(no subject)

[tavellafic]

Sigh. JC's performance on Wade's show is doing nothing to dispell my growing impression that Jive has bailed on the album. Those who doubt, might consider the drop in level of label support indicated in going from a high profile debut on the VMAs to a minor talent show.

It's particularly painful when it's the same weekend that Justin's doing SNL, in what was very likely originally JC's slot. Note this is *not* an indictment of Justin -- he's not JC's manager, he's not JC's agent. Justin's career is Justin's job, JC's career is JC's job, and expecting Justin to fix JC's career or hold back on his own is just off the reservation.

However, I think that on the other side, people are also in serious denial if they don't think that what Jive does with Justin affects JC. SNL is the most obvious case of resources being reassigned from JC to Justin -- it's highly unlikely that SNL gave Jive three slots this fall, Britney almost surely already had a slot, odds are very good that Jive swapped Justin in -- but I doubt it's the only one. Whether the decision to yank the single and album came first and reassignment of resources after, or if the album was yanked to reassign resources, I doubt anyone (aside from possibly majafigga, and she's not been saying) knows. But it's still very painful to see.

I've also been trying to figure out *why* Jive has assigned so many resources to Justin. Justified is down in the 70s on the album chart, Senorita is sliding off the hot 100 and I'm Lovin' It never was there; they can't expect to get much more money out of this album. Why the big push of tv appearances, music specials, award show performances, et al? Even if they had made the decision to yank support from JC for reasons internal to the that album, why not assign the resources to one of their other new releases? My personal speculative guess is that Justin told them a month or two ago to expect a another album next year, and so they are trying to keep his profile high in preparation for a spring single.

Comments

[fucking-jc.livejournal.com]

I agree with you in that I'm confused by all this promotion they've got Justin continuing to do. The record's been out almost a year, the hoopla surrounding the tour should have long died down (although I acknowledge he's continuing to do club shows and the 2nd leg of the European tour), yet there's just all this... stuff still coming up. Had JC not had a record being released, I wouldn't really blink an eye to this, but it is all very puzzling to fan. Frustrating is the better word.

[tavellafic.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's been painful to go from the early August promise of a single, VMAs, SNL, a November tour, to another fall of All Justin, All The Time.

[fucking-jc.livejournal.com]

*sigh, nods* Very painful. I thought for sure once he announced he would do an album that the - what's the word - steamroller (?) of promotion would begin once it was finished and then... pbbthh. But oh well, I'm not any less excited that it's about to begin now. Very anxious, though. Now that I already know he's more than satisfied with the work he's done, I just want him to do well so badly.

And geesh! I'm a rambler.

[tavellafic.livejournal.com]

I just want him to do well so badly.

That's the thing that's killing me, though; without record company support, it's not going to. If you don't pay the 'independent promoter' fees, the single isn't going to get played. Payola can't force a hit, but without it, even the best song will tank. And without a single, the album will tank.

Blowin' Me Up at least had Fox's support; they paid for the video, for example.

[lemniskate.livejournal.com]

I've wondered how -- and why -- Just was working so hard to maintain any momentum at all anymore, with it being a year after his record came out--and I think it's because of grammy nominations. They're announced the first week in December, right? I think he's keeping a high US profile because of that.

[tavellafic.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Possible. The club tour in particular, since that seems keyed to defining him as a 'real' musician.

It's also possible that it's multipurposed; Britney/Jive are *still* playing the Justin card in promo for her album (boggles me, but they are!) so it's an advantage there if he stays high profile. And I'm still suspecting another album next year, so if he's going to be in Europe and then recording, good for momentum to keep his profile high while he has the time to do promo in the US.

[kimannebb.livejournal.com]

Sigh. JC's performance on Wade's show is doing nothing to dispell my growing impression that Jive has bailed on the album.

You mean his appearances on there, or did he actually perform a song? I've seen his three appearances but I haven't heard of anything else and wanted to make sure that he didn't perform, 'cause I'd be pissed I missed it. :) You can include me in the group of people that are frustrated with Jive and why the record still hasn't come out. Sucks. Damn people.

[tavellafic.livejournal.com]

He hasn't performed yet, but he's supposed to perform live on Monday.

[embitca.livejournal.com]

The entertainment industry isn't a monolith. Sure, there's some glad-handing going on, swapping favors, etc. between different media outlets, but the only way Jive could simply swap out JC and swap in Justin is if they OWNED SNL. They don't.

The Wade appearance seems so completely random that I'd also bet money the decision to perform there was made by JC. I don't think Jive is run like the old Hollywood starlet system. I'm sure their artists are capable of independent decision-making and a say in where they perform.

[tavellafic.livejournal.com]

Swapped is probably not the right word; certainly Jive couldn't require SNL to take Justin instead of JC, but I do suspect that when they called up SNL to tell them that the album was yanked and thus JC was too, they offered Justin as his replacement.

And I agree that Wade was probably JC's idea, but I think it was because he wasn't going to get any other promo that he was desperate enough to offer. AMA performers are being announced, but no JC, not even another rumor of any high profile performances. Hell, we don't even have a drop date. If Jive was going to support the single, the AMAs would be an obvious place to perform. Instead, he's doing the equivalent of a state fair performance.

[embitca.livejournal.com]

But did JC offer or did Wade ask? Personally, I would bet on the latter, but we just don't know. If I'm to assume the former it leaves me with this bad taste of pathetic neediness in my mouth and I prefer not to make any such assumptions about JC.

As for SNL, again it's pure speculation, but I don't see it going down like that primarily because I don't think there's any way in hell that SNL would ever have scheduled JC as a host of their show as well as being a musical guest. You can count on two hands the number of artists who have performed duel roles on SNL over the entire course of the show's history and they are all big name artists. JC simply isn't well known enough.

[tavellafic.livejournal.com]

But that's it. When one is doing publicity, one of the things one does is try to do the high profile and prestigious outlets first, to demonstrate you are a hot property, making other high profile outlets want you. Instead, JC's starting about as far down the ladder as you can get. There's probably more pathetic outlets on TV, but not many. It makes him look third rate and desperate, and that's a hell of a PR pit to start in.

Now, maybe JC decided to sabotage himself; maybe Jive had all sorts of wonderful stuff planned and JC just decided he wanted to do Wade's show. But it's hard to believe, given the great big sucking silence out of Jive. No AMAs. No drop date. No buzz. The only articles coming out dating back to the August showcase, with their chirpy assurances that JC's album would be out soon.

[tallories.livejournal.com]

Try to look at JC's appearance on the Project as a plus. After all, with a $100,000+ grand prize it's hardly spare change, and MTV has really been pimping the hell out of it, with live plugs during TRL and tons of love on their site. It's better than nothing. *g*

[tavellafic.livejournal.com]

I don't know that it is, to be honest. It might have been better in the long run if Jive had just dropped the album entirely, instead of putting it out with no support.

In JC's position, coming out of a boyband, you get exactly one chance to be successful or be a joke. And the way the music/radio industry is set up, an album *can't* be successful without record company support. So we get to look forward to zillions more articles explaining how Justin was the only talented one in Nsync and the rest of them were just leeches. Which type of article is really eroding my affection for Justin (which was formerly considerable), even though that's really not fair since he's not writing the articles.

If they had dropped it, he might have been able to go on to a record company that was a little more suited and a little more interested.