Why do you think Psychedelices became a watershed?

[OGRE]

I guess I'll pull an analogy from baseball:

Every time Alizée comes to bat, she ain't going to hit a homerun. Sometimes it will be a single, sometimes a double, and occassionally a triple. And there will be times she strikes out.

The problem with our measure of success is more perception than reality. She hit some homeruns when she first came on the scene. Of course, to borrow another touchy analogy, she also came on scene pumped by Mylène/ Laurent steriods combo. Now we expect her to hit a homerun everytime she comes to bat. If that is our success metric, then we are doomed to reap the failure of our expectation.

Although Psychedelices might not have any homeruns, there are several good singles (pun untended), and maybe a double and a triple. And I didn't see any strike outs. If batting a 1000 without a homerun is failure, then it's time to re-evaluate your measure of success.

[clique]

OGRE:

No one were expecting her to "hit a home run" with this album. Most people aren't shocked that she's not selling as well as her previous albums. What is disappointing though, is that she sells a lot less than artists that are similiar to her, artists that she should be able to compete against. Alizée herself has said that she's aiming for approx. 100.000 records. Will she pull that off? Probably, but it's hard to tell at the moment. Most people that have waited for the album or been interested when they heard MJ on the radio have already bought it. And the sales have still been pretty poor.

The sales might pick up a little when they release a new single. That brings us to that topic. There aren't any truly great singles on the album. There are good songs, some even excellent, but not single material. Fifty Sixty is probably the closest, but I can't see Fifty Sixty carrying this album.

[ALS]

Originally Posted by clique

OGRE:

The sales might pick up a little when they release a new single. That brings us to that topic. There aren't any truly great singles on the album. There are good songs, some even excellent, but not single material. Fifty Sixty is probably the closest, but I can't see Fifty Sixty carrying this album.

Times have changed since the boom of the Internet. I saw a program last night on metal rock of the 80's. They were talking about several bands and I'll use one example of how one great single can make an album.
Gun and Roses put out the single and music video of Welcome to the Jungle. That one song made their debut Album a Million seller.
I think the same thing happened with Moi Lolita. One outstanding song made Gourmandises a million seller. Look at the population of France 61 million vs the U.S. 301 million just in potential sales. Cooney has made this point many times as far as Album sales go in France.
Remember you have to crawl before you learn to walk. You have to learn to walk before you can run. Mylene and Laurent have been it the music business as long as Alizée and Jeremy have been alive. Mylene and Laurent know what sells and what doesn't. Alizée and her husband are just learning the business. As time goes on they will go from walking to running. Both have talent and youth and I see them going far as they learn the art of promotion and song writing.

[Jess]

I agree and disagree with a lot of things said here, I just want to say that all you guys have good points. Finally I read some intelligent post, and not the usual "her old fans were waiting for a lolita again". Thanks TBailey for that very well thought out post, and Daniel your post has a very interesting point too. I have to give some credit to those that are trying there best to defend and support Alizée, although I think at the same time there's where some of you get lost. Everyone here supports Alizée and wants her to succeed, some here are just voicing their opinion and concern in regards to her new album. We can all voice our own personal opinion and debate about that or we can admit to the facts and make reasonable suggestions, like the mature fans that we are. Regardless of whether we personally like her new style of music or not, she's not doing as well as she deserves, or does someone here feel she deserves only the little recognition that she's now getting ??

She does have a lot of talent, and it does feel a little misplaced right now, and I can see I'm not the only one that feels this way. I do think eventually she will be on top of the charts and possibly around the world sooner or later, my concern is that she might become discouraged if she doesn't do as well now, taking in consideration all the work that she's put into this new album. She definitely needs to make some adjustments, and she most definitely needs our support right now... If you downloaded her music, please buy it. If your friends like it, please have them buy their own too.

[Deepwaters]

One thing that's been hinted at and glanced at but I think not stated straight up is this: Alizée didn't really want a huge commercial success with Psychédélices. She wants it to make a profit for RCA so her career can keep going, but as she said in an interview, if it sells 75,000 - 100,000 copies, she'll be satisfied. She doesn't need the money, but she loves what she does, and wants to keep doing it. Some success is necessary for that, but it doesn't have to be a chart-topper.

Musically and in terms of sound, this album may be "pure pop" (or, well, pop with some jazz and rap thrown in), but in terms of theme and lyrics it's not. It doesn't have a single love song, nor any songs about youthful rebellion, and almost all formula pop consists of one of those two (or both at once).

It's really not fair at all to compare her at this juncture to similar artists, if you consider Jenifer and Lorie to be similar (true in some ways, false in others). Jenifer didn't take four years off from her career. Her fan base, the whole fickle thing not just the dedicated, has remained with her because she kept giving them new music. Alizée hasn't. She's starting over, almost from scratch, although she has a base of die-hards, and also a lot of money from her teenage career, plus a reputation as a successful performer.

I think the album will, over the next year, do better than the 100,000 she says she will be happy with, but it would surprise me greatly if it sold as much as MCE, and there is simply no way it will sell as many copies as Gourmandises did. That doesn't mean it's a failure. If it does what she asks it to do, it's a success.

[Youpidou1]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

One thing that's been hinted at and glanced at but I think not stated straight up is this: Alizée didn't really want a huge commercial success with Psychédélices. She wants it to make a profit for RCA so her career can keep going, but as she said in an interview, if it sells 75,000 - 100,000 copies, she'll be satisfied. She doesn't need the money, but she loves what she does, and wants to keep doing it. Some success is necessary for that, but it doesn't have to be a chart-topper.

Musically and in terms of sound, this album may be "pure pop" (or, well, pop with some jazz and rap thrown in), but in terms of theme and lyrics it's not. It doesn't have a single love song, nor any songs about youthful rebellion, and almost all formula pop consists of one of those two (or both at once).

It's really not fair at all to compare her at this juncture to similar artists, if you consider Jenifer and Lorie to be similar (true in some ways, false in others). Jenifer didn't take four years off from her career. Her fan base, the whole fickle thing not just the dedicated, has remained with her because she kept giving them new music. Alizée hasn't. She's starting over, almost from scratch, although she has a base of die-hards, and also a lot of money from her teenage career, plus a reputation as a successful performer.

I think the album will, over the next year, do better than the 100,000 she says she will be happy with, but it would surprise me greatly if it sold as much as MCE, and there is simply no way it will sell as many copies as Gourmandises did. That doesn't mean it's a failure. If it does what she asks it to do, it's a success.

She cares for her fans. She wants to make them happy, just her coming back made many happy. A CD made more people happy. A new style made people happy. Her voice/beauty/songs make me happy no matter how many CD's she sells. I bought the CD and I will buy a few more for some friends.

[clique]

I don't think comparing Jenifer and Alizée is so unfair as you say. Jenifer released a studio album in May of 2004. That fall she went on a tour which ended the next summer. After that she didn't release another album (not counting the live album) until November 2007.

Alizée released MCE in March 2003. She went on a tour that fall which ended in January 2004. She released Psychedelices in December 2007.

The major difference is that Jenifer was more present in the media than Alizée during their musical absence. This might count for a couple of lost fans, but calling the comparison completely unfair seems a bit much. The argument you could make is that Jenifer's image and music hasn't changed very much, at least not as much as Alizée, and this has helped her keep more of her original fan base.

As you say, unlike Jenifer, Alizée is starting from scratch with her new album. That doesn't mean that comparing the two is completely unreasonable though. They are still in the same musical genre competing for the mainstream audience. And considering Alizée was absolutely huge back in the days, I don't think we should be satisfied by "just" being third behind Jenifer and Lorie.

[-MihaiL-]

Originally Posted by Youpidou1

Third, youtube.com. Come on now, why do you think she has so many fans on youtube...I will tell you why, opinions there involve the disrespect of certain people, swearing, offense, insults, and crude humor. Which is why every time I am on youtube I defend Alizée's videos to the best of my knowledge. It gets nowhere but it sure does make some people I know look at Alizée and others differently, like my friends. When they say something bad about Alizée I get loud and when I get loud I get my point across. But here on Moi-alizee.us, an opinion CAN'T have all those horrible things I mentioned before because it isn't allowed for one, and others don't like that kind of talk here.

I've seen those posts, if most of them are a bit less intelligent it doesn't mean a thing when I say I believe they love Alizee. Maby they just get driven by the whole atmosphere, why be so well-educated in a place like youtube? It is nice, but not that fun, many will say. A lot of those posts make for some good laughs, dirty maybe, but I have a primitive persionality living inside of me that gets out in like those moments.
Maybe Alizee isn't that "open" by her nature, but it was Mylene that was making her image too sexy, it was a business deal and she IS attractive anyway. So I believe it's all not that bad on youtube, in general. Getting serious there would not get you anywhere, like you said, but is it required then? I don't really like her image in J'en ai marre, but she is very beautiful and interesting looking there, nothing of that I can see in her present garments, she looks like a countryside girl to me and I don't like it. Sorry for being direct here, I'm not that well-educated also, I guess. In this thread getting negative begins to bring drama in, in a way. Like some say she didn't mean to sell many albums, this is strange to hear and not very optimistic, that means she new the album is not that good, or she forgot the fact the audience is unpredictable. I face the fact that I don't like the new music, cause in the end I feel I can't call that "music", gotta drop listening to her previous albums, but is that a true act towards myself? I don't think so. I'll just say I'm not yet ready for the new Alizee.

[Deepwaters]

Mihail, saying that she doesn't expect to sell a huge number of copies isn't saying that the album isn't good. Actually, in a way it's saying that it IS good -- better than your standard formula pop by a wide margin. The problem being that the typical market for pop music is an average teenager, who isn't going to be well positioned to appreciate the subtleties of these songs.

Actually, the average teenager wasn't well positioned to appreciate the subtleties of the M/L songs, either, but they could still relate to the hot teen chick with her pretty smile and pretty voice. And because she was about the same age they were, they could imagine asking her out (or asking out someone like her) without cognitive dissonance. Now that she's a grown woman with a live-in and a child, that becomes harder to imagine.

What I'm saying is that her superficial, shallow appeal to the typical pop market is less than it used to be. The quality of the music is just as good IMO, and more varied in style.

Clique, if you want to compare Alizée's commercial success to Jenifer's, at least you have to acknowledge and take into account the effects of the things we just agreed on. That means doing a straight-up comparison is unfair. I'm OK with Jenifer outselling Alizée during this first year of her comeback if that's OK with Alizée herself. It's not like Jenifer's crap or anything.

[Youpidou1]

Originally Posted by clique

I don't think comparing Jenifer and Alizée is so unfair as you say. Jenifer released a studio album in May of 2004. That fall she went on a tour which ended the next summer. After that she didn't release another album (not counting the live album) until November 2007.

Alizée released MCE in March 2003. She went on a tour that fall which ended in January 2004. She released Psychedelices in December 2007.

The major difference is that Jenifer was more present in the media than Alizée during their musical absence. This might count for a couple of lost fans, but calling the comparison completely unfair seems a bit much. The argument you could make is that Jenifer's image and music hasn't changed very much, at least not as much as Alizée, and this has helped her keep more of her original fan base.

As you say, unlike Jenifer, Alizée is starting from scratch with her new album. That doesn't mean that comparing the two is completely unreasonable though. They are still in the same musical genre competing for the mainstream audience. And considering Alizée was absolutely huge back in the days, I don't think we should be satisfied by "just" being third behind Jenifer and Lorie.

Ahh yes but you forgot something. Alizée has her own family now. Jérémy and a little daughter, I think she wanted to keep quiet only because the paparazzi would be everywhere. She did a great job keeping it quiet because we didn't hear anything until the note in 2006and then the NRJ appearence in September.

Originally Posted by -MihaiL-

I've seen those posts, if most of them are a bit less intelligent it doesn't mean a thing when I say I believe they love Alizee. Maby they just get driven by the whole atmosphere, why be so well-educated in a place like youtube? It is nice, but not that fun, many will say. A lot of those posts make for some good laughs, dirty maybe, but I have a primitive persionality living inside of me that gets out in like those moments.
Maybe Alizee isn't that "open" by her nature, but it was Mylene that was making her image too sexy, it was a business deal and she IS attractive anyway. So I believe it's all not that bad on youtube, in general. Getting serious there would not get you anywhere, like you said, but is it required then? I don't really like her image in J'en ai marre, but she is very beautiful and interesting looking there, nothing of that I can see in her present garments, she looks like a countryside girl to me and I don't like it. Sorry for being direct here, I'm not that well-educated also, I guess. In this thread getting negative begins to bring drama in, in a way. Like some say she didn't mean to sell many albums, this is strange to hear and not very optimistic, that means she new the album is not that good, or she forgot the fact the audience is unpredictable. I face the fact that I don't like the new music, cause in the end I feel I can't call that "music", gotta drop listening to her previous albums, but is that a true act towards myself? I don't think so. I'll just say I'm not yet ready for the new Alizee.

We must accept the fact that our Alizée has grown up into a full responsible adult with many more challanges and responsibilities, I rarely use youtube for Alizée videos anymore because of the crude humor and negative comment people use to disrespect Alizée. Plus this site has better quality videos.