5.22.12 THE DARK SIDE - Post here if.....

[midwifespal]

Smokey,

Leaving the "new rules" aside (as I think it may be against the rules to discuss the rules ), I'll just say, from my personal perspective, that I think you've been totally fine up there.

Easier to say when you're not on the bottom of a growing pile, but those are the times when I try to step back and say in my best "german psychiatrist" accent: "hmmmmm.....verrrry verrry interresting..." and assume a stance of sociological and scientific superiority ;D ;D ;D 8-).

I may be the one person on the board who actually liked BTIKM as little or less than you did (or at least the only one willing to admit it ;D), so I totally get where you're coming from. However, I do genuinely enjoy NCOE, even though it is not my favorite song on the album, and do think it has great radio potential. I dunno--maybe it's somehow helpful to know that someone who doesn't automatically love everything that Adam produces likes this single. (In fact I have this annoying hypercritical thing that I sometimes slip into with his music, because I care so much and feel stupidly close to it all, similarly to how one tends to be hypercritical of ones own work, so that I sometimes have to tell myself: pretend this isn't Adam's song with all the attendant pressures and expectations, but just some ditty you heard on the radio--what would you think? Amazing how much easier that trick makes things!)

I follow numbers only loosely, and it's painless for me because it's something I follow more out of interest than out of emotional investment. Like Mika, I am far more emotionally invested in the critical response (and, entitled-fan-style, in my own reaction to the music). But based on that loose following I am far from discouraged yet. I think it's taking a while with radio because a) there is always a huge dose of luck involved, b) Adam just hasn't released a GREAT radio single yet (frankly, i was surprised WWFM did as well as it did, which shows you what I know), but IMO (worth very little) NCOE is pretty damn good and has legitimate radio potential, c) Adam isn't nearly a-list enough yet, especially several years out of his Idol heyday, to command automatic radio respect, and d) Adam doesn't fit into a tidy female-pop-diva/WGWG/teen-heart-throb/r&b/hip-hop box, which makes him a little more of a leap of faith for radio PDs. All of these problems seem to me to be eminently, and imminently, surmountable. Radio stations no doubt can tell the difference between a super-fan-driven request movement and a groundswell, but both will eventually get a good song heard, and I feel confident the former will lead to the latter. It'll just take a minute (tm Adam Lambert). The song, after all, is still slowly moving up the CHR charts here.

Remember: Adam is hardly one to go out on a limb about these things--I'd like a dollar for every time he's said "it's early days yet," or "let's just see how this thing does first," or "we'll see, hopefully." But he was absolutely definitive on the fact that he'll release a third single, and hopefully many more. That tells me he's not sweating the small stuff right now, and perhaps more importantly, that RCA isn't either. And I also think we could be seriously underestimating the publicity impact of these upcoming Queen performances. So chin up, buttercup. (If you want--feel free to wibble a bit in a corner if you'd prefer that. Totes understandable.)

Mika: Your post was so perfect. ITA--Adam's evident happiness is the best proof of all. Frankly, everything is so much more glorious this era than I had any right to expect that I can't bring myself to worry, whatever the slow slow slow numbers might suggest. I confess I simply did not expect to like the album as much as I do. And I don't like every song on it, but almost all of them, and there are a couple on there that just took me completely by surprise and swept me off my feet all over again. Can I ask, mika--and ignore at will, of course--but I haven't seen you respond personally to the album songs yet, other than your lovely response to Runnin and your comment, early on, that you liked Adam's more original numbers better. Do you have a favorite song? Or a few? How 'bout the rest of you peeps?

Juniemoon: Yup. "I just wanted you to have fun, bitches" sounds just about right! I'll try to hang on to that one! ;D

[mszue]

I am in the mood to answer ..lol. If I had to lay hard earned cash on the track with the most potential...and my personal favourite...I would lay it on Shady! It is getting surprising plays from what I can gather here and there. It is the one that makes me dance in my chair regardless of my mood or the time....I love almost all of them but that one is the equivalence of Fever on FYE, imho.

I think it was absolutely the wrong call to not push Fever...and frankly, it would not have been a bad idea to use 'you' instead of that first 'he'....it is not like using 'she'...that I would not agree with but really...what is the use of winning the battle if you lose the war...and that can happen when you push to hard at the wrong time. Maybe that is not popular but I really think that song could have been his breakthrough song....but that is water under the bridge...and I could be completely off on that. But Fever was the song that still gets me out of my chair immediately...just like Shady.

I love Underneath...I think several of the others...trespassing...cuckoo...could easily be hits. I am so so on Kickin in but I see its draw. Love running...

there....that is my choice...hands down, Shady.

[mika]

Very interesting postings! I had thoughts, I was inspired... and then my brain went completely to mush from fighting trolls all day. (I didn't win but I held my ground. Of course, now I'm covered in thick troll goo.)

Will spit this out past brain freeze -

I was scrolling SiriusXM stations on way home (my Sirius sub. expires at end of month and lately I just keep the sound turned down and note what songs are playing on screen) but Z100 doesn't show the song title so I turned it up. It was BTIKM! I was pleased (pathetically so) and checked their site when I got home but it didn't show in last 10 played so I guess it was just a random rotation from their catalog?? IDK

Anyway, while sadly not a BTIKM fan - mostly the chorus bugs me, it sounded really good on the radio. (And not just compared to that girl song of the moment that causes me seizures.) I have discussed with a colleague here that I do tend to hold Adam to a higher standard, always comparing his efforts to the very high bar he has set. Listening to the first verse of BTIKM, it struck me this song would def stand out and catch my ear as a non-Adam song. I would be interested enough to seek out more info about the singer even if the chorus made me wince. (*sigh* I don't know what that means but there it is.)

junie: Great quote paired with gif!! And Oakland. You made me spit ice tea, you rogue.

alison Whip that troublesome iWhatnot into submission so you can come play more easily!

mwp: Thanks for the smooches. Did you see most recent Colbert vs Jack White? This one almost rivals the yogurt one. I particularly laughed at the last couple of minutes from 4:20ish where Colbert finally breaks down Jack's 'Wednesday Addams' composure completely by mocking his hipster marketing. (Note the sign: Musical Guests will be interviewed.
www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/413295/april-26-2012/jack-white

I'll be back when I have a couple of brain cells to rub together and free floating anxiety is tethered somewhere -- much like the Hindenburg probably ::). (Does anyone else remember (ref old sitcom) the great WKRP Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway? It still makes me laugh a lot on those rare rerun showings...)

[juniemoon]

mika ... as God is my witness ... I thought turkeys could fly:



mwp asked last night about favorites and I would love to discuss that and hear what others thought. I don't know if this is interesting to anyone else - probably not - but it was a fun way of clarifying my thoughts. Some of my own rankings surprised me. They change over time, too. This isn't the same list I would have made a year ago, or even a month ago, or the same list I will make a year from now. If a song was "on the bubble" I bumped it up, not down.

- the best of the best, songs I just LOVE so much!

Shady, Kickin' In, Naked Love, Underneath
If I Had You, Fever, Broken Open, Whataya Want from Me (acoustic)

- I really like these songs and play them all the time in heavy rotation

Trespassing, Cuckoo, Pop That Lock, Better Than I Know Myself, Chokehold, Outlaws of Love, Runnin
Soaked, Sure Fire Winners, Pick U Up, Sleepwalker, Voodoo, Down the Rabbit Hole, Can't Let You Go, Mad World (acoustic), Aftermath (acoustic and dance versions)

- Mixed feelings


Broken English and Nirvana (quiet and unusual songs, still warming up to them); Take Back (like the song but not the subject matter)
For Your Entertainment and Whataya Want From Me (sick of them now); A Loaded Smile; Master Plan


- Songs I don't much care for no matter how hard I try

Never Close Our Eyes, By the Rules
Music Again, Strut (they were both great live though)

- Execrable pap
Aftermath (album version), No Boundaries, Time for Miracles

[juniemoon]

This article is called "How to Age Well," but what it is actually about is the effect of regrets on our brain activity.

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-age-well-letting-regrets-go

Basically, the article discusses an experiment (not unlike the experiment here that mwp writes about), where participants got to guess what was inside little boxes -- "gold" or a "devil." The game was structured so that you could miss out on your opportunities to win gold, and thus have regrets.

It turns out there is a part of the brain -- the anterior cingulate, which processes emotion -- that becomes more active in some people when they have disappointments and regrets. It essentially enables the emotion you might call que sera sera, acceptance, or "screw it" depending on the person, but in any case is a safety valve when things don't go your way.

On the other hand ... not everyone's anterior cingulate works this way. They respond by taking more risks and playing the game even harder. You might say they care even more than they did before -- they angst.

If this article is true, then when we shame people who angst (as even the article above does by treating the response as a pathology that needs to be fixed), aren't we just blaming them for being different, anterior cingulate-wise? Is it any different than shaming someone for being left-handed, intro/extroverted, gay, or red-headed? Just a little random food for thought.

[mszue]

Jun 14, 2012 14:38:37 GMT -5 juniemoon said:

This article is called "How to Age Well," but what it is actually about is the effect of regrets on our brain activity.

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-age-well-letting-regrets-go

Basically, the article discussing an experiment (not unlike the experiment here that mwp writes about), where participants got to guess what was inside little boxes -- "gold" or a "devil." The game was structured so that you could miss out on your opportunities to win gold, and thus have regrets.

It turns out there is a part of the brain -- the anterior cingulate, which processes emotion -- that becomes more active in some people when they have disappointments and regrets. It is essentially enables the emotion you might call que sera sera, acceptance, or "screw it" depending on the person, but in any case is a safety valve when things don't go your way.

On the other hand ... not everyone's anterior cingulate works this way. They respond by taking more risks and playing the game even harder. You might say they care even more than they did before -- they angst.

If this article is true, then when we shame people who angst (as even the article above does by treating the response as a pathology that needs to be fixed), aren't we just blaming them for being different, anterior cingulate-wise? Is it any different than shaming someone for being left-handed, intro/extroverted, gay, or red-headed? Just a little random food for thought.

Interesting juniemoon. Also....Adam certainly does not go "que sera sue sera" so he must be 'different' too....:-)

[mika]

Junie - thanks for WKRP clip! I guess few things are lost forever these days for better or worse. Mr. Carlson's secret plan for the promo so did not work out. Poor traumatized man but so funny.

[JazzRocks]

Jun 13, 2012 10:16:37 GMT -5 durberville said:

*sighs, plunks herself down in the farthest corner of this little sanctuary and dejectedly fiddles with a blade of grass*

I've got nothing deep to offer guys - but they certainly don't want me moping about upstairs.

I'm sick of online polls...I'm sick of requesting....I'm sick of all the bullshit.

sorry.

(and you thought YOU were a grumpy goose, Smokey!.... )

Quoting from a couple of days ago because it's exactly what I came here to say! ;D

I too have nothing deep, analytical or philosophical to say. I'm just FED UP to my eyeballs with all the radio games we have to play to get a freaking spin for NCOE. Sick, SICK, SICK I tell ya!

I'm allowed to say this cause this is the dark side, right? I'm spewed out for awhile so I can go back upstairs and be all jolly - for awhile.

[bullsfan]

I'll join you guys :( Long rant coming---sorry.

I am trying hard to keep some positivity, but it is getting really hard. I know Adam said NCOE was the song "radio showed the most interest in," but, frankly, radio (or maybe it's just PDs) don't seem to be very interested in Adam Lambert.

Basically, ANY song can connect and become a hit if it gets played enough. There are songs that I absolutely hated or had no interest in the first few times I heard them, but, after hearing them on the radio over and over again they grew on me. Some I came to like, others I started to love (and couldn't understand why I hadn't loved them in the first place). If radio plays a song enough, people will connect. WWFM was given a chance and was played. And it became a hit. NCOE isn't even being given a chance. I listen to WKSC---the casual listener is not going to connect to a song when they might happen to hear it once or twice a week. This goes for ANY song.

I don't know what's going to happen, but RCA/DMG is going to have to look for other opportunities to get Adam's songs heard, I think. They are going to have to get creative somehow. Bruno and Dr. Luke aren't enough. A #1 album wasn't enough. At least, with Adam, I feel like RCA believes he is worth the effort. They will keep trying. I give RCA and Adam's management credit---they made radio the priority this era. They spent valuable promo time after the album drop attacking radio (and CHR radio) with concerts, interviews. Knowing Adam was going to be out of the country for a lot of the summer, they did everything they could to have Adam's single set-up before he left.

Sorry, had to get this out. Hopefully, NCOE will continue to climb and reach a point where it is getting enough good, daytime spins to catch the interest of the radio audience. Maybe , if the song can reach top 40, Z100 will add. I am really afraid that if this single doesn't make some kind of impact, the era will basically be over.

[juniemoon]

melliemom, no one throws things on the dark side. Except Dark Adam, the barista. But we love him anyway.

bullsfan, I know! The repetition makes a song grow on you. You hear it in all kinds of circumstances and all kinds of ways and in all kinds of moods. When I was trying to win tickets to a meet and greet in March, I got so sick of "Gotta Good Feelin" that I wanted to die. I'm still hearing it. On ads. In my exercise class. In stores. I saw a picture of Flo Rida and saw that he looked like Mr. T. I started to feel fond of the song ... fond, almost, of hating it so much. Like it was an annoying old friend that I just wanted to noogie and say, "I love ya, now get outta here, big guy."

Adam works so hard, but RCA has pursued the safe way of thinking. Reach in to Dr. Luke's big bag o'hits and pull one out. Make it a song by Bruno Mars, the Barry Manilow of the modern era. WTF. What the hell did any of it have to do with Adam Lambert. It just had to do with selling widgets. That's what Bruno and Luke do, sell widgets of music.

Well, it turns out Adam isn't a very good widget salesman.

I'm not even mad at radio in some ways. Radio sells widgets. Radio needs widget salesmen. Radio listeners want widgets for the car, widgets to play in the background while reading Danielle Steele.

There has GOT to be a way to get Adam's music in front of people who actually like MUSIC, not widgets. People who don't just listen to music because it's boring and lonely and scary in the car, or fixing dinner while your kids scream and fight and your life circles the drain -- but people who like things that are awesome and offbeat.

I don't think the era has to be over, but if radio won't play Adam than somehow RCA and DMG has to get this record in front of people in some other way. Satellite radio -- college radio -- placing Adam's songs in movies or ads -- the goddamn Olympics -- relentless touring at festivals at colleges and music venues where real music fans congregate -- I don't know but if Adam can't crack radio because his music is too individualistic, then we need to find the people who like individualistic music. There must be a way, there are tons of successful artists and bands who don't get played on the radio.

Time to tear up the rulebook!!!

[mika]

I know there are often things going on behind the scenes, but I hope Adam's people are also thinking outside radio of how to get his music out there. Especially since I think Adam must have a really high 'Q' rating or whatever they're calling overall audience affection for a performer.

****
"We Are Young" was released as a single on Sept. 20, 2011, with a video following in early January. The track was slow-building, initially attracting only the attention of online media... In addition to helping secure the Super Bowl synch [chevy commercial], the song's enormity and dramatic flair brought it the coveted "Glee" cover [in December].

"I vividly remember John [Janick, head of label] dropping by my office with a just-mastered 'We Are Young' in hand," "Glee" music supervisor PJ Bloom says. "It was still on its original blank CD-R titled in poorly handwritten red Sharpie." When Janick suggested that the track was perfect for the musical show, Bloom demurred. "'Glee' doesn't break bands," Bloom says. "We celebrate existing pop success-that's our core model." But after listening to the song only once, he changed his mind."

...while Glee version did cause a 1,650% jump in sales of fun.'s "We Are Young" (from 3,000 to 49,000, according to Columbia, during the week of Dec. 11, 2011), it wasn't until the song appeared in the Super Bowl spot that fun.'s "We Are Young" took off
www.billboard.com/features/fun-the-billboard-cover-story-1006342162.story#/features/fun-the-billboard-cover-story-1006342162.story

Someone That I Used to Know
In the United States, it debuted at number ninety-one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 14 January 2012. In its fifteenth week on the chart – after it was performed by Matt Bomer and Darren Criss on Glee on 10 April; by Phillip Phillips and Elise Testone on the eleventh season of American Idol before more than 16 million viewers on 11 April; and by Gotye and Kimbra on Saturday Night Live on 14 April – the song rose to No. 1 with 542,000 downloads. (Source: wiki)
(And the articles at the time reported that Matt Bomer called someone (Ryan Murphy I think) and said they should do the song - they agreed if he would appear and sing it - could just be pr though I believe the part about Matt pimping the song.)

And Alex Clare wouldn't be getting any love for 'Too Close' if it hadn't been in that IE commercial.
****

I don't know - maybe they've tried to place Adam's music this way and musical directors of shows and ad agencies are rejecting - a lot of times these efforts begin well before song is released to coordinate timing. But Adam seems to me the perfect artist to promote via television (shows and commercials) and even films because of the combination of radio's resistance and Adam already having an established tv-watching fan base. (I know summer is a difficult time (and I don't think the hot USA shows use music that much) but fall season is en route.

That was a little jumbled, but I too am hoping someone in Adam's camp is making more than a perfunctory effort to get Trespassing out there in media promo other than radio. Because, based on current showing, I would guess either the label lacks sufficient influence to get more robust radio play or the will to go in hard w/radio execs. Maybe someone is thinking outside the box though - we can only hope.

ETA: Actually, as noted before, I love NCOE and don't at all care for at least a couple of fan favorites - so I would definitely hesitate about putting lack of stronger performance down to quality of song. Too subjective - and not consensus based on critical reviews.

[midwifespal]

I definitely agree that some outside the box (you know the box I mean, the one with those dials and all those annoying ads, noo, not the TV, the other box we happily glue ourselves to) thinking would be good for Adam. But I do want to say that I don't think radio listeners, or top 40 radio listeners, are all mildly depressive automatons who need some vapid noise to keep from looking into the VOID ( --I joke, I know you were hyperbolizing too, Junie). I mean, Adam professes to love Top 40 radio, and we all know that in a world of mindless automatons, Adam Lamberts eyes are impervious to the brain-sucking machines (just see the vid for evidence). #don'ttakethebluepill. ;D

Nor would I characterize either of the songs Mika just mentioned as widgets, and they're blowing up top 40 radio right now (although they got there via slightly unorthodox routes). Somebody must be loving them who listens to radio. I guess all I mean is that I have slightly more faith in the listening audience, even the CHR listening audience (and also, probably, slightly more affection for non-adam CHR music, which is neither here nor there), so I think it is perfectly possible for someone of Adam's quality to get played there. He just needs to catch a break. Question is, how can we catch it for him?

[HoppersSkippersMiners]

Jun 15, 2012 12:42:02 GMT -5 midwifespal said:

He just needs to catch a break. Question is, how can we catch it for him?

;D

[mika]

Jun 15, 2012 12:42:02 GMT -5 midwifespal said:

I definitely agree that some outside the box (you know the box I mean, the one with those dials and all those annoying ads, noo, not the TV, the other box we happily glue ourselves to) thinking would be good for Adam. But I do want to say that I don't think radio listeners, or top 40 radio listeners, are all mildly depressive automatons who need some vapid noise to keep from looking into the VOID ( --I joke, I know you were hyperbolizing too, Junie). I mean, Adam professes to love Top 40 radio, and we all know that in a world of mindless automatons, Adam Lamberts eyes are impervious to the brain-sucking machines (just see the vid for evidence). #don'ttakethebluepill. ;D

Nor would I characterize either of the songs Mika just mentioned as widgets, and they're blowing up top 40 radio right now (although they got there via slightly unorthodox routes). Somebody must be loving them who listens to radio. I guess all I mean is that I have slightly more faith in the listening audience, even the CHR listening audience (and also, probably, slightly more affection for non-adam CHR music, which is neither here nor there), so I think it is perfectly possible for someone of Adam's quality to get played there. He just needs to catch a break. Question is, how can we catch it for him?

Indeed, I think the ubiquitous Adele (whom I love w/out apology) and the songs mentioned above, among some others, are evidence that - as has ever been true - radio audiences will respond strongly to a good song with enough exposure. At one time, an individual dj or 'college radio' could offer that platform - building an audience for a song, act, or genre until radio capitulated. Now it seems like it's down to mostly visual media - television, you tube - to get around radio honchos shortsightedness.

Also, I don't know that WWFM (which I also love) would have broken so big under current circumstances. Adam got to perform it on a really wide range of shows both because of post Idol wave but also because he was getting a lot of 'attention' post-AMAs. I wonder if it would have done as well on radio without post-AMA spotlight and the tv performances that followed.

[lynne]

He definitely had that WWFM moment on AI... wish he could be all over TV again. Adam live, talking, singing, ... Okay, breathing, .

(I'm clearly trespassing in the middle of all the quality posts today...today, for me, just forward motion. . )

"Life is forward motion." Adam Lambert

And that attitude and energy is what will keep moving Adam forward.

Love you all.