The Malec Minute: Joanna Cotten’s Impossible Question

If feel your pain Jim, but Cotton made a bad move by getting in bed with the majors in the first place. She relinquished control of her image, and to some degree her sound, to people that didn’t know who she was and actually had a vested interest in not caring. They are more interested in making you who they think you should be to assure maximum marketability.

An outdated distribution model is not the only problem facing the industry (though it is a doozy) it’s their obsession with quarter to quarter profits over long-term investments. A sound like Cotten’s is a considerable risk by the very thing that is its strength, its uniqueness and singular sound. The major labels obsession with singles and rigidly formatted radio play lists is like a junkie’s need for a fix, never satiated and ultimately destructive to the host. It’s also a marker you have brought up time and again as a qualifier for success. Those that live by the single, well you get it…
Now I can hear and appreciate the talent contained within the layers of gooey-production amber coming over Cotten’s MySpace page. But I think you make the same mistake she made by signing when you say “Cotten needed strong artistic direction. She needed help creating a consistent, marketable image. She needed those smart people, those record professionals, to guide her, confidently, in the right direction. She needed people to say, “This song is great, but that one isn’t good enough.” She needed a team that believed in her fully, completely, and unquestionably.”

Way off track here pard. Cotton should have had confidence enough in her own interpretation of her image and her ability to record on a smaller label to more organically grow career over time. Many new talent and old timers are doing it and I think in the end Cotton will move that way as well. The lottery of the big label smash is just that, the odds are against you.

In the end the big labels don’t deserve the infusion of real talent like Cotten, they deserve to suffer the dearth of exceptional talent their short-sighted business model results in. They need to eat their own dog food.

Jim, completely agree that just because you’re indy you don’t get a pass at being good. Same goes for mainstream and popular music.

And I agree that the function of a label should be (and once was) to help shape and direct the artist to take advantage of their innate talents and strengths. But I’m afraid this type of care is costly and labels are less and less willing to shell out the dough to do it. This is the short-term thinking I referred to. The labels are killing the gold laying goose with their risk adverse mentality of “eliminate redundancies and to streamline efficiencies.” Great culture never comes by way of committee.

I think we do agree on this point; most artists starting out need some direction in sharpening their skills. I think where we deviate is that the major labels have any current interest in doing that in any substantial way over time.

As to your last point, agreed again. I would go you one further by saying that only music that is artistically interesting has a place in the mainstream. To my way of thinking there is only one sin in music, and that is to be boring.

Great article, Jim. Big improvement from the last Malec Minute on Miranda Lambert ;-) haha.

I have not heard any of Joanna Cotten’s music so I don’t know how different it is, but I don’t really view country radio as a very accepting format for something “new.” Gretchen Wilson and Big & Rich offered something “new” and they quickly faded in and faded out. Whether or not Joanna would have met the same fate has yet to be determined, I suppose. However, you make some valid points in your assessment of major labels and their goals, their purpose, and their shortcomings that do not stictly apply to just Joanna Cotten.

I feel your pain folks, but I cut the labels far more slack than is offered here. To me 90% (or more) of the blame for unique and talented new artists not making it in the marketplace falls directly at the feet of the Top 40 Mainstream Country Muzak Establishment. If the Top 40 radio folks don’t embrace a new artist and play their music, they are usually doomed to fade away into obscurity.

Q: What would you call a label that specializes in identifying and nurturing fantastic new country artists that don’t sound like everyone else on Top 40 country radio? A: Bankrupt!

I am always on the look out for music from new artists on major Nashville labels that Top 40 radio ignores as they are often far better than what gets embraced. The big label A&R folks are still good at spotting real talent and recording interesting projects, but far too many of these debut albums, like Joanna’s, never get released. The old style marketing method of radio station promotional tours doesn’t even seem to matter much in getting radio stations interested in new artists these days.

The major labels need to develop acts that country radio will embrace plain and simple. The labels typically put out one or two singles by a new artist and if country radio doesn’t bite that’s usually the end of the story. The majors did fine jobs on the debut albums by Ashley Monroe, Sarah Buxton, Lane Turner, Susan Haynes, The Jenkins, and others but lack of radio hits meant none of these albums were offered commercially on CD. Now I do fault the labels for not releasing such fine music on CD even if sales will be limited.

I think the pathetic state of the Top 40 country radio establishment has the labels between a rock and a hard place. Joanna is just another casualty of the foolishness and short-sightedness of today’s Top 40 country programmers. In a realm where shallowness and mediocrity reign supreme real talent is a liability….

Allow me to start with a caveat, I’ve only just now heard of Joanna Cotten, but I listened to all her myspace and youtube songs.

Regardless of whether or not you blame the record company for not fully marketing her, or you blame her for not insisting upon her image/direction, one this is for sure: she does not fit in the Nashville country establishment. Her music, for me, is reminiscent of what I’ve heard a million times from coffee house, lounge, and opening act singers. Sure, she’s got an interesting sounding voice, but when coupled with her style of music, she never had a shot with country radio. Any business would have done the same thing with a poorly thought out product.

For more on this topic I refer everyone to The Lefsetz Letter (http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/).

Lefsetz is an ex-entertainment lawyer living in L.A. He often posts heated but perceptive posts about the industry.

Lanibug – and then there are the the examples of established legends that no longer fit the mold – Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, Charlie Louvin – they all had to go outside the Nashville big labels to get their latest work done.

Let me first say, if any of you have been reading any of the industry publications – the Taylor wannabes, I’d say clones, but they wish! Anywho… they’re already being signed. They’ll fail and probably just steer more towards Taylor. The labels will be left with a hole in their pocket.

As far as Joanna Cotten goes, WBR Nash. has been trying to steer artists into a new category of Big & Rich-stylisitic knock-offs. People like Big & Rich because they’re original, so trying to copy their style isn’t going to work! WBR wants SO badly to sign the new hip kids on the block that they completely ignore any sense of who an artist is.

Everyone brings up valid points, and I think an important distinction here is that I’m not blaming Warner from dropping her. As I said, the decision to split was the right one–but it was right for the wrong reasons. The fact that Warner didn’t ‘know what to do’ speaks to something far more profound than the one artist which I’ve propped up here as an example.

Two points:
1) We will always disagree about what is or is not country. To me, Funkabilly is country. But the comment made in this regard brings up a valid point–when you go to Cotten’s myspace page, you’re hearing the singer-songwriter side of her, which doesn’t mesh with what you’re seeing. What you should be hearing, in keeping with the visual presentation, is “Big Revival” in which she declares “So praise the lord and pass me a copperhead,” or “Miracle in Lee County,” a D. Lindie song about Elvis appearing on the side of a barn.

2) I like the argument that Cotten has come out on top here. It is a compelling argument that really made me stop and reconsider. But in the end I think it is a flawed argument, because I fail to see where she goes from here without enduring quite a long “quiet” period. What label is going to pick her up at this point? I hate to say this, and I mean it only in a commercial sense, not a personal sense (I hope that’s obvious), but right now she’s damaged goods. Any artist is in this situation. Sure, she’s got an expensive record, but what’s she really going to do with that record? What did Sons of the Desert do with theirs after the Sony debacle? Joanna Cotten is going to have to start over from scratch, or start on a much smaller scale. And either way, that’s just tough.

But she’s a tough lady, so let’s see what happens.

You’re right, though. There’s no doubt the label lost quite a bit here, and yes, I have a feeling that they were open to the idea of cutting their losses. This column shouldn’t be seen as a criticism of the end result, but of the steps taken (or not taken) which brought that end result about.

I think there’s no doubt that 2007 was the year of the Big Machine. 2008 might be, too. I think Justin Moore’s first single is going to be huge. Capitol has good artists in the pipeline.

Great article.

You hit so many points square on the nose, I don’t know where to begin. Instead I’ll just mention one of the problems with Nashville, and the music industry in general, is they are relying on an outdated system they should be moving away from EXCEPT in A&R.

The old fashioned art of finding unique and superstar talent has been handed to reality shows, American Idol, Nashville Star, social networks, publishing companies, and other factory testing grounds. A trend in crossing over pop artists to country or letting independent labels do the ground work is also prevalent.

Letting others define the talent for you is not a stellar way to run a company. A few labels in town are trying to do it right, but they are the exception.

I know there are incredibly talented and authentic artists out there who do not want to sell their soul to a TV show, who can’t dance, and can’t spend 24/7 marketing themselves on MySpace.

We can keep signing safe artists that appeal to the lowest common denominator or we can try to find phenomenal artists that will grow the format.

I don’t think anybody should be surprised at what happened to Joanna. It’s nothing new. Joy White was one of the most talented female singers to emerge in the nineties, but she didn’t fit the required image of the time. Even though she had two albums released by the major label she was signed to, those albums weren’t supported by radio so didn’t sell enough, and she’s just one example among many.

The thorny issue of major labels requiring instant success is disturbing on a number of levels. Some of the major stars would never have made it if instant success had been required in the old days. Reba McEntire’s first album flopped and her second didn’t do much better. In today’s environment, a major label would almost certainly drop an artist at that point, if not before. There were plenty of good female country singers around at that time as I pointed out in my Amazon review of Reba’s debut album, yet if Reba hadn’t been allowed a third album, she would, like Jacky Ward (with whom Reba recorded three duets early in her career) have faded back into the obscurity from which she came.

Short-termism isn’t limited to the music business; it can be found in all industries. Corporations become big by mostly getting things right but once they are big, it’s like they feel they’ve done it. The entrepeneurs who built the business are often replaced by managers of a different type, who prefer to “play it safe”. Sound familiar?

Back in the seventies, IBM ruled the computer world and seemed untouchable. But new developments occurred and IBM weren’t as quick as their much smaller rivals, so Microsoft ended up taking their place as the world’s computer giants. And no doubt, they’ll eventually lose out to some other yet-unknowm rival for much the same reason, but probly not while Bill Gates (the entrepeneur) is still there.

The same sort of change can happen in country music, at least in theory. Any major labels that can’t sell records won’t remain major, while small independents that do well could become the majors of the future. The precedents are not good, as anybody who remembers Ovation and MTM knows. Both were extremely successful for a few years before closing down. Maybe one day, another independent will avoid the problems that Ovation and MTM had, break through and become a major. Incidentally, one of MTM’s former artists, Judy Rodman, posted a comment on Joanna Cotten’s MySpace blog page, saying “Been there, done that”.

“In today’s marketplace, radio doesn’t want a long introduction to an artist. It wants something that, as Ray Scott said, is going to blow up big out of the box.

The costs of doing business in this market are too high to give people three albums. When a major label is investing a million dollars in breaking an artist, and that artist’s product isn’t well received, the label is going to move on the the next project.”

This is a huge problem. What you’re saying is that the costs of breaking a new act have sky-rocketed out of control compared to 30 years ago. And yet, with all that money being spent, the product that is being delivered these days is decidedly inferior to what we were getting in years past. I think that there is very little hope for the future of real country music unless the incestuous relationship between the major labels and conglomerated radio can be somehow undermined. There’s plenty of good talent out there; it’s a shame that so little of it is getting widely heard.

JOANNA COTTEN OOZES TALENT. WARNER BROS MISSED THE BOAT BY USING THE WRONG SONG TO JUMPSTART HER BIG LABEL CAREER.

WHILE “THE PRIZE” IS A NICE SONG USABLE TO FILL OUT AN ALBUM, IT DOES NOT HAVE THAT SOMETHING TO “HOOK” A PERSON TO BE A NEW FAN OF AN EMERGING ARTIST.

THE RIGHT SONG IS “HARD TO WANT”. HOW ARE YOU NOT HOOKED IN BY A SONG THAT BEGINS WITH THIS LYRIC: “SUPERMAN PAJAMAS, LIVIN’ WITH HIS MAMA, ONE SCREW LOOSE AND TWO GOLD MOLARS, BACK HAIR, BACK THERE, LOOKIN’ LIKE A PORCUPINE….”

EVERYONE I PLAY IT FOR LOVES IT…..I MEAN LOVES IT…..THE LYRICS ARE HYSTERICAL AND THE MUSIC SHOWCASES JOANNA’S JUILLIARD QUALITY PIPES.

SAW JOANNA AT THE BLUEBIRD IN NASHVILLE WITH TY HERNDON, GREG BARNHILL AND DAVE MATALSKY. BOUGHT THE FUNKABILLY CD AND HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET IT OUT OF MY CD PLAYER. THAT SONG WILL GET HER NOTICED. HER VOICE WILL MAKE HER A STAR……

AM A MIDDLE AGED, JERSEY YANKEE LAWYER WHO NEVER REALLY LIKED COUNTRY MUSIC. JOANNA CHANGED ALL THAT….