Your Take: A Line Of Impropriety?

As a music buyer, I guess I only have a problem if the producer-penned song stinks. If the song is good, then I don’t have any real problem with it because I got my money’s worth.

If I buy an album that stinks, I’m less likely to buy that artist’s albums in the future. So if the producer insists upon recording sub-par songs merely because he wrote them, he may cause his artist to lose potential “repeat buyers” who think like I do.

sorry, i meant to me.

I don’t know if I find it exloitative for the simple fact that if a producer puts too many songs on albums that don’t work, they won’t be producing much.
While Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful doesn’t appeal to most of us on these board, I also don’t know that it is supposed to. But it did do what it was supposed to do, which was get her back in fron tof her target demographic and make her the bestest teen role model since the last one. In fact, I would be curious to know if Lindsey and Co wrote the song and then presented it to Kellie, or if Chris saw Kellie’s AI performance not give her a bump and wrote the song to cater specifically to that need.

I don’t know how much say who should have, but I know this: If I was investing money into a new artist (as record labels do) I’d expect some say over the final project.

If I didn’t have some control over which songs were/weren’t recorded, how the album was marketed, et cetera, I would take my money elsewhere and invest in some other business.

The level of control need not be direct: It would be enough to simply be able to hire managers who would make those decisions for me.

But I couldn’t imagine investing in any new artist with the intent of getting that artist on Top 40 radio and not expect some sort of control over that artist’ recording choices, the image he/she projects, and the marketing.

i guess i have always looked more too the straight and narrow ways of sucess within a career with the songwriter(with a little outside help like friends)being the artist and having control of thier situation. i understand its a rough business, but it just does not attract me to think a producer/songwriter has great songs to give to artist which could make the album a multi-platinum seller, but they opt out to give a song to one artist and couple too another and if their lucky it might hit gold. how exactly does this work, does the artist get to choose the songs they didnt write or our they forced? thats why i prefer artist that make and play their own music because the emotion is there already and it just seems real and more natural.

so do ya think it’s a position of power being played by the producers to make sure the artist does not become huge to make it easier for them to keep a noose around the artist career, so they dont run off at the first sign of more money or more song opportunities. thats why i feel if you do it all yourself you can find the producer to fit your style easier instead of putting up with all that bull of being forced and told what to do.

And there is something to be said for producers. Rumor has it that Kelly Clarkson and Clive Davis fought over every song on her last album. She won and came out with the most critically and fan panned album of her career.

Likewise, something tells me we won’t be having this conversation if Chely Wright covers a couple of Rodney Crowell songs on her nect album.

i thought hank and fred were friend’s? if it was mutually just business do you think hank would’ve been as sucessful? because i think their friendship was the reason for their sucess together because of thier respect of each other. can you really say the same for most of today’s business partnerships.

Along the lines of Stormy’s point about Kelly Clarkson:

“He Stopped Loving Her Today” is often considered one of country’s best songs, but George Jones hated it and recorded it only because his producer Billy Sherrill hounded him into recording it.

Brady,
Being as so that I myself have worked with Chris on our new album I feel I should reveal the experience with MY producer and his contributions as far as songwriting goes…(I feel that Will would beack me up on this whole post so I believe I am speaking for both of us)

I am friends with some bands who have gotten record deals and have had a producer who thrust their opinions and songs onto those albums…the bands never did well. So I was aware of that potential “problem” before we ever started the album…

BUT I have to be honest, out every record that I have ever owned, without knowing it, I have always picked out the “Chris Lindsey, Aimee Mayo and Hilary Lindsey” cuts. Those were ALWAYS my favorite songs…and I didnt find this out until I met them and did more research on their “credits”!! It was kind of alarming to me and taught me to respect fate even more. So needless to say I was ALREADY a Chris Lindsey and Aimee Mayo fan to begin with. Quite frankly I always joke with them that they could probably crap in a brown paper bag and I would still like it!(As you come to know me more personally, and believe me I intend you to…you will also know that I am a ridiculously HUGE Hilary fan and I kind of put them in the same group in my mind because they are good friends)

But ok, down to our album. Of the 10 songs on our upcoming album, only two were CO-WRITTEN with Chris and Aimee. They are “Dark Horse” and “Address in the Stars”. Which are up on our myspace if you want to hear em.

Now, I dont know in any other artist cases, but in ours Will and I had almost complete control of the songs we did and didnt do. If we were given a song we didnt like they would toss it. If we were given a song that the label loved and we didnt, they tossed it. So, having said that I think in the longest way possible, if Chris and Aimee pitched a song to us and we didnt like it…we didnt do it.

I dont want you to get the wrong impression of Chris and his job as our producer. At no time did he ever force us to do one of his or Aimee’s songs. It just so happens that the songs of theirs that did make the album, made it because they were the best they/we had to offer.

Chris and Aimee are two of the most talented people (in my mind) and I think their credentials speak for themselves. However we are now brought down to a matter of opinion about their songs…and ya know what everyone says about opinions :)

I hope that one day you get to know Chris and Aimee personally…they really do care about people and they dont “step” on anyone to get to the top.

My opinion though (taking my situation and CL out of the equation) an artist should know who they are and who they arent…if they are being bullied by a producer to do one of their songs they should know what part of the human anatomy their boot goes in…we always talk about individuality in music…and an artist that just sits back and takes it is no atrist at all.

I hope this helps in your quest for the right answer to your question. And I hope it helps maybe in how you view our friend CL and AHEM how you review the C&W album…haha just kidding.

xoxo Caitlin