Today is not a good day for writing for me. I'm just not in the mood. But I've had a couple of random thoughts that I wanted to share.
For instance, has anyone ever noticed that the girls in Dirty Money never have a direct facial shot in videos and what not? The videos are always gritty and smoky, which I guess goes with the whole "Last Train to Paris" theme, but seriously, even in pictures they always have bangs or something blocking a third of their grills. Now, I have some ideas on why they powers that be over at Bad Boy do this. It's nothing new. Diddy uses fashion (like big glasses, hats and hair) and camera tricks to smudge out the unfortunate facial situations of some of the members of girl groups that he produces. He make them stand way far back and in the rare instances that the do get an upclose shot, they cut away super quick. Look at some old Total videos and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
I'll go ahead and post the trailer for the new album and a video below. Check them out and let me know if I'm overexaggerating in the comments.
All right, I'll take a stab at this one. But first let me state that your favorite nickname for me, "Cracker Ass Cracker," probably holds back my understanding on this subject somewhat. But, maybe it doesn't. I *am* a freakin' jeenyuss. Anyway, here we go:
ReplyDeleteThe reason is pretty simple--Diddy wants 2 things. Thing one--when you've got Destiny's Child in your pocket, you don't want no damn Beyonce getting too much face time, going solo, and ruining it for everybody. Same thing (basically) happened with, say...the Spice Girls. Now, they didn't really *do* anything (except David Beckham), but at the point that the hot ones are allowed to become famous separately, the group is over, and your cash cow is out to pasture.
Thing 2--Diddy wants any fame recognition for himself. Not out of vanity, but because the man is in the business to make $$, and so he wants his face up front and clear as day so that everybody knows who the talent is. When you're in the business of disposable music (yeah, I'm a hater--list me more than 10 "classic songs" from 1996 or later), where you find a group, milk their single, then drop 'em like a hot rock, you've got to make sure that it looks like YOU are the talented one. Otherwise, you're just a vulture preying on the talent of the young, leavin' 'em as roadkill once they're used up. And nobody wants to admit to that...
Yep. Like I said. A freakin' jeenyuss.