[MDO] Alizée's Career

[Ange]

Hello everyone.
I still like Alizee and I still listen to gourmandices and the second album alot. I do not listen to the other two because I prefer MF and Laurent. I think Alizee needs to get voice lessons and sing very very well for Mylene and Laurent. And then they can crete new lyrics and melodies with her and she will be number one AGAIN.

[Jake04]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

Anyways, here's a quote of one of the questions and answers:

What’s the music scene like in Paris?

France is a small country. We have some great talent, some very talented people with good vibes, but the market is really down. A friend told me yesterday that in a week, a Top 10 single in France sells just 500 copies a week. That’s just crazy. It’s very different working here.

You can see what Alizée and other French artists are up against.

Let's see if I could do a quick math here: If an artist has a TOP TEN single FOR A YEAR and sells 500 copies/week for the entire year, then that artist would have sold 26,000 singles in one year.

UEDS sold 30,000 albums in about a year now. I guess that's not that bad after all. (I mean, it tells us it was not the album per se but the market in general the reason why UEDS only sold that much).

Originally Posted by lefty12357

@Roman, I think you make a good point here. I’ve been thinking about this too and here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

It is fine to speculate about where Alizée’s career will take her and what has happened behind the scenes to put her in the position she finds herself in today. It is also fine to talk about the direction we would like to see Alizée go or the music we would like to see her do. There are a lot of good topics for discussion. And it probably is valuable information for Alizée, to know how the fans react to something she has done. We know what we like and don’t like and that is our right, and this is probably useful for Alizée to know and for us to share. But I think sometimes fans go overboard with their attempts to tell her how to run her career.

I say this with all due respect to everyone and I sincerely mean no offense. But how many of us have been inside the music business and know its inner workings? How many of us have set foot in a recording studio or played live on stage? How many have written songs or sang on stage professionally? How many have produced an album or worked as a promoter or booking agent? How many have read and signed a recording contract, or are lawyers specializing in entertainment law? The fact of the matter is, most of us here have no professional experience in any of these areas, yet we continue to tell a woman who has been a star, been in the music business for 10 years and sold millions, how to run her affairs. Honestly, why should she take advice from amateurs? Who knows, maybe she is even offended that we think she knows less than us, even though most of us know next to nothing to begin with. Yes, some things may be obvious, even without experience. But do we think Alizée isn’t smart enough to know the obvious?
Personally, I think we have no idea what efforts she has made and things she has tried behind the scenes and out of sight of the fans. I'm not saying Alizée hasn't made mistakes and caused some of her own problems, but I doubt many of her fans could do better.

Again, I’m not trying to offend anyone and I know everyone has Alizée’s best interests in mind. But I believe it must be very difficult for her to read all this "advice" sometimes. I just hope she knows that our hearts are in the right place.

I couldn't agree more! Most of the times we fans, even though we have her best interest at hearts, make our decision based on emotions rather than sound business models.

[Un-rêve]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

@Roman, I think you make a good point here. I’ve been thinking about this too and here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

It is fine to speculate about where Alizée’s career will take her and what has happened behind the scenes to put her in the position she finds herself in today. It is also fine to talk about the direction we would like to see Alizée go or the music we would like to see her do. There are a lot of good topics for discussion. And it probably is valuable information for Alizée, to know how the fans react to something she has done. We know what we like and don’t like and that is our right, and this is probably useful for Alizée to know and for us to share. But I think sometimes fans go overboard with their attempts to tell her how to run her career.

I say this with all due respect to everyone and I sincerely mean no offense. But how many of us have been inside the music business and know its inner workings? How many of us have set foot in a recording studio or played live on stage? How many have written songs or sang on stage professionally? How many have produced an album or worked as a promoter or booking agent? How many have read and signed a recording contract, or are lawyers specializing in entertainment law? The fact of the matter is, most of us here have no professional experience in any of these areas, yet we continue to tell a woman who has been a star, been in the music business for 10 years and sold millions, how to run her affairs. Honestly, why should she take advice from amateurs? Who knows, maybe she is even offended that we think she knows less than us, even though most of us know next to nothing to begin with. Yes, some things may be obvious, even without experience. But do we think Alizée isn’t smart enough to know the obvious?
Personally, I think we have no idea what efforts she has made and things she has tried behind the scenes and out of sight of the fans. I'm not saying Alizée hasn't made mistakes and caused some of her own problems, but I doubt many of her fans could do better.

Again, I’m not trying to offend anyone and I know everyone has Alizée’s best interests in mind. But I believe it must be very difficult for her to read all this "advice" sometimes. I just hope she knows that our hearts are in the right place.

Originally Posted by Jake04

I couldn't agree more!

Yes.. lets all agree on this, relax and take some time out to reflect.


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[MarkL]

Originally Posted by Jake04

Most of the times we fans, even though we have her best interest at hearts, make our decision based on emotions rather than sound business models.

Excellent, I'm so glad you wrote that. Like we have that buried in the back of our heads but never really think about it so its great that we have this now, we let our emotions take control and lead us into doing things that we might often...regret.

A decision that will end up costing more money than making money generally is not a sound plan to carry out...

[Roman]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

@Roman, I think you make a good point here. I’ve been thinking about this too and here are some of my thoughts on the subject. ...

I think you elaborated the point well.

However, I guess if you all wanted to do something of the sort, how about thinking of it this way: create a list of the types of performances and/or products that you think would be great coming from Alizée and present that and say, we think we would like this; here are some ideas; just so you know.

But, after all I've seen, I think probably the best thing would have been if the fan forums had always kept it pretty light and fun with regard to Alizée and what they expect from her (even if doing serious collaboration amongst themselves). Trying to hard sell Alizée on things doesn't seem to work very well. Maybe she'd agree to a serious collaboration now if someone made a serious offer. But other than that, it should probably look like it's just for fun as far as looking like something that she is supposed to respond too.

That's sort of my take. I hope I'm being clear here. As you know, I could write ten pages on the subject but would probably be ever less clear.

Oh, and I'll just say that Alizée generally seems pretty risk averse to me from what little I can tell. So, if it seems really pie in the sky, don't count on it. She has always been uncertain about her career. Go back and watch the interviews. This last year she came off pretty certain at times, even said directly, I will have concerts, I promise (if my French is not too far off). I suppose that kind of presentation of certainty comes from desperation (why would she say something like that if there was a good chance it wouldn't happen? Our experience certainly suggested it was unlikely.). She said she was waiting for her band-mates to return, but still nothing ever happened. I think she has very little industry and fan support left. That makes it a bad time to risk time/money/effort. She has nothing left to preserve and a big hill to look up toward getting back on top (or even in the running). So, I think if she could make some relatively small effort that might "stick" and be a hit and really launch her, she'd be more inclined to do that sort of thing. I think that was her thought from the very beginning. But I'm just throwing guesses at the wind here. (no pun intended)

Sorry, but you see, that is what happens when I start thinking.

[pepelepew]

I agree with Lefty, Roman, Mark, etc., however this being a fan site for fans to express themselves, let off steam, fantasize, kill time, discuss passionately, etc., it is appropriate to share. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought fan sites are for the fans and not the artist. I am a great protector of Alizee and as a fan I have confronted what I thought was inappropriate, distasteful or mean. It would be inappropriate for fans to hammer her on face book or write her letters with the kind of content that are in some of the posts here, but that is not the case as far as I know. If Alizee happens to lurk here or on any fan site it is what it is. I assume that the creators of this site would welcome her here, but as long as the rhetoric isn't hateful, disrespectful or mean it is ludicrous to try to censor fans thoughts or feelings and could stunt spontaneity. I do admit that I have to hold my nose as over time it does seem like beating a dead horse with redundant comments. I have truly been guilty as anyone and it seems like groundhog day at times. The fact that most of us know nothing about the music business and even less about Alizee, decisions she made or not made, how she feels, what she likes, dislikes is beside the point. Besides she may come here to laugh her ass off at our lunacy for all we know. We may make her day. I know one thing that when we start taking ourselves to seriously and think that we have control over something or some person for which we have none, we are miserable. In the words of Cindy Lauper " Alizee fans just want to have fun!"

[Ange]

Thanks everyone for being so positive.

[MarkL]

The fan part of me wishes for her to try harder and keep trying to suceed while the other part of me says I should let ppl live their lives.

I'm Torn in two

[Euphoria]

Alizee has a very good range. She can actually sing really low, and I prefer her songs where she's using that low, sexy voice. That's what sounds best to me. I've always thought she had a very unique sound. She can manage to sound sweet while still having that sort of raspy-ness.

[lefty12357]

Originally Posted by Euphoria

Alizee has a very good range. She can actually sing really low, and I prefer her songs where she's using that low, sexy voice. That's what sounds best to me. I've always thought she had a very unique sound. She can manage to sound sweet while still having that sort of raspy-ness.

Yeah, I agree. I really like the sound of her voice when she sings in her lower range. I've always thought of it as something that sets her apart from many other singers.