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By rascal
I am thrilled for David that he will get an opportunity to broaden his horizons, but the two things I really like about the McFly tour are the clear indication that David’s management is not as narrow-minded and unimaginative as previous decisions might indicate, and the sheer showmanship of McFly as a terrific master class for David’s stage skills–not hoping for anything from David remotely like what the McFly boys do (that’s just ridiculous and creepy), but it’s an area where David has some room to evolve, and I suspect he will benefit handsomely from regular proximity to a bunch of rabble-rousing, freewheeling performers.
Although I remain deeply disappointed that money is winning every argument in decisions about the U.S. market, saddling David with image risks and compromises that could take years to undo, the international leg of his ‘09 tour is likely to have more of a positive impact on his image here than it might otherwise have, say, a decade ago, all because of our beloved Internet. News is fast and global, now, especially in entertainment, and the fact that David is touring with a band that has been favored on some of the smartest sites this side of Gawker–particularly and especially on gay sites (gay opinion is a powerful driver of what’s cool in the young-adult opinion-maker markets; I’ve said before that David would be wise to cultivate his appeal there)–is good news indeed.
I would still like to see more imagination in PR and marketing stateside. I’ve been asked a number of times to share my views on possible solutions, rather than just constantly playing Casandra, so, here goes. Music marketing is not my specialty, there are much more experienced folks than me to turn to on this, but off the top of my head, here are just a few ideas:
Surprise cameos at smart gigs. I am clueless as to who exactly these smart gigs would be, but I’m talking about up-and-coming performers, singer-songwriters, small combos, who are cultivating young adult audiences with a clear predilection for authentic, skilled, interesting music. The point of this is not to gain wide appeal or to sell albums but to generate buzz in the right quarters and seed the alternative press and blogosphere with a clear message that David Archuleta intends to be taken seriously as an artist and not just an American Idol alumnus with records to sell. Let David pick the gigs and a few acoustic songs. These smart, hipster audiences will be gleefully shocked at how impressed they are with him.
Surprise cameos on cool shows. The quickest and best way for David to become cool without sacrificing one iota of his already fabled conservatism is by making fun of himself. Appear suddenly in a skit on Saturday Night Live as a Boy Scout in the middle of a tawdry backstage party. This kind of thing writes itself. It’s easy. It’s hilarious. And it will confer upon David instant cool cred.
Artistic photography in fashionable magazines. David is gorgeous. Period, end of story. This should be celebrated and captured in beautifully artistic and interesting ways in publications like Paper Magazine and Arena Homme Plus. The reaction of the Elle Magazine readership is both utterly unsurprising and tangible proof for anyone blind enough to miss this.
Here’s the thing. None of these ideas are anything that David’s PR and management team don’t already know and haven’t done a million times before for other artists. David is undoubtedly being told that these strategies can be implemented later, once the kiddie market has been exploited. They’re probably telling him that he should in fact not engage such opportunities now, for fear that he would only have to repeat them later, and which would allegedly be harder to do.
Bull. The only reason they’re not doing them for David now is that they don’t provide instant cash by selling albums. They are part of a long-term strategy to build an image for David that will not only place him in a far better position to cultivate the audiences he deserves, but which will better reflect the full and true dimensional range of the man. David doesn’t yet have enough cred to get on the cover of Paper Magazine. But if they don’t start cultivating that direction soon, he may miss the chance altogether.
It’s easy, of course, to engage in armchair marketing. David’s people would be justified in their resentment and dismissal of those of us who constantly tweak their very able and, I suspect, for the most part well-intentioned noses with how things should be done. But David isn’t just any young new artist, and despite the fact that every über fan of every artist probably feels that way, even an objective reading of David’s attributes will reveal an extremely unique individual indeed. I hope David’s people can find it in their hearts to forgive us for blathering on about how much we care and how much we think we know.
We love him, that’s all.
Update:
After this emotional week and the controversies generated, I have come to the conclusion that my sensibilities may be too incongruous with the majority of the DA fan base at this point in his career, and that my own energies are needed elsewhere. I sincerely hope that my departure will not result in a preponderance of non-critical happy talk.
I want to extend my truest and heartfelt thanks to the warm, brilliant, hilarious, and remarkable people who have made notingDavid such a rich source of engagement and entertainment. I sincerely hope that we have been able to add some measure of support and worthy perspective to the evolution of David’s career.
Mostly I want to thank David for being such a remarkable source of… well, everything. Life itself, sometimes. Despite the opinion that so many have of me, I have not one scintilla of desire for David to be anything other than who he is and what he chooses to be. My hopes for him are whatever his hopes for himself are.
I will leave the comments open for another few days, and then close them. The site will remain up, and folks may communicate with me if they wish thereafter through the contact form.
Let’s not overanalyze this, it’s just time for a break. Many other duties call. If, at some point in the future, David’s career has matured to a degree where my own sensibilities may not be as antithetical to what most perceive as his best interests, perhaps I may jump into the fray once again. I leave with no hard feelings for those who oppose me, no regrets for anything I have said, yet with a sincere sense of sorrow for the beloved regulars who consider this place home.
It has all been for one, glorious, shining purpose:
The miracle that is David Archuleta.
Until we meet again,
Rascal
By rascal
The only reason to put up a resistance is if you think there is still hope.
At this point, I am inclined to give in to the mounting evidence that decisions have been made to take advantage of the most obvious and immediate opportunities, regardless of their impact on the nature of the brand. If I had to argue for the wisdom of this strategy, I could do it. I am not quite as partisan as some people believe me to be (not that I have necessarily given anyone any reason to believe otherwise), but I chose to remain in the other camp, the camp that, from where I sit, actually exhibits more faith in David’s abilities and opportunities than seems to be in evidence from his own stakeholders. Maybe even than from David himself.
The branding of David Archuleta is clearly proceeding over a well-trodden path for cute, television-spawned teenagers with big performing talent. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, except if you are anything but conventional. The risk in standard channeling of unusual talent is that the unique almost never rises out of the conventional. Think of any truly legendary performer and consider that each and every one of them were special before they were standard, not the other way around. Special creates the standard.
The argument being advanced for this strategy within the circle of advisers and stakeholders around David is almost certainly based on time. His youth is undoubtedly being cited as the ace in his deck, with an emphasis on the notion that whatever decisions are being made now will be ancient history by the time he may want to cultivate a more unique, mature, or personal presence in the market. Let’s hope. Audiences may be fickle but they have long memories, and today’s unprecedented availability of easy-access media may not help the case for wholesale re-invention.
As it is, I am content to accept what I consider to be questionable but perhaps practical decisions. Real vision is a rare commodity in any business, and true originality is an enigma; no one knows what to do with it, so “let’s just do what we always do.”
By rascal
Since my video for “Somebody Out There” seemed to get such a powerful response, I thought I’d try my hand at David’s new one.
[MEDIA=18]
By rascal
By rascal
The strength and speed with which David is establishing his own brand–his Archieness, if you will–is nothing short of head-spinning, especially considering where he was in this evolution just a few months ago. The teenage years are emblematic for their breakneck transformations, but if you had told me in August that David would be commanding crowds of 15,000 with ease, strutting around stage like mini-Mick, tossing in new performances at every other show, and coming up with his own signature look, I would have said you were suffering from ODD fever hallucinations.
One of the advantages of of über-fandom is that we can observe with considerably more acuity than the New York Times how much more dimension has been added to the Aw Shucks brand attribute (someone ought to make a tee-shirt for him that says that–how cooly self-referential would that be?). I do agree to a great extent with some of the comments here recently about how the Archie brand is redefining everything from rebellion to masculinity (and, one of these days I’ll get around to writing about that), but I also want to caution that we run the risk of veering into pedestal territory there, too.
David is unusually wise is certain ways and unusually young is others. He’ll be the first to tell you that he doesn’t feel like what he considers being an adult is supposed to be. Perhaps he will redefine adulthood, too. But the undeniable fact is that there are numerous transformations yet ahead, and not all of them are likely to be seraphic…or, at least, not what each and every one of his fans might consider so. Even if David maintains his status as a Bodhisattva, being in the world but not of it, he will be subject to the passions and limitations of being human.
It is hard not to draw conclusions when the sum and substance of an individual’s artistic output seems so rich and fully-realized, but we do need to maintain a certain perspective, and give the guy some rope. In the grand scheme of things, David only just got married to his audience moments ago; it is still the honeymoon. And like all young marriages, the continued growth of the participants will influence the direction of the relationship. As it is, we are already seeing some pretty exciting stuff from our betrothed. Archie is becoming a very generous lover indeed.
By rascal
I have to admit to being a little disappointed that David didn’t draw the line at this tacky promotional magazine entitled “Life Story,” from Bauer Publishing. As you might expect, Bauer is the syndicate behind a half-dozen of those popular teen and tween magazines. They also stock your local supermarket with journalistic titans like InTouch Weekly, Woman’s World, and First. Indeed, there is not one publication from this Hamburg, Germany based company that has any redeeming news, literary, or artistic value. It’s all cheese, and aerosol cheese at that.
At best, the photography and styling is undistinguished. In some cases it is downright plebeian: A wall of retro 45 singles with cute genre titles on the labels as a background? Are you kidding me? Talk about phoning it in.
Industry and audience legitimacy won’t necessarily be undermined by appearances in Bauer properties if one has earned market credibility in the first place, but when one is trying to establish a certain authenticity, it most assuredly does not help the case. Once again the responsibility for such decisions must undoubtedly rest with Jive, which continues to telegraph its focus on their own short-term gain at the expense of David’s long-term interests.
By rascal
In this his first professional year as a musical artist David Archuleta has been specializing in second. Runner up to the first-place finisher on American Idol, his debut single peaking at No. 2, and sales of 183,000 putting his freshman album just behind the top spot on the Billboard Album chart for the week. If nothing else, David’s well-known integrity has certainly expressed itself in an admirable consistency.
I really like this position for David at this point in his career. Two feels true. The connotations associated with second are more correct for someone who is by no means reaching his full potential. There is room to move. Peaks to be scaled. A number-one spot confers definitions and expectations that are not always entirely ideal, especially at this point in a career path. Had David been hitting number-one spots with the material off this particular album, I think I would be concerned that it would be assessed as being a better fit than it is. And that would be far too limiting.
The plain truth is that although David might be in the big leagues now, he is not yet batting homers. Solid singles, doubles, maybe a triple here and there (”Somebody Out There”), but the kid is still working out. The number-two spots are just the right place for him at the moment; far above the mean, nipping at the heels of glory, setting the stage for great things to come. What is abundantly clear to anyone watching is that while most of his contest predecessors peaked with their first efforts, Mr. Archuleta is just getting started.
In the end, these kinds of rankings are meaningless, of course, especially when considering where the value of an artist really lies. With the right material, David has the ability to create an exclusive channel between his heart and the heart of the listener such that the world veritably disappears. The most hardened critics (if they are worthy of the title) have already acknowledged this potential. They know it’s coming. The irony is that David’s real stardom will not ensue from clever executive strategy but from a commitment to trust David himself.
Only then will his work be second to none.
By rascal
By virtue of their selections about what was included on the different issues of the CD, Jive tipped its hand about what it really thinks of David relative to the marketplace. The most telling example of this was their decision to relegate “Somebody Out There”–one of the most moving, one of the most David of the entire collection–to the most marginal release opportunity, a pre-order special on iTunes, now available to the public–oh, that’s right, nowhere.
This, along with their edition selections, make it clear what Jive considers priority in terms of David’s ultimate appeal, and have telegraphed in no uncertain terms their level of strategic sensitivity about him and his career: They either don’t get it or they don’t care. What we are seeing here is a quintessential short-term strategy. Get in, get out, go to the bank.
Exacerbating the insights gleaned from their product decisions is Jive’s marketing, which is turning out to look like a full-on, total teen strategy, with all the requisite TV shows, magazines, web sites, and appearances. It may not be Disney, but it’s only one step away. Given all indications, Jive would undoubtedly be thrilled to see images of David competing with the likes of Miley and the JB’s for cover and homepage real estate.
This would all be perfectly fine and thoroughly reasonable if David were any other teenage sensation, with prospects no more substantial than a goodlooking youth who can carry a tune and stand still for stylists. But David has more artistic legitimacy in his little finger than all the cutie patooties that have filled out the last ten years worth of Popstar Magazine pages put together. Is there a downside to this Total Teen positioning? Yeah, there is.
For the time being, the more legitimate and influential press have indicated that they are predisposed to accord David the credibility he deserves. Billboard, The L.A. Times, and the New York Times have all to one degree or another observed what we already know: that David should by all indications (and even despite Jive’s efforts to the contrary) be seen as an artist to be taken seriously. The potential problem is that the more David comes to be seen in the marketplace as a cover-boy teen dream, the more it will undermine his artistic credibility. Reviewers and cultural columnists will be forced to mine their courage in order to go up against the prevailing assumptions about teen idols to proclaim David’s real merits. Do we really want to rely on the courage of the press? Please.
I’m not suggesting that Jive should ignore the teen market, that would be foolish. But it is equally foolish, and ultimately against everyone’s best interests, to ignore or fail to leverage the more substantive and long-term value that David brings to the market. Some recognition, some degree of support in the marketing strategy, needs to establish David in somewhat more serious musical terms. Quietly book some small clubs in larger cities where he can experiment, play piano, have some fun, and get some write-ups in smaller pubs and blogs with some street cred, for example.
Given the ridiculous time-frame, maybe we can give Jive a pass for not recognizing what they had on their hands right away. But now that it’s becoming obvious that some of the best cuts on the album are David’s own, and that those who truly appreciate what he offers (and which will not be lost on the teen market, either) are crying “foul” on the edition selections, why not regroup and consider just exactly what this kid’s potential really is. Don’t make him have to make up for a year’s worth of superficial positioning with several years worth of re-establishing his serious musical credibility. Give him that chance now.
