Carrie Underwood’s Exclusive Inner Circle Threatens Her Career

This is a great piece, Matt. There is one point in particular that hit home for me:

For a long time in Nashville, getting a “Tim”–a song cut by Tim McGraw–was about the best thing a songwriter could hope for. And that meant, of course, that Tim could choose from an entire city of songs.

But now I think getting a “Carrie” has eclipsed that. Why? It’s guaranteed money and guaranteed notoriety.

And so one of the things that disappointed me most about “Carnival Ride” was the genuine lack of exceptional songs.

There are some advantages, of course, to the approach her team chose, however. First of all, we have to mention the Controlled Composition Clause, which reduces the cost of producing the record (assuming Underwood helped write it); and then, of course, who would love those songwriter royalties?

It’s just shame, because she could have done so much with a record that ends up doing so little.

Matt, with due respect, your escalating rhetorical flourishes are starting to distract from the substance of your Carnival Ride-based commentary. You seem to be getting less nuanced and more and more “sky is falling” each time you discuss the album. I find that odd. While I agree that several Carnival Ride songs are over-produced and I would like to see Carrie challenging herself by working with a different video director and different studio producer on subsequent projects, I have to say that your increased shrillness on the subject of her album is making you less persuasive at each turn.

On to substantive points: “Young & Beautiful” was easily one of my favorite songs from Some Hearts and I would have been happier with Carnival Ride if it had featured more songs with that sound. I don’t think there is a major difference in the production approach to “Jesus, Take the Wheel” and “So Small”/”Just a Dream.” There are also obvious differences between the uber-polished Dann Huff production on the pop half of Some Hearts and everything on Carnival Ride.

I think Carrie needs to tour on this record, which she will do starting this Thursday. I think touring will help her to figure out what she wants to do with her sound as she moves forward. As I said in an earlier comment, I think the sound and nature of Carnival Ride was heavily influenced by Carrie’s desire for a more energetic concert setlist. Do I think Carnival Ride almost overcompensates in that vein? Yes. I would really like to see Carrie incorporate lighter, even acoustic, production into her studio recordings, for example.

That said, I stand by my opinion that Carnival Ride features plenty of skillful interpretive singing and vocal nuance from Carrie. I think the belting often distracts from it, however, and so I’d like to see Carrie trust herself to just dial it back for the whole of a few songs.

I agree with you heartily on the video director front. But having said that, I’m not sure Carrie’s video for “All-American Girl” would have worked with anyone else. Why? Because there is a lot of embedded self-referential snark (mostly in the second verse of the song when the girlfriend as distraction to football player story is explored) that probably required Carrie to have a pretty strong comfort level with her director. Still, I’d like to see Carrie work with another director for her next videos.

I think you make some good points but I think she was the flavor of the moment with American Idol help and now this year Taylor Swift is the flavor of the moment.
To totally break and become independant is impossible unless you are a Shania Twain who controls all aspect of her career and makes musc on her time schedule.
These new artists rely on country radio forcing their music down peoples throats. There is nothing special or original about them.
Long gone are the days when you had a Garth Brooks or Shania Twain create their own sound and music and be original.
Even though I was never a fan of Shania, I admired how she did her own thing on her own time and never kissed butt with the industry. I guess thats why Shania could come back and still sell tens of millions worldwide without country airplay.
To be quite honest, I don’t listen to country radio anymore, it is all manufactured and over played the same dull artists

One more not on this Carrie Underwood singer, maybe she is trying to be a Shania wannabe without the charima or the song. Even her only cross over hit, Before He Cheats, has Shania’s name in it.
I am sure Underwood and Taylor Swift will have decent careers but at a low level.

It will be interesting to see what kind of music Shania comes out with since she has fans of all genres worldwide. I wonder if she will release any real country songs. Shania does her own thing so who knows.

Chris: I agree that trends can develop as a blog can take on a certain feel based upon the likes and dislikes of its bloggers and writers. I guess I am not too bugged by the sentiment that you refer to, not because I dont happen to care for the work of either artist, but because this blog and others like it represent an alternative. Have you read CMT.com’s news page recently? How about going on your local radio stations site and seeing what artists they are touting? Even the publication you write for, while I enjoy it myself, can tend to focus its main features on a relatively narrow “happy” promotion of mainstream stars without really getting a glimpse into what folks who may not care for these artists feel.

Really, we’re beating the crap out of Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood?

I haven’t done any formal Taylor Swift bashing on this site (in fact, I gave “Our Song” a thumbs up) but I’ve made no secret of the fact that I don’t like her music. As for Carrie Underwood, I’ve tried to make it clear in both my writing and my comments that I have a high opinion of her talent and I wouldn’t be spending so much ink on her if I found no redeeming value in her music.

I thought our coverage of both Carrie and Taylor has been pretty balanced.

For Carrie, we have the Opry piece Matt referenced, my “So Small” review was positive, then there is the album review, this piece, and Jim’s review of “All American Girl” that could be considered negative, although I think all of those point out that she is undeniably talented. She’s probably amongst the most oft mentioned artists in the news roundups as well. I think this article brings up some excellent points about her creative future that are worth mentioning, though.

As for Taylor Swift, my recent review of “Picture To Burn” is the only negative piece I can think of, the news items we post are typically neutral, and Ben had the positive piece Matt referenced.

I think readers’ comments may play into that perception a bit, so it may not be totally unwarranted.

Matt, I think it’s the combination of the sensationalistic headline (a journalistic practice that I understand but abhor) that colored my reading of your whole piece and your repetition of certain soundbytes about the album that gives the impression of an escalation. Moreover, absent the context of specific points about Carnival Ride (which I understand that you made in your album review and didn’t feel the need to repeat), this blog entry gives the impression that you’re now commenting based on your memory of an album that you haven’t listened to in a while, and that somehow, your opinion has grown stronger over time. So much stronger that you needed to repeat it a third time. I tend to get extra suspicious of opinions delivered in a dogmatic tone of voice, and the more so of arguments that build on such opinions, as this blog entry does.

To be clear, I wouldn’t dare go super-fan and call you a “hater” or whatever — in fact, I would defend you against such a charge. I don’t think you give Carrie/Carnival Ride enough credit, but that is a matter of opinion (you also appear to like “Jesus, Take the Wheel” more than I do). As I noted above, it’s not that I strongly disagree with your point about the potential value of new collaborators for Carrie.

In fact, my first instinct was to agree with you, except that Chris N. has now made a point that resonates with me. Carrie strikes me as someone who is more likely to push her boundaries and try new things from within the “safety” of familiar collaborators. I don’t always love where that took her on Carnival Ride, but perhaps Carrie is not yet at the point in her music when she needs to make a change in studio producer (video director on the other hand, I’m still on the “find a new one” train).

The reason I say this is that for all its flaws, I don’t think Carnival Ride is a complacent effort. Rather, I think of it as what happens when a young pup is set free among a bunch of new toys. I think Carrie had this notion of an energetic contemporary country/arena rock sound for her sophomore album, but the execution of that sound is going to take much more development and refining. It’s going to take time, touring and multiple albums for Carrie to hone her sound and she might be more likely to push herself if she already has a good working relationship with the person she is working in studio.

I do think there will come a time when the collaboration might go stale if new blood isn’t introduced. But after thinking about it, I’m not so sure the time is now (or rather, whenever Carrie starts thinking about album #3).

First, thank you for the interesting read. I get what you are saying, even if the uberfans of Carrie would like to nitpick every tidbit of the article. I took what you were saying as Carrie runs the risk of becoming stale and a one-trick pony kind of artist and will at some point in her career become obsolete in the world of country music which will paralyze her careerwise.

Carrie is a gifted vocalists but I tend to believe she has no artistic vision for herself and because of that, she allows her “team” to make those decisions for her and their only concern is their bottom line, not Carrie’s future in the business. This is a get in get out kind of business where it’s about the fast buck and not long term career goals. Ten years ago artists planned for their futures, they had aspirations of being the next Reba McEntire or Martina McBride. Today I think most just want to make a splash and get out with a pocket full of cash.

I don’t see Carrie changing her formula, not as long as it’s successful for her. I suspect this album will run out of steam rather quickly and she’ll try it again with album 3 and it will sell rather poorly and she’ll move onto another facet of her goal, which is something in broadcasting. I don’t see Carrie as a long term music artist. She doesn’t seem to have the passion for it. She stumbled into this huge career and she’ll ride it while she can but when the ride stops I think she’ll be more than happy to get off and move on.

First of all, Carrie Underwood is totally controlled by Nashville. They produce her albums and write her songs and make her videos. A label will milk a new aritst these days for 2 or 3 good years and then move on to the next thing. WE already see her new album out of the top 20 on billboard 200.
If I were a woman in country music I would want to copy from the biggest and best of alltime, Shania TWain. Shania and her husband changed the face of country music forever with their sound. Shania had her own unique image and had a hand in every aspect of her career. Thats why Shania is a the biggest selling country female of alltime and globally recognized as one of the biggest stars in music history.

But the problem is that nobody in country music can duplicate what Shania has done because nobody is original and have anything different to bring to the table.
Shania became so much bigger than country music and took her music worldwide on her own terms.
EVerytime a new act comes along these days they try and compare them to an icon like Shania.

I personally can’t wait for Shania Twain’s return from her Switzerland and New Zealand home and see what music she comes out with very soon. She will also have another world tour. I know country music purists don’t like Shania and think she ruined country music but to me she is the only reason I started listening to country music. I respect her life style and how she is private and how her family is more important than being a media whore like new acts these days.
But when you are as rich and powerful as Shania you do as you please on your own terms.

Steve, you need a serious life and not get so defensive. I have never even heard a Carrie Underwood song until I heard Before He Cheats one time. That song even has Shania’s name in it.

I am just responding how the industry controls new acts like Underwood and then throws them away when the next new thing comes.

But I tell the facts and thats all the counts.
You seem to be loose with the facts.
I have read your comments or articles about Shania in the past and you seem to have a hatred for her like most of Nashville.
I was just pointing out that these new acts are all controlled by Nashville and are told what to do.
Thats what bothers Nashville, Shania has the power and money to do her own thing without Nashville at all.

Peter Kohan, I agree with you 100%. Mutt Lange is one of the greatest and most successful producers in history. He basically created new sounds for rock,country and pop and has produced 7 of the top 100 best selling albums of alltime with .
He had and has major clout in all of music. But my point is nomatter how much money and clout Mutt and Shania have, Nashville is in its own bubble, they do their own thing. And Mutt and Shania made all the money because they wrote and produed their own songs.Nashville was not making money off of them so they don’t get country based awards.
Mutt of course is one of the most powerful person in music and Shania is now one of the most powerful and successful woman in music.
I guess that why Shania and Mutt take their time and make music on their own time schedule and don’t tell the label anything and basically do their own. It must be great not to answer to anybody and have that much power.Togther Shania and Mutt have made majic worldwide just like Mutt did with ACDC,Def Leppard,Bryan Adams,the cars, foreigner and so many others. But the difference is that Mutt and Shania are a total team and equal say in everything. And Shania takes no guff from Mutt either, they are husband and wife.

Miller, I’m not understanding your need to bring Shania Twain into this. I adore her, but I don’t think it’s a comparable situation. It seems like you were just looking for a way to remind us all that Shania Twain is still the best female country artist.

Matt, there are a million things I disagree with in this blog, and I don’t have the energy to dispute. BUT I do want to make one point - if “Carnival Ride” is a bunch of “Young and Beautiful”s (which I don’t see at all), then that’s a bad thing how exactly? “Young and Beautiful” is a gem on “Some Hearts”.

I also agree with whomever said the writing is a bit superfluous. The title itself reads like a tabloid title…

Steve: I wouldn’t call anything that I do journalism, but you’re welcome to critique my writing skills.

Dan: Thanks for sharing. That confirms a lot of my suspicions, though I admit to not suspecting that labels are now making albums by focus group.

Matt, I have to say I totally disagree with you on this one. The results you list of the shortcomings of Carrie’s inner circle would only put off country music fans with good taste and a discriminating ear. Thankfully for Carrie and her label the vast majority of her loyal fans will celebrate her musical output regardless of how medicore it might get as the artist is far more important to these followers than the music itself…

“You’ve also heinously neglected to mention that she co wrote most of the songs on this 2end CD.”

Boomer, there is a major flaw with your statements. Carrie only has four songwriting credits on Carnival Ride (which is hardly most) and by your own admission, it lacked in great material. That leaves nine cuts where they could have branched out and chosen truly great material from outside her inner circle of songwriters instead of sticking to the formula that Matt mentioned in the article. So if it were about “art” and not “commerce,” that’s what they would have done. The “developing talent” and leaving money on the table claim is bogus.

Anonymous - You are correct about Carrie co-writing only four tracks on the record, but whatever our own opinions about those songs 9or other songs on the record), her first two singles are Carrie co-writes, and one has already been a #1 hit, and “All-American Girl” seems poised to hit Top 10 this week with the potential for a second #1…

Carrie’s the biggest name in Nashville right now (until Shania’s next record), no matter what we individually think about this record. People are going to have differing opinions about her music, her hair, her videos, her boyfriends, her artistic collaborators, etc…

… somehow I think she’ll be just fine and we’ll be discussing her for a long time to come.

If some of you, all songwriters no doubt, think the material “isn’t up to snuff”, then I challenge you to find material that is and recording it. Apparently it was “good” enough for Carrie and 19, as well as millions of people and the Grammy nominating committee. So I DARE you to come up with ten songs better for her than these were at the time they were chosen. I have another Carrie waiting in the wings for songs(seriously). You got um, BRING UM. It’s easy to talk about “better” songs when you don’t have to write them or find them in a sea of bad demos.

What most of you are failing to understand is those truly GREAT songs are NOT a dime a dozen as so many would seem to think. They are like Orchids in a sea of daisies. It’s still a flower, not stank weed.

Cath dennis? Pop genius? lmao!!!!
Boomer, you sure have a great imagination.
Give it up already. Underwood is not that good, is controlled by Nashville and the novelty is over.

Miller
January 28, 2008 at 7:54 pm
But I tell the facts and thats all the counts.

miller
January 29, 2008 at 10:33 am
She needed America Idol and instant kind of fame to get noticed, she never worked for it and that why she will level off into a low level artist over the next year.

Daaaaaam Miller, you got through two whole posts without mentioning Shania. Take deep breaths in a paper sack and it’ll calm the shakes you’re having. Just a friendly tip! :-o

Facts? Facts according to whom? You Miller? Heh! Here’s a snippet of Ms. Underwood’s bio from years gone by:

Carrie has performed at numerous festivals and various other shows in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, & Tennessee and has been the opening act for “Diamond Rio”, “The Wilkinson’s”, “Exile”, ” “Gene Watson,” Billy Hoffman” and “Earl Thomas Conley”. Carrie travels with her five piece, high energy band, “The Star Rise Band”, in which each member also performs various types of music, from the 60’s Rock & Roll to current Country Hits, and gives Carrie’s show a variety to please all audiences.

Carrie has done several recordings in Nashville with Chuck Howard and John Guess. She had recorded songs that were written by Beth Neilson Chapman and others that were given to her to record by the publishers Jason Houser, Willis Jones and Island Bound.

Now, once and for all because frankly it is getting really tiresome, what has Carrie not “earned” again? Even if you take the whole fair and car show circuit experience away that still leaves the un-friggin-believable grind that is American Idol to her credit. I notice some pretty damn fine acts listed above but obviously the didn’t “earn” anything either eh? Geez!

To only touch on my post at Kevin’s place Matt, you really need to listen to Carrie throughout her career before you try and pass judgement. You, Miranda, et al probably have never even heard the girl sing gospel. Check out her Stripped session. Listen to the bonus tracks from the DVD Target sold. Play again her performances of San Antonio Rose, Stand By Your Man, and How Great Thou Art. You seem to be making your decision that her career is blase’ and past from an album she made directed at her fans. She gave them what they want. And yes I do find some tracks over-produced but there are some dynamite songs on CR that I feel are exceptional. Just A Dream comes to mind immediately.

Carrie will expand and as I’ve said elsewhere she is young, searching, exploring, and constantly working. The tough part is balancing that with giving her fans what they want as evidenced in her concerts. While I agree that Team Carrie is all-encompassing and all-powerful right now I also see how intelligent and talented she is. To the point where she herself will grow outside of them sometime down the road. Right now they are the best thing going for her.

Signed,
Uber Carrie Barbie Dress-up Fan
& Lover of Country Music!
:-o

Jarheaddad: I’m not offering an assessment of Carrie’s talent, which is why I didn’t consider her non-commercial recordings.

Miller: You’ve made your point and it’s barely relevant. There’s no need to keep repeating yourself every time someone else makes a comment.

True Matt but you are naysaying a longevity based on those around her. My point is talent will rule out. To me she is just getting her sea legs and has the potential to not only sustain a successful career but reach that upper echelon a lot of singers can’t attain. Based on talent, intelligence and work ethic. Guess that’s where we mostly disagree. Plus the fact that I don’t see Carnival Ride as that much of an artistic failure as you do. Not even close. We’ll just have to agree to disagree I reckon.

You know, even Ms. Reba did Disco! ;-)

Miller? Geez man, did you write all of that in one breath? he-he! My favorite part:

You sound like one of those delusional freaks from her fan club that came here because you think people are ganging up on her and you realize she reached her peak last year and new acts are coming along.

BWAAAAAAAAAAA! Thanks for the laugh man. You are a true comedian. Yep! that would be me. Delusional freak living in a freaky delusional world. Get your freak on! :-o

i agree that taylor swift shows her personality more than carrie underwood, but carrie is by far the mroe talketned of the two. i am waiting to hear how taylor progresses on her next albums, but for now she is not a strong vocalist and her themes are only appealing to teenagers for the most part. not saying she isn’t talented, but she needs to use her talent better. i think if carrie continues working with the same people and they venture out a little more, it could be fine. i thought that carnival ride showed that she was branching out from her sound on some hearts and that it described her more.

If the AAG video would have turned out better than the movie Titanic, would there be concern about her “inner circle?” I really like that term–reminds me of The Elders in the X-Files. Yes, the video is cheesy, but I love it, because she lets go a little. I just learned the other day it’s quite common for her to be called “farmbot.” How rude (even if I did laugh a bit). In the video, she actually shows she isn’t a cookie cutter anorexic zombie (more words I’ve seen to describe her). She is still very new, no matter how much success she’s had. She’s 24. Can you imagine being in her shoes at 24? Don’t lie. Compared to other stars her age, she’s a nun. She needs to make a few mistakes, hopefully small, to learn and mature. She’s intelligent on several levels, and I don’t think some people even put this into the mix. She went back to finish her degree? Give me a break. She wants to try her hand, ha, at writing? Come now. She’s got the talent; she can sing live (which is a miracle in itself); she’s got the looks; she’s got majorly supportive fans (some on the obsessive side–sound familiar to anyone here?), but she still needs experience which will come with time and hard work. If you look at all of her tour dates, she’s going to be working her little farmbot butt off. She’ll get better in her performances movement-wise as she gains more experience and confidence, and I think she’s very savvy in regards to observing and learning the music business. I don’t underestimate her one bit. I do understand what is being said, but I think she’s smart enough to monitor and learn from people who talk about her, whether it be on the internet or whatever she has time to check out–even if she says she doesn’t, she’s lying (just like she lies about her personal life when it’s serious). Yes, she is being controlled a lot, but at the same time, she doesn’t seem to be unhappy or the kind to not exert any control over her career/life. She’s a tough cookie. I’m waiting with baited breath to see what the future holds for her.

I personally think Mark Bright is one of the reasons Carrie Underwood is so successful, obviously since the songs he produced on Some Hearts were the only singles (in the country market) off that album.

I am shocked an horrified at this article. We get the picture, you obviously don’t like Carrie Underwood. As a matter of fact, the majority of reviews that are written on this site are biased against artists who have had success in the pop genre. Some examples of these would be Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, and Taylor Swift. I love all of these artists, and I especially loved Carrie’s Some Hearts Album. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of Carnival Ride, however a good song is a good song, and there are many good songs that Carrie had recorded over the past two albums. I believe that a great singer cannot become successfull without good songs, and I am shocked and appalled how negative this site is towards cross-over artist

Krista - I’ll save you the trouble, these are real headlines on CNN right now: “Killing of model-bodyguard stuns Moscow,” “Girl stabbed 7 times in crowded hallway,” and “Kindergartner chokes to death while on bus.”

Lucas, your argument has some logical flaws. It’s tantamount to saying that sales indicate quality, and therefore, Carrie Underwood releases the highest quality music out there. That’s simply not the case.

And you gotta be real about American Idol–without it, Carrie Underwood wouldn’t have had nearly the sales that she has had. It was one of the most popular shows on TV for who knows how many weeks with an audience in the millions, and she won the whole thing. You couldn’t buy that kind of exposure or name recognition if you wanted to. Granted, she is talented, but if no one knows who you are, you’re not gonna sell anything.

There are a ton of talented artists–some more talented and some less talented than Carrie Underwood–with a lot more experience and they’re working their asses off to achieve the success that Carrie has, yet they haven’t gotten there and she has. That American Idol played a significant role in her success is a logical conclusion and “it’s impossible to know” is just a convenient excuse to ignore the facts.

American Idol surely played a significant role.

But if you think it’s possible to know, the only one ignoring anything is you! We don’t know how much marketing and PR they would have put into her career.

I saw the All American video. I would have to say it is a very weak song lyrically. The video is lame too. I saw Dolly’s video of Get To Living right after it, and there was no comparision in video quality,vocal performance, and acting ability. Even after two years or more, she still has that deer in the headlights look onstage and in her videos.

Tara, So you think every song she records and every video she does is just perfect? Sometimes the undeserved hype deserves a reality check.

He was objective in this post - in others, not at all.

I do not by any means think everything Carrie does is perfect. In fact, I said I agree that there are things she can do to improve as an artist. But it’s one thing to constructively analyze an artist and another to degrade an artist. Talking about how she’s too skinny to fill out her “hot pants” is degrading.

Many of these quotes that you have chosen have been written about in other places in negative terms. For example, the Carrie Underwood song So Small had another reference later on how they changed their mind, the same with Chuck Wicks. Have you seen that album review. The Jewel refrence is another problem. She is completely pop. I listen to country radio every day for many hours, and I only find that maybe once a month I would hear a song performed by her. I cannot argue with the Carnival Ride reviews because I personally was very dissapointed (was that a better word choice) with her new ablum. And with the Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert song…just because they covered a pop song, does not make these singers become crossovers. And the rascal flatts ticket…come ‘on! And thanks for the pleasant cnn headlines.

First of all great article Matt I have to say I think you made many valid points about the state of Carries career.

Lucas in response to your original statement about what Carries career would be without Idol I don’t have to wonder about that because I am reasonably sure that without Idol there would be no Carrie. The girl was going to broadcast school and not really pursuing a career as an artist.

I must admit I think Carrie is immensly talented though I don’t like most of her music. The problem imo is that her talent is being mismarketed as country when in reality she is nowhere near country, she is a pop singer and a darn good one. After the whole point of Idol as a show isn’t to find the best country singer it’s to find the best POP singer and imo they found it in Carrie.I think the sooner that country radio and Carries handlers come to that conclusion and she crosses over the better.Cariie would surely sell just as many albums if not more as a pop star, and she certainly wouldn’t have to deal with all the abuse she takes from fans of country who are sick of her pop songs ruling the country charts and awards shows.