Interview With Paula Abdul, And her take on Taylor

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...ack=1&cset=true

This is a long interview, but the part on Taylor is on Page 2 of the interview, But you have to be a member to read it so here is the part about Taylor. scroll down. She makes alot of sense.

Here is the section on Taylor

Is there something we can learn from Taylor Hicks' huge popularity on American Idol and subsequent lack of sales successes?

Well you know, it doesn't, I would say this. Nothing takes away from the talent that these kids have. The talent doesn't go away. It's sometimes mishandled and sometimes misguided. And there are very specific reasons why people like Kelly Clarkson sell a lot of albums, and Carrie Underwood and you have the unbelievable talent of Fantasia Barrino and Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks, that don't get to have the same amount of sales…. However I do believe that maybe the album was not… filled with the right materials that suited them. I think that you have to take the right time and the right producer and the right rollout and the right support. It's not just based on they're not talented--there's a lot of factors that go into it that people fail to realize. The right team, the right marketing strategy. That is 90% of it. You have the talent: the talent is now a given. It's the other factors that go into it that predicate the success. Not predicate: but really, that's the success. If you don't have the right strategy, the right production, the right song material. It's all of that that goes into it. It's not to say their albums were bad at all, quote honestly I found good tracks on every single Idols' albums. It's who picks what and who allows them to shine true. A lot of times they don't have a lot of faith in the artistic direction. The second go around you can impart your vision. That's why the call it the sophomore slump. For these kids it's already the sophomore slump when they put their first album out, because they're being compared with being the winner!

According to Simon, he'd say it different: Taylor should never have won. He wasn't a fan.

She hit the nail on the head with that one line about having the right marketing strategy. Taylor had none of that from the Clive Davis group. No video was made to give him that extra push, it appeared to me that Taylor was the only one promoting his cd and finally very little air play.

Clive Davis could have helped with that with the radio dj's because as you know Daughtry, Underwood and even Alicia Keys are constantly being shoved down our throats if you listen to the radio for any length of time. I know this is mean of me to say this but I was so glad that Daughtry did not win any grammies last night.

I know that Paula had to choose her words carefully but that was indeed a very good sum-up of why some people did not do as well in sales. Thanks for posting the article.

Great article. I agree wholeheartedly.
~tyg

I so agree with what Paula said, And she would know too, I mean she is in the business of getting songs out there an listened too, Simon might be in the business of music but NOT trying to sell a song or record, Paula is a smart lady and she did love Taylor when he was on AI, I know her favorite was Elliott but she treated Taylor very fair and honest. I was wondering when and if she would ever say what she thought about Taylor.. Now I know..

Great article. Thanks for bringing it here. I agree with Paula 110%.

One thing about Paula. She has been on both sides of the fence. She knows what she is talking about. Where as Simon has only been on the "Rich" side of town. Personally I don't see what the purpose is in having Simon as a judge. There are lots of other rude people out there who are famous... why him?
Anyway great article thanks for shareing!