The Kelly Clarkson Apology
What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where acts apologize to their labels?
We’ve come full circle now. From the acts taking control in the late sixties to the executives being the talent, believing they’re the acts.
Oh, too young to remember the sixties? Well, one of the big advances was that the acts gained control of the inner sleeve. Rather than promoting the other wares of the label, the inner sleeve could contain artwork, or lyrics, whatever the act wished.
Which is what the rest of the album cover looked like too. Whatever the act wanted it to. Oh, there were some battles, over perceived obscenity, like with the Stones’ "Beggar’s Banquet", but never forget that the Beatles released an album with no artwork, now referred to as the "White Album", a commentary on how over the top other packages had become.
As to what came inside, on that shiny round disc, by the seventies, the acts just delivered the records. They recorded them by themselves and all the label did was release them. And, the label had no choice! That was in the contract, that they had to put them out.
And what happened? An unprecedented run-up in sales. To the point where major conglomerates swooped down and purchased record labels, for the cash they threw off. Yes, most of Warner Communications’ growth was funded by its record labels. That Time Warner Cable bill you pay every month? A cut should go to Ahmet and Mo, it’s their acumen that generated the profits that allowed what is now known as Time Warner to lay the pipe.
And how did Ahmet and Mo do it? By fucking with the acts?
No, by supporting the acts.
And where was Clive Davis in this golden era?
Well, first he was at CBS, where he claims he single-handedly brought the company into the future. And, I might believe that, except for the fact that after being booted, and starting again at Arista, his roster looked nothing like the one at CBS. CBS continued to have credible, career acts. Arista released evanescent pop. Doubt me? Check the catalog sales of what was released on Arista as opposed to, let’s say, Boston’s debut. Or Meat Loaf’s.
And people still don’t want the stuff that Clive built. Whitney Houston’s sales per year are pitiful. Even the vaunted Patti Smith, one of the credible artists who stayed with Arista as opposed to the acts like Lou Reed who tore their hair out under Clive’s tutelage and exited the domain.
You see Clive likes control. He’s got the definition of a hit in his head. And, it works in the Top Forty world. A world where he spends a fortune to make a little. I’ve got no problem with that. Except that the whole business became skewed in his direction. Donnie Ienner, his old head of promotion, ran Top Forty records up the chart at Columbia and Charles Koppelman did the same at SBK/EMI.
End result? The stockholders, seeing this action, ousted people like Mo. Who built career acts that paid off like slot machines every few years.
And the new controlled business, where the exec is king? It has presided over an unprecedented spiral down the toilet. Yes, it’s Clive and the rest of the high-living experts that are in control as sales plummet.
So along comes Kelly Clarkson. Who like every young ‘un unburdened by history does what she feels inside. Believing she can win because the attrition hasn’t rubbed off her optimism yet.
Kelly Clarkson was RIGHT! Don’t you ever forget it. She’s the artist. She only has one career. She gets to steer.
Not Clive Davis, who only needs something to hit. Who presides over artists that come and go. Kelly was standing up for every major label artist known to man.
So then what happens? I’ve got to believe her new manager got to her. Said she had to mend fences. Keep the old man happy. In public?
Why the fuck is she apologizing on her Website. Do you think the hoi polloi, her fans, care about Clive Davis? Not a whit. Clive spreads the word he’s important, the press buys it, but the public doesn’t fucking care.
If she’s gonna mend fences, do it in private. Instead, she sacrifices all her credibility in one fell swoop pledging fealty to a tyrant running roughshod over the record business. Good move Kelly. It would be like Curt Flood suddenly going on "Wide World Of Sports" and apologizing to the commissioner of baseball. Yes, players should be indentured slaves. The crusty old men who own the teams, they must be able to rule with an iron fist. They should make all the money. Players should not be able to work for the highest bidder.
Get the analogy? Old execs should see their acts as their charges, who must do what they are told.
Kelly saying that Clive didn’t have to release her album. That’s how bad contracts have become. The people who make the music have no control! What about that famous story of Mercury refusing to release John Cougar Mellencamp’s "American Fool", saying it wasn’t commercial enough? It’s the artists who know music, who need to be in control and call the shots. Otherwise, we’re fucked. We end up with no Picassos in music. Oops, that’s what happened, the music got so blanded out, so forgettable, that sales went down and the customer spent his money elsewhere.
If this is an indication of the tack that Narvel Blackstock is taking, then I’m telling Kelly you got the old school hillbilly you deserved. Your customer is the fan, not Clive Davis. Your fans, those that exist, are with you. By apologizing to the old man, you’ve illustrated you’re a tool of the system, a laughable twit who seems to have been lobotomized, just like Jack Nicholson’s character in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest".
Kelly Clarkson released an album sans obvious Top Forty radio hits. That was her prerogative. If it ruins her career, so be it. Let her make the decisions. As opposed to complaining, like so many end up doing, that she was forced to follow the lead of her label and it killed her career.
Who thinks artists gaining control in the music industry is going to result in disaster. I say it will deliver quality music that could not be envisioned or foreseen by those who don’t make it. We’ve got to set the artists free, we can’t keep controlling them.
As for Kelly’s comments about Clive being 80 and out of touch, she’s absolutely correct. He doesn’t know what goes on in her world. And the world he is aware of, Top Forty radio and retail sales, keeps declining in importance.
After he dies, Clive will be forgotten. But great records live on forever. And great records are created from deep down in one’s soul, when one is free, without limits. Oftentimes these are not Top Forty records, although sometimes they are, like Brian Wilson’s "Good Vibrations". But one thing’s for sure, it’s these limit-testing songs that are remembered, not the fodder for the machine. Will Kelly Clarkson ever release timeless material? One thing I can guarantee you, not if Clive Davis is in control.