An open letter to popstars and their labels.

Dear people at record labels who choose what their artist should release as a single,

When you are picking singles from an album, never have the first, second, or third single be a ballad. You need to release 3 upbeat tracks before releasing a ballad.

Example:
Fergie released London Bridge, Fergalicious, Glamorous, and then released Big Girls Don't Cry. Katy Perry released Ur So Gay, I Kissed A Girl, Hot N Cold, and Thinking Of You.

If you don't have the previous upbeat hits, the ballad will never be a hit and never, EVER, release a ballad as a first single. If the first single is a ballad, and doesn't do well, that means radio DJs may not play the following singles.

Example of how some people do this in the wrong order:

Kreesha Turner's first single was Simple, it was a slow song, it didn't chart at all. Her next single was Bounce With Me, it charted pretty low. Her next single was Don't Call Me Baby, it did well, and was #1 on the U.S. dance chart. Her fourth single? Lady Killer, a slower, not too upbeat song. It debuted low and is falling already.

What should've been released, in this order:

Don't Call Me Baby, Passion, Bounce With Me, Shattered.

Another example of singles released in the wrong order:

Suzie McNeil's first single from her new album Let's Go was upbeat. Her second single "Don't Tell Me Goodbye" was a rock ballad.

Singles should've been:

Let's Go, Help Me Out, Fast Lane, and Don't Tell Me Goodbye. Help Me Out would probably be the biggest hit, as it's a dancey tune that could have some killer remixes.

A hint to other current pop artists or their labels:

Britney Spears third single should be "Kill The Lights" and her fourth single should be "Out From Under".
Lady Gaga's third single should be "Boys, Boys, Boys", or in the U.S. "Starstruck", and her fourth single should be "Brown Eyes".


Sincerely,
Adam

Merry Christmas Everyone!

So last night I went to the Christmas Eve service at church. I have to say, the Christmas service combines one of the scariest sounds and one of the best sounds...

The scary sound, when everyone says "And also with you" every time the pastor says "Lord be with you". Everyone sounds like scary little robots... But the best sound is everyone singing all the songs together. And this is from a guy who can't stand Christmas music.

So after church I got to open a present. I knew I was getting both season 1 and 2 of Degrassi, and opened what I thought would be season 1 so I could watch it while trying to fall asleep...But it was season 2. So after we went to my (brothers) friends house, and exchanged gifts...

For the first time in many years I didn't only get a Lifesavers book! I got a Livesavers book, a shirt with a bunch of guitars on it, a Harry Potter chocolate frog (I don't like Harry Potter, but what was odd was the "trading card" was some made up character not in the movies, that plays guitar.), and some trick die.

I went to bed around 2:30, didn't fall asleep until about 4, maybe 4:30. I woke up at 6:30 when I heard my brother ripping open presents. I wanted to wake up before him, because I wanted to sneak gifts into everyones stockings.

One of the funniest gifts I got, was by accident. Every year we get Lindt Chocolate Reindeer for Christmas. My Dad bought what he thought was a Lindt Chocolate Reindeer, but really it was a Reindeer Jelly Bean dispenser. The jelly beans were light and dark brown, and of course they came out of its butt.

The other gifts I got include a red Johnson 608 RD acoustic guitar, $40 cash, $40 mall gift card, a $20 iTunes card, which I shall use to purchase Simply Ella Fitzgerald off of iTunes, and something completely different...Just Watch Me - EP by Jordan McCoy.

I also got a couple sweat shirts, and sweat pants. My brother bought me a pair of PJ pants that say on them "Turn me on", and they show a bunch of light bulbs all over them. What's cruel is he put empty CD cases in them, to look like I was getting CDs for Christmas, though I unfortunately didn't get any in what I thought were CDs.

From my brothers girlfriend, I got a t-shirt that says "If you have anything to say, raise your hand, and put it over your mouth".

I was supposed to get a guitar tuner, but unfortunately I did not, as on the 23rd the weather was bad so my Dad could not go shopping, and on the 24th all music stores were closed. So I have an out of tune guitar, but still a really good guitar, to me at least.

I'm going to spend my mall gift card tomorrow. I am looking at getting a microphone stand. I want to prepare before doing another open mic. Recently I have kept the mic a bit too far away from my face, so I want to learn how to get it just right, so everyone can hear me. I'm also going to buy KT Tunstall's CDs, as they're on sale tomorrow.

So yeah, that's what I got for Christmas... I entered Shiloh's Operator (A Girl Like Me) video contest, and in it you can see my new sweat shirt and sweat pants, and my guitar shirt.



Merry Christmas!

Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time

Except for the fact it is hard for me to talk, I have been having a good Christmas time. However, I can not stand Christmas music... But Christmas is my favourite holiday, because there's a lot of my favourite colour, red, everywhere. Though there is also a lot of green, which is my least favourite colour...

Okay, this sounds odd saying how great the holiday is, then saying something else to insult it. It just doesn't feel like Christmas to me yet. It's been a whole year since Carly Smithson was exposed as a plant on Vote For The Worst? Also the Christmas bazaar at the local school isn't happening this year, so it just doesn't feel right.

One thing I love is watching people open presents that I got them. Though I haven't exchanged presents with anyone yet, I'm looking forward to that tonight. On Christmas Eve it's a tradition at my house to open one present, and go over to my (brothers) friends house and exchange gifts with them. Every year I get life savers or jolly ranchers...I can't stand either!

Every year when I start wrapping Christmas presents, I'm completely horrible at it. Then I start to get good when I'm almost finished my wrapping, and completely forget how to wrap again the next year. This year I've been putting "Love Adam" on the gifts, and making the V look like a heart. Also some I've been writing on them like I'm signing an autograph...

Expect a blog tomorrow about all the (hopefully) wonderful things I got.

More About Food Poisoning + Old "Art".

Well it seems like my Dad isn't the only one who has food poisoning... It seems as if my Mom has it too. We think the culprit is a meat pie that they both shared. My Dad is doing a lot better today, and it seems he'll be better before Christmas. I guess the things he was saying the other day were just because he felt so bad. Food poisoning is not fun, and I wished to die when I had it, too. Though I don't think I ever said "I want to go to heaven, and I want to go this afternoon" to anyone, and made them cry by saying that.

Now on to a more fun blog...I was on Neopets today and found my old "art" that won the Neopets Beauty Contest!11!!



My shading was way off...


My artistic talents were limited.



I cheated when shading this one.



Oh wow, this looks AWFUL.


I didn't have any darker pencils, so I shaded with...A regular pencil!



When originally drawing this, to make it the anthro style, I drew the outlines of boobs on it. My brother saw those boobs I drew, told my mom, and I had to erase them.

Neopets was an awful obsession for me.

Canadian Idol got cancelled

I may be a fan of several past contestants, and I did audition twice, but I'm not that heart broken.

Sure, there will never be entertaining contestants like Steffi DiDomenicantonio, Jacob Hoggard, and Montana Martin Iles on American Idol, but there will always be another TV talent show, that will probably be coming along soon.

Even if nothing replaces it, there are still many other ways to get a record deal. Two new and popular Canadian artists Shiloh and Kreesha Turner won radio contests. Other popular artists such as Colbie Caillat, LIGHTS, and Taylor Swift were discovered on MySpace. And there are several people who got record deals thanks to YouTube.

So what if I can't be on a cheesy TV talent show? Does that mean my career is over? No! I'll be performing at Open Mic nights, and upload covers and original songs to YouTube and MySpace. If anyone happens to read this, who thinks their dreams are crushed because they can't audition for a TV show, he/she/shim can think again. People were able to get in the music industry with, or without Idol.

Now I want to know, who from Canadian Idol has made it big?

*crickets*

Exactly.

Just Dance, Gonna Be Okay.

So, I'm still sick. I had to cancel singing at a Christmas gig, and made my vocal teacher very upset. And when I called her to tell her so, I decided it would be rude to cough or sniff on the phone, so I didn't, and my Mom thinks I didn't sound sick enough.

Since I've been sick, I found that my dog has learned a new trick... Here's a video to show you:



She can open up her crate all by herself!

Also, I found out by visiting Britney Spears website that they are having another dance off. I first heard of it when over at Idol Forums making my weekly posting about Jordan McCoy. Someone posted that a contestant from American Juniors, Tyler Foehr to be exact, was featured on Britney Spears website.

So I made a video for Circus.



It was fun, but much too campy for my main YouTube account.

When I wasn't featured, probably due to my late entry, I decided to make another video, for If U Seek Amy.



That wasn't as fun, as I was in my bathroom with limited space, and using the speakers from a laptop to play the track, so it wasn't very loud. I also think Circus is a better song.

I have a few more videos I plan to make soon.

Reach Out - Hilary Duff music video remake.
David Archuleta - A Day in the Life.
Forgotten Scenes.

The David Archuleta video will be sort of a spin off of me calling in to the Vote For The Worst radio show as "Gaspy" and Jeff Archuleta. Singing random songs that I have the word gasp, air, breathe, and such in them. Also, training for his next music video so he doesn't look at a man instead of the female love interest again.

The Forgotten Scenes video will include random stuff. Like when I did the "How To Audition For Dream" video, I meant to add a scene where I said "Hunter sings so much better than I did when I was 13" and include a clip of my singing when 13. And I also have some footage of me singing, and playing guitar, where I suddenly break my string mid-song.

Hopefully I'll be better soon, as I've noticed when sick I've gained a little bit of weight. So I'll need to get back into shape, hopefully before Christmas. If anyone that reads my blog (HA! I think people read my blog!) knows of good ways to get back into shape quick, please share.

Goodbye for now,

Adam.

I'm so...SICK!

Today is December 5th, know what that means? 20 days until Christmas, and 11 months until my next milestone birthday.

Unfortunately, I am still sick. I hate being sick as I feel like a prisoner in my own body.

I can't sing, and have to make up for two music lessons because of my illness.
I can't eat foods that I enjoy a lot, and have been living on ice cream and water, instead of egg nog and ketchup chips.
I can't play guitar, as I always have to use one hand to cover my cough or accept a sneeze.
And I am stuck in my room most of the day watching DVDs. I'm not sure why, but I really don't like movies. I just feel completely uncomfortable sitting in a room alone for a of couple hours watching a movie.

Okay, so it's not as bad as the time I had food poisoning, but it's still pretty annoying.

Oh, and know how last year I blogged about the Christmas bazaar at my old school? The school got a new principal and the bazaar didn't happen this year! That bazaar was part of my yearly Christmas tradition, and now it's not happening anymore. I loved seeing friends I haven't seen in a long time.

A year and a half ago I added some on Facebook, they said they wanted to hang out with me, but never did. I confronted them all about it, and they denied that it was because they didn't want to hang out with me. They said they'd hang out with me, actually, and one person who I more recently added said she'd invite me to a party she was having.

I was never invited to any party.

I need to somehow make my own friends, on my own time. But there's really not anyway I can meet people. I currently can't get a job, as I have so much school work to do over the next few months. I can't join musical theatre again, as the new teacher makes all the students lip sync, I may be a professional lip syncer, as my brother hated when I sang along to music in the car, so I lip synced instead, but I want to sing.

I suppose I could try meeting people at Open Mic's and such. And maybe at the Canadian Idol auditions next year. It's weird, I don't really want to be on the show, but I like the audition process. I talked to a couple of people at the auditions last year, one person, who I knew already online, had the other added on Facebook, and I asked him to tell her to add me, but he never did. Her Facebook was private and so I couldn't even send her a message or a friend request. I went on to find her previous MySpace pages, which she had abandoned, so I never got to talk to her.

Music is one of the top 3 reasons I live. (The other two reasons I live...God, and what my parents did one night in a bedroom.)
It is painful for me to not be able to sing, and I want this cold to be over with.

NOT AGAIN!

So on Monday night I went to bed, and all of a sudden I had a sore throat. I couldn't fall asleep for an hour or so because of it. Today I woke up and it is still as sore as it was. I was just sick on Halloween and my Birthday, I don't want to be sick for Christmas! Last year I was sick on Christmas and because of that I got a couple presents early. This year I've pretty much picked out my presents and watched my parents buy them. Though my mom says the brand new red acoustic guitar is "hypothetically" for her, I know it's for me.

One year my Mom went Christmas shopping with my brother. She had my brother pick out a movie that he thought I'd be interested in, that he'd also like himself. For once in his life he actually picked out a movie for me and he didn't like it at all, and my Mom had given it to him instead as a Christmas present.

In other news, I am still working on some lyrics and melodies (mostly in my head) for some new songs for my EP that I plan on releasing next year... I'm going to finish a few after I hypothetically get my Mom's brand new red acoustic guitar for Christmas. After that I'm going to test a few out at an open mic downtown.

I'm not sure if I should perform any covers at the open mic downtown, though. I know Hot N Cold by Katy Perry pretty much backwards and forwards, and constantly annoy my brother by playing it all the time. That, and I change the lyrics to say "You change your mind, like my brother changes clothes".

I have also realized I need to put more soul and emotion into my words, and my voice. I seem pretty much robotic when I sing.

You made it through all that? Good for you! Now enjoy this video of Kyle Riabko and Steffi DiDomenicantonio singing some 90's classics.