I understand Panther and Wizard's points.
I have been playing music since 1955. If my calculations are correct, that's before Alizée's birthdate, and probably most everyone here as well.
I got into playing because I really, REALLY love it. I still play out with my band 3-4 times per week, in addition to my 40 hr per week "real job", or as I like to call it, my real pain-in-the-ass boring job.
I have seen players get into music for many different reasons. Some want to become famous, and give themselves a certain amount of time to "make it big", or they get out of the biz.
I play because it is the one thing I have always loved to do. I have no ulterior motive. If I did get recognition, that would be fine, but it would not make a difference to me, from my point of view.
I do laugh, however when I here others talk about doing pop music, or going commerical. Many people seem to associate those words with something dirty or bad. I did a lot of session work up north, and it was commercial music. That is, it was music which had a wide audience appeal. Many songs now considered "classic" were once commercial. Had they not been commercial and appealed to a wide audience, they would have been forgotten.
I'm not only talking about recent golden oldies, but songs going back centuries.
While I studied classical and 1930's and 40's jazz, and swing growing up, I love to play out for people. The only way I could do that is to play music that people love to dance too, and remember from their youth, or even currently being played on the radio. In other words, commercial pop music, which has made the artist famous, which many people recognize, and love because it brings back fond memories from times past, or even recently.
Music is after all a business, and it's a hard one. Even though it is an intangible, it takes many hours to learn to play and/or sing competantly, buy gear to use and find the places which will hire a group.
Some of the very best musicians in the country are session players who are hired to record pop songs. It may not be their first choice for music they want to play, but it is a living, and for the lucky few, a really GOOD living.
We all want Alizée to be successful and well-received world-wide. In order to do this, she needs a large audience following. If she is not a "commerical"
success, regardless of whether she wants to be or not, she will not succeed. She may, in fact, want to and continue to do things her way, and that's great, but she still needs to be accepted and wanted by an audience, who buys her records and merchandize, goes to her concerts, listens to her on the radio, and who support her, etc. In other words she needs to be a commerical success.
(Sorry for the long post, but I just thought you might undertand the logic.)
Stephen