Sunday, February 24, 2008

Dippin' toes in the water

It's beginning to look like whoever's managing Elin Lanto now is serious about turning her into a real "serious" popstar, of a whole different sort from what we knew her as. The promo pictures for her single were the first clue...



...but the thing that prompted this post? The video for "Speak 'n Spell" comes out on Monday.



The question is, will it be popstar making material or just a desperate attempt at a new more mature, less girl-next-door image? A reinvention like this is fantastic if you can do it, but very difficult to pull off, and right now I'm worried we'll end up with a case of the latter, though I'm hoping for the former (how exciting would that be?). I guess we'll find out Monday.

7 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

I'm always dubious about popstars trying to become serious artists instead of just perhaps letting it happen. It still grates that Mandy Moore disowned her own back catalogue when she went "cred" - i think it's such a slap in the face for pop music in general and just ignores the fact that actually, pop is one of the hardest genres to successfully write for. Hmmm. Look what happened with Gareth Gates 3rd album - it was like a whole new artist, it didn't gel with him at all. (Sidebar - i had high hopes of him returning to pop after Dancing on Ice, but this week he described himself as a musician. For some reason that really disappointed me!!)

Poster Girl said...

Oh, I know exactly what you mean with those two examples! That really bothers me too, when artists disown their past material--as you (I think, or someone) have said before, what does that say to all the people who supported you then? That's really an insult to them.

I think Elin's going for a different type of serious--serious popstar, as opposed to (what we think of when we hear) serious artist...as in, I think she wants to be like Madonna (though yes, Madonna is a serious artist, but I think that example helps get across my point here) or "do a Rihanna" (though as Adem would say Rihanna's not quite graduated from Popstar School with honors yet, but she's getting there)--as in the reinvention of Rihanna that took place (her image and the things she does now are very different from the girl who gave us "Pon de Replay"--I mean, love it or hate it, that Klaxons collaboration at the Brits is never something "old" Rihanna would have done). I don't really have a problem with people deciding they really want to do the popstar thing right--it's just that doing it right is so difficult to do...

Mike said...

If by serious you mean getting her tits out for a video - I'm all for it! Those suspenders are most fetching!

Anonymous said...

I have an addition for the "Let's reinvent the wheel" post.

I think Stefanie Heinzmann also fits in the category. She won a casting show here, her song is by the Swedish crew Ten (Tysper/Mack/Grizzly)

"My man is a mean man"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NwKGAPjwP3s

Reached #3 here.

turnaround

Poster Girl said...

Mike, maybe you could send her that Dannii calendar for additional inspiration?

Turnaround, oh yes, that's totally in that category! Thanks for the tip--I'll go edit it in :)

Adem With An E said...

Hopefully it works out for her. The pics aren't as slutty as they could be - she actually looks quite lovely even in the suspenders sans-top.

I completely agree with Paul on his Mandy Moore comment though. If I ever met her I'd tell her how offended I was by her disregard of her back catalogue and inform her that there is no shame in loving "In My Pocket." I soured on her a LOT after she did that, actually.

Poster Girl said...

She does! And, having seen the video now, I think it really works. Not a perfect video, but there are some to die for shots in it--near the end, where she's got this kind of ice princess look going, there's this moment where she stares into the camera and it totally works. "In My Pocket" is musical genius--there really isn't.