IIAGY said:

musicjunky318 said:

Remember when Leona Lewis was hyped out of control and the world just thought she would smash? After Bleeding Love her momentum just crashed. You never know what's gonna happen. If someone asked me Adele, the girl I had no idea existed when she quietly won her first 2 grammys in 2008 would blow-up like this I would have laughed. I had Amy and Duffy both above her in my success-predictions.

Who knew.

The pop side of the industry is very fickle and for the most part unpredictable. I'd say Adele was in the right place at the right time. Not to mention RITD is one of the strongest 1st singles I can remember in a while.

SLY was a perfect follow-up, but risky at the same time - songs like that don't get played on radio today. Some of the RnB heads attribute her success to "shock" factor. As in, being white and singing songs with soul and R&B influences. I've been told by many fans of lesser-successful artist that if she was black she wouldn't see half the success she is seeing now. I find that bitter and ignorant.

Btw '21' is on track to sell ~300K next week.

What fuckin shock factor?, Dusty Springfield was doing this in the 60's along with numerous other british artist. Anyone with any knowledge knows that the UK embraced soul and r&b decades ago.

Me thinks this is just some lame attempt to diminish her talent and her success.

[Edited 2/22/12 22:36pm]

Shock factor my ass...

Doesnt suprise me though numerous people on this board has done the side eye bout Adele and her "lack" of soul.

lazycrockett said:

Doesnt suprise me though numerous people on this board has done the side eye bout Adele and her "lack" of soul.

And you know the reason why too. But we're not gonna go there. People just love to trip about shit they think they're an expert on especially about "soul music".

meisme said:

This chick is soooo overrated. She is a talented vocalist who takes a lot from etta james vocal style. Her performances are boring as hell. Sorry im not moved. I do own 19 & 21. Just not my cup of tea I guess.

I like her a lot... Especially when she first hit with Chasing Pavements, I became an instant fan.

I admit though, that I am suffering a bit of Adele fatigue at the moment... It's funny that people applaud her for giving the finger... It's things like that and some of the things she says in interviews that are changing my perception of her from the 'shy, humble girl that you want to root for' to the British equivalent of trailer trash---foul mouthed and unclassy in many ways. Her music and image is pretty sophisticated...but, her mouth and actions reminds me that she's really just a kid (22, 23?).

But, that's just how I feel on it. It's sometimes hard for me to separate music from the personalities of the people who are making the music. From what I see, others seem to like the 'I don't give a bloody bloomin' f#ck' attitude and encourage it.

But hey, it doesn't matter in the end. I already bought the records like millions of others and got enjoyment out of them.

gemari77 said:

meisme said:

This chick is soooo overrated. She is a talented vocalist who takes a lot from etta james vocal style. Her performances are boring as hell. Sorry im not moved. I do own 19 & 21. Just not my cup of tea I guess.

I like her a lot... Especially when she first hit with Chasing Pavements, I became an instant fan.

I admit though, that I am suffering a bit of Adele fatigue at the moment... It's funny that people applaud her for giving the finger... It's things like that and some of the things she says in interviews that are changing my perception of her from the 'shy, humble girl that you want to root for' to the British equivalent of trailer trash---foul mouthed and unclassy in many ways. Her music and image is pretty sophisticated...but, her mouth and actions reminds me that she's really just a kid (22, 23?).

But, that's just how I feel on it. It's sometimes hard for me to separate music from the personalities of the people who are making the music. From what I see, others seem to like the 'I don't give a bloody bloomin' f#ck' attitude and encourage it.

But hey, it doesn't matter in the end. I already bought the records like millions of others and got enjoyment out of them.

People are also human as well... Im not trying to defend her but just saying... Ive seen interviews of her where she seems very mature, confident, sassy and I was very impressed.... I didnt get anything shy about her image even when she first came out. I always got that she was proud of who she was and carried an attitude that I perceived as....You either love me or you dont unlike most of the pop stars now who push their image on the public. I dont think thats being arrogant at all... shes is very confident in her music and who she is and makes it clear all the time she is not changing that... but at the same time she is young and people are not perfect. At the end of the day, its about the music not if someone said a cursed word or not which I think is a silly reason to not like someone and a more sillier reason to judge them.

lazycrockett said:

Doesnt suprise me though numerous people on this board has done the side eye bout Adele and her "lack" of soul.

British soul

Soul has been a major influence on British popular music since the 1960s including bands of the British Invasion, most significantly The Beatles (the song 'she loves you' for me is very soulful). There were a handful of significant British Blue-eyed soul acts, including Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones. American soul was extremely popular among some youth sub-cultures like the Northern soul and Modern soul movements, but a clear genre of British soul did not emerge until the 1980s when a number of artists including George Michael, Sade, Simply Red, Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul enjoyed commercial success. The popularity of British soul artists in the U.S., most notably Amy Winehouse, Adele, Estelle, Joss Stone, Duffy, Jessie J and Leona Lewis led to talk of a third British Invasion or soul invasion in the 2000s.

regardless of race, imo anyone can express musically from their soul (especially appalachian music which is surely sang from the soul-take a listen).

i'm not that into Adele yet, however i plan to take more of a listen to her. she's classicly beautiful and seems to sing from her heart. her writers and arrangers have chose rhythm/blues riffs and gospel piano chords for her vocal style and it works. so far she seems down to earth.

(i'm listening to 'set fire to the rain' right now. the young lady has some strong vocal chords.)

[Edited 2/23/12 11:00am]

lazycrockett said:

IIAGY said:

The pop side of the industry is very fickle and for the most part unpredictable. I'd say Adele was in the right place at the right time. Not to mention RITD is one of the strongest 1st singles I can remember in a while.

SLY was a perfect follow-up, but risky at the same time - songs like that don't get played on radio today. Some of the RnB heads attribute her success to "shock" factor. As in, being white and singing songs with soul and R&B influences. I've been told by many fans of lesser-successful artist that if she was black she wouldn't see half the success she is seeing now. I find that bitter and ignorant.

Btw '21' is on track to sell ~300K next week.

What fuckin shock factor?, Dusty Springfield was doing this in the 60's along with numerous other british artist. Anyone with any knowledge knows that the UK embraced soul and r&b decades ago.

Me thinks this is just some lame attempt to diminish her talent and her success.

[Edited 2/22/12 22:36pm]

Being white and singing or able to emote like most black singers, I guess. Even iTunes is especially bad at this - filing artist under the right category. I noticed on the Brandy boards some suggest that if Jazmine Sullivan was white she'd be in Adele's shoes. WTF?

It's funny you bring up Dusty, a few weeks ago a friend of mine made the comparison. To be honest, I had only heard one of her songs "Hopin' & Prayin'" - I'm relatively young. I discovered that Ludacris sampled "You Don't Have to say You Love Me" - epic. Anyway, I listened to some of her work and it's a solid comparison, not spot on but solid. Adele's music is just more contemporary and her voice is probably less "soulful". The comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Duffy are lazy IMO.

Timmy84 said:

Wow... just wow...

IIAGY said:

lazycrockett said:

What fuckin shock factor?, Dusty Springfield was doing this in the 60's along with numerous other british artist. Anyone with any knowledge knows that the UK embraced soul and r&b decades ago.

Me thinks this is just some lame attempt to diminish her talent and her success.

[Edited 2/22/12 22:36pm]

Being white and singing or able to emote like most black singers, I guess. Even iTunes is especially bad at this - filing artist under the right category. I noticed on the Brandy boards some suggest that if Jazmine Sullivan was white she'd be in Adele's shoes. WTF?

It's funny you bring up Dusty, a few weeks ago a friend of mine made the comparison. To be honest, I had only heard one of her songs "Hopin' & Prayin'" - I'm relatively young. I discovered that Ludacris sampled "You Don't Have to say You Love Me" - epic. Anyway, I listened to some of her work and it's a solid comparison, not spot on but solid. Adele's music is just more contemporary and her voice is probably less "soulful". The comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Duffy are lazy IMO.

i'm in agreement to your (embolded) words. especially since i've always felt it's kind of farcical

for record companies and the media reviews to start an artist off at the gate to notarity, only if she or he has a somewhat similiar sound to the current top selling artist of the time.

I was in Target last night and I found it so funny that her albums were nowhere to be found. talent is definitely trumping all for once.

Hudson said:

Fuck you Eminem!

Adele first artist to go double platinum on US iTunes

Page last updated at 13:05 GMT, Friday, 24 February 2012

By Emma Brant
Newsbeat reporter The moment where James Corden cut off Adele during her acceptance speech

Adele has become the first artist ever to go double platinum on iTunes in the US.

The 23-year-old has sold two million downloads of 21 on the service, taking her total Stateside sales of the album to more than seven million.

Also, following on from Grammy award success, the album is number one for the 21st week on The Billboard Top 200 Chart.

It is now the longest running number one by a woman in Billboard history.

Whitney Houston previously held the title for her 1992 soundtrack album, Bodyguard.

It is thought Adele could also reclaim the UK album number one spot this week [26 February], after the Brits where she picked up two awards.

The singer had her acceptance speech cut short at the ceremony [21 February] by Brit award host James Corden.

ITV have since apologised for the interruption because of "over-running".

Adele showed her frustration at the time by making a middle finger gesture to the "industry suits".

She also later apologised to any fans who were upset by it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17153705

To all the people who think that Itunes and other forms of online music buying are bad for the industry.