Potential break-up song becomes actual break-up song

[koganbot]

A+A consorting with execs from non-Disney firm:


HUGE NEWS AND WEBSITE INFO! | 02.19.2010
Hey guys…so we know it's been quiet in the 78violet camp but we want to first off thank you for sticking with us. We have some big news and wanted to make sure you hear it first.

Now that it's official, we can tell you we're no longer a part of Hollywood Records. What does that mean exactly??? Now we have the freedom to take 78violet in the direction we want. We're writing and recording new music and are really excited on what's next.

So…what is next? As for the album we recorded for Hollywood, honestly, we don't foresee it ever being released. But…we are continuing to write and record new songs that we hope you'll love as much as we do.

We're going to be taking the Aly & AJ website down in the meantime which means the current message board will be removed and the accounts you created on the site will be put on hold. Yes…major bummer. But we'll have a new message board and a new temporary site up in a few days that will serve as our main communication with you for the time being.

As always, you can get a hold of us on Twitter or Facebook.

We love you and are excited to share the new 78violet with you. Xoxo.

A+A

We've been talking about this over on justfanoe's lj, though we can talk about it here as well.

In other ex–Hollywood Records news, Hilary Duff announced her engagement to a professional hockey player.

Comments

[koganbot]

FYI, 78violet has been what Aly & AJ have been calling themselves since last summer. Hollywood Records is a Disney-affiliated label that over the last six years most but not all Disney singers have recorded with.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Last we heard from Aly and AJ (I think) were via Aly's role in the Disney movie Bandslam. Here she is covering "Amphetamine" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFtAULpdyU4) by Steve Wynn.

[koganbot]

Don't think Disney is affiliated with the movie at all, though the soundtrack is on Hollywood. The movie was by Walden Media and Summit Entertainment.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Hollywood does not have a great track record longevity-wise. Hilary Duff's entire career has been on Hollywood, but as far as I can tell they didn't really promote her last CD, "Dignity," at all without sufficient Disney cross-promotional opportunities.

Inside-Disney stuff does quite well -- Demi Lovato, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez are all on Hollywood and do pretty well there. Outside of that sort of cross-promotion clout, though, it gets a little iffy: Jordan Pruitt has put out two solid albums on Hollywood, don't know how a bunch of second-tier emo bands do (though Plain White T's had the first rock #1 in years with "Hey There Delilah," which was on a Hollywood album). Jesse McCartney seems to do fine on Hollywood.

[koganbot]

According to Wikipedia, Hilary split from Hollywood in late '08.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

They need to watch themselves with Warner Bros., of course, judging from Ashley Tisdale's non-starter career. And I've heard that Foghorn Leghorn is basically WB's Jeff Zucker.

Oddly, Vanessa Hudgens isn't listed on Hollywood's roster at their main site, even though she put out two albums with them (both OK-not-great).

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Also missing from the main page are Hilary Duff, Raven-Symone, and Corbin Bleu.

[koganbot]

Raven-Symoné also left Hollywood in '08; is now with Universal Motown Republic, according to Wikipedia. By the way, if you've never heard it, "Backflip," the Scott Storch–Kara Dioguardi single she did in '04, is terrific, Storch pulling faux mid-Easternisms into tight, clipped funk guitar, and he and/or DioGuardi creating a chorus that feels like a genuine release:



Today is Corbin Bleu's 21st birthday. He's currently playing Usnavi in the Broadway musical "In The Heights." For his record label Wiki has "Hollywood Records (2006-2009)," which indicates to me that he split or was dropped. (His second album had tanked.) He was in a CW (not Disney!) series "The Beautiful Life" that got canceled last September after only a couple episodes aired (though Wiki says that five of the episodes are available on YouTube). So my guess is he's not particularly tied to Disney anymore.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Wow, I clearly have not been paying attention to Disney/Hollywood at all for two years. Which doesn't surprise me. (I mentioned these people because their still listed on the internal/non-Flash Hollywood Recs page, along with Indigo Girls and a few other odds 'n' ends.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

they're. Bleah.

[koganbot]

Just because they're schmoozing with top Warners execs doesn't mean they've put their ink on the line yet.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the e-mail, Frank.

Not sure what to think about this. Not even convinced it's all that big a deal. It was inevitable that A+A would have to move on from the Disney/Hollywood stable eventually. So long as they find a way to get their songs out in the future - and sure, there may now be a question mark over this - that's all that matters to me.

[koganbot]

And there's the outstanding question of what music they'll make in the future, all the questions I put on my MySpace in 2006 in regard to Ashlee et al. (scroll down the left-hand column until you get to "Heroes"):

Current "teenpop" - or the strain within it that most currently is capturing my attention, the part I'll call "rock confessional" - is actually without precedent, kids in their teens and early twenties working with a handful of music pros in their mid thirties, but the kids all included in the songwriting credits and creating (with the aid of those veteran pros) songs that are smarter and more emotionally complex than most of what you're getting from real grownup pop and rock performers (including the grownup pop and rock performers that the veteran pros also work with). But what this means is that these girls have no good models for how to expand and deepen their music as they grow into their twenties, and no preset market or genre to inhabit once they do, unless they create it for themselves.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

no good models

Well, 'good' is a matter of opinion, but A+A have dipped into their parents' record collection enough times already to indicate that they know how to find role models from pop's history if necessary.

[koganbot]

Here's the MySpace link:

http://www.myspace.com/frankkogan