New approach for radio stations.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Well Psych didn't do well in France and it looks like her new album isn't doing that well there either so you wouldn't want to use songs from either of these with the exception of Les Collines.

I think the music from her first two albums has real capture power. The people listening to it don't know how old these songs are. Most of these re-writes weren't well re-written, that's probably the main reasons U.S. stations aren't willing to play them. Because they weren't well written, do we love them any the less? The idea is to let a bunch of people here hear it and judge for themselves.

As for why a radio station would want to advertise music it wouldn't play.....................money!

True, her earlier music does have more capture power. But if she is trying to distance herself from the old days, why use them to get her recognised? I don't love the re-writes any less, but I know plenty of people do. I just apprecate them because I can understand her.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by VVVACCPLPNLY

True, her earlier music does have more capture power. But if she is trying to distance herself from the old days, why use them to get her recognised? I don't love the re-writes any less, but I know plenty of people do. I just apprecate them because I can understand her.

It's very true I think she wants to distance herself from the image. But I think she is still willing to use the music, if that's what it takes. Remember she performed ML together with 2 other male singers when she was first making her comeback with Psych.

She also she said she wants to last, she wants to matter. I think if she could get some type of major exposure here, she could have the same type of success she did in Mexico. It would be a huge boost for her career, especially financially.

One thing I didn't mention about using the re-writes yesterday, who's whole story might not make sense is in a commercial, we'd be using only a short portion of the song, hopefully a part that does make sense. The main purpose here is to get people, a lot of people to hear her voice, her music.

I didn't know 3 years ago that ML was 7 years old when I heard it and couldn't have cared less. There is so much potential here if we try, and if we're wrong, well at least we'll have given it a shot.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

I mean no pessimism to you, scruffy. I just have seen the stubborn xenophobia Americans can exhibit. Her English rewrites aren't bad. But little snippets would be best. From IFU, I say use the lines 'It's not a problem, I lazy round, bubbly and stubborn, I lazy round, melon and water, is just a dream, it makes me wonder, is it a sin?' Not sure for IN20 and Youp. But any part of Amélie should work just fine, it actually was a very well written rewrite, imho.

[RobandSandy]

La Isla Bonita is definately the best song to introduce here in America. In Orlando there is college radio. I am sure Alizée would get a good response in the Orlando market. There are a lot of people here who would love Alizée if they heard her. Asking local college station to give Alizée exposuer in the US mkt would be a good idea. That is how U2 got their start.

[Scruffydog777]

This is what I had in mind for the 30 second segments for commercials. You could fade out the last 5 seconds with a voice over of our message. I think La Isla Bonita would definitely be one of the best of her English songs to use but there's 2 things I wonder about. Would it be harder to use copyright wise where it's a Madonna song and would people maybe think it's Madonna singing it?

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[Roman]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

This is what I had in mind for the 30 second segments for commercials. You could fade out the last 5 seconds with a voice over of our message. I think La Isla Bonita would definitely be one of the best of her English songs to use but there's 2 things I wonder about. Would it be harder to use copyright wise where it's a Madonna song and would people maybe think it's Madonna singing it?

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This question has come up here enough times that I feel quite confident in saying that the copyright issue has nothing to do with who originated a song. There's nothing to stop anyone from doing a performance of any song they like any time. And really? Copyright? That's the last of anyone's worries. This has been used on YouTube for the last 5 years, for example.

Of course, you are selling the Alizée from 2003 still. That's fine if people want to come watch all of these videos, buy her albums, buy the concert album. It's just not much of an advertisement of Alizée now. I know. "But what do you have to advertise that?" Photos, the Les Collines music video, the songs themselves. Just saying. If you're still trying to hook new fans with that, maybe it will work and they will like the new stuff too. Is it even important whether or not they like the new Alizée? Is that part of the plan?

[Scruffydog777]

To tell you the truth, I'm not really impressed with her new album. I don't think it's a bad album. I think these songs did a better job of bringing out the beauty in her voice, but I can take them or leave them. I've listened to it 5 times now. Not so much that I wanted to, but mainly because I I thought I should to see if they grew on me, something her earlier songs never had to do. There's probably a dozen songs on MCE and Gour, that I had listened to about 20 times each, in the first week after I found out about them and 20 I'm sure is a very conservative number. ML I probably listened to 20 times the first night and I think these songs will still have the same affect on people who haven't heard them before.

Moi Lolita was 7 years old when I first heard it. I had no idea. Didn't care how old it was. All that mattered to me was that I hadn't heard it before. La Isla Bonita first came out in 1987, so the song was already 20 years old when I first heard Alizée singing it and in this case the only thing that mattered to me was this was it was the first time I heard her singing it.

Les Collines is a beautiful song, does a great job of show casing her beautiful voice. The problem is the music that goes with it. With MCE and Gour, I loved listening to the music almost as much as I loved listening to her singing. I'll post my video again of LB's music in sections where Alizée wasn't singing that I thought sounded awesome (Try not to look at the screen while you're watching it, because it could definitely sway your decision). This new music does not complement her voice in my opinion.

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After her first concert in Moscow, after Psych was released, I predicted big trouble with my Stalingrad post. Two failed concerts later, it kind of looks like I knew what I was talking about, though I wish to God that I had been wrong. I was criticizing her hard and often back then. Mainly because I thought there was time to make changes. I thought the re-orchestration of her earlier songs was a huge mistake. To me, so many of those early songs are classics. You wouldn't want the Eagles singing Hotel California to Lawrence Welk music, would you? ( I guess that kind of dates me). Why mess with perfection. I wondered if in the breakup with MF and LB, Alizée made some type of concession to not use LB's music in it's original form. We know how tempormental artists can be.

I had tickets to those two concerts that were cancelled in Paris. I wanted to go, not so much to hear the same songs that she had been singing in Mexico, but just to see this beautiful woman once live in concert. Wasn't looking forward that much to the new songs or the re-orchestrated songs, just wanted to see someone who had so profoundly changed my life. But if I heard she was going to be singing her earlier songs the way they were originally formated next week in Paris, you better not get in my way. Nothing would stop me. I'd jump in Boston harbor right now and start swimming if I thought that was the only way I could make it over there.

So I haven't offered much criticism of this album, mainly because with my Stalingrad post, it didn't do any good, so why bother now?

Because I think there's still hope. Now I'm offering my honest opinion. I'm sure there wont be a concert in the fall in France. With the exceptions of sites like Radio Atlantis and MSN MTV, which are heavily influenced by the votes of her fans, she is not doing well in France. On my recent trip to Strasbourg, I spent 2 and 1/2 days driving around, setting the 6 presets on the radio to different stations and swithching from station to station to station. Then when I'd drive so far that I'd lose those stations, I'd reprogram 6 more stations and searched again. Never heard one of her songs. I did hear La Isla Bonita 3 times, but it was by another singer.

We just saw Alizée perform Moi Lolita again. So many people said she wanted to get away from that image. Well they have mud on their faces now. I think she'd like to get away from it, but her new album isn't working out that well, so she is trying other means. The main problem here is the live version of Moi Lolita does not sound that good. As I said with Psych and I think is now evidently true with this album is who ever is mangaing her career, has no idea what they are doing. They don't realize which versions sound good and which dont. I'll post some versions of the live and studio recorded versions.

This top of the pops version is probably the best live version she has with maybe the exception of En Concert
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The version she sang in Korea sounds terrible.
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This is a studio enhanced version sung in Poland. You can tell it at the end when the m.c. walks out on stage and Alizée stops singing but the song continues.

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Does this matter to me. Not at all. It would if it was true of all her songs, but her En Concert is sung live and there are so many beautiful live songs on that; L'Alize, Hey Amigo, Lou ou toi, Amelie, L'email a des ailes, Toc de mac, Youpidoo. Such incredilbly beautiful songs. It just shows the genius of MF and LB. They knew when a particular song they wrote for her, didn't sound that good live and needed some tweaking in the sound studio.

So is there hope? Absolutely! But I think her main hope is here in the states. I think she could have the same type of success here that she had in Mexico a couple of years ago, if we could just get some mass media station to play her music.

How much do I believe in her? Well some thing I was working on that previously I had only talked to Ben and MYGOGT about was inquiring about how much it would cost to post some 30 second commercials featuring Alizée's music on a local radio station. I made a preliminary offer of $2,500.00 to a local radio station. I was told by a woman at this particular station that she would call me back a few days later after working on some proposals but never heard back from her. Contacted another station a couple of days ago where I upped my offer to $3,000.00. I'm hoping to hear something from them. Could be, I'll have to look for a smaller city, maybe a college station that has a good size audience. Bottom line is I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think there was a good chance. As MYGOGT can testify. I'm not living high on the hog here. My 94 S10 pick up could use a paint job. Also needs a compressor for the a/c. I'd like to get an HD tv but Alizée is more important than these.

For those of you out there who say that Psych or this new album are more beautiful than Gour or MCE, all I ask you is to show me some figures to back up "your opinions". Maybe some standings on the cd sales charts in France, maybe showing me how many successful concerts she's had in France featuring these albums. Not mentioning Mexico, where they were expecting that incredibly beautiful and sexy young woman in the sailor outfit. Back up your opinions with facts.

There is hope and I'm determined to find a way to see this happen.

[sumi1]

For those of you out there who say that Psych or this new album are more beautiful than Gour or MCE, all I ask you is to show me some figures to back up "your opinions". Maybe some standings on the cd sales charts in France, maybe showing me how many successful concerts she's had in France featuring these albums. Not mentioning Mexico, where they were expecting that incredibly beautiful and sexy young woman in the sailor outfit. Back up your opinions with facts.

Well, personally I feel that UEDS is her second best album after MCE (musically). Also Gour is my least favorite album. But, as I have said in an earlier post in another thread, the main reason for commercial failure of UEDS is the way it was promoted. If properly promoted, it could have been a successful album. May be not as big as Gour. Such things happen only once in a lifetime.

Alizee is neither the best singer nor the best dancer out there. But when you combine both, she is certainly one of the greatest performers of our times. There is something great about her performances which I can not explain in words. Most of us here came to know about her through her live performances (includes En Concert). I am sure if we only had her MVs from Gour and MCE, many of use would not be her fans. Alizee in MCE and Gour times was a complete package. Removing anything makes it ordinary. There is nothing extraordinary about about UEDS. Couple it with a bad promotion and the result you all know. Only 6000 copies sold in France. As RMJ said in AF, most of the people in France do not know about her. They don't see her performances/MVs on TV. How can you expect them to buy UEDS if they don't know about it? Her promotion strategy this time focused only on giving interviews. Most of the people are not interested in knowing how she came up with this album. They prefer listening to music so that they can decide whether to buy the album or not.

There is hope and I'm determined to find a way to see this happen.

We all are hopeful Scruffy that there are great possibilities for her. But still, giving people what she may never do again can end all those hopes too. Take Mexico as an example, as you said, "where they were expecting that incredibly beautiful and sexy young woman in the sailor outfit", UEDS is not that successful. It seems that most of the UEDS CDs have been purchased by her loyal fans, not by the general public. Her fans will give a fair chance to whatever she comes up with. Don't expect general public to buy her album and give it a chance.

[RobandSandy]

That clip is really good. I am a brand new fan. The songs that really hit me hard are all there with the exception of Limelight. And of course Alizée would distance herself from her child pop image. Im Fed Up, Im Not Twenty have been revolutionary to me. I wish I could do more to promote her. I tell all my friends and everyone I see about her. I think her videos hit me the hardest. I wish she could get some kind of TV exposure in the US.

[Roman]

Originally Posted by sumi1

... Her fans will give a fair chance to whatever she comes up with. Don't expect general public to buy her album and give it a chance.

I don't listen to the radio much anymore. It's hard to see how one blip on the radio is going to turn people on to her. In any case, have a web site and a promotion strategy ready to go.

In the U.S., just like in Mexico, I think fans would have to take matters into their own hands and simply concentrate on getting a following going by whatever means necessary. One can simply try to generically increase her popularity or one can create a campaign around one ultimate goal: pave the way for Alizée to come and do one concert. The idea has come up and was discussed ad nausium here or at AF before. Still, it seems so much easier to think about getting everyone (especially new fans) on board with the idea of promoting and organizing for one specific purpose than some vague hope that she will become popular here some day.

Make people fans, then introduce them to the mission, and provide steps to follow to be ready and lend support for the idea.

I don't know how to do it, but it's just one concert. It's a similar idea to putting a man on the moon and safely returning him to the earth, but it shouldn't be that hard. The moon was a non-involved party. At least I think we can say that Alizée would like to do a concert if there was clear and robust support for it. We have seen the response when Alizée personally shows an interest from her side: it's good. But, we've also recently seen how hard it can be to organize people to even a laudable goal. In any case, being a fan of Alizée is about enjoyment and appreciation. I think that spirit has to be maintained.

Sorry to wax on about something I only have a sense of, but no concrete plan for. And considering the subject of this thread, I think I've gone a bit off topic. Just sharing my sense of things.