If she were to say "fuck it" to me, I would be turned on to the point of some serious existentialism.

TonyVanDam said:

exactly! The label said it straight out that they could not promote her because she was too "ethnic", meaning she aint a white girl, and she aint a black girl. Shes hawaiin, and a label cant go anywhere with that. So thats what that has to do with, people can say the songs sucked, well you know what, alot of songs suck ass and go alot farther, so that argument is BULLSHIT, its 100% racism.

lastdecember said:

this is the biggest load of horseshit i've heard in awhile. i know she's your girlfriend or whatever, but fer fuck's sake, you're living in fantasy land.

lastdecember said:

Are u guys serious?

Raze said:

Sorry dude but its the truth, sorry if you cant deal with the reality of America that you live in, but it is the truth. Her image was something that they fought over, they even brought in "experts" to discuss possible name changes, these were people that were on a payroll to actually "discuss" what her name should be, and as far as her musically, well, the album had cuts with Sting and Snow Patrol and two members of Coldplay, and they were not pushed to radio because 1. she is a female 2. because of her "look", they didnt feel she should be singing those type of songs for her look. They want her to be POP but pop doesnt want her because she isnt "white" RB doesnt want her because she doesnt look or sound "black". That to me is a form of racism.

lastdecember said:

nobody was interested. it's time you learned to live with that instead of blaming others. promotion and pr can go a long way, but if a beautiful girl with questionable talents and bland material can't make it in this day and age, there are bigger problems than her name.

Raze said:

So if a radio station says we arent going to play a Beyonce song or an India Arie song because they sound to "Black" define that? I could give a fuck about Pr and promotion or where shit lands on charts, i was the first one that said songs with ne-yo and will i am where shit, and mainly because of their lack of talents too, you cant just always assume its the singer, shit they made the fucking songs, i love how no one blames the likes of these crap ass producers.

lastdecember said:

"too black"? you obviously haven't looked at the charts in about 15 years. or turned on a radio.

Ne-Yo and Will I Am are very hot right now, so even if I agree that they are not very good, then it obviously isn't THEM that's the problem.

And as I said, in this day and age, a beautiful girl with limited talents and bland music is an easy sell.

But Nicole made her bones on prancing around with a bunch of hot chicks in lingerie. You take her out of that, and if she can't make it as a solo artist, then it's easy to tell that it was the sex appeal of the group that got her by in the first place.

It's nothing against Nicole, but with all the promotion in the world, even a "sure thing" doesn't always catch on. If people aren't interested, it isn't because of her name. It isn't because the same producers and writers who create every other hit song on the charts let her down. People just weren't interested. Without the other girls in the underwear prancing around, people just realized that there wasn't anything interesting or striking about her aside from her looks.

Sorry.

Raze said:

100% agree.

Raze said:

Than i would apply this to someone like Mick jagger for instance, Could sell anything with the stones, but take him out and no one cared, as i say has nothing to do with talent, in Nicoles case SORRY i do blame the material, Will i am and ne-yo might be the "hot thing" but people are growing tired of every single female sounding that way. For Mick Jagger, well he wrote his solo stuff so thats pretty much on him, but i wouldnt say it was his talent. As for PCD, truth of the matter is that without nicole they are a done deal, they arent gonna replace her because no one would care, so it was more then girls in their underwear (by the way, thats the vegas Pussycat Dolls that are like that, not the singing group) So there was a reason that they brought in 10 million worldwide, i mean, someone was interested, and since none of the others were/are lead singers or could carry the group, thats all Nicole.

lastdecember said:

Sure, maybe the PCD wouldn't be able to make lightning strike twice without Nicole. And maybe they won't do it again WITH her. As a singing group, anyway. But my understanding is that the PCD were a burlesque act that existed before Nicole came along, and were basically transformed into a singing group as a platform for her. So, no, they probably aren't going to make it as a mainstream musical act without her. But that wasn't the point of the group to begin with. They backed her up, gave her some appeal, and then she moved on.

I wouldn't be surprised if a second go-around for Nicole with the PCD was any more successful than her solo effort. They came along at the right time in the right place. As a recording group, they're a modern day Vanity/Apollonia 6 and there wasn't much follow-up in the singing careers of any of those girls. The entire PCD thing got by on sex appeal and novelty aspect.

I'm sorry that your friend Nicole wasn't able to transcend that.

lastdecember said:

Exactly, for poor Nicole.

As a latina, Christina never had this problem in her career. She was able to pass for a "while girl with a black soul sista vocals", without question.

Graycap23 said:

....as serious as the infamous BPB test from New Orleans' Jim Crow era. Sad but true.

It shouldn't matter whether Nicole was black, white, Latina, Asian, Martian green, etc. if her material was excellent. The problem is that her stuff was probably as generic as a lot of the other so-called pretty faces out there already like Rihanna, Ciara, Fergie, etc., so that's why it wasn't selling in the first place. As for the Pussycat Dolls, it was a brand before it became a girl group, and the whole idea was to mainstream the act into middle America from its burlesque roots. The PCD album was surprisingly good for a pop album, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the next album flops because the group itself screams novelty act.

Raze said:

lastdecember said:

Stop making excuses.The label had no problem "promoting" the Pussycat Dolls,which features Nicole (a Hawaiian lady) as the lead singer.The public accepted Nicole in that group.They accepted her singing and very few guys would argue that she's not a beautiful,sexy woman.There's no racism here.Nicole's solo project didn't take off because the songs are crap.Granted,most of today's music is crap (lol) but you gotta at least have something that's fun and catchy.The two solo songs by Nicole that I heard are neither."Dontcha" was fun and catchy.I'm not even a PCD fan but even I liked that song."Hollaback Girl" and "Promiscuous" are other examples of songs that are fun and catchy.Nicole needed singles like that.It can be crap,but it's gotta be fun crap,if that makes any sense,lol.
[Edited 2/21/08 4:11am]

BlaqueKnight said:

Precisely. Stage charisma/personality says a lot with interacting with an audience.

Maybe she should ya know - do it herself?

Learn to write some songs, develop her own image, do something interesting.

I get that she has to do as she's told to an extent but I'm sure there's nothing wrong with her having some input?

All these popstars that just sit around waiting for Ne-Yo or t-pain to write them their next hit - why don't they just take control?

It worked for Madonna...

purplesweat said:

Your avatar

DANGEROUSx said:

Get in line though :lol;

SoulAlive said:

Oh really, well you seem to forget that PCD was signed as a music act back in 2004, Dont Cha was one of the SLOWEST burn singles in the last decade, the thing climbed slowly, without benefit of a label. The girls also had 3 singles from movies long before they were "promoted". It took Dont cha close to 4-5 months to reach its peak, that was straight up word of mouth on their part, nothing to do with the label, a label promotion is what you see with Janet and Mariahs new singles. But once again i dont hear the blame being put on who did her songs, i keep hearing "nicoles songs" sorry but if you didnt write it, arrange it or produce it, its not YOUR song, Nicole had nothing to do with these songs, this is WHAT THE LABEL paid $$$$ for, so maybe its time the likes of Ne-yo Will i am, TI, go back and do something new, because they blew it on her tracks. I know we all never put the blame on these cats, we give them all passes, but, they were hired to create a hit and didnt, so they gotta take some blame too.

purplesweat said:

WRONG,,sorry, but that is WRONG. Labels that have new POP acts do not want them CREATING, they want hits, so they will look to HIT MAKERS of the moment, thats the way it is, Nicole is not in a forum and genre that is looking for that kind of input, later on maybe, the contract is up after this PCD record. Things just dont work that way at this point, she is a hired hand, brought in to sing, and thats it.

lastdecember said:

How come Christina managed to do it?

Well, if things don't work out with PCD, she can always bang Prince(she's his type)and possibly get a record released get to be his accessory, and gig off the extra exposure.

Dance said:

Shes too old for Prince she is turning 30, Prince likes early 20's, plus Prince hasnt the ability of "exposure" for associated acts for the last 20-25 years.

purplesweat said:

I agree.Many of today's female artists are puppets.They don't have any control over their image,their music,or their careers.Nicole should have spoken up and said "I ain't singing that crap!" when they were putting her album together.In the past,we had strong,demanding female artists like Diana Ross and Madonna...ladies who knew that they had to TAKE CONTROL,be a bitch if necessary I know it's hard for a female artist,but if they don't stand up for themselves,record companies will mold them into whatever THEY want them to be.

If Nicole wants a solo career,she should wait awhile and do it on her own terms.She should try writing her own lyrics and creating her own image.

Apparently,this is what happened....

Scherzinger worked on her debut album from 2006-2008 with record producers including will.i.am,Timbaland,Kara DioGuardi,and Bryan-Michael Cox.She announced in a March 17,2007 interview that her album would be titled Her Name Is Nicole;it was due for a 2007 release but is still without a release date.

The first single,"Whatever U Like",featuring rapper T.I.,was released in July 2007.The song was a commercial and critical bomb however,and it was soon announced that "Baby Love" (released September 2007) would replace "Whatever U Like" as the "lead single" from the album.Media reports commented on the fact that both Interscope's and Scherzinger's official websites started in September 2007 to refer to "Baby Love" as her first single.

After both these singles failed to hit in North America,a poll was placed on Scherzinger's website,asking fans to vote for the third single.Choices include: "Supervillian","Happily Never After","Who's Gonna Love You" and "Power's Out".However,on November 28,2007,the poll was updated and the songs "Power's Out" and "Supervillian" were removed and replaced with "Puakenikeni" and "Physical".It was announced via the website on December 10 that "Puakenikeni" would be the next official single to be released,but now,even those plans have been put on hold indefinitely.To date,both Interscope and Scherzinger have not made any announcement on the official release date.


I got dizzy reading all that! I feel bad for Nicole,though.This is an embarassing situation,for everyone involved.

Even Whatever U Like...I mean it's very accurate for her. She just seems to mope around with no clothes on in Blender magazine while her people try to get her fake ass career off the ground.

LEARN AN INSTRUMENT?

LEARN TO WRITE?

SAY SOMETHING OUTSPOKEN OR INTERESTING?

DO WHAT BEYONCE DID AND LOCK THE LABEL THE FUCK OUT WHILE YOU MAKE THE ALBUM YOU WANT TO MAKE?

I really don't care what anyone has to say about "labels don't want her to speak up" - in this day and age it'd pay off more than anything.

Two words - Kanye West.

He never shut up and now he has ten Grammies.

Maybe Nic-hole should join Def Jam? All their artists do well and seem to have a lot of freedom.

purplesweat said:

First of all BEYONCE didnt have her say till she was solo, and who would debate her at that point? Also Beyonce has 60-70 writers per song so i believe her input is about 2% to a song if even that much. You fail to realize this is WHAT THE LABEL wanted, this solo record was not supposed to even happen yet, this was the brainchild of Jimmy Iovine at Universal, who basically wanted to ride the PCD train into getting another Gwen Stefani, but Stefani already had a 15 year career of being known and a force where she could do what she wanted.

If you think speaking up gets you anywhere with a label, well, just ask Amerie who got dropped from Sony for questioning things despite her doing the best RB mainstream album last year, she questioned their politics and priorities, and now she is an indie artist. Who at Def-Jam is free, Mariah, well, who is going to say no to her at this point? Rihanna, do you think she is "free" to totally do her own record? thats funny if you do.

As i said the label had tracks from Nicole written by her with Sting and with members of Snow Patrol and Coldplay, but did not want that kind of "artistry", they wanted her to fit their mold, they wanted to bring in the Will I Am's, Ne-yo's Tim's, TI's to hopefully right that wave that THEY are on. The blame for this failure lies in that FRAME OF MIND of thinking, Nicole is meaningless in this equation, for all this talk we could be talking about any female pop singer at this point, this is a formula that the LABEL tried and didnt work, that simple.