Word: aikens
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Studdard appears to be a Clive Davis kind of guy, then Aiken definitely sides with Fuller. "Simon Fuller is the one person I trust in all this," says Aiken, and the proof is on Measure of a Man, which is the rare pop album completely free of innuendo, let alone sex. Instead of adding edge lyrically, Davis and another A.-and-R. executive, Steve Ferrera, were forced to play with Aiken's sound, using crunchy power chords in place of benign synth pads and encouraging Aiken to put some power into his ballads. Says Aiken: "I'm very satisfied with...
Still, pop isn't just music. It's a package, and Aiken has had numerous frustrations with the way RCA has tried to tweak his image. Everyone--label, management and Aiken--was thrilled with Aiken's Rolling Stone cover shoot, so photographer Matthew Rolston was hired to direct a video for This Is the Night. In it the story line was...Clay Aiken does a magazine photo shoot. "They had me in this tight little vintage T shirt and jeans and a leather jacket," says Aiken. "And [Rolston] had me sing the song in one scene with this angst attitude...
...Aiken laughs off most of RCA's foibles--like the time he was forced to change his unstylish shoes before appearing at an industry convention, or the airbrushing of his eyes on the Measure of a Man album cover--because he believes that the label is clueless about how to market to an audience he knows instinctively. "I'm a battle picker," he says. "I try not to get upset about all this marketing stuff because I'm saving it for the time that they tell me that I need to do a song about 'Let's hook...
...telling that in just five months with RCA, Aiken has won most of his battles. The This Is the Night video was scrapped at considerable expense. His album is family-friendly pop. Aiken got to name his record Measure of a Man, even though Davis lobbied for any other title. The marketing department now says its strategy is to "let Clay be Clay." "Revolution is a strong word," says Aiken. "But RCA would not have picked me or Ruben. Simon Cowell would not have picked us. America has shown them that they don't know what they're talking about...
...year after heavy combat in Vietnam began, a 74-year-old Republican Senator from Vermont named George Aiken proposed an immediate solution to the conflict: the U.S. should declare victory and go home. And now, suddenly, there are Aikenesque rumblings about Iraq--from liberals and conservatives, politicians and policy experts alike. There is gathering political, military and diplomatic pressure to find an Iraqi exit strategy by next spring. Given Iraq's fragility, any perceived weakening of American resolve could lead to disaster. Even so, don't be surprised if some modified, fig-leafed version of the Aiken scenario comes...