[ALBUM] AL8 Speculation Thread

She said a million times that LA Reid had no problem with her "style". As soon as her collab with other songwritters didnt work, LA Reid and Arista sent her to The Matrix studio lol

Fighting with record labels after 2011? I'm sorry, I'm not buying it.

Are you sick of all the songs on your first album?

Yeah. Except for a couple, “Tomorrow” and “I’m With You.” When I was on tour, I was like, “I’m over this.” I was just looking forward to my next record. I can’t stand performing “Complicated.” But I’m not gonna pull the “I’m not singing a single” like some bands who are too good to do that. You should always play your hits.

What is the rudest thing you’ve ever read about yourself?

People saying I can’t sing, but I have no problem with that, because I know that I can. People saying that I can’t write, which pisses the fuck out of me, because I’m a writer. Don’t you fucking dare try to take that from me.

What’s the best lyric you’ve written?

One of my favorite bridges I’ve written is in “Losing Grip” [sings]: “For crying out loud/For crying out loud.” I just get lost when I’m performing it. It’s so me.

Is it easy to write about guys?

Oh, fuck, yeah! It’s so easy. It’s what I always write about.

So no new political material?

You know, I have, but it didn’t make the record.

No way! What was it about?

The way I wish that people would just come together. Like, “Why is this planet suffocating?” I talked about a few things that were going on on TV. You remember the serial killer, the sniper dude.

Yeah, the Beltway snipers in D.C.

Yeah. One of the lyrics was “On my TV there’s a serial killer who’s taken too many lives/He shot somebody every day/And now he’s still getting away.”

www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/qa-avril-lavigne-171370/

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It was a funny interview because Avril said she can write, but when the next question she was asked about the best lyrics she wrote, she answered "for crying out loud".

Btw I wish that political song was in the original UMS album, or got leaked at least.

I was thinking this the other day too. Are there any other prominent female singers who had so much trouble with their label? Avril got a deal based on singing a really mellow pop song. Perhaps with other singers it has been more clear from the get go  what the singer wants so the label isn't taken by surprise. But that only explains the first record. After that, the label(s) should have been aware that Avril wants more than pop. Is it because labels think you can't make money if you switch styles too much? Is Avril too versatile (from a label pov)? I don't really listen to or follow other female singers enough to know whether the level of versatility we've gotten from Avril through her career is normal or not. I suppose it could be the pop genre that is kind of inflexible? When you look at other genres, there seem to be fewer restrictions from labels. 

Yeah I follow some other female artists and they didn’t have as many issues with their label as Avril, as far as I’m aware. Taylor had some, like Scott thought she should change the title of the Speak Now album, and when she wanted to go full pop on 1989, he really disagreed with every decision regarding that album. Then she ended up moving labels and of course her masters were sold. But she’s only been on 2 labels her whole career.

Ariana has been with the same label all her career, I think for her first album they weren’t on board with a throwback R&B sound but other than that she hadn’t had too many disagreements with them that I know of.

Miley went from the Disney label to RCA. She was probably dictated what to do when on the Disney label but I can’t recall her having much issue otherwise.

Kelly had issues with RCA regarding the My December album but I think her other releases went more smoothly. She’s only been on 2 labels her whole career.

Britney was largely controlled by the label, there was a whole album that got scrapped even. She’s been on only 2 labels her whole career.

Either other artists just haven’t had as many issues with labels, or they just haven’t talked about it as much as Avril has. Either way, many artists have been on the same label their whole career or maybe 2. Avril’s been on 5. I’ve never seen an artist change labels as often as she has. It might be a business thing, a lot of artists get signed to multi year/multi album deals but maybe Avril’s management negotiated for 2 year/2 album or 1 album deals so Avril wouldn’t be stuck? Idk. I almost wonder if she’s developed a reputation in the industry for being difficult to work with and labels don’t want to sign her for long contracts.

Michelle Branch got royally f’d by Warner for years. Jojo, too. Taylor Swift and the Big Machine drama and needing to re-record everything

The Veronica’s have released their new single called “Perfect” which was produced by John Feldman and also see he helped them write the song with Travis Barker.

It sounds quite Avril, and I wonder if this would influence the style of music on AL8 with not wanting to sound too similar to The Veronica’s especially if John and Travis are involved?

I do respect her for sticking to her guns, though. Her goal is to make the album she wants to make and bring her vision to life, even if it isn't likely to be the most commercially successful album. On the other hand, for example, Demi has said the goal when writing Confident (the album) was to make a commercially successful album that would put her in contention for awards; that album got nominated for a Grammy. IMO, both are perfectly fine goals, and I think successfully bringing your vision to life isn't "lesser than" having a commercially successful album. It's great if you achieve that too, but I really think creating the art you want is an equal achievement to getting the number 1 album debut you were going for. I think the art itself is often overlooked given how much focus is on billboard rankings and whatnot.

On one hand, I certainly don't think it's a bad thing if the label tries to guide the artist, especially if the goal is to write a bunch of hits. But I also think artists should have complete creative freedom to create their art, taking others' opinions/advice into account if they want to. Was GL more commercially successful because the label forced WTH and Smile? Probably. But IMO the art suffered a bit because those songs are very out of place. And at the end of the day, they forced Avril to deviate from her vision on an album that was so deeply personal and that she was so proud of. I'm not saying she necessarily knows better than the label, but she's always mostly seemed to be way more focused on the art rather than how successful it is. Obviously the label cares far more about her churning out hits. And you know what? I respect her so much for basically saying "you just want me to do what you want so that you can make more money off of my art, but I'm not doing that -I'm making my art according to my vision because this is my art, not yours." Even though yeah she's probably got a reputation of 'being hard to work with' -which, when used to describe a woman, usually is code for 'voices her opinions and is assertive and not a pushover'- I really respect that she's willing to take that hit to her reputation if it means keeping her artistic integrity. The labels don't care about her vision and what an album means to her, they care about how much money they can make off of her. Personally, I'm completely on board with her fighting to make her art the way that she wants to. Partially because I really think artists should be allowed to do their thing (whether it's painters, authors, singers), and also because as a fan, I want to hear the music the artist wants to make.