entertainment weekly: the reborn identity (april 2005)

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  • 8/14/2019 Entertainment Weekly: The Reborn Identity (April 2005)

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    ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: MUSIC NEWSPosted Mar 28, 2005 | Published in issue #813 Apr 01, 2005

    The Reborn IdentityKelly Clarkson breaks away from ''American Idol'' -- The Texas native talks aboutAshlee Simpson, changing management, and her failed movie career.By Nicholas Fonseca

    The 14th hour of Kelly Clarkson's workday just ticked by already she has

    performed on the Todayshow, posed for a photo shoot, and granted an interview to

    Dateline NBC but pop's biggest motormouth shows no signs of slowing down. On

    her way to dinner at New York City's famed chuckwagon eatery Cowgirl Hall of Fame,

    the 22-year-old Texas native, clad appropriately in a T-shirt that reads ''Cowboys

    Make Better Lovers,'' is rattling through a litany of topics (proper skin care, hotel

    gyms, party drugs, and Britney Spears) before settling on a promising subject:

    Marilyn Monroe.

    ''You know, I don't really like her all that much. I mean, I think she was beautiful and

    it's great that she was on the voluptuous side [and still a sex symbol], but I've

    watched her movies and they don't really do that much for me. I kind of think of her

    as the Paris Hilton of her day. And didn't she marry, like, five guys?''

    ''She married three men!'' yells her hair and makeup artist, Steeve (yes, that's how

    he spells it), from the front seat of her limo.

    Clarkson barely misses a beat. ''Oh, well, okay! Heck, my mom married twice.''

    If Lara Flynn Boyle muttered similar words about Paris Hilton, the tabloids would

    scream ''Cat Fight!'' Hear them spill from Kelly's lips (gloss-free for this low-

    maintenance chick) and everybody laughs gently, as if listening to their baby

    daughter coo. It's just one of the oddities that's marked Kelly Clarkson's career since

    she won American Idol two and a half years ago. After a perfunctory first album,

    which sold 2.1 million copies, she has unexpectedly matured into a vital and yikes!

    successful pop/rock artist, shaking off the lingering residue that coats so many

    reality show contestants. More surprisingly, she's avoided the dreaded sophomore

    slump (see Joss Stone and Vanessa Carlton) with her second album, Breakaway. The

    well-received set has sold nearly 2 million copies, produced two top 10 singles, and

    continues to ping-pong through Billboard's top 20, where it's been since its Nov. 30

    release. Chalk up its success to great marketing (the lilting title tune, also on the

    Princess Diaries 2 soundtrack, played to her core fans, while single No. 2, the harder

    ''Since U Been Gone,'' wooed new ones) and Clarkson's viability on radio, a medium

    that no other Idol contestant has been able to crack consistently. ''She has the

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    broadest appeal of the Idols,'' says Jeff Zuchowski, program director of New York's

    WKTU-FM. ''From the beginning, she had the correct look and sound of a pop artist.

    She's a safe bet for us.''

    Not that she herself is risk-averse. Just weeks before

    the release of her new DVD and a 34-city tour,

    Clarkson dropped her managers at 19 Entertainment

    (its president, Idol producer Simon Fuller, will still rep

    winners even after 19's recent sale). Her new

    agreement with The Firm, a more music-focused

    agency, seems to be a tacit indication that she aches

    to distance herself from the show. (In case you're

    wondering, she no longer watches, knows nothing

    about the Mario Vazquez brouhaha, won't be making

    any more Idol appearances, and is too polite to disthe program herself.) ''We want to focus on her

    growth as a long-term artist, not as a former contestant,'' says new manager Jeff

    Rabhan. ''Her albums can't just sound like souvenirs.'' Clarkson who calls her old

    partnership ''an arranged marriage'' insists that she has no beef with Fuller. ''He

    was just literally in Timbuktu all the time,'' she says. ''I need somebody there for me

    on a day-to-day basis.'' (Fuller responds: ''Kelly is an amazing girl who has deservedly

    enjoyed enormous commercial success.'')

    Breakaway's triumph came in a roundabout way via her parents' 1988 split, some

    Goth rockers, and a last-minute trek to Scandinavia. Clarkson had just six months to

    hone the album's crunchy edge, enlisting former Evanescence members Ben Moody

    and David Hodges to help craft songs that touch on more personal travails.

    ''Everybody kept saying 'What kind of album are you going to make?' and it was

    annoying the heck out of me. I just wanted to concentrate on making an album full of

    great songs.'' That laser-beam focus paid off, for instance, when she first heard the

    ''Since U Been Gone'' demo tape. ''I hated it,'' she says. ''It sounded very generic. It

    didn't have hardly any git-tars on it. I needed more drums. I needed it to be harder.''

    Eschewing her label RCA's wishes, she hooked up with producer Max Martin and co-

    writer Lukasz Gottwald in Sweden to ''ruin the song,'' and returned with the drivingtrack that's become her current hit. Even hard-to-please rock snobs are embracing

    the anthem's addictive hook and tween mosh-pit vibe on their blogs. ''I've now

    listened to this goddamned Kelly Clarkson song 41 times since last Wednesday,''

    writes one convert; Mike Doughty of the defunct alt-rock quartet Soul Coughing

    recently called it one of his three top MP3s, and even indie-rock hero Ted Leo has

    recorded a much sought-after acoustic version that became a Web phenom.

    Kelly Clarkson Photograph by Nick Ruechel

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    Informed of the hoopla, Clarkson responds: ''What's a

    blog?''

    She's forgiven for not knowing Clarkson purposely

    keeps a low profile to avoid the tabloid hell that plagues

    her contemporaries. While this down-to-earth attitude is

    refreshing, it's also let's be real a hard sell in an

    industry dominated by troublemakers. ''I don't think

    she's fully formed an identity yet,'' admits Richard

    Sanders, exec VP and general manager of RCA Records.

    ''But it's rare that an artist, especially one who's come

    out of a TV show, can do that after two records.'' The

    mystery just who the heck is Kelly Clarkson? hasn't been solved by her biggest

    hits: ''Miss Independent'' was originally intended for and co-written by Christina

    Aguilera. Ditto for ''Breakaway'' and Avril Lavigne. But Clarkson sees no issue. ''Idon't care who wrote the song. There are so many good songwriters who can't sing

    and, well, right now they have slim pickin's when it comes to actual vocalists.''

    Which brings us, of course, to Ashlee Simpson. Thoughts? ''She got booed when I

    sang at the Orange Bowl with her, and I didn't understand it. I thought she sounded

    cute!'' Oh, come on! ''I don't care if people [lip-synch]. She's got millions of fans

    buying her CDs, so they don't care either. But look, I would never do it.''

    Another thing you won't see her doing anytime soon: making a movie. Given the

    chance to defend her big-screen debut in 2003's treacly From Justin to Kelly, she

    doesn't even bother. ''Believe me, I tried not to do it,'' she says. ''Even before I saw

    the script, I knew it was going to bomb. Two kids coming from a reality TV show to do

    a movie? It's not going to be The Shawshank Redemption!'' While the debacle

    swallowed Justin Guarini's career whole, Clarkson escaped this dark pit of shame

    unsullied; ever optimistic, she's even found a silver lining: ''I won a Razzie!'' (Actually,

    she was a nominee; the film itself was named Worst Musical of Our First 25 Years by

    the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation.) ''Dude, that's funny! I was proud! A lot of

    great actors get those. You know, it's kind of like my equivalent of showing up in the

    tabloids. I guess I've made it.''

    Kelly Clarkson: Doug Murray/WireImage