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Originally Posted by Rev
I mean the above information. The post is over 3 1/2 years old.
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Why don't you check the actual HUB THREAD? The info has been updated twice this year which is more than enough considering that for all intent and purposes Alizee's career as a Pop Singer is OVER. She was dropped by her record label nearly two years ago and selling a few thousand copies of her last two albums will hardly inspire anyone else in the record industry to sign her. Success in the Pop Music field is dependent on you being POPULAR: you either sell lots of records or you're GONE.
Truth be told, she has never been much of a singer and as one Sony executive joked, the album "5" was named for the number of times Sony Music had to send her back to the studio to "fix" her vocals. Unless you are willing to accept her new role as a "television celebrity" and a dancer you're living in a world of fantasy. Alizee seems very comfortable as a wife and mother, an occasional guest star and dance partner to her new husband and to infer that "if Alizee doesn't make a new record I will hold my breath until I die." Sorry, but I don't think she cares to shape her life around the perceived needs of an ever-shrinking group of fan boys. When I joined the Alizee fan community over thirteen years ago there was AF and my Hub... and BOTH seem to be going away.
Alizee was a manufactured Pop Idol whose style, image and songs were a creation of one of the most successful songwriting and video production teams of the last 30 years and an icon in French Music, Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat.
Against the advice of most in the music industry, in 2006 after an ill-timed and virtually career ending "baby break" she decided that she wanted to become a chanteuse, or "serious singer" despite having no training as a vocalist, and no demonstrated skill as a songwriter. Like Britney Spears, Paula Abdul and BoA before her, she had primarily been trained as a DANCER, and relied on the skills of trained songwriters and producers until such time as she could realistic assume those jobs herself, and rely on studio wizardry to "fix" her singing and lipsynching for her "live" appearances.
But in 2007, after a year-long struggle to find someone willing to sign her (her demos were rejected by most major labels due to the previously mentioned "weak vocals" and only one song that sounded like a potential hit: Fifty Sixty), she was signed by RCA Records, mainly based on her Mylene Farmer-produced Music Videos becoming an unexpected hit in Mexico. It didn't sell very well compared to the previous two records, and and sad to say 2007 was the year of the singer songwriter. Pop Idols Like Britney Spears were struggling to sell records and others like Paula Abdul settled into her career as a television celebrity. Alizee's one and only "World Tour" consisted of a half dozen dates in small clubs in Mexico, one gig in Russia, and the one booking in France was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. This placed Alizee in the unenviable position of being the only French singer in history to mount a world tour and fail to have a concert in her home country.
Things went downhill from there. Each record has sold less than the one before it, and Alizee seemed resigned to her fate but very comfortable with her new role in the last couple of years as a "celebrity dancer." If you're such a big fan, you should be comfortable with her decision also.
If you love her so much then you support her new life and new career. How in the world do you think you have any right to attempt to bully her into doing what she has moved on from and public opinion has overwhelmingly not supported her in? If she wants to be a dancer, then GROW UP and love her for that: she spent her entire childhood training as a dancer so it makes perfect sense for her to do what she is good at.
I've been warning you guys for several years that the Hub's continued existence relies on participation and none of you seem to be willing to actually do so: chat activity and posts are virtually non-existent from AAm members, and most traction nowadays seems to come from Asian Pop fans that are refugees from their own Hubs closing. Since the Hub is a "Female Pop Singer Hub" I've repeatedly warned you all collectively in main chat, and each of you individually in private chat, that since any realistic person has come to the conclusion that Alizee no longer qualifies as a "Pop Singer" that it's time for each of you to find some new favorites in the world of music in the 20 terabytes plus of Female Pop singers that we share with all of you. I measure the Hub's success on the level of downloads and uploads, so if you cling to the sad and pathetic mantra the "I only download Alizee" then you clinging to an unrealistic obsession that is counterproductive to the continued existence of the Hub. All of us ACTIVE participants will still continue to share one of the largest collections of Alizee available for download anywhere, but if you want the asset to still be around in the months and years to come, then you need to work with me according to the standards that I put in place in 2003.
None of you are willing to do that: you want to have the Hub around as a database to provide you all with backup in case you lose a hard drive, and figure that tears of gratitude must well in my eyes with the incredible honor of having your nick and incredible godlike presence on my expensive dedicated server that based on inactivity clearly should be re-purposed to something else.
Well, reality check: that's not enough and I've held my tongue for years considering that ten years ago a lot of you were teenagers entitled in a way by your youth to cling to your fandom and self-obsession. Alizee for many of you was your "first love" and after all these years still should not be yout "only love" in the vast and wonderful world of Popular Music. Most of you guys (the handful that are left) are in your, 30s, 40's, 50s, even 60s and should have the common sense and wisdom that the Hub has been ill-served by Alizee fans for years and from all indications has outlived it's usefulness as a distribution point for a former Corsican Pop singer who has not had a hit in nearly ten years..
If you really want the Hub to be around, then PARTICIPATE to MY standards, not YOUR OWN. Otherwise in a few weeks you run the risk of my domain being closed and if I do decide to create a new site, it will be based on the wants and needs of those that actually participate in Hub activities, and as of late December 2016, that's NONE of YOU GUYS.
No, I'm not offering to give away the Hub or sell it, and I find the idea repugnant at any attempt to guilt me into accepting the idea that that's the proper thing to do. Even if that was technically possible, I am certainly not going to give away the product of my hard work since 2006 to someone who refused to follow the rules and really participate. I am not the problem here: your lack of support for one of the largest collections of Alizee anywhere is. I've never asked for money, I've paid all the expenses out of my own pocket since day one. My requirements for sustaining the Hub have been ridiculously minimal and your shortsightedness and arrogance in following your own rules in MY HUB is what will directly result in the Hub going, not some complex rationalization that you are working out in your own mind. Save the disrespectful hate speech towards me and/or the other Operators you might be already formulating and look to yourself for the answers: none of you have the will to form your own Hub especially when you lack the commitment to support the Hub that ALREADY exists to the Hub owner's satisfaction. Talk is cheap.... it's time to take ACTION if you want the Hub around. But sad to say, based of previous experience, I just don't think that's gonna happen. Drop by the Hub if you want to say your "goodbyes" or leave contact info if you have any interest in any future projects I might engage in.
Sorry it had to come to this but you've had plenty of warning.