SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT, TELEVISION, AND CULTURE
DISTRIBUTION: TO ENTERTAINMENT, RADIO-TELEVISION AND MUSIC
EDITORS
LENGTH: 905 words
HEADLINE: 'VH1 All Access' Examines the Precarious State
Of 'The Struggling Singer/Songwriter' in Latest Episode of Hit Series, Premiering
Thursday, June 28 at 10:00 P.M. (ET/PT)
DATELINE: NEW YORK, June 25
BODY:
These are tough times for the singer/songwriter. In a market full
of highly-calculated, carefully-produced entertainment, pop music's unique
voices are finding it much harder to compete. Fact is, of the 82 albums
to reach number-one from 1997-2000, only two were by solo singer/songwriters.
"VH1 All Access: The Struggling Singer/Songwriter"
takes an in-depth look at the music of personal expression -- and the poets
of pop who find themselves straining to buck the bubble-gum trend of made-for-TV
bands and polished pop songs. This latest episode of VH1's hit weekly series
premieres Thursday, June 28 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
VH1 News' Rebecca Rankin conducts in-depth interviews
with superstar Billy Joel, starmaker Lou Pearlman, top songwriter Dianne
Warren, best-selling artist David Gray and Oscar-nominated maverick Aimee
Mann. "VH1 All Access: The Struggling Singer/Songwriter"
examines the precarious state of the singer/songwriter and questions whether
this long-time musical icon is a victim of an industry that's pushing aside
independent voices in favor of prefab boy bands like *NSYNC and Backstreet
Boys, song-and-dance teen queens like Britney and Christina, and aggressive
rock bands like Limp Bizkit.
By interviewing industry players and showing how
the music business operates, "VH1 All Access: The Struggling Singer/Songwriter"
sheds light on the obstacles that singer/songwriters must face -- and on
the prospects for their future success. Interview footage also features
artists Dave Matthews, Joan Osborne, Melissa Etheridge, Stevie Nicks, Black
Crowes' Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson, Alanis Morissette, James Taylor,
Elton John, Brian McKnight, O-Town, Celine Dion, Duncan Sheik, Faith Hill,
Rob Thomas and Pete Yorn, plus music journalist Bruce Haring, Universal
Records president Monte Lipman, USA Today pop music critic Elysa Gardner,
manager Michael Hausman, Atlantic Records vice president Ron Shapiro, ATO
Records' co-founders Michael McDonald and Chris Tetzeli, and "Magnolia"
director Paul Thomas Anderson, among others.
Highlighting "VH1 All Access: The Struggling
Singer/Songwriter":
-- Billy Joel, superstar singer-songwriter since the heydays of the
1970s: "During
the '60s and '70s, if you were unusual looking, it was
okay, but now you have to
be more photogenic ... Would you say I was
one of the most photogenic
people you've seen? I've said this many
times, I signed on to be
a piano player, not a damn movie star."
-- Lou Pearlman, the man behind such pop phenoms as N'SYNC and Backstreet
Boys, and producer of TV's
"Making the Band": "The goal is to become
famous. That's the
goal. Because if you're not famous, then nobody
is going to buy your records."
-- Dianne Warren, the music world's hottest songwriter, owner of
81 Top
Ten hits and 28 Number One
smashes for megastars like Cher, Celine
Dion, Toni Braxton, and
even Aerosmith: "I write a song, and I think
of an artist that the song's
good for -- It's kind of unconscious,
it's kind of magical.
The right songs with the right singer and the
right everything, you can't
hold it back ... I mean, I want the songs
to be great, I want them
all to be hits."
-- David Gray, this year's surprise star, whose million-selling album
"White Ladder"
followed three previous releases with total sales of
only 61,000: "The
f***ing music speaks for itself at the end of the
day -- it's there on a disk,
you can go and buy it or you can come and
see a concert. And
the bottom line is that's what I actually do.
This [publicity] is all
surplus, it comes with the territory."
-- Aimee Mann, former Til Tuesday singer and solo artist, now
Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter
who decided to leave her record
label and start one of her
own: "I don't even think the Beatles could
get a record deal now."
VH1 sets aside every Thursday night at 10:00 p.m. for "VH1 All Access,"
debuting some of the network's most diverse and popular shows. Upcoming
shows include "Breakups and Shakeups" (July 5), "Dynamic
Duets" (July 19) and "Rock Solid" (July 26).
"VH1 All Access: The Struggling Singer/Songwriter"
is a production of VH1; the supervising producer is Brad Abramson; the executive
producers are Shelly Tatro and Bill Brand.
VH1 produces and programs a wide variety of music-based
series, specials, live events and acquisition-based programming that keep
viewers in touch with the music they love. VH1 is a registered trademark
of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc. MTV Networks owns and operates
the cable television programming services MTV: Music Television, MTV 2:
Music Television, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV Land and VH1 as well as The
Suite from MTV Networks, a package of ten digital services, all of which
are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks also has joint ventures,
licensing agreements and syndication deals whereby its programming can be
seen worldwide.
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SOURCE VH1
CONTACT: Lori Hornik of VH1, 212-846-7131; or Linsey Silberkleit of MTVN,
310-752-8082
URL: http://www.prnewswire.com
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