Who's That Girl?

The New York Times Magazine ^ | 8/03/02 (for editions of 8/4/02) | Lynn Hisrchberg

[GeneD]

Amanda Latona has a voice, but she needs a sound. It is January, and she is standing in a small, closetlike recording booth in Midtown Manhattan, where she is recording part of her first album for J Records. Her handlers are still trying to decide what kind of platinum-selling pop sensation she should be. Originally, the idea was that Latona, who is 23, should be Britney Spears. Latona admires Spears, and they almost performed together in Innosense, a girl group from the home of teen pop, Orlando, Fla. Innosense was designed to be an American version of the Spice Girls, but Britney left to pursue her solo career. Lately, Spears's star has fallen; her last record sold disappointingly, and her HBO special revealed that she can't sing live. With 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys dismantling and Christina Aguilera still recording the follow-up to her 1999 debut, the teen-pop phenomenon seems to have fizzled.

And yet Latona was signed to J Records in February 2001, with the idea that she would be that label's Britney. Of course, she couldn't be an exact replica; the executives at J know that it takes at least a year to record a debut album and that the public's taste -- especially that of 12-year-old girls -- shifts easily. Latona wasn't signed because she was an original artist. Like Britney, she was an attractive package: poised and pretty, Latona could be poured into various molds and carefully shaped to fit the marketplace. ''If her material is right,'' says Clive Davis, the C.E.O. of J Records, ''Amanda could do anything.''

(snip)

[GeneD]

I'm not posting a seven-page press release; but I had to post something just to state that if this is the future of pop music it's dire indeed.

Two more things: I'm surprised this article does not refer to Clive Davis by his formal first name Legendary; and I'm not surprised to learn that Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are alumni of The New Mickey Mouse Club.