Music stars bare more, sell less, but old habits die hard


NEW YORK (Billboard) --Christina vamps like a burlesque stripper. Britney's gone from schoolgirl to slut. Pink is punk.

Many of music's reigning divas are partying like it's 1999, even though the world has become a darker, more uncertain and more anxious place since September 11, 2001.

With the economy in a funk and record sales down for three years running, even established artists are sexing it up -- no doubt encouraged by edgy industry executives.

The problem is, the public just doesn't seem to be in the mood for it, and the recent mediocre album sales by Spears, Pink and similar artists may reflect a classic case of mismarketing.

"When social and economic times are more threatening and pessimistic, we actually prefer others with more mature facial, body and personality characteristics," says Terry Pettijohn, a Ph.D. social psychologist at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania.

If Pettijohn's observations are accurate, then industry executives who are pushing artists to "tart it up" are miscalculating the market and could be damaging careers.

"Audiences are listening to lyrics more," says Ron Vos, president/chief executive of Hi Frequency Marketing in North Carolina. "They're focused on content and story line, not dancing and having fun, and they want the artist to reflect that."

Indeed, female artists who are succeeding on the radio and on the charts have tapped into the nation's post-September 11 soul-searching.

Vos, whose firm worked with Avril Lavigne and Norah Jones, says these artists are writing music that's about being in touch with your values. They portray themselves as self-made people who write about their feelings, he says.

'You sell yourself, and I just hate it'
Sex certainly sells. The concept has been around as long as advertising. But Lavigne and Jones reflect a different kind of sexuality that's much subtler, more genuine and thus more alluring in a time of crisis.

Given the national mood, such nuances could easily be the difference between strong and mediocre sales.

One of the hottest breakthrough groups of last year, rock band Evanescence, is fronted by Amy Lee, who is appalled by the crass marketing of some pop stars. "Talking bad about Britney is like beating a dead horse; I won't even go there," she says.

But what really bothers Lee are female artists who are good writers or good singers but have gone from being "really classy and cool to just stripping it all away."

Jewel, for example, has gone from folk songstress to cover girl, and 40-something Sheryl Crow struts onstage in hot pants even as she bemoans that other artists are being marketed like "porn stars."

"Obviously, sex is the most basic thing that you can sell," Lee says. "I mean, you sell yourself, and I just hate it."

From Spears' kiss with Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards to Pink's onstage antics at the Billboard Music Awards, the trend toward trampiness shows no signs of abating.

But some academic research suggests that it runs counter to current economic, social and demographic trends.

Last spring, Pettijohn and University of Georgia professor Abraham Tesser presented a paper to the American Psychological Society in Atlanta that examined how the social and economic environment affects human preferences.

"In times of trouble, strong, stable, supportive people are favored," he says. "When times are good, we tend to favor the fun person."

To reach that conclusion, the researchers studied the public's preferences for actresses between 1932 and 1995.

Individuals preferred smaller eyes, thinner cheeks and larger chins in bad times, and women with larger eyes, fuller cheeks and smaller chins in good times, the study found.

"The U.S. is always going back and forth between our puritan values and our need for indulgences," says Sharon Livingston of the Livingston Group, a Windham, New Hampshire, marketing and research firm.

'A turn toward traditional values'
Currently, songs with a mellow, introspective approach are finding a receptive U.S. audience, in part because of the confusion and sense of change in the wake of September 11, according to Ball State University pop culture expert Richard Aquila.

That mood plays into the resurgence of the singer/songwriter, where audiences are eager to hear what the individual has to say, he says.

"There's been a turn toward traditional values," Aquila adds.

Alicia Keys is representative of the trend. Her songs are introspective and soulful. Her image, while sexual, also exudes strength and character. Not surprisingly, her latest album is doing well on the charts.

Norah Jones is sexy, Livingston says. But "she's using libido in a gentle way and talking about relationships. It's a more constructive use of her libido, but she's still creating interest and intrigue."

She's saying, "'Come be with me, and you'll feel good about yourself,"' she explains.

Spears, of course, has played the sex card most often and most blatantly in the face of declining sales.

Her biggest single, "... Baby One More Time," cut when her image was more wholesome, spent 39 weeks on the singles charts in 1998, including seven weeks in the top spot.

Her last single to hit No. 1 on the charts was "I'm a Slave 4 U" in 2001. It spent one week at the top.

Despite massive hype, Spears' latest album is posting only so-so sales. And Pink's latest release is suffering as well. Sales of "Try This" have fallen far short of her previous blockbuster album.

According to a source, her label is privately worried that she has been tarting it up too much. For her part, Pink says artists are just using what they've got.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with being sexy, but people use what they have," she says. "If people have a great voice, then you use your voice; if you have a great mind, then you speak a lot; if you have a great body, then you take your clothes off."

That may work if you're 20-something, but Evanescence's Lee isn't the only person who finds the trend disturbing among such established, talented female artists as Toni Braxton, Liz Phair and LeAnn Rimes.

Gina Vivinetto, pop music critic for Florida's St. Petersburg Times, noted in an article last summer that it's as if someone had issued a memo to every woman in rock. "No matter how seriously she once took herself, no matter how good her voice or her level of talent, she must start looking like a tramp."

Yes.

Cloudbuster said:

you didnt even read the article...you slut!! you posted like half a second after i created the thread...

Yes.

Cloudbuster said:

That's what you get for calling me a slut.

Cloudbuster said:

cher!!

Cloudbuster said:

hehe And yeah, sex will always sell. We're all horny and we want to be titillated.

sosgemini said:

One aspect the story proves is that there isn't a real payoff for going smutty.

Whenever I hear/read a reference to that kiss, Christina Aguilera is always excluded.

She put herself out there just as trashily, and isn't even getting the benefit of the stunt.
Now, that's dirty.

We don't need to read the article. The answer is YES! Sex will always sell. Look at the 3 women in the picture. All of them got to where they are now with sex!! One is a fairly good singer. The other is a very average singer and one can not sing at all!

ThreadBare said:

sex doesn't sell; it promotes

The reason why Britney's sales are dropping is because her core audience has always been the 12-16 year-old
The sluttier she got, the more fans she lost. Of course her most mature album isn't gonna sell that well
the 12-16 year-olds of today have other pop stars to admire (hilary duff,fefe dabson, avril lavinge).And the 12-16 year-olds back when Britney was popular have grown up, so much so to realize Britney doesn't have one lick of talent in the music department. Plus, add that to the fact that the teeny bop of '99-2000 is gone, a passing fad. Music goes through cycles, and the cycle that Britney was most popular in has passed. THAT'S why her sales are not as good as yesteryear. Every teen star fades.
Britney started to slut image because she realized she was being made into a teen star, who wants to sing about boyfriends and the trouble of opening lockers at age 20? She grew up and wanted to ditch the teen audience, obviously she was not successful in doing so.

As far as Christina goes, she's a sexual person. Sure, it draws attention to her, but it was an honest doing on her part. She may have a 'sexual' image but Stripped is a grown up adult album; as opposed to anything brit-brit has ever done. she has, dare I say, the same message/idea Madonna had. Her "dirrty" video is no different than the "sex" book.

Female artists of today who sex it up do it to draw attention to themselves; all the female artsists who become increasingly sexual are the one's who have somehow not become not so relevant (most recent example: Michelle Branch).

Pink's not selling well because the first single was weak as hell, so was/is the second. I've never seen her as trying to be a sex kitten, yeah, she simulated oral sex at the billbaord awards, so what? She isn't and will never be a Britney type...NEVER.

The other thing that gets in the way of this stupid, sexed-up image thing is "The Wall."

Dennis Rodman hit the wall, a few years ago on his Mtv show, when he stripped nude at a pool party he was hosting. I recall Kelsey Grammar looking on like, "What in tarnation is that fool doing?" Rodman looked nervous, like he had the same question going through his head.

But, he'd painted himself into a corner and hit the wall.

The same is true for these young female artists. They sell the promise of wild, shocking sexual behavior. But, they're going to stop. Unless the artist is Madonna, the wall usually is deliberate nudity.

Even Paris Hilton has found herself in the usually-taboo land of (indeliberate?) porn. I don't think she'll have much company there.

Sooner, or later, these flesh-peddling singers reach their limit, having escalated the sensationalism of their acts, and they have nowhere to go.

And, even, as Rodman can attest, if they scale that wall, they'll be forgotten soon enough and find that it wasn't worth it.

Female singers r under pressure 2 compete with each other on their image, rather than their music, there4 I would have 2 answer yes 2 the question.

It's tragic and it makes whores of us all, look at Jewel for further enquiries..

What I wanna know is,what are these ladies (Britney,Christina,etc) gonna do when the "slut phase" gets old? They can't spend their entire careers being slutty.It's only so far you can go with it.

Perhaps they could learn a thing or two from Madonna.She did the whole "Erotica/Sex" thing back in 1992-93,but now look at her.She has totally moved on.She has evolved.While Janet is getting ready to release yet another "sex" album,Madonna has moved on.It's a shame that more artists don't know the meaning of artistic evolution.

If Madonna had truly moved on, she wouldn't have agreed to that Britney/Xtina kiss. I don't think Madonna's moved on at all. She was thrusting and jerking her ageing flesh all over the "Beautiful Stranger" video which was only a few years back, and even when she's not bareing all, her image is still a core part of who she is.

It's sad, but the women who don't bare all; the singer/songwriters, are thrown in the "wierdo" bin.

VAMPIRELLA said:

The VMA performance was supposed to be a "tribute" to the Like A Virgin-era Madonna.So of course,it had to be sexy and shocking.But Madonna is NOT stuck in the past.She doesn't even really sing about sex anymore.Her last three CDs ('Ray Of Light','Music' and 'American Life') are about as "sexual" as a Betty Crocker cookbook.

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[This message was edited Fri Jan 23 5:42:44 PST 2004 by DavidEye]