Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A Clive Conspiracy?


As if I need to remind you, Kelly Clarkson’s “My December” hits stores today. You can also buy a deluxe version on iTunes with three bonus tracks (“Dirty Little Secret” and two remixes of “Never Again”).

Despite all the controversy, I think Kelly will hit #1 next week (although “Hannah Montana 2” will give her a run for her money), especially since all of the major retailers are pricing the CD below $10. How long she stays at the top will be another story…

Last week, I got an e-mail from a friend of mine about all of the controversy. He said that he hoped Kelly found a new label because he had never seen a record label try to kill a CD like RCA has tried to kill this one.

I appreciated his thought because it made me think that I am not the only one who smells a Clive conspiracy…

As my friend said, “Never Again” was doing fine until all the stories started. The song debuted at #8, but with each bad story, the song slid further and further down the charts. And more and more radio stations took it off their playlists, or refused to play it at all.

Since Clive made his initial comments to a large group of people (Sony/BMG execs), he had to know they would get out. Maybe he even leaked them himself. Why would he do that you ask? So he could break Kelly and bring her back in line. By badmouthing it to anyone who would listen—forcing Kelly to discuss it in the press—he doomed the album to failure so for the next one, Kelly would be more likely to do it his way.

And before you label Kelly as petulant or egotistic—as many have—let me remind you about a few things concerning St. Clive…

Regardless of what he may say, he is not responsible for the success of “Since U Been Gone.” Yes, he gave the song to Kelly, but it was Kelly that found the right producers to give the pop song more of a rock feel.

And Kelly’s first album (which Clive executive produced), “Thankful,” which everyone seems to be calling a pop masterpiece these days? It was a total mess. It shifted from pop to R&B to country without ever settling on a genre, which is why it only had one radio hit (“Miss Independent”). But we all seem to have forgotten that now…

All of this has overshadowed the most important thing—the CD itself. It is a good CD. I’ve heard it a least a dozen times, and I like it more each time. Yes, it is different than the Kelly we’re used to, but it is not so totally different from Evanescence or Hinder, or a number of other groups getting airplay now. So what’s the problem?

The conspiracy continues…

For more on this story, I encourage you to check out this article from my new hero, Ann Powers of the “Los Angeles Times”:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-clarkson26jun26,1,251010.story?track=rss&ctrack=3&cset=true...