R.I.P. Lillytown.

[Jake04]

I just had this idea. But, as usual, I have an idea, but not the tools or the know-how to pursue it. I'm sure most of you have heard of Steven Slater, the flight attendant who "got fed up" (hint, hint) and told all the passengers to shove it, grabbed a couple of beers, opened the emergency door on the plane and slid down to history.

I know we have a lot of creative minds here who have both the tools (video editing software) and the know-how (how to edit) who could use the Taiwanese animation of Steven losing it or any other videos of him, using Alizee's "I'm fed up" video. Maybe use both French and English version to introduce both to the Americans. French is better, but we also need the English so the public could "relate" to it.

This guy is getting viral on the internet so I think we have a chance here. But, we have to move fast as we have a short window of opportunity here. The guy is going to court next month, so we have about as much time to take advantage of it.

Silly idea? Just wanna help out our beloved Alizee here. What do you guys think?

I hope that I can make few things clear.

Originally Posted by edgar93

They did the same thing a couple years ago (or last year? cant remember), but they actually posted a message in the website explaining why they were shutting down. They eventually came back a couple weeks later.

Originally Posted by LE_LOUP_DES_STEPPES

I second that!! Wasabi this place is like a second home for some of us. I would hate for something like that to happen to AAM, but I am sure Ben or any of the others that help govern AAM wouldn't just shut down the site without telling us.

They didn't close the site without informing anyone.

They tweeted on 10th August :

AFC may be closing it's doors soon.

When asked about the reason, their reply was :

Because we feel like she has give up her career... No work, no promo, no surprise, no dream, no... thing

Originally Posted by edgar93

They did the same thing a couple years ago (or last year? cant remember), but they actually posted a message in the website explaining why they were shutting down. They eventually came back a couple weeks later.

I'd suggest you to follow them on twitter to find out whats going on: http://twitter.com/AlizeeCommunity

Looks like they're coming back with a new forum that is going to be called AlizeeCommunity, I think Sebastien is not gonna be running the site anymore, only Julien et des autres francaises. Why are they shutting down ol good AFC? That I don't know, but I guess its just them not being happy with Alizee's attitude towards her career. Who knows, I haven't read their forum in ages.

Closing a particular website maybe a decision of the people who run the site. It appears that this was a decision of few people.

There are three things with a site :
1. People who run the site : they determine how the site will be running. They are mostly controllers and they ensure the smooth running of the site.

2. Members : they are most important part. They form basic thing of the forum which is community. They decide what would be the environment of the site which also includes the control of the people who run the forum. But the members form the general feeling of a forum. Admins are mods can't form that general feeling alone.

3. Name : Well, this is the part which is developed over a period of time by both people who run the forum and it's members. It's gives a general identification to it's members.

In case of AFC, people running the site feel that it should be closed. They find no interest in running it any longer.

Members still want to be part of the community. That's why they started Alizée Community.

Last part "name" is lost.

When asked about whether they would like to transfer the brand name of AFC to anyone. They replied

whithout problem

So, that community and name can still be there.

I think that instead of closing the forum, they could have tranferred the control to anyone. But there are many difficulties to that.

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

They have reason. Now me, I have a very strong suspicion bordering on certainty as to why Alizée is taking the attitude she is towards her career, which I can't talk about, and it's understandable. But as long as she is taking this ambivalent attitude and her fans in general don't understand why, it looks as if she doesn't give a damn about them. And that's not good.

Originally Posted by ALS

Deepwaters I have a strong suspicion I know where your going with this. I don't think she'll do it.

Originally Posted by wasabi622

What is going on here? Why have we suddenly decided to keep some information to ourselves and not share it with the rest of us? If you didn't plan on informing the rest of us, why bother bringing it up at all? I WANNA KNOWWW!!!

Originally Posted by babyblue558

I think (hope!) Deepwaters is just speculating and that Alizée has never given any indication that she thinks music might not be a viable path for her any more. But I'll ditto Wasabi and say that if you know something that the rest of us don't, then please share, even if it's bad news. We'll all have to face it at some time.



I don't think that the attitude she's taken towards her career could be seen that way. If you're referring to the sudden change to electropop then I think it's only natural that after 3 pop albums she wants to do something different. Her fans must accept that, even if they don't like the change, and realise that she's not doing it out of contempt for the fans, but out of a natural evolution of her musical style.

I'm not sure what deepwaters knows. Maybe it's not just a speculation.

One should wait for right time to know something and to be told by right people. Sometimes it's not about good or bad news, it's more about the when it should be told. Let's suppose if she is thinking about changing her musical style to something new and if I know about this, then I would wait for her to tell everyone this. What if I tell everyone and she changes her decision?

I'll give another example. We all know that she won't be in music industry for like 100 years. We certainly don't expect that. She will certainly retire one day. What should we do? Best idea : Enjoy the present and hope for the best in the future.

Originally Posted by ALS

(1) The first thing she needs to do is get her friends out of her career.

That's what I have always felt which needs to be done.

She needs to get right people. Then only she can be successful.

Mylene and Laurent were right people for her in terms of music. She can't go back with them, but she needs similar people. Notice that I said "in terms of music". Don't jump over me by saying that she can't back to Lolita image. I don't mean that. I mean better music, better songs, better work. UEdS is good according to me.

Originally Posted by babyblue558

Another thing that bothers me about the way she's been managing her career is the astonishing lack of promotion for UEDS. I mean, I have friends in France who knew all about her first 2 albums, had heard of her 3rd but had absolutely no idea that a 4th Alizée album is out. This is not good at all, considering France is still one of her main markets.

I don't think that the lack of promotion was a decision on her part - it would be stupid not to promote an album, and we know she's always been up for TV performances/interviews before (she did far more of these in the Psych era) so why not so many now?

I think that the most likely reason for the lack of promotion in France is the fact that people have lost interest - she can't do a TV performance if the TV station doesn't want her on. I think that as a result of her recent decline in popularity and poor sales of Les Collines and UEDS, many French TV stations aren't offering her the airtime she would have had for promoting the album if sales were better.

Yeah, I agree with that. Promotions and all that are areas of management.

Radio stations are not willing to play her songs. She deosn't get airtime on TV. Why? I don't know. I can only guess.

- Maybe her managers are not good and they didn't make prior arrangements for all these.

- Maybe radio stations don't feel that this album should be played.

About the statement that she didn't get airtime because of poor sales, I think both things go simultaneously and are dependent on each other. If album had been promoted well, then it might had more airtime and vice versa.

About TV shows, Bigdan once mentioned that there are very shows left in which she can perform. That may be one reason for not getting airtime.

Another reason : her record label is not willing to spend more on her. That's very much understandable when you think from their business point of view.

Just a minor correction, Les Collines was not released for sales. That's one difference between her earlier albums and UEdS. They didn't release any singles for public sale.

Originally Posted by babyblue558

If I could make a suggestion - it might be possible to let France go and focus on Mexico as her primary market. As far as I know, she hasn't appeared on Mexican TV, done interviews in Spanish or any of those sorts of things yet. Mexico will probably be far more accepting of her and allow her to do many of the promoting she couldn't do in France. But it's probably nowhere near as simple as that or I'm sure she would have done it already.

I still feel that France is more important for her if she wants to survive for long. She had surprising success in Mexico, but that success is not reliable. She needs to make her situation better in France in long run. If she doesn't get success in France and if she does well in other countries, then that's fine for her career.

One way could be to go album by album. I mean having different plans for different albums. Looking for new and different areas for each one of them. That may be one way to go.

Originally Posted by Jake04

I've mentioned this on the thread that I created: Alizee....Eurovision 2011.
I've read in one of her recent interviews that she was complaining about lack of TV shows where she could sing and promote her new album. According to her, the TV nowadays seem to have more reality shows (which is cheaper to make and more popular/profitable, like here in the US) than variety ones, where she used to guest a lot.

This is why I made that suggestion. At this point in her career, she has nothing or little to lose. She has to try something different. Some people have negative views of Eurovision. But, I'd rather see her participate there than do a Lady Gaga and start shredding off her clothes in order to revive her career. This will also show her current and former fans that she is still very committed to her musical career. And hopefully, she could regain her old fans back, and gain some new fans along the way as well.

I won't comment on whether it's good for her or not to participate in Eurovision, but I would suggest you to read this

http://www.ozap.com/actu/interview-a...ovision/332810

Originally Posted by Jake04

I am thinking of posting my request on her official sites on her birthday!

Good luck for your effort.

Originally Posted by Aaronius31

....I don't even know what to think nowadays. These are hard times for us Lilly fans...

Hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel...

Originally Posted by Marquis<3Alizée

Yea it is hard out here for a lilly fan now and days, but I know for sure there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

It may be hard times for the fans, but it's not the toughest. Fans have gone through hopeless situation. Imagine the situation when people had no idea whether she will return or not. Those who believed her, they kept their hopes high.

At least this time she is with us and we know what's happening out there.

Originally Posted by babyblue558

I think another good move would be for her to do a bit of online promoting - I mean her blog is very rarely updated and the website isn't great as a synopsis and promoter of her work. But this probably wouldn't be enough.

Online promotion will certainly help her a lot. Official sites and blogs go that way most of the time. But this time it's more inactive than earlier days. In Psych era, they had more details on the official site. Biography, list of events, extracts, clips etc. Most of the time it's better to check fansites than the official sites. They are much better than official ones.

Originally Posted by babyblue558

OK I'm gonna stop saying what she should and shouldn't do - I'm certain we can rely on her and her team to manage her career to the best of their ability, even if at times it seems as if they could be doing things they're not. It's probably nowhere near as simple as I'm imagining.

She has been in music industry for 10 years now and after working with someone like Mylene, she must be knowing what she should do and what she shouldn't.

Only thing that remains after that is what she is willing to do and what she isn't.

[babyblue558]

Thanks for that (monster ) post MA, it's not only cleared up a load of things for me and sorted out the facts, but reassured me in a time I think we could be overreacting a little.

Because we feel like she has give up her career... No work, no promo, no surprise, no dream, no... thing

I really don't think the reasons given by AFC for closing are true - for me Alizée is just as special as she was when I first discovered her (as is her music). The lack of promotion (as we've discussed) probably isn't her fault, even though that sadly hasn't lessened its hugely damaging effect. As for the lack of surprise and dream - I still remember the day when I came home to find the promotional versions of Limelight and Les Collines on YouTube as one of the best days so far in my Alizée fanhood. It was as if all that tension and build-up (remember the charcoal drawings? the little easter-eggs dotted around her website?) had finally paid off and the astounding event of all-new Alizée was upon me for the first time ever. Amazing. I will always remember that mix of excitement and wonder.

AFC's closing hasn't has as big an effect on me as it will have had on others because I've only recently became an active online fan (AAm's the only Alizée forum I'm registered on). Although the physical effect isn't there, I think that the loss of what I gather is the main French Alizée forum (and for those reasons quoted above) demonstrates the French public's attitude towards her. She's really losing touch with them.

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

I still feel that France is more important for her if she wants to survive for long. She had surprising success in Mexico, but that success is not reliable. She needs to make her situation better in France in long run. If she doesn't get success in France and if she does well in other countries, then that's fine for her career.

OK but I do think a bit of early promotion in Mexico would have helped A LOT. You know, maybe a short visit out there soon after the album was released and a few interviews on Mexican TV and maybe a performance of Les Collines to really get in there early and give it the best possible chance of charting well. I find the Mexican public a lot more accepting of what she is now, and not constantly pining for her to return to the "Lolita" image. This is probably because most of them discovered her in the Psych-era, and so are more used to her without Mylène and Laurent.

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

Online promotion will certainly help her a lot. Official sites and blogs go that way most of the time. But this time it's more inactive than earlier days. In Psych era, they had more details on the official site. Biography, list of events, extracts, clips etc. Most of the time it's better to check fansites than the official sites. They are much better than official ones.

That's one thing she would NOT have learned from Mylène. Mylène herself has (as far as I know) zero online interaction with her fans (and not a lot otherwise), with no official website, no Facebook page or blog. This is because she never needed it and prefers an isolated life away from the paparazzi and hype. Alizée however DOES need it badly - so much of today's music scene revolves around the internet (Facebook, Myspace, iTunes etc) and she's really not in touch with all of that. I can't say whether this is by choice or whether she doesn't have the time or resources.

That last thing you said is true - when UEDS was just about to come out I was always going backwards and forwards between here, AF and Alizée Nation to get info, but very rarely the official website. As I recall, all it said was something like "Alizée est en train d'enregistrer son nouvel album", with no additional info. As much as I love AAm, I think it would have been better for promo purposes and general fan-pleasing if activity could revolve around the official site (maybe encorporating a message board onto it??)

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

She has been in music industry for 10 years now and after working with someone like Mylene, she must be knowing what she should do and what she shouldn't.

Only thing that remains after that is what she is willing to do and what she isn't.

Mylène certainly would have taught her the ins and outs of promotion, and we can be certain that Alizée is a lot more experienced in the industry than your average 25-year-old singer. Because of this I think we can trust her to know what to do.
I definitely get the feeling that she has worked as hard as she could in putting together the album and getting it out there, but there's a difference between what she's willing to do and what she's able to do. Even if she's willing to do an interview a day, it isn't going to happen unless there's a TV or radio station willing to take her up on the offer.

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

It may be hard times for the fans, but it's not the toughest. Fans have gone through hopeless situation. Imagine the situation when people had no idea whether she will return or not. Those who believed her, they kept their hopes high.

At least this time she is with us and we know what's happening out there.

Thanks for that! As I said before, I fear we might all be overreacting by instantly linking the closure of AFC to the decline of her career. Both she and Alizée fans as a whole have been through worse, and there are a couple of TV appearances and performances due to be airing in the near future, so I'm gonna be hopeful.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Ben

Right, and while not happening now, I'd rather hand the site off to someone else than shut it down. But I understand Lilly Town closing, I've been pretty busy with other things myself lately, and the lack of activity from Alizée really doesn't motivate. My idea now is to move AAm to a cheaper server and get rid of the video section, since the prevalence and quality of YouTube these days makes it kind of redundant. Thoughts?

Do whatever you need to do to keep the site running in the most practical way. Yes, I do think the video section is a little unneeded, although I do like all the threads discussing the videos and the fact that this site makes it easy to find HQ versions of most performances. I would rather the video section went and the gallery was brought back, since these days good quality pictures of her are harder to find than videos. But then again, I have no idea of the implications of maintaining the gallery, so if it's not possible then don't worry.

[Människöpesten]

MA just posted the longest post i've ever seen

[Rev]

Originally Posted by ALS

Deepwaters I have a strong suspicion I know where your going with this. I don't think she'll do it.

If there was one piece of advice I'd give her.

(1) The first thing she needs to do is get her friends out of her career.

If I understand what you are saying, then I would have to say this is a common error, especially for women, who get into business. Friendships can make it easier to work together. However, if it becomes evident that the person may not be quite up to the task, it can be very difficult to extricate yourself from the situation.

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

...That's what I have always felt which needs to be done.

She needs to get right people. Then only she can be successful.

Mylene and Laurent were right people for her in terms of music. She can't go back with them, but she needs similar people...

Absolutely.

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

...Radio stations are not willing to play her songs. She deosn't get airtime on TV. Why? I don't know. I can only guess.

- Maybe her managers are not good and they didn't make prior arrangements for all these.

- Maybe radio stations don't feel that this album should be played.

She has tried really hard to "do it right this time," however I still believe the French public are fickle. She tried to catch the attention of the "right" people this time, but I don't think they cared much for her album. In the end, she did not build the following she tried to achieve.

Without a sense that the album is catching on it can be very difficult to get airtime.

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

About the statement that she didn't get airtime because of poor sales, I think both things go simultaneously and are dependent on each other. If album had been promoted well, then it might had more airtime and vice versa.

About TV shows, Bigdan once mentioned that there are very (FEW) shows left in which she can perform. That may be one reason for not getting airtime....

...She has been in music industry for 10 years now and after working with someone like Mylene, she must be knowing what she should do and what she shouldn't.

Only thing that remains after that is what she is willing to do and what she isn't.

She "should" know, except that although she may know what Mylene was doing, she was still a teenager and may not have had proper exposure to Mylenes thinking - WHY she was making the choices she was at the time.

Also, Mylene may not always have told her the real reasons because it may have sounded too cold and calculating.


Anyway, she has said she has a long term plan. I believe her, and I believe that she has not communicated a major portion of her goals. In other words, don't count her out yet. I think we are only wrapping up the 3rd act of a 9 act play.

[jung_adore_ALIZEE]

Blinded are ye to what is going on? Well it happens I suppose, good luck in finding out what is going on. Maybe someone will drop by and say what is and what is not.

regards,

Jung

[Azhiri]

OH GAWD CHUCK. You scared me for a second there.

Originally Posted by LE_LOUP_DES_STEPPES

I second that!! Wasabi this place is like a second home for some of us. I would hate for something like that to happen to AAM, but I am sure Ben or any of the others that help govern AAM wouldn't just shut down the site without telling us.

Third'd. This is probably my favorite out of all the forums I go to, it would be awful if it shut down.

[wasabi622]

Originally Posted by jung_adore_ALIZEE

Blinded are ye to what is going on? Well it happens I suppose, good luck in finding out what is going on. Maybe someone will drop by and say what is and what is not.

regards,

Jung

You're so cool Jung. Glad you're not blind like the rest of us. *thumbsup*

[jung_adore_ALIZEE]

Originally Posted by wasabi622

You're so cool Jung. Glad you're not blind like the rest of us. *thumbsup*

Nah, it's just humorous that everyone who tries so hard or pretends to be the biggest fans are actually quite clueless as to what is actually going on. LTF is down for good from what I understand, however you'll probably still be seeing Julien around, well maybe not as many of you don't even know who he is and most haven't noticed what has happened yet as no one has said anything about it.

Regards,

Jung

[Människöpesten]

i don't claim to be a super fan, nor do i claim to know much about what happens. i enjoy alizée. but i listen to more metal than anything else as a lot of you know.