Crash Landing
Despite the use of this picture and a previous post that may suggest otherwise, I don’t take any comfort in Ciara’s album dismal first week performance.
When she made her way onto to the scene five years ago, I appreciated her for what I thought she was: A young girl who wanted to be a star.
She didn’t have much a voice, her shtick wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before, and even the song she debuted with was a rehash of two other Lil’ Jon helmed cuts. Still, you couldn’t help but root for someone who put that much energy into her stage performances. She was filling a void left by Aaliyah’s untimely passing and Janet’s unfortunate decision to embrace stagnation.
She seemed eager to please and ready to impress on stage. It didn’t hurt that her first studio was actually quite decent.
While I still maintain that “Goodies” is nothing short than the blue balls national anthem, I appreciated hearing a singer talk about not giving it up. The album overall had a Control esque feel to it, and even if she weren’t being genuine about her virginity ala Britney Spears, it at least seemed believable at the time.
Then only a short time later did she try to sell us on her evolution. It seemed as natural as the button on Michael Jackson’s face posing a a nose. I don’t care what black weaves, new tights, and Tina Landon’s choreography say — evolutions don’t occur overnight. Listening to her try to force feed audiences a tale of how she discovered her new self only fifteen seconds after we embraced the original let me know one thing: Ciara takes herself way too seriously.
That’s a bad thing for a pop artist. Especially one who doesn’t have any real clue as to who she is, what she’s about, and what her image should be. As one reviewer pointed out recently, Ciara’s pop-star facade has always been “vague and undefined.”
And what does one typically do when that happens? They turn to sex. It comes from the belief in the adage “sex sells.” One glance at Ciara’s last video and you can tell how she and her handlers decided how to handle this album.
Lose a few pounds.
Tone it up.
Get a little more limber.
Spread ‘em wide.
Sex is certainly a way to get attention, but at a time when pornographers are not so jokingly asking for a bailout, when is it going to dawn on the already terribly behind recording industry that sex without quality equals another name on the increasingly growing list of flops?
The same goes for the theory that R&B singers have to crossover in order to sell records. When Ciara moved two million copies of her first album she did so on the strength of a ‘crunk music’ trend that was rooted in urban airplay that had pop stations run to them not the other way around.
Ciara’s choice to go into a more pop-dance direction alienated the very audience that made her who she is. While everyone talks about how great “Promise” is (and it is a great song), it only reached #11 on the Hot 100. By contrast “Goodies” was #1, while “1, 2 Step” and “Oh” each peaked at #2.
Yet I’m to believe the strategy of alienating your fan base to chase after an audience that would likely find you anyway if you scored a hit song is the way to go.
A sexual temptress can probably sell almost as well as pontificating prude in an industry where no one really sells anymore.
Though I’ve commented on how her bit now seems like an act of desperation from one trying way too hard, Fantasy Ride’s main failure is not in its image but this: It’s just not good.
If she wants to lick Justin Timberlake’s ear and be the co-star in her own video, fine. If she wants to pretend she’s always been this Madonna loving, comic book reading shero with an altar ego waiting to burst out and yack the yaki out of Sasha Fierce’s head, great.
Anyone who didn’t like it would ignore if the music was up to par. It’s not, hence everyone’s attention shifting elsewhere.
Fantasy Ride should have been one easy flight, but instead it’s marred in layovers. One minute she’s seductress, the next she’s a Europop dance queen, and another she’s channeling her inner crunk ‘n b star.
When she initially said she planned to split her album into three separate discs it seemed wasteful. Now I get it, but sadly, she still doesn’t.
She doesn’t understand that you can’t toss out multiple singles that genre hop everywhere but the format that made you a star.
It hasn’t hit her that a sexed up image alone won’t set you a part from all of the other sexed up thin-voiced R&B singers.
The people close to her neglected to pull her to the side to inform her that she’s going about being a superstar all wrong.
That explains why she can’t take constructive criticism and passes anything not praising her to high end as negativity. What an unfortunate opinion for someone who needs to be steered back in the right direction before she makes a permanent detour into irrelevance.
The difference between her and the people she grew up admiring (including those we’re just now hearing about) is that their transitions seemed organic.
Janet went from telling her parents that she wanted to be free to expressing hope for freedom for all to her declaring her right to be freely open about her sexuality. This happened over the course of years versus a few albums and meetings with stylists.
If Ciara read this, she’d call me a hater and keep going.
That’s fine by me because in a week she likely envisioned would place her at the top of the charts, she now finds herself sitting at the bus stop while Chrisette Michele drives off with her fantasy.
Anonymous
May 13, 2009 at 8:58 am
THIS is so true!!! u are on point with this. everyone like the "crunk n r&b" ciara. now im like… umm who the hell is this girl? "c-error"
Anonymous
May 13, 2009 at 10:11 am
Amen. When Ciara first came out I felt there wasnt anything special about her. Yes she can dance her ass off but so what. A lot a people grew up in dance school. I add her to the list of untalented supastars we are force fed. Rhiana is on that list too. Now she’s on this im sooo sexy tip and shes not even that sexy..I’m not hating just saying the people with real voices and real talent hardly get shine while yaki queens with tight clothes get it all. Shout out to Chrisette Michelle and congrats on the albulm doing well she deserves it.
daniecal
May 13, 2009 at 4:01 pm
hit the nail on the head again with this one! prepare to be met with a flood of emails from her disgruntled stans, and goonsquad. I really was apathetic towards the girl, but even I knew that she was headed for “self-destruction” when she was doing mixtapes. Great promo for rappers, singers?..not so much. That cover of “Diva”, the Vibe magazine incident, the unflattering slabs of yaki,the lukewarm reception of GO Girl, the pushbacks, the leaks, dry humpin Jt’s legs, and spending the majority of her own video lookin like she was about to get her temperature taken “old school” style.
The differance between her “seductress” transformation and Aaliyah’s was anticipation, and excitement. By the time Aaliyah began to GRADUALLY ditch the baggy pants, her audience was ready for it, anticipating it, and excited about it!! Remember when “Are You That Somebody?” came out, and she ended the video in that high slit skirt? Everybody was just excited, because they were curious and ready to see her evolve into womanhood.
Ciara went from cute, energetic, and promising, to doin desperate hoe shyt in 0.2seconds. It’s not natural, not interesting, and apparently not successful.
Anonymous
May 13, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Wow!! What a great post! You definitely got it right.
Anonymous
May 13, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Truer words were never spoken. Get it together CiCi.
Anonymous
May 13, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I couldn’t have phrased it all better myself, however, the one part about genre’s being all over the place is arguably Rihanna’s plight. Each of Rihanna’s radio singles from Good Girl Gone Bad targeted a different ear. Umbrella, was not Take a Bow, was not Please don’t stop the Music, which yet again was not Shut Up and Drive, she was all over – yet we loved her for it. Most all of Ciara’s faults were successfully done by someone else, I’m not sure what it would take for her to be a success, I just feel bad that she’s yet to nail it, and honestly, her next attempt(if she gets one) if unsuccessful may be her last… smh
Anonymous
May 13, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I agree. I also enjoy reading your posts. Keep it up.
J2201987
May 13, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Wow. You never cease to amaze me. You are the therapist that most of these stupid “artists” (for lack of a better term) need to listen to (or possibly read this blog instead of the other blogs that paint pretty pictures around them).
I found Ciara’s first album to be her one and only considerably well put together album. Once she hit the ‘evolution’ path, she, in so many words, stated she was going in a ‘different’ direction, one of course I’m somewhat fond of, but only by those people who deemed it appropriate at that time. Now she comes out with this Sasha Fierce Bipolar ridiculousness as Super CiCi from the East side of the Milky Way galaxy.
Unfortunately, I too find it that Ciara started out, vague and undefined, as well, just another hot dancer with minimal vocal skills following the trend at the time (where’s lil’ john now?). Unlike artists with real talent, trying to battle through the bullsh*t that is this tanking industry now, either start off with their sound and ‘it’ factor (such as Alicia Keys) or they grow and evolve into the sound they are known for (I would say, Beyonce, before the end of her D.I.L. days). I hope Ciara will take this as an example and reevaluate her music, her sound, and possibly take some time off the really ‘evolve,’ and become an artist we can grow fond of and appreciate, like the so many that came before her.
Antonio.
May 14, 2009 at 1:41 am
Well written. Say word.
Bark
May 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Wow. That was some solid advice. Too bad Ciara, as you point out, would only dismiss it as “hate.” Too many artists live in a bubble.
Dee Dee
May 18, 2009 at 8:59 pm
This is the kind of tough love Cici needs to hear. I thought that I was the only one who felt that she was making the wrong decision running away from the very formula that put her on the map. I couldn’t get why she disliked the “princess of crunk ‘n b” mantra. But as stated, she would dismiss this as “hating.”