Idols In Demand;
Stars of summer hit still riding crest of TV success
Gary Graff, Special to The Plain Dealer
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) November 8,
2002 Friday
CONCERT PREVIEW
American Idols Live!
RCA Records executive Aaron Borns cannot remember having a smash hit on his
hands before a single CD was pressed.
But "American Idol" is that kind of phenomenon, and neither Borns nor
his company is complaining.
"It's such a different process than we're used to," the marketing
director says of what he calls "the tornado that is 'American Idol.' "
"A record company is generally trying to create demand for an artist. But
in this case, there's plenty of demand out there already. It's a lot of fun.
It's different for us and for the audience."
For those who have been living in caves - or watched reruns - during the summer,
"American Idol" is the reality TV contest show on Fox that captivated
the United States. Adapted from a British predecessor called "Pop
Idol," the program brought singing hopefuls together for a chance at
stardom - including a $1 million recording contract with RCA - based on the
votes of viewers and the comments of a panel of judges that included pop singer
Paula Abdul.
Ratings went through the roof; some 23 million people tuned in - and 15.5
million cast votes - during the final Sept. 3 showdown between bubbly,
big-voiced Texan Kelly Clarkson and even more bubbly, big-haired
Pennsylvanian Justin Guarini. Clarkson won with some 58 percent of the vote,
but as Guarini notes, any of "Idol's" 10 finalists can be considered
winners.
"I think from the very beginning, once we found out 'Wow, this is what it
is?' we realized it doesn't matter whether we finish 10th or first," says
Guarini, 23. "We've had experience, exposure, learned lessons you can't pay
for. We knew this was a good thing; that also helped to put a buffer between us
and the desire to get nasty and competitive and catfight."
"American Idol's" success hardly has stopped with the end of the
show's first season. Clarkson's debut single, "Before Your
Love"/"A Moment Like This," had first-week sales of 236,000
copies. "American Idol Greatest Moments," an album featuring
performances by the 10 finalists, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard album chart.
A follow-up TV special, "American Idol in Vegas," was another ratings
bonanza, and a concert tour by the 10 finalists, which comes to the Cleveland
State University Convocation Center on Thursday, is selling out in record time
at many venues across the country (tickets are still available in Cleveland).
Clarkson and Guarini, who's also signed to RCA, are at work on their respective
albums. In January, they're set to film a romantic comedy called "From
Justin to Kelly." Other "Idol" finalists such as Nikki McKibbin
and Tamyra Gray are finalizing their own recording deals.
Auditions for the show's second season are expected to attract far more than the
100,000 who queued up for the first.
"A lot of people are asking 'How do you capitalize on it?' " says
Borns. "What we're learning quickly is that it isn't as much about
capitalizing as it is about meeting the expectations of all these people who
voted for these kids. They already have preconceived notions of who Kelly is and
what she stands for and what kind of artist she is - even if she is a beginner.
"You don't want to disappoint those people. So instead of trying to create
something, we're trying to maintain what they saw and fell in love with on the
show."
And Guarini, for one, understands how tenuous that relationship can be.
"It was such a great phenomenon," he says, "and with any
phenomenon, there is that possibility it could take a nose dive."
But the machinery around "Idol" is designed to keep that from
happening. And it has other TV-made musicians green with envy.
"They had so much promotion, so much press - they really set it up
brilliantly," says Dan Miller of the pop vocal quintet O-Town, which came
together through the series "Making the Band" and released a
double-platinum debut album during 2001.
"In a lot of ways, they're doing things our show should have - [Clarkson's]
song coming out right away, a video coming out right away, an album very soon.
They definitely set it all up in a great way."
But Uncle Kracker, the DJ in Kid Rock's Twisted Brown Trucker Band who also has
a solo career, fears that the "Idol" crew is headed for a rude
awakening when they move from the TV show into the harsh reality of the music
industry, in which performers need to sell an enormous amount of CDs before they
begin to see any profit.
"It's funny; these kids are so famous from the show," says Kracker,
who was in Las Vegas at the same time they were filming the "Idol"
special there. "I was thinking how much it would suck to be that famous and
not have any dough. They got screwed, and they don't even know it yet."
Clarkson and Guarini don't see it that way, however. "Idol's"
finalists view their raised profile as a fortuitous opportunity, and they say
they wholly embrace the idea that the challenge now is to establish themselves
as credible artists and not just lucky TV contestants.
"I really don't feel like I need to prove myself to people," says
Clarkson, 20, whose schedule after winning "Idol" was so arduous that
a doctor ordered her to take a couple weeks off before tour rehearsals began.
"I'm really looking forward to showing people what I can do. They know I
can sing, but nobody's heard my [song] writing 'cause we only did covers on the
show.
"People keep asking me 'What kind of music will you do? What kind of style
do you have?' My style is versatile; I'll sing anything with soul, and soul has
no color. I write everything from country to rock, pop, ballads, No Doubt kind
of stuff. I don't think anyone has to be pigeonholed, you know. My thing as an
artist is to be limitless."
Clarkson's debut album was slated to come out in November, but she says the
reality of making a quality album won out. It's likely to come out during the
first half of 2003. She'll be recording during days off from the tour with an
all-star cadre of producers and writers that includes hit makers such as Rhett
Lawrence, Walter Afanasieff and, possibly, Babyface.
"We want to make sure we get a great album, so we're not rushing it,"
she says.
Guarini, meanwhile, hopes to have his debut single out during November to
capitalize on the tour, with an album to follow in early 2003. "I'm a firm
believer in seizing the moment," he says. "I think the people who have
supported us are really hungry for us to get our own stuff out - and it only
benefits us to do that."