Word: idol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...still in the hospital. But his new album, Dance with My Father, buoyed by a hit single and sympathetic fans, sold more than 400,000 copies last week to grab the top spot on the Billboard charts--something Vandross had never done before. By contrast, last year's American Idol runner-up, Justin Guarini, who can't shut up, saw his first solo album debut...
...midcareer move from indie idol to Avril Lavigne wannabe is in part financially motivated. Phair is a single mom with a 6-year-old son. When she turned in the original material for her fourth album to her record label, Capitol, there were polite nods and a sales prediction--"Goldish," recalls Phair, or around 500,000 copies. In the cruel calculus of the record business--in which everyone gets his cut before the artist and a majority of singers owe their record companies money--gold barely pays the bills. "It takes me a long time to make a record...
This Friday, with the release of From Justin to Kelly, a teen musical starring the winner and runner-up of the first Idol, Fox is testing--at a relatively cautious $12 million budget--how much we have overestimated the transmogrification of teenagers from wholesome to gangsta. If American Idol's staggering ratings prove that large swaths of teens just want to have fun, then a new market opens up. Britney may have to buy a whole shirt...
...takes Grease, whose script it basically copied, and then actually tones it down. "To get the PG rating, we couldn't say 'sex' or 'If you've got it, flaunt it.' Back in the day, you could get away with stuff you can't get away with now," says Idol runner-up Justin Guarini, 24, in a New York City hotel suite. "In Grease they were smoking," says Idol No. 1 Kelly Clarkson, 21, sitting beside him. "In high school." Wait until she hears about the gum chewing...
...maybe teenagers really are like this, as they've always been: a little optimistic, a little overexcited and a little into just having a good time. Maybe we took small cultural differences--new slang, new fashions, new music--and, as our parents did, misinterpreted them. The Idol team is already planning a Bob Hope--Bing Crosby--style buddy musical comedy for Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, the winner and runner-up of the second season of Idol. It might turn out that you can't lose money underestimating the niceness of teens. --By Joel Stein