Amy's Management Screwing it Up ?!!

[RockIt!]

I am dismayed by the recent unfortunate developments with the
promotion of Simple Things and with the direction of Amy's music
career but IMO this is largely a management issue. I am for instance
surprised that on her Mercy Me tour, an overtly religious affair, Amy
chose to do her pop/secular stuff with the odd CCM song thrown in, and
to promote herself as a pop artist. Who told her to do that ? Was it
an artist management decision? Artist management 101 says you play to
your core fans when your fan base starts to get wobbly. As a mature
artist with over 25 years in the business, Amy is inevitably at that
point in her career where she should be nurturing her base and hoping
to build on top of that as the foundation. Those who hitched their
star to Heart in Motion, came along for a one album ride. Her core
fans want to hear her playing guitar and presenting her CCM songs..El
Shaddai, Mountain Top, After the Fire, with the occasional pop hit
thrown in...Baby, Baby, TALT, .....and not the other way around. For a
40+ year old woman to be presenting herself as a pop princess is
ridiculous. It did'nt work for Madonna on her American Life album
which bombed after much promo, and it most certainly will not work
here.

Amy should be marketed and presented as a mature artist with a mature
sound in the vein of a Sheryl Crow or a Sarah Mclahanan. In fact
Simple Things strongest material are the adult songs, the CCM songs,
Eye 2 Eye, Out In the Open, After The Fire, Innocence Lost and not the
forgettable pop ditties like Simple Things or Looking for You, which
arguably should not have been on the album. Also I can't imagine what
Keith Thomas was thinking when he came up with the very dated sound on
the Simple Things song and why this was chosen as the title cut,
because it is arguably the weakest song on the entire album. That
aside Amy and management can still 'break' the album...but they have
to start with her religious fanbase, and thats the group that she
should be playing to on tour.

[DarkrWater]

>Subject: Amy's Management Screwing it Up ?!!
>From: rapup...@yahoo.com (RockIt!)
>Date: 2/21/2004 1:20 PM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <4324a8f8.04022...@posting.google.com>

I agree. When she did a secular concert in the midst of a Christian concert.
It was totally out of place, and most of all the people in the audience didn't
react like she wanted them to do so.

[Darrm]

I guess Amy's music is for "them who have ears..."

If you listen to the words of her songs, even those not blatantly religious,
you will find Christian themes running through them.

DM

[CG]

Surely Mercy Me's management had something to do with this, too? Amy
couldn't possibly have just up and decided to join their tour without
*their* management's blessing. And that would include their marketing
staff, too.

I'm not sure this is as haphazard an arrangement as y'all think it is.
Unusual yes, but it has some very distinct advantages for all the
players. Mercy Me has stated that Amy brings in to their concerts
people who 'would never darken the door of a church.' That's an
important function.

Let her do her stuff -- what does it matter to you?

Catherine

-- "Everything I've ever let go of has claw marks on it." - Anne Lamott

......You may reply to email in header but be sure to delete the word SPAMFREE from the address.

[Darrm]

It's interesting that she received a lukewarm response at this particular
concert. For most the other concerts, I've been hearing the crowds are giving
her standing ovations at the end of her set.

You win some, you lose some...

DM

[RockIt!]

It is to me, cuz I happen to like the gal. I bought the new CD the day
it was released. It is not her best album. Keith Thomas must shoulder
the blame for the very dated sound on some tracks. Simple Things the
song is the weakest cut and should not have been the title or lead
song.

It is to me, because Amy has indicated that she and her team are
having difficulty breaking the album and I think the reason is that
she is not playing to her core fans as much as she should. The Heart
In Motion fans are largely long gone. Amy had phenomenal success with
Lead Me On, Age to Age. Legacy did decent numbers , better numbers in
fact than Simple Things, even though it had less promo. This is
because Amy played to her core, did CCM venues and her more
traditional songs with the occasional pop hit thrown in. Those core
fans are still there and that is the group she should be looking to
play to first while hoping that there will be a cross over hit off the
album.

[Who Me]

>Artist management 101 says you play to
>your core fans when your fan base starts to get wobbly.

No. It says you promote the current NEW product. Your "core fans" already have
all the older product.

Bill

"Now I've always been the kind of person that doesn't like to trespass but
sometimes you just find yourself over the line."

"I don't have any regrets, they can talk about me plenty when I'm gone."