nivjourney Wrote:
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> Now Erik can sing all the contrived, cliche'd,
> forced songs he likes, because i'm never going to
> go and buy his solo album. But the fact that so
> many artists I do like are now having Erik albums
> served up under their name is beginning to piss me
> off.
> Especially as I know it'll only happen more.
> Giant, Toby Hitchcock (although any AOR album
> released as his solo album would probably be
> contrived, as anyone who follows him knows he's
> actually more of a gospel/country singer in his
> own right), Kimball/Jamison, Jimi Jamison, Jeff
> Scott Soto (in W.E.T), Harry Hess and even Smokie.
> Apart from Toby, they are all people who can
> either write their own material, or have
> collaborators who they famously write with. Why
> do they all need albums to be written for them by
> Erik... to the point where it all just sounds the
> same?


The reason is simple. It's very minimal time and monetary investment on the part of the singer. They listen to the demos, mold their style around the guide vocal, then record the vocals and they are done with it. Very little time or money involved on their end.

It's easy money for the label and artist, because in a genre like this, the singers are a known commodity that will move albums.

The more disturbing part is What it really means in the end though is that fewer artists are willing to go to the trouble to find co-writers to make a cd. Now, there are some singers like Bob Catley who have never written a song in their life, and truely NEED someone to write for them, but at the rate this is happening, the legitimate cases are far and few between these days. Bottom line is that the reigns are tightening around the melodic rock scene, and this type of stuff will start happening at an increased frequency.
Kevin