch Series, Craftsman Truck) race. The NBA and MLB won't allow a player who hasn't finished high school from entering the pros, and the NFL requires three years of college before turning professional.

But why are these pop stars receiving recording deals without as much a single note of experience?

But how, oh how, can you sell with no experience? Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, or even Brian Vickers wouldn't be in Nextel Cup without having enough Busch Series experience.
Look at why Casey Mears is finally reaching his potential in Nextel Cup now instead of earlier as a rookie -- inexperience.
Remember in the music field Luciano Pavarotti didn't even make it on the stage until he was in his 30's.

Apples and oranges. Like it or not Bobby, Britney Spears' debut effort alone outsold Pavorati's lifetime sales figures in America. You can ask "how" until the cows come home, and it won't change the irrefutable, "it sells". This isn't NASCAR Bobby, and the comparison doesn't fly.

So one more time, the answer to your question, "But why are these pop stars recieving recording deals without as much a single note of experience?" is a two word answer: Record Sales. They're recieving record contracts because the record companies are MAKING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS by signing these starlettes.

Bobby, this might surprise you, but while music may be an art, the music recording industry is a business. The idea is to sell shiny little discs for P-R-O-F-I-T. Now you can whine all day that you don't like what they're selling, but you can't in good conscience say that selling it is a bad business decision.

So talent doesn't make the equation in finding the next big singer, such as a Renée Fleming, José Carreras, Placido Domingo, Denyce Graves, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Deborah (Nose Tackle) Voigt, or even your local classical singer, and the only thing which matters is name recognition and the beat, where a factory can form the artist the way they can. Somehow, I think there's too many cups of coffee around the bend.

If you have the looks, have the recognition, fake it, and let others do the work, you get a deal. Are we going back to the days of Fabrice Morvan and the late Rob Pilatus where it turned out they were fakes only after the fact and they had gained fame? (Mr. Morvan has since become a solo alternative artist, from reports I have read, performing in California clubs.)

At the American Music Awards, Miss Duff faked a song completely, which would have sent my voice teacher into waving the black flag and sending her to the Oval Office.

What labels are doing with teen starlets can be compared to an NFL team signing a 22-year old, 350-pound person with no experience in playing competitve sport to play nose guard or a 18-year old with no racing experience being signed to drive a Nextel Cup car, let alone at Talladega or Darlington. That won't cut it. It's not like Brock Lesnar (Minnesota) signing a tryout deal with the Minnesota Vikings. (There have been some former college wrestlers who have played in the NFL.)

Did Joe Gibbs sign Christopher (J. J.) Yeley to a NASCAR Busch Series deal before or after Mr. Yeley won three classes of US Auto Club open wheel cars in 2003? Yeley had to have the success at the lower levels before earning the ticket to a national series. Gibbs couldn't sign the deal until Yeley was a proven winner in lower levels. Same can be said for Busch points leader Martin Truex Jr -- he had to prove himself at regional levels before Dale Jr gave him the call for a full season this year, his second year at the national level.

Melas, Sony BMG artist Caedmon's Call was an independent band from Texas touring across many colleges before they were signed to a deal, first by the now-defunct Warner Alliance, and then to the Japanese-German giant's Essential label. Could Sony BMG have signed them off the bat after forming, or did they wait years before signing the group? Of course they waited until later.

It is a bad business decision to go for an unproven entity than to go with someone who has a track record of success at lower levels. When you're signing someone for the next level, you look for people who have succeeded at the lower levels. You don't sign someone who is an entry-level worker to be CEO of the company. You go for people who have been there and are a loyal worker and have the best reputation. Lowe's (which I hold shares) is an example of this -- President Bob Tillman (who retires at the end of January) is a career employee at Lowe's who rose to the top of the company from the entry level jobs at the stores to store manager, and upper management, and in the late 1980's, devised the strategy which gave the struggling North Carolina firm a leg up, and made it into a national giant. His successor is also in the Lowe's hierarchy in the North Wilkesboro offices.

What labels are doing with the teen starlets is to hire someone off the streets with no experience at management to head a Forbes 400 company, and that won't work. (Of course, as a Fox News fan, I'd say Forbes, because they work with FNC.)

I'm starting to think you're being intentionally obtuse.

While that's an impressive amount of name dropping, you almost got the point. Yes, marketability trumps talent. At the moment the trend seems to be mostly dressed teen singers, and yes, for the moment that's where the money is. Need I even point out that money is what this is about?

What labels are doing with teen starlets can be compared to an NFL team signing a 22-year old, 350-pound person with no experience in playing competitve sport to play nose guard or a 18-year old with no racing experience being signed to drive a Nextel Cup car, let alone at Talladega or Darlington. That won't cut it. It's not like Brock Lesnar (Minnesota) signing a tryout deal with the Minnesota Vikings. (There have been some former college wrestlers who have played in the NFL.)

Bobby, that's a downright idiotic comparison, and in addition to saying it's stupid, I'll show why it's stupid. It's stupid because you're forgetting this is about money. A big football player with no experience and no training isn't going to win games. Winning games sells tickets and merchandise, which of course mean MONEY. So, of course you're not going to hire a no-talent lineman. No talent lineman don't make you any money.

However, teenagers with little or no talent ARE are making money for those who sign them. See how easy that was? Untrained lineman = bad because untrained lineman doesn't make you money. No talent teenage singer = good, because untalented teenage singer will MAKE YOU MONEY.

There is simply no debating that fact Bobby. Britney, Xtina, Duff, etc etc, have made their labels MONEY. It's a done deal, they made people money, and made themselves fortunes in the process. It cannot be argued differently, but I see you'll need further examples.

Melas, Sony BMG artist Caedmon's Call was an independent band from Texas touring across many colleges before they were signed to a deal, first by the now-defunct Warner Alliance, and then to the Japanese-German giant's Essential label. Could Sony BMG have signed them off the bat after forming, or did they wait years before signing the group? Of course they waited until later.

How much money has Caedmon's Call (a band I've never heard of) made for it's label? Chances are that Caedmon's Call is one of the unprofitable artsy charity cases that labels pick up from time to time. I hear sometimes they even generate a SMALL amount of money touring. Whooop. Who made their label more Bobby, Britney in her freshman debut, or Caedmon's Call's complete catalogue?

It is a bad business decision to go for an unproven entity than to go with someone who has a track record of success at lower levels. When you're signing someone for the next level, you look for people who have succeeded at the lower levels. You don't sign someone who is an entry-level worker to be CEO of the company. You go for people who have been there and are a loyal worker and have the best reputation. Lowe's (which I hold shares) is an example of this -- President Bob Tillman (who retires at the end of January) is a career employee at Lowe's who rose to the top of the company from the entry level jobs at the stores to store manager, and upper management, and in the late 1980's, devised the strategy which gave the struggling North Carolina firm a leg up, and made it into a national giant. His successor is also in the Lowe's hierarchy in the North Wilkesboro offices.

Yeah, it's been such bad business to sign these kids Bobby. They studios that signed them are laughing all the way to the bank. Bobby, it's bad business these days to even continue carrying a classical catalogue. Labels only do so out of charity.

I won't even bother ripping yet another ill-concieved analogy (this time Lowes, a hardware store) to shreds, but I wan't you to keep in mind that I had chose to do so, I could have written paragraphs about how selling records to teenagers has nothing in commen with pushing 2x4's and hammers to middle aged guys in overalls.

What labels are doing with the teen starlets is to hire someone off the streets with no experience at management to head a Forbes 400 company, and that won't work. (Of course, as a Fox News fan, I'd say Forbes, because they work with FNC.)

Bobby, here is the meat and potatoes of my post. You are damned good at saying things, but you never demonstrate via logic anything you say. There is a maxim in writing, "Don't say it, show it." Show me Bobby, show me it won't work. You can't. I have on the other hand via example have showed you that not only can it work, that it does work, and most imporantly that it demonstrably HAS WORKED. Fortunes are being made Bobby. These CD's are flying off the shelves. You can't honestly say "It won't work", when in fact it IS (look up the definition of IS) working like gangbusters.

Melas wrote:

That is the paradox of business. Some top label bosses have been dumped because they prefer signing someone who has the ability, has made it through the lower levels, and can make it to the top. In 2000, Word, a major Nashville record label (I owned interest in the label's parent company at the time), lost top management after losing money based on spending millions of dollars to overhype one artist. While that artist has sold millions and gained television exposure, the overspending on that one artist (whose star has faded a bit at 19 now) cost Word millions, and many at the label were dumped because of the overspending. Similar overspending is under way for these teen starlets. How many times will the no-talents, even with a marketing overhype, will die out?

The labels will just hype the artists as the top draw in order to make a return on their rich investments. They have to pour millions into hyping their stars and into advertising into pushing these teen starlets in order to get sales. Talent isn't doing the job; rather, it is the overhype you hear on children's radio, pop radio, or children's television programming. The irony is today, the labels aren't owned by public companies, so accountability is not as important as it was then. They would rather lose money on an unproven star with hype, than make money on an artist who doesn't need the hype and can be a consistent winner. While Ray Evernham has invested in Kasey Kahne's career, he has made some decent returns as an NNCS rookie, but won't be a top draw for a few years. If Kahne doesn't make the Chase for the Championship in his rookie year, will Evernham think of it as a disappointment if he locks up the Rookie of the Year? While the New Jersey Giants put an investment in Eli Manning, it will take him a while to start. Will it be likely that he would start Super Bowl XXXIX in his first season?

In both cases, no. The Maras and Evernhams of this world know very well you can't be a megastar out of the box. They know their prized prospects will take time to develop. Witness why Kurt Warner was chosen by the G-men to back up Manning.

With the pop stars on the market today, they are wanting their hot young star to have a Grammy winning, chart-topping, multiple platinum selling album with at least three #1 hits immediately with massive airplay on Radio Disney and other radio formats immediately. That's the equivalent of having a Nextel Cup or Super Bowl for a prized rookie. You will not have that, people. They want a diva, a hot star who wins everything immediately. I don't see it happening.

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