The Grammy committee must have been on some raw uncut shit when they decided to run this ad...
I mean...I don't get it. There's NO comparison between these two artists. This ad has the audacity to imply the "apples and oranges" comparison with Aretha and Christina. With all due respect to Christina, she's got miles to go before she can even affect a mere fraction of the influence that Aretha has in the realm of popular music. This ad reminds me of when Ashanti was given the Aretha Franklin Award at the 2002 Soul Train Awards. At that point, she was a new artist that hadn't even been on the charts for a full year. It's all laughable in the long run, because her career experienced a steady decline since her
debut album was released that year.
Speaking of Aretha, it reminds me of an interview on allhiphop.com where Joss Stone confesses to essentially stalking Mrs. Franklin in attempts to land a duet on Stone's sophomore album, to no avail. Big Ree-Ree basically took the passive-aggressive approach, which adds to the comedic nature of the story...
http://allhiphop.com/stories/alternatives/archive/2007/03/12/18135669.aspx
Blankly put: Aretha's a legend. Even if she's accumulated more pounds than hits over the past few decades, her resume speaks volumes. If anyone is going to be put on a scale with her (no pun intended), they're going to have to be worth their weight in gold. Today's industry is filled with artists that are ascribed a legendary status even before their debut album hits the street. They're virtual celebrities by association with stints on reality TV series, magazine profiles and cover stories, and rants on celebrity worship blogs. All of these criteria feed the hype machine and dictate a new artist's worth before their records have actually been released. Just think...If Aretha had to compete with the same media machine back in 1967, her incomparable voice would have fallen on deaf ears. The world would have truly missed out on a great talent, indeed.
Oddly enough, it seems that this is exactly what the industry wants: deaf ears. Their intention seems to be to steer critical attention away from the vocal ability towards the energy and hype that the music and the media creates. Enough ranting for now...
3 comments:
Amen on this rant dude! But did you really just spell exactly with an "s"? Wow! I mean I know the blogging world is crazy, but c'mon Ricoluv!
How bout Ciara? What about them goodies?I still shake my head. I was pulled in LA (Reid's) office during an A&R-off between Ciara and some other chic. The winner would be the next female release ...Ciara won. I wasn't truly feeling it (nor the other chic), but you know..sometimes (and most times nowaday), stars are made and produced, not born.
Frown, frown.
About that "s"...yeah...um, you can blame these kats for teaching me to misspell as a shortie:
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e55/superbizzee/evilsesamestreet-1gif.png
And, yes, I vividly remember the Ciara/ Natasha Ramos (the "other chic") face off. Neither one was vocally talented. But this industry has progressively been campaigning for the style over substance platform hardcore over the past 10 years. Goodies was a good pop album, but all the production and song writing in the world can't disguise the fact that Ciara can't sing very well.
The problem is that all these kids growing up listening to this stuff are under the impression that artists like Ciara are templates for good vocal talent!
Speaking of Aretha, I'm sure you heard about her belly achin' over Beyonce's generous intro to Tina Turner:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_on_en_mu/people_aretha_franklin
Eh, with no TV in my apt (which is pretty blissful, tv is overrated!), I did not hear about this. Cat fight in diva-land. Can't we all just get along?!!
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