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The Voice in the Media


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Oh, gosh, it really feels like Old Home Week now that milkyaqua is here! Also, so happy that Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams will be on the panel in fall. A definite step up, as far as I'm concerned. (Although I do find it weird that the panel is always Blake Shelton + Adam Levine + Blonde Female + Black Male.)

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I don't know quite how to feel about this.  For awhile, it seemed like Blake and Adam were anchor chairs.  Almost irreplaceable because of their chemistry.  However, since last spring... that chemistry is going away slightly, I think.  They can be too much at times and their shticks (like the phone number - Twitter thing) become almost gag-inducing.

 

I still like looking at Adam though.  I would miss the pretty.

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I heard Demi Lovato is looking for a new gig. =p I hope Chris Martin takes his place. He seems to fit in the best with the cast. Plus can you imagine how awesome the panel will be: Chris Martin, Pharrel Williams, Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton. =D

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I don't know quite how to feel about this.  For awhile, it seemed like Blake and Adam were anchor chairs.  Almost irreplaceable because of their chemistry.  However, since last spring... that chemistry is going away slightly, I think.  They can be too much at times and their shticks (like the phone number - Twitter thing) become almost gag-inducing.

 

I still like looking at Adam though.  I would miss the pretty.

He's been looking a little old since season 3.  He was smoking hot in season 2...and that's saying a lot considering that is when I started to strongly dislike him...

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Interesting article from Ddendyl - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/05/20/the-voice-star-ddendyl-on-life-after-reality-tv-and-how-the-nbc-singing-show-really-operates/?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop

 

Shakira sure doesn't come off well but Usher sure does.  I now feel sorry for people I've never met - those that go through the whole month long process of doing the blinds and then don't even get to try out because the teams are full.  That would just suck!

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Eh, I think it just depends on the contestant's relationship with the coach. Both Dani and Tess have raved about the amount of time Shakira spent with them and how she helped them. Ddendyl was eliminated really early in the process so I am not surprised she didn't have a lot of contact with Shakira.

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From what I remember, Chris Martin didn't really give much advice on how to sing.  He seemed to focus almost entirely on the performance aspects.

 

Also, it seems that they are keeping the second round of battles after all.  I'm not happy about that.

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Voice coaches are not burning up the albums charts...

Maroon 5 debuted with 164k, down from 222k the last album.

Pharrell opened with 113k, down from 142k the last album.

Shakira opened with 84k.

Blake's expected to open this week with about 80-90k, down from 199k the last album.

 

Christina's last album opened with 73k, down from 110k. 

Usher's last one opened with 128k, down from 329k.

We'll see how Gwen does...

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Albums just don't sell much anymore. All of those artists except Christina make their money from concert tours and endorsements. All of the artists except for Christina get major radio play on their genre's radio stations. Blake is selling out tours and racking up country hits like crazy. Maroon 5 is inescapable on the radio and has had successful tours. Shakira is pregnant again so her career has pretty much been an afterthought since she appeared on The Voice. She scrapped a tour and did almost no promo for her album, but still managed to have a large number of big endorsement deals and perform at the closing ceremony of the World Cup. Outside of Christina and Cee-Lo (for other reasons), all of their careers received a bump from doing The Voice.

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Albums just don't sell much anymore. All of those artists except Christina make their money from concert tours and endorsements. All of the artists except for Christina get major radio play on their genre's radio stations. Blake is selling out tours and racking up country hits like crazy. Maroon 5 is inescapable on the radio and has had successful tours. Shakira is pregnant again so her career has pretty much been an afterthought since she appeared on The Voice. She scrapped a tour and did almost no promo for her album, but still managed to have a large number of big endorsement deals and perform at the closing ceremony of the World Cup. Outside of Christina and Cee-Lo (for other reasons), all of their careers received a bump from doing The Voice.

 

Well the person wasn't really talking about making money, but about album sales and I'll venture to guess success as a recording artist.  Certainly all the judges got commercial boosts and increased name recognition from the Voice, but I'll venture to guess the MAJORITY of their earnings is actually from their salaries on the show rather than their tours at least in recent years.  These guys honestly just haven't really toured all that much.  Certainly, not compared to many other bands or artists.  The judges in this show are in a unique position that other artists are not.  It made Blake and Adam household names, whereas before the Voice the average person on the street probably had no clue who they were.  

 

Christina is in a completely different boat, and I'm pretty sure she didn't even attempt to put together a tour with her last album.  Also, she already was a pretty big household name before the Voice.  You can't compare the career boosts the other coaches got to Christina's.  Yes, she might have been a couple of years removed from her peak, but Christina had really already achieved years ago what Adam and Blake are currently achieving.

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I don't have the numbers, but aren't album sales overall in decline?  

 

Also I thought Adam and Blake toured like crazy between seasons.  Maybe not this past year, but a year or two ago.  They occasionally had former Voice contestants open for them or perform with them.  

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I don't have the numbers, but aren't album sales overall in decline? 

Also I thought Adam and Blake toured like crazy between seasons.  Maybe not this past year, but a year or two ago.  They occasionally had former Voice contestants open for them or perform with them.

 

 

Yes, album sales are in total decline. Very few artists move more than 100k in the current market so Adam and Blake are still doing pretty decently, relatively speaking.  

 

I stand corrected.  Maroon 5 hasn't toured really at all in the last year, but they did have about 100 shows over two separate tours from 2012 to the beginning of 2014.  However, it's still not a lot when you compare to other top acts.  Katy Perry's last tour was about 130 dates in a little under a year. Bon Jovi's last tour in 2013 was about 100 shows.  Coldplay did 90 shows on their last tour.  I think it's a consequence of Adam's schedule on the Voice, but just given the economics of the tours and what Adam makes per season on the show, I'm pretty confident the bulk of his income is from the show and not from Maroon 5's touring.  The band certainly isn't hurting financially though and I think certainly wouldn't have been playing some of the same arenas without the added fame and exposure from the show.

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I don't know.  It seems kind of obvious that Adam can't tour as much if he has other commitments.  

 

I think one needs to look at the bigger picture.  Sure, looking at current dollars, maybe Adam is earning more directly from the show.  But if he were never on the show, how much would he be earning from other sources both in the near and long term?  

 

In my opinion, the positive impact the show has had on both Adam's and Blake's brands are immeasurable.

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In my opinion, the positive impact the show has had on both Adam's and Blake's brands are immeasurable.

 

 

Oh, I'm not debating that.  Adam's and Blake's careers would not be where they are without the show.  They're in a really unique position that most artists will never be in.  I'm just saying it's not true that these guys are making most of their money from touring like the previous poster said, and they're only doing ok as recording artists/bands given kind of middling record sales and lack of touring opportunities, especially with the amount of name recognition and celebrity they both have.  Although I think Blake is more successful within his given genre and would be absolutely fine if he left the show now.  Maroon 5, I'm not quite as sure.

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Wow, that is not going to be a good panel for Christina. It's going to make her look even bitchier when compared to Pharrell who may be the nicest person they've ever had on the show.

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I'm happy Christina is coming back. I think this show needs at least one coach who gives honest feedback/criticism. Plus, I almost always agree with what she says. Sometimes, I think her tone or phrasing is off and she doesn't always come across well, but I appreciate her feedback to contestants. And find it genuine.

 

I haven't been able to keep up with this season (though I love Gwen and Pharrell) so I can't really speak to either of their coaching styles. But I imagine it's a whole lot of nice-ness.

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Christina isn't honest. She's an asshole. Big difference. She ripped Adam's contestants apart because she was pissed at Adam and never said a bad word about her contestant's poor performances and gave Blake's contestants a pass as well.

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Christina isn't honest. She's an asshole. Big difference. She ripped Adam's contestants apart because she was pissed at Adam and never said a bad word about her contestant's poor performances and gave Blake's contestants a pass as well.

 

 

Well then she's still honest.  She's just selectively honest sometimes as all the coaches are.  None of them are really critical of their own teams.  They have no reason to be.  She's also really bad at sugarcoating stuff.  When she doesn't like something you can always tell no matter what she saying.  It's actually something I like about her though.  YMMV, I think she's a refreshing contrast to some of the other coaches.

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Well then she's still honest.  She's just selectively honest sometimes as all the coaches are.  None of them are really critical of their own teams.  They have no reason to be.  She's also really bad at sugarcoating stuff.  When she doesn't like something you can always tell no matter what she saying.  It's actually something I like about her though.  YMMV, I think she's a refreshing contrast to some of the other coaches.

The problem is Christina was "honest" only about Adam's contestants in season 3.  I was cringing whenever it was her turn to provide feedback to Melanie and Amanda.  Tried to give her the benefit of the doubt but it really became too obvious when it was week after week of criticism of only these two contestants.  Also, I remember one episode when she said that she didn't really understand who Amanda was trying to be as an artist.  Sure, that seems like a valid criticism, but then later in the same show, she talked about how she gave her contestant Dez a completely different type of song to showcase his versatility.  Alrighty then.

 

Christina got a lot better about this in season 5 though.  

 

Also, coaches have every now and then criticized their own teams.  I remember Cee Lo did with one of Caroline Pennell's performances. And Adam with a couple of people on his team (can't remember who right now).  The response on the boards was that the coaches were throwing their contestants under the bus.  So it's easy to see why this doesn't happen often.  

Edited by Noreaster
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In defense of Christina with Melanie..Melanie is not a great technical singer. I think she's incredibly talented, but she's got a small voice. That's something that doesn't interest Christina in the slightest. I think Melanie would have heard the criticism regardless of whose team she was on.

 

But I also think Christina needed a break from Adam. They seem to have  fine relationship now, but I do think they have a bit of clashing personalities. Pharrell will probably be good for them. 

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Christina wasn't being honest with Adam's contestants. She was saying horribly mean things to them based on nothing to do with their performance and everything to do with her personal issues with Adam. That makes her an asshole. She was punching down. None of the other coaches have lashed out at contestants the way she did.

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Christina wasn't being honest with Adam's contestants. She was saying horribly mean things to them based on nothing to do with their performance and everything to do with her personal issues with Adam.

 

 

Her critiques are about the performance though, at least when she can think of something to say anyway.  She is most certainly not the most articulate person when she has to think on the fly.  The biggest complaint has always been about her saying Tony Lucca's performance being one-dimensional and calling him out after 99 problems, but I actually thought the one-dimensional comment was pretty accurate and 99 problems was incredibly petty. She also critiqued Melanie and Amanda quite a bit, but I thought she was right.  Melanie was kind of terrible on the show post her audition, and Amanda really was all over the place with her song choices.  However, I do agree that she has been harsher on Adam's contestants than others, but I still don't think she's really said anything that wasn't true.  I still think Christina's biggest problem is that she just doesn't come across with a warm or even friendly personality.  She's honestly just pretty blunt and doesn't have much of a poker face.  She clearly likes what she likes and really can't fake it when she doesn't.

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I was mostly on Christina's side during that whole Season 2 debacle with Tony Lucca.  But I do also think Christina was overly critical of Amanda and Melanie in Season 3.  This was particularly galling in Amanda's case as I think Amanda was quite clear in her musical identify on the show.  She wanted to either sing straight up rock or do pop songs with a rock twist to them (like what she did with Someone Like You).  The only real exception was when Adam gave her Natural Woman as one her top 6 songs and that was when Christina almost gleefully jumped all over the identity issue, even though Amanda's second song of that night was right back in her rock wheelhouse. My interpretation at the time was that this was mostly about the fact that Christina both resented that Amanda did not pick her after the battle round and that she disagreed with the direction Amanda took in moving towards rock rather than R&B.  I'll never forget the way Christina was frowning in disapproval throughout Amanda's performance of "Dream On", despite it being one of the all time best performances in Voice history, if not the best.

 

In Melanie's case, it may have been at least partially about the small voice issue.  But this did seem somewhat hypocritical given the way Christina took Lindsey Pavao all the way to her final 2 the previous season.  Whatever the reason, I did not feel that Christina's critique of Melanie's Too Close was at all justified. Christina as much as said that she thought it was boring, even though Melanie pored her heart and soul into that performance.  It clearly had meaning to Melanie after breaking up with her high school boyfriend and I still think it was one of the most heart-wrenching covers of that song I've seen.

 

On the other hand, Season 5 Christina was a completely different story.  Not only did she seem to have learned a little diplomacy, but the more targeted critiques that she did give out were mostly spot on.  I actually grew to greatly respect her opinion by the end of that season.  If the Season 5 Christina is the one who is coming back, then I don't mind at all.  I'd like to see Christina and Gwen alternate future seasons. It would be a nice change of pace to keep things from getting stale.

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If nothing else, I'm looking forward to Christina's showboating on-the-fly vocal demonstrations. Blake has his folksy ad-libbed comebacks, Adam has his preening/smarmy charm, Pharrell has the zen sincerity... add Christina's bluntness and penchant for singing notes better than the contestants, and to me it's a fun four-chair combination. I like a little vinegar to contrast with the sugar, personally, whether or not people think she's an asshole. 

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Her critiques are about the performance though, at least when she can think of something to say anyway.  She is most certainly not the most articulate person when she has to think on the fly.  The biggest complaint has always been about her saying Tony Lucca's performance being one-dimensional and calling him out after 99 problems, but I actually thought the one-dimensional comment was pretty accurate and 99 problems was incredibly petty. 

You mean, when she said Tony Lucca's performance was one-dimensional and then goes on to say that he was still in the competition because of his celebrity friends and there are other more talented contestants on the show. Seems to be more than just the performance to me.  

 

I thought she was a bitch in seasons 2 and 3.  This is not to say she didn't have good qualities or that she was a bad coach or anything.  I personally think the show is better with her.  She has a different coaching style and looks for different things when picking people for her team and deciding who to advance.  I have enjoyed the Christina/Cee Lo seasons more than the Shakira/Usher ones.  

Edited by Noreaster
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You mean, when she said Tony Lucca's performance was one-dimensional and then goes on to say that he was still in the competition because of his celebrity friends and there are other more talented contestants on the show. Seems to be more than just the performance to me.

 

 

I guess my perspective is yea, that's a terrible way to say things, but it's still commentary about his performance.  She thought other people performed better than he did and he shouldn't be moving on.  Did she say it in a nice or pleasant way?  No, but the reality is everyone knows there's outside factors beyond simple talent and performance that motivates people to vote; people just rarely comment on it on this show.  People just tend to skirt around the issue where Christina's bluntness just comes out.  Blake and Adam are very good at playing nice with the audience and saying a whole lot of nothing that sounds warm and fuzzy.  Christina is absolutely terrible at it.

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Personally, I'm very happy Christina is coming back, especially alongside Pharrell. On the downside, I'm not sure what her chances are when competing with Pharrell, Blake, *and* Adam. Season 5 seemed like it was made for her, with Blake seemingly going easy to give her and Cee Lo a chance and then Cee Lo turning out to be a trainwreck with his handling of Caroline; Adam was her only competition that year. I do think she did the best she could by giving off a mother-daughter vibe to the audience with Jacquie, but I honestly just didn't think Jacquie (or Matthew) was that good, which made it easy for Tessanne to win.

 

Overall, I don't blame the fact that Christina hasn't won completely on Christina. I think the fact that a woman hasn't won this show is pretty glaring, but not surprising.

Edited by TheGreenKnight
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Although I really like Pharrell on this show and I'm looking forward to Xtina being back cuz I love her as a judge, I'm curious as to whether there is some edict that there cannot be two women on this show at the same time? Is it in someone's contract? LOL. 

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Although I really like Pharrell on this show and I'm looking forward to Xtina being back cuz I love her as a judge, I'm curious as to whether there is some edict that there cannot be two women on this show at the same time? Is it in someone's contract? LOL. 

I've been wondering that too!  There surely isn't, yet even in a discussion of the judges, people just seem to innately assume we have to swap out Gwen for another blond female singer like Christina or Shakira, and Usher/Pharrell/Cee-Lo are somehow interchangeable as the urban black coaches.  Pish-tosh!

 

I suppose I can be charitable and say a big part of it is how Adam and Blake seem cemented down unmovable from their current places, so it's a discussion/fight over the more volatile middle two seats.  But why not a real shake-up in the judges, maybe even 2 or 3 completely new judges (I'd like to keep Pharrell, please and thank you!) and a season's rest from Adam and Blake?

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Yeah, I don't hate Adam and Blake as judges, but lawd would I love for them to take a season off, or even just one of them. Much as I dislike that it's the females/men of color who are seemingly interchangeable, I agree that it's probably more due to the fact that Adam and Blake won't leave, which makes it that much harder to diversify your panel of four when two are already taken up by them. And I guess I can't really blame the producers for not wanting to burn those bridges by requesting either one of Adam/Blake take a season off.

 

I suspect there's much more behind-the-scenes wrangling among artists who want those judges' seats than we realize. I'd love to know who's lobbied to get on the show in that capacity.

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I don't know if it's that Blake and Adam won't leave or that the show doesn't want them to leave.  

 

Here's a recent Billboard article that provides some insight on coach casting for The Voice.  A long article but an interesting read.  Apparently there was some concern that Pharrell might come across as too serious and not fit in.  Also sounds like Blake and Adam are being paid a lot of money to stay on the show.  Blake said that he wouldn't take a season off and that when he leaves, it would be for good.  

 

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6251215/the-voice-billboard-cover-story-gwen-stefani-adam-levine-pharrell-williams-blake-shelton

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Thanks for posting the Billboard article. It's funny to read about how nervous they obviously were about Pharrell not being able to hold his own personality-wise with the other coaches. He's quickly become many people's favorite!

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