In a message dated 9/3/2007 3:22:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Vadia wrote:

You're right;  it's not fair, but it's nothing new. It's the age old battle of money vs. art.  The radio business is a BUSINESS.  It's not fair and pretty much never has been, perennially rife with shady deals between record labels/promoters & radio stations.  Bottom line:  RCA determined that marketing tests -- however accurate or inaccurate they might be -- indicated Love Story would not do well on the radio so they chose not to back it with all-important marketing/promotion w/radio stations.  Therefore, radio stations didn't play it. Romeo at Z100 said as much.  I continue to throw in a request for Love Story every once in a while at my local radio stations because I do like Kat and the song.  But in the end, the sad reality is that the radio business, like most American business, is not about what people want or need, it's about how they can make the most money.

I know, V! It's a sad truth and one that has left a bitter taste in my mouth. It seems hard for me to believe that the public is just clamoring for the likes of "Gimme More" and requests are through the roof. Much more likely is that Britney's label is offering major incentives for air play in an effort to overcome her bad press and image train wreck. It's an unfair system.

Despite all that Kat has accomplished since Idol, I'm sure she is disappointed that all her efforts to promote the Debut CD did not produce better results. Without RCA's full support, all our requesting efforts fell on deaf ears.

Brittney has had a huge fan base for a long time and with all her troubles her fans are out in full force to try to get her a better image...IMHO  

The sad thing is this "song" is crap!  She does not display any musical ability just alot of moaning and repetitive "give me more", sounds like maybe she just recorded what has been going on in her bedroom these past months! 

I hate it and it's not "fair" but Kat is living a life to be proud of and, in the end, that's what really counts!  You can be rich, you can be famous, but happiness only comes in the way you choose to live your life and the people you love and who love you. No way we can compare Kat's CD success to B's. I'd take Kat's numbers and who she is over B's millions of cd sales and her trainwreck of a life trainwreck of a life.  Numbers are numbers and in and of themselves they mean NOTHING, it's how you live your life that speaks to who a person is. 

When Kat stands before God I know He won't be considering her CD sales as an accomplishment but rather how she lived her life and loved and served mankind! 

Posted By a3boymom on 09/03/2007 2:40 PM
When Kat stands before God I know He won't be considering her CD sales as an accomplishment but rather how she lived her life and loved and served mankind! 

 

I hope God really is a lot like Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty. Otherwise I may just decide to live forever so I don't ever have to face him.

A lot of the current pop crop seems to be an act that needs personality and attitude more than a voice.
I hate to see Katharine competing with them, because to me, that's not her. She can try to sing like them, or make records that sound like them, but in the final analysis the music isn't going to match the personality and everybody will know it and I just don't think it's going to work. She may not want to be America's Sweetheart anymore, but she's not Miss Edgier-Than-Thou either. There has to be a happy medium somewhere.

In a message dated 9/3/2007 5:29:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Vadia wrote:

If radio stations are playing her song then, you're right, the label is undoubtedy offering them major incentives to do so, but I doubt that it's to overcome Britney's bad press image, but instead to capitalize on it.  Bad or good, all the press Britney gets is still exposure, and the label is probably hoping to cash in on the public's "car crash" mentality.  Sorry if this sounds cynical, but it's probably the case.

That's why I prefer internet radio.

Excellent point, Vadia! Whether they are trying to overcome her image or capitalize on it, her label is putting the bucks and/or radio incentives behind the single to ensure a HIT! What makes me crazy is Shelley Wade trying to pitch the story that Z100 is playing Britney because of ALL the fan requests. Sorry, I don't buy it for a second! We all know just how effective our requests can be.

In a message dated 9/3/2007 3:32:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Pheenomenon wrote:

Yeah, crap like Britney spears racing up the charts and people don't like Katharine (She was voted 7th most popular in season 5 behind even Bucky and Mandisa) because they don't like her personality!
 
I give up on it. 

Katharine should be doing so much better than she is. The problem isn't with her, it is with the system and the stupid fans of popular music. Britney isn't even a real person, she is a manufactured product. She can't even sing. She is a spoiled brat. Talk about priviledged! She is all the things that Katharine gets accused of being! And she puts out some crap record and everyone buys it because of her "star quality".
 
I'm just as sick and mad about it as you are.
 
I think the only solution is to go the Adult Contemporary route a la Norah Jones. Not that musical style necessarily , but that way of being marketed and to appeal to that audience. Norah isn't being hated and insulted all over the internet and competing with the likes of Britney Spears for the attention of a lot of spoiled brat teenagers. Norah has respect. I don't think you can get any real respect in the pop market, people just wait for you to fail so they can hate on you.
 
And now Katharine is off for the rest of the year making movies. Well, I don't blame her, she has put so much into this and been so professional about it, the touring, the performing, the interviews and she has got very little back for it. She must be very disappointed.

I totally understand your frustration, Phee. Like V said, this is clearly MONEY over ART where radio is concerned. Britney is a troubled individual and not my idea of a role model for our youth. However, in the Pop World, it's not about talent or great music. It's about image. It seems the people who buy Britney's type of music are into the whole "bad girl" thing. I guess the more negative publicity she gets, the more CD's she'll sell. Especially when her label is making sure she gets heavy radio play.

Kat is just out of place in that edgy world and the deck is stacked against her without RCA's full support. She will love making movies and I do hope that she takes her music in a different direction when she records again. The "Pop" market is so generic where singers are concerned and doesn't fully reveal her true talent anyway. Personally, I'm thankful for Kat's wholesome image and the fact that she makes levelheaded decisions. With peer pressure and negative influences everywhere, young girls need more role models like Kat!

You don't have to worry about Britney. She is on a path of major destruction to her image and popularity

9/4/07 from the national ledger

--National Ledger

 Los Angeles- Britney Spears needs a big comeback move. The VMA's are high risk but with some major airbrushing perhaps she could swing a big-time comeback within the pages of Playboy. Many have speculated that since she flashes paparazzi on a regular basis - it would likely benefit her to go in a classy mag like Playboy to give her career a boost.

But Star Magazine claims that Playboy has said no to the wild child starlet. Star reports that in her quest to resurrect her stalled career, pop star Britney Spears turned to Playboy for help.

The only problem: The popular men's magazine didn't want her! "They [told her] that she'd need to clean herself up and get in shape to be Playboy-centerfold quality," says a friend of the singer. Being spotted several times going commando didn't help.

Now Britney may have to hope that magician Criss Angel can make her career re-appear from the ash heap on which it has landed.

Or, how Frankie Avalon came to be stuck on my bedroom door.

"There was lollipop with-a Peggy Sue Good Golly, Miss Molly was-a even there, too! A-well-a, Splish Splash, I forgot about the bath I went and put my dancin' shoes on, yay... " Splish Splash 1958 Bobby Darin

"Turn me loose, Turn me loose, I say. Gonna rock and roll As long as the band's gonna play." Turn Me Loose 1959 Fabian

"Some people call me a Teenage Idol, Some people say they envy me. I guess they got no way of knowing How lonesome I can be." Teen Age Idol 1962 Ricky Nelson

"And they called it Puppy Love Just because we're seventeen. Tell them all, oh, please tell them It isn't fair to take away my only dream..." Puppy Love 1960 Paul Anka

"Forget him, If he doesn't love you. Forget him, If he doesn't care..."   Forget Him 1964 Bobby Rydell

I grabbed the above off this site just for an example. There were dozens more just like this in the 50s.

The record companies would hire "talent scouts" who would find presentable kids with the right look. They were then packaged for the teen pop market. They were told how to dress, how to move, how to talk, how to act. They were complete products with little or no talent. Usally some silly new dance was invented for them and a movie or two or a television series.The teens ate them up.

The real music was being made by the likes ofLittle Richard, Check Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino etc.

The 60s and 70s tended more to actual talent, singer/songwriters, groups who had got together by themselves before being discovered. There were still manufactured acts like "The Monkees" and "The Bay City Rollers" who were creations of marketing companies rather than genuine musicians.

The 80s and 90s and beyond had their share of manufactured acts too like Back Street Boys, Menudo, N' Sync etc. etc. there are far too many and I never followed this stuff so I just don't know them all.

There is always a bit of crossover - some manufactured acts that actually go on to become real talents and some individuals who actually have a little talent but start off as manufactured acts.

The trend today I think is leaning more toward the manufactured act than the truly talented. Britney and Hilary and Timberlake come from the manufactured side of the fence. I'm not going to argue about whether they actually have any talent as I have never listened to them.

Katharine has very real talent and beauty and personality and humour besides. She should be a huge star based entirely on who she is. She should be sold for herself, they shouldn't be trying to package and market her as the competition is being packaged and marketed.

Sure a big part of any successful act, even the ones with huge talent is image and marketing and packaging but too often these days that is all that there is.

As someone at R4M said - she should be trying to stand out, not fit in.

So yes, I think a consensus is developing here -  let Katharine be herself and stop trying to package her for the pop market.

Unfortunately the "herself" here is how WE want to see her, not necessarily how SHE wants to be seen.

It's real easy to blame RCA for Kat's mediocre album sales, BUT:

-Kat HERSELF wanted to do pop, to put out music "for people her own age".

-RCA wanted Kat to continue with the kind of music she sang on AI.

So noone has 'packaged' Kat for the pop market, rather she is just showing a side she kept hidden on AI. In fact, that's a good part of the whole sales problem with her album. In order to compete in the pop world you NEED to be slickly packaged, and Kat wasn't. Sure, they dressed her up for the occasion, but it always came off as the 'rainbow girl-next-door' wearing a costume.

I'm not sure what Katharine wants.

She has talked up every song she has performed, from BOA at the rose parade, Over It, Love Story. Of course she must talk them up when they are current. Then afterwards she has trashd Over It. She initially said that this was exactly the album she wanted to make but then later she has indicated at least half of it is not of her choice and she had to compromise.

She is (mostly) being diplomatic and trying not to say anything too negative about her own album.

I find it hard to believe that after 20 years of musical training an by the songs she chose to sing on Idol that her first choice o new music to make would be a lot tracks bought "off the rack" and then overproduced in the studio by people who's main talent is to make people without any talent sound good.

Anway, that is mostly what she got! I'm sure she would have been swayed by all of these experts in the studio.

It isn't even that the songs are bad, just the over done arrangements. These same songs done more like we have heard them in VH1 and AOL sessions would have been a better showcase for her talent.

Of course then some say those would have bombed even worse.

Anyway, I just hope the next record takes a very different tack and she decides not to try to be the next Britney or Beyonce or Fergie.

Hah - I didn't know Paul Anka was