[DanceWithLife]

The Kelly News Thread #9 - All her "Dirty Little Secrets" are in here!





If you find any articles, blurbs, magazine scans, news about appearances, etc... Post it in here! Share all and any Kelly news with the fans

Links to old threads:

Kelly News #1
Kelly News #2- We love hearing new NEWS about our Kel!
http://www.fanforum.com/f206/kelly-n...ght-now-65101/
http://www.fanforum.com/f206/kelly-n...-all-62773292/
The Kelly News thread #5 ~ Kelly Drought? What Kelly drought?!
The Kelly News Thread #6 - Cause she's everywhere, yet we can't get enough of her!
The Kelly News Thread #7 - We're thankful that she could breakaway and be a star!
The Kelly News Thread #8 - Because The Whirlwind Is Back On!!

[DanceWithLife]

The article makes a lot of commentary as to where Kelly's going, what will happen next and comparing her to other albums that caused such a stir....but overall a really interesting read, and a very good review.



Chicago Tribune news | Registration

Will Kelly Clarkson survive clash with record company?

By Greg Kot
Tribune music critic
Published June 22, 2007


There are few sure things in pop music, but bet on this: Natalie Maines and the rest of the Dixie Chicks know exactly what Kelly Clarkson is going through right now, and not just because they all are from Texas.

With a career-at-the-crossroads album, "My December" (RCA), coming out Tuesday, Clarkson is shaping up as this year's version of the Dixie Chicks.

The Chicks tried to reinvent themselves on their 2006 album, "Taking the Long Way," while ticking off radio programmers and the White House, alienating fans and canceling underselling tour dates with their increasing outspokenness. A few days ago, Clarkson canceled her summer arena tour because of poor ticket sales and fired her manager. She's also been feuding with the chairman of her record label, Clive Davis, over the direction of her new album.

Sound familiar?

Here's the kicker: "Taking the Long Way" wasn't nearly the radical departure from the Chicks' country-pop sound that last year's uproar suggested, and neither is "My December" the radio-phobic dud Davis apparently believes it is. On the contrary, it's fascinating that pop albums so well-crafted, so thoroughly middle-of-the-road, so undeniably catchy in spite of their more personal lyrical tone, could stir up such outrage.

For the Chicks' fall from grace, politics certainly played a major role in how the music was perceived. They had the temerity to criticize President Bush for invading Iraq, and their fan base protested by refusing to buy their albums and concert tickets. For Clarkson, it's politics of a different sort that threatens her career. Without the enthusiastic support of Davis -- a powerbroker who launched the careers of Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow and Whitney Houston, among others -- Clarkson could find herself short of the kind of marketing muscle required to prop up a major hit.

The Clarkson-Davis spat says a lot about how our entertainment gurus like to package things for consumers in neat little boxes. And when an entertainer tries to push out of that box, the gurus get nervous. They fear that change and growth can't be good, because those variables make it more difficult to predict public acceptance and massive sales. To follow that logic, Kelly Clarkson and the Dixie Chicks would've been better off by staying exactly as they once were, rather than jeopardizing their record companies' profit margins by thinking for themselves.

The Clarkson controversy offers the latest twist on the old art vs. commerce debate, and the stakes are unusually high: Clarkson not only won the first "American Idol" competition in 2002, which instantly elevated the Texas waitress to celebrity status, she made something of it. After a mild-mannered debut album, she racked up 10 million sales and two Grammy Awards with her 2004 release, "Breakaway." The record was more aggressive in tone, and recast Clarkson as an Avril Lavigne-style pop-rocker, with production from John Shanks (who has worked with Ashlee Simpson) and Max Martin (the songwriter-producer behind Britney Spears). Not exactly groundbreaking, but it showed there was more to Clarkson than originally imagined.

Buoyed by that success, RCA is counting on "My December" to lift the label out of the sales doldrums. In the past, the big labels counted on their biggest hitters, whether U2, Madonna or Mariah Carey, to rack up huge numbers to make up for the rest of the underperforming albums on the roster. With sales down 16 percent industrywide this year, the pressure is on Clarkson to deliver a blockbuster.

It's a sick business model, but it's the world that Clive Davis helped create and that "American Idol" has plugged into. As the most successful of the "Idol" singers, Clarkson was groomed to play by the rules, and on her first two albums she pretty much did as she was told.

But "My December" finds Clarkson trying to develop a personality. Bad idea, in the eyes of King Clive. Davis' criticism of the disc stems in part from his time-tested belief that an artist's success hinges on catchy pop singles, and he was distressed that Clarkson stopped working with the producers who helped her craft "Breakaway." He didn't feel the songwriting was up to snuff, and he told Clarkson as much a few weeks ago.

As the title would suggest, "My December" isn't exactly the feel-good album of the year. A nasty breakup underlines many of the lyrics and betrayal and despair shade many of the songs. The kickoff track, "Never Again," echoes the spiteful tone of Alanis Morissette's 1995 breakthrough hit, "You Oughta Know."

"I hope the ring you gave to her/Turns her finger green/I hope when you're in bed with her/You think of me," Clarkson hisses.

On "Sober," she compares her recovery from a soured relationship to an alcoholic addiction she can't shake. "Irvine" concludes the album with a last-ditch prayer, a sparse tour de force built on voice, acoustic guitar and a wordless backing choir. It makes an impact in part because it's so totally unexpected: No listener coming to this track cold would guess that the singer ever had anything to do with "American Idol" and its florid displays of ballad-belting.

Yet, despite its sometimes wrenching lyrics, "My December" doesn't come off as a pity party. The radio-friendly hooks -- and the potential hits -- are still very much in evidence. Producer David Kahne (who produced hit albums by Sugar Ray and Sublime) knows how to massage songs into shiny objects designed for mass consumption as well as the singer's previous producers did. "Haunted" pushes the singer into the goth-pop terrain of Evanescence. And the petulant guitar pop of "Don't Waste Your Time" sounds as if it would've fit nicely on Lavigne's latest album, which has been in the Billboard Top 10 for weeks.

Kahne also deftly replicates some moves from his old new-wave days with Romeo Void and the Bangles, and the punchy guitar riffs in "Hole" and "How I Feel," the jabbing keyboards of "One Minute" and "Judas" and the faux-soul horns of "Yeah" suit Clarkson well.

Even when she professes to feel numb, as on "Hole," Clarkson doesn't wallow in histrionics. Though she occasionally flirts with the showboating vocal tics that "Idol" has turned into a national pastime, for the most part her performances are lean and combative. The songs are all pretty conventionally structured, and build to the type of choruses her fans -- including those from the "Idol" days -- will expect and recognize.

It's a smartly accomplished pop album, nothing more, nothing less, and it shows Clarkson is going to be around a bit longer than the 15 minutes allotted to even the most celebrated "Idols" contestants.

Like the Dixie Chicks, she's probably going to take a hit at the box office. But like her fellow Texans, she's starting to earn something she once lacked: credibility.

The key question then becomes: If sales dive, will Clarkson still insist on taking the high road? Or will she even have that choice?

greg@gregkot.com

[Melanie95]

Thanks for the new thread!

[drastikblinder]

great article...thanks for the new thread and love the title.

[KCsGirl]

nice article.. and love the picture in the opening post.

[drastikblinder]

don't forget Kelly will be on Leno tonight

[UltimateFan]

Thanks for the new thread! And also thanks for the article and the reminder about Leno!

[bkat73]

thanks for that article. i have so much more respect for her that she took the high road (not that my respect for her was ever in question anyway) and turned down the $10 million and i do believe if given the choice again she would do things her way. shes so head strong not afraid to fail she's become such a role model for people in my opinion. do what you love, fight for what you believe and don't let money rule your life... above all do what makes you happy. i love her even more after all these articles praising her for acting like this.

[DanceWithLife]

Thanks for the reminder about Leno!
I can't wait to see her perform.

Also...new NASCAR ad with Kelly debuting on Sunday!

American Idol Blog | 6/22: Sample Kelly's new CD!

Here’s a NASCAR press release I just got: NASCAR will break a new campaign with pop singing sensation Kelly Clarkson on TNT during the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. (Sunday, June 24, 2 p.m., ET) The new spot features the song “One Minute,” from Kelly’s highly anticipated album “My December,” which releases Tuesday, June 26th. The ad will run through the summer months. It was filmed during Kelly’s appearance and performance at the 2007 Daytona 500 where Kelly sang “One Minute” along with “Miss Independent” and “Since You Been Gone.” “One Minute” made its worldwide debut at this pre-race performance. Kelly was also spokesperson for NASCAR Day, and she will perform at the. NASCAR Awards Dinner in NYC during Champion’s Week. Her relationship with NASCAR is the largest and most wide-ranging deal the sanctioning body has inked with a major artist.

[joiefanforever]

Woohoo KC and Nascar still going strong! I love Nascar and KC so I am so stoked to hear about her performing during Champions Week in NYC! Kelly was so amazing on Leno tonight! She looked great!

[DanceWithLife]

PEOPLE magazine has a great new video on their website showing Kelly answering some fans questions as well as a behind the scene look at her new photoshoot with PEOPLE. So I'm assuming she'll be in PEOPLE magazine shortly

Behind the Scenes: Kelly Clarkson - Kelly Clarkson : People.com

[drastikblinder]

awesome!! Love the behind the scenes vids we've been getting

Here's the link to Kelly's performances on Leno. She looked great and sounded great as usual...and there's a couple interviews too.

Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC: Toyota Concert Series � NBC Official Site

[DanceWithLife]

Wow, that performance of Sober was just gut-wrenchingly beautiful. I got chills.

And is it just me or did Kelly look really emotional at the very end of it?

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful performance!

And Never Again was just amazing. I think one of my favorite Never Again performances so far.

[ultimate_kc_fan]

Love the title!

Thanks for the links, and her performances on Leno were fantastic

[drastikblinder]

Seeing her perform Sober was just amazing...so completely full of emotion. It was beautiful.