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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2016 21:00:04 GMT
Turns out Avril isn't the only one LA Reid asks to redo an entire record. The only difference is that Meghan Trainor was able to get it done fast and used the time as an opportunity to change, and give us something different and entirely new from what she's previously done. "It was definitely a war with my label and my management because I was handing in songs, and I did the doo-wop. I was like, “Yeah, I killed it, I took it to a new level of funk!” They would say, “That’s exactly what everybody’s expecting, Meghan. Hit us with your songwriting skills, hit us with something no one would expect Meghan Trainor to do.” That pissed me off and fired me up, so I went into the studio and was like, “Ugh! We need an angry song! More hip hop, more urban! Let’s go!” We did that in one day and they loved it." time.com/4246204/meghan-trainor-no-interview-new-album/As much as I originally disagreed with LA Reid's decision to scrap Avril's entire record, I'm starting to think that it was actually a smart decision. It was Avril's opportunity to change, give us a new sound, and potentially grow. Whether or not she accomplished these things is up to you as the listener. Though looking at the situation, I would've been pissed if I had taken a year to write and had to scrap the entire thing. So from the outside, it's easy to say "take this opportunity to do something different and to do better." And I can't help but to wish Avril took it as a challenge to take more risks. What do you guys think about this and Meghan's new single "NO" ? How do you want Avril to GROW and EVOLVE as a pop artist ? It'd take some risks from Avril's end, but I hope she gives us something NEW, something we haven't heard from her yet. |
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BogoGog24
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Post by BogoGog24 on Mar 4, 2016 21:58:12 GMT
Assuming that the songs she did over were the Martin Johnson ones, I'd say she did not challenge herself at all nor do I understand why Epic would be happy with those songs. It baffles me that she could go from writing a song like GYWYL or Falling Fast to a song like HTNGU or RNR. I want to seriously believe that Epic gave her specific instructions to write songs similar to GF/TBDT/WTH/Smile type stuff and not that they just said "Make pop songs" and that's the best she could do.
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In Wonderland
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Post by In Wonderland on Mar 4, 2016 22:10:40 GMT
Cher Lloyd said she parted from Epic with anger because they, L.A, forced her to change her whole record. Karmin said they had to go back to the studio several times, because Epic didn't think their album did any good. Avril said she was forced to go back to the studio. And now Megan.......
Well if that is the record lable memo at Epic, they should go explain that to their artists. Cause they don't seem to either understand or do what they want them to. Imo.
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Post by Jack on Mar 4, 2016 22:57:59 GMT
Changing an artist's vision for an album is always a bad idea, in my opinion. Yes, the artist can embrace the change and be excited with it, like Meghan seem to do and how Avril did when Arista rejected her idea of making a "rock" album. But you can see the results for Avril's last two albums, especially the self-titled. An artist should change, give new sounds and potentially grow on own terms, not "suggested" or forced terms. And if Meghan (one of their "hit" artists last years) was treated like that, I can't image what people Avril, Ciara or Karmin had to go through. Why can't they let them to what they really want and work from there?  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2016 23:26:10 GMT
The reason I can sort of understand LA Reid's point with Meghan is that she said so herself that she just wrote a "Title2.0". LA's point with bringing her back to the studio was to help her expand her potential. I can see it from both sides, doesn't mean I think he's completely in the right. The sad part is that Meghan said she wrote 8 hit songs (assuming with hitmakers) before LA sent her back to redo everything (Notice he sent her to one of Avril's ex-"hit-makers" Kash for this new single...). I'd be pissed too.
But I agree..he should at least respect the direction the artist was already going in.
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Post by BogoGog24 on Mar 5, 2016 12:43:51 GMT
I could see it from Epic's POV if the original album Avril had come up with was the opposite, and it was songs like HTNGU and RNR. But originally she had LMG, GYWYL, FF, HH, Hush Hush... quite a departure from what she has done in the past and I think either GYWYL or Hello Heartache could have been fine choices for AC radio. What she already had was probably fine. Making her change it ended up not being the best idea, we just got basic pop songs and they weren't even hits.
GL is more the album where I can see the label wanting to change it because there wasn't much hit or single material to work with and it would have been very tough to market.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2016 20:27:19 GMT
I could see it from Epic's POV if the original album Avril had come up with was the opposite, and it was songs like HTNGU and RNR. But originally she had LMG, GYWYL, FF, HH, Hush Hush... quite a departure from what she has done in the past and I think either GYWYL or Hello Heartache could have been fine choices for AC radio. What she already had was probably fine. Making her change it ended up not being the best idea, we just got basic pop songs and they weren't even hits. GL is more the album where I can see the label wanting to change it because there wasn't much hit or single material to work with and it would have been very tough to market. All the songs that made it to AL including singles and nonsingles were written AFTER she was asked by LA to redo her record. She had it complete and was going to release it in 2012 with completely different writers and producers. I think I remember hearing that she was going for However I agree.. they shouldn't have made her change songs. She had it complete and was going to release it in 2012 with completely different writers and producers. However I agree.. for GL it made sense. |
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Post by Jack on Mar 5, 2016 21:18:46 GMT
I could see it from Epic's POV if the original album Avril had come up with was the opposite, and it was songs like HTNGU and RNR. But originally she had LMG, GYWYL, FF, HH, Hush Hush... quite a departure from what she has done in the past and I think either GYWYL or Hello Heartache could have been fine choices for AC radio. What she already had was probably fine. Making her change it ended up not being the best idea, we just got basic pop songs and they weren't even hits. GL is more the album where I can see the label wanting to change it because there wasn't much hit or single material to work with and it would have been very tough to market. She had it complete and was going to release it in 2012 with completely different writers and producers. I think I remember hearing that she was going for However I agree.. they shouldn't have made her change songs. She had it complete and was going to release it in 2012 with completely different writers and producers. However I agree.. for GL it made sense. A lot of "Tripod" songs (including some that made the final cut) were registered on Songfile and other places before she came back to studio (January 2013), and when she and L.A. Reid "confirmed" it was finished around autumn 2012. If you meant The Runners, I'm quite sure she had already scrapped most (if not all) of those songs in favour of "Tripod" songs; not in vain, none of those Runners songs were ever registered. So, it wasn't really "completely different writers and producers". Too bad we don't have the old forums anymore so we could check all those news threads  |
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Post by sam on Mar 5, 2016 23:41:03 GMT
Changing an artist's vision for an album is always a bad idea, in my opinion. Yes, the artist can embrace the change and be excited with it, like Meghan seem to do and how Avril did when Arista rejected her idea of making a "rock" album. But you can see the results for Avril's last two albums, especially the self-titled. An artist should change, give new sounds and potentially grow on own terms, not "suggested" or forced terms. And if Meghan (one of their "hit" artists last years) was treated like that, I can't image what people Avril, Ciara or Karmin had to go through. Why can't they let them to what they really want and work from there? While I completely agree with you on this I think the reason why so many labels wont let them do what they want (most of the time) is because they're afraid of taking a risk or two.  And to be honest I can understand that point of view but that feeling could go both ways (e.g Artist feels Labels vision is a risk) IMO, it should always be down to the artist, or at least some agreement between the two; in a ideal world both should at least be happy with what the artist is producing. |
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Post by BogoGog24 on Mar 6, 2016 1:36:36 GMT
I could see it from Epic's POV if the original album Avril had come up with was the opposite, and it was songs like HTNGU and RNR. But originally she had LMG, GYWYL, FF, HH, Hush Hush... quite a departure from what she has done in the past and I think either GYWYL or Hello Heartache could have been fine choices for AC radio. What she already had was probably fine. Making her change it ended up not being the best idea, we just got basic pop songs and they weren't even hits. GL is more the album where I can see the label wanting to change it because there wasn't much hit or single material to work with and it would have been very tough to market. All the songs that made it to AL including singles and nonsingles were written AFTER she was asked by LA to redo her record. She had it complete and was going to release it in 2012 with completely different writers and producers. I think I remember hearing that she was going for However I agree.. they shouldn't have made her change songs. She had it complete and was going to release it in 2012 with completely different writers and producers. However I agree.. for GL it made sense. The tripod songs that still made the cut were there originally. She didn't redo the entire album. |
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Post by niccolo on Mar 6, 2016 2:02:21 GMT
For AL, L.A most probably urged her to write more critically/publicly appealing songs. Even after the release of HTNGU, she was self-reportedly completing one of the self-written tracks.
We can't disagree with LA for not hearing a lead single on Meghan's album when all we've heard is the newly penned first single.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2016 2:09:19 GMT
She had a complete album done with the runners and was planning on releasing it in 2012. It wasn't till after LA said no that Avril started working with the tripod!
She didn't even start working with Chad till february 2012.
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Post by Jack on Mar 6, 2016 7:23:39 GMT
She had a complete album done with the runners and was planning on releasing it in 2012. It wasn't till after LA said no that Avril started working with the tripod! She didn't even start working with Chad till february 2012. She only had a brief confirmation that she was done around March after already working Chad, when she said she was going to take a little time off before going on her "next musical journey" (when she went to France), but L.A. Reid never said anything until she confirmed it again in autumn 2012, after the extended sessions with the Tripod. While what you said may be technically true to an extent, there was never a true confirmation and I don't think L.A. Reid really rejected her work with The Runners. I think she simply discarded those songs, possibly she was more satisfied with her work with the Tripod, and the fact she made them while still dating Brody could have something to do with their discard. |
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Post by BogoGog24 on Mar 6, 2016 17:28:05 GMT
She had a complete album done with the runners and was planning on releasing it in 2012. It wasn't till after LA said no that Avril started working with the tripod! She didn't even start working with Chad till february 2012. You're misremembering. I just went back and read up the info on the recording of AL. 3 months after GL came out she was already working on album 5 and had 8 songs recorded, knew which one she wanted as the single and just had to re-record it. In late 2011 she moved to Epic and presumably scrapped all or most of those 8 songs and started working with the Runners. It was only a few months later she teamed up with Chad and David in early 2012. By that summer she was basically done and went off to France, came back in August to do last minute finishing touches. LA said it could be released late 2012 or top of 2013. Soon after this the staff within Epic changed and I suspect that's what caused delays, there were also rumors that they had sent radio the single and they didn't like it, which is why they asked Avril to make pop songs with Martin Johnson. It was mainly in 2013 she was reworking the album, the tripod stuff was already on it, and the only new songs were the ones done with Martin. Presumably the Runners stuff was scrapped in favor of the Martin songs and the tripod stuff was kept (I assume she planned for the Runners stuff to be her "hit"/single material and tripod stuff to be the artsy album tracks) |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2016 6:24:01 GMT
mistakes were made  |
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And to be honest I can understand that point of view but that feeling could go both ways (e.g Artist feels Labels vision is a risk) IMO, it should always be down to the artist, or at least some agreement between the two; in a ideal world both should at least be happy with what the artist is producing. 
