No Rock And Roll Fun

LYOR, LYOR PUTS MARIAH'S HOTPANTS ON FIRE: Great piece on DefJam president Lyor Cohen in today's FT Creative Review - first, he outline his plans for restorting Mariah Carey's career: "I said to her, what's your competitive advantage? A great voice, of course. And what else? You write every one of your songs - you're a great writer. So why did you stray from your competitive advantage? If you have this magnificent voice and you write such compelling songs, why are you dressing like that, why are you using all these collaborations [with other artists and other songwriters]? Why? It's like driving a Ferrari in first - you won't see what that Ferrari will do until you get into sixth gear." What's interesting here is that , once again, it seems Mariah's market position is being defined by her outfits. While under her hubby at Sony, it was all Tiffany-esque demure; then it was "look at my tits. Is this skirt short enough?" Now, it sounds like Def Jam are planning to de-tart her up again. The collaboration comment is curious, as well - what drove Mariah from the margins to the mainstream was the hook-ups with other acts - sure, from time to time, she was reduced to little more than a bikini top and a orgasmic moan, but like the man said: you gotta have a system. Can Def Jam really be planning to try and pitch her against Shania Twain? Because she's got a lot of ground to make-up, and swerving to the Middle of the Road can't be the best plan. (Personally, we 'd like nothing better than for her to take up the bakesale-dog walking life, but we never get what we wish for.)
More curious is the tale that, as part of a spat between DefJam and another part of the Universal group, Fred Durst was offered an executive position at DefJam. Fred Durst at the helm of the label that gave us Run DMC? Thank god sense prevailed...
Whole thing here [FT] - yo! the FT raps