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 Beyond Talent: The Courage of Adam Lambert

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Carol
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Beyond Talent: The Courage of Adam Lambert Empty
PostSubject: Beyond Talent: The Courage of Adam Lambert   Beyond Talent: The Courage of Adam Lambert Empty10.02.10 18:17

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A year after Adam Lambert’s first appearance on American Idol, few can doubt his talent as a singer and performer. But in an industry where talent alone has never been a golden ticket to success, artists need a whole arsenal of assets to climb their way to the heights of their aspirations. In attempts to explain Adam’s success, observers have used adjectives such as charismatic, versatile, fun, exciting, authentic, humble, confident and courageous, to name just a few. On the surface he does indeed always appear calmly confident; certainly where his singing is concerned that confidence is real as it probably is with most aspects of his performing.

Confidence involves knowledge: knowledge of your subject, knowing you have the skills to succeed and knowing that all will go well. Confidence both results from and instills a feeling of safety, allowing you to act without fear. Courage, on the other hand, comes into play when you feel anything but safe. It is a leap into the unknown or, worse, a leap towards known risks, dangers and pitfalls, eliciting fear or at least apprehension, and yet you leap anyway when you could choose otherwise.

In a recent UK Times article Adam is quoted as saying "I'm not that confident. I used to be scared to take risks and I was scared of rejection." Given the number and extent of the risks he's taken through the years while "being scared", few can deny that Adam Lambert is courageous. Surprisingly, I wouldn’t describe as necessarily courageous his decision in May 2009 to confirm to Rolling Stone magazine that he was gay. By that time, after months of “speculation” over something that was patently obvious, his articulate confirmation was an inevitability and the natural, necessary next step for someone who just wanted the focus to be on his music.

Adam Lambert’s boy-on-boy kiss at the American Music Awards (AMAs) wasn't premeditated and therefore didn’t require courage either. However, the way he dealt with the fallout, certainly did. When the world and his wife (and even the gay uncle) are telling you you're unacceptable as you are, it's a formidable challenge to stand your ground and maintain your integrity, while taking full responsibility for your actions. But this Adam did without flinching, after the AMAs. He walked a tightrope as he acknowledged he'd unintentionally upset certain people but patiently maintained he'd done nothing wrong. Many tried to shove him so hard as to make him fall, but he never faltered. He could have taken the easy way out, by climbing down or jumping into the safety net of apology. But an apology would have sent out the message that he was wrong - not just wrong to kiss a man on TV, but wrong to be an out gay male.

Adam would have received that message countless times as he was growing up. Fortunately, it seems not to have come from his parents who, by all accounts, could be held up as examples of how to parent your gay child. But there is little doubt that he would have experienced many of the agonies that a young homosexual growing up must encounter. Only he knows how it felt for him to come out at the age of 18, but for many it is a supremely scary decision to take, launching them into a territory of injustice littered with landmines. Adam hasn't talked much in interviews about how things were for him in the first year or two after coming out, but it's unlikely to have been an instant emancipation into a life of fulfillment and unhampered self-expression. And, as he is still finding out with every step or turn he takes, the landmines continue to proliferate.

When he moved to LA aged 20, he found himself living and working among people who provided him with a welcome sense of belonging. Choosing after 8 years to venture outside that cocoon to audition for American Idol was a brave move. Why do it? He could have stayed in the safe existence he had, earning a good enough living from musicals and session work and remaining protected in a community that accepted him as he was. Knowing that he wasn't what American Idol normally looks for, knowing that “theatrical" types are almost guaranteed to be the target of Simon Cowell's acerbic tongue, as well as his ridicule, Adam almost didn't enter the competition. The decision to go ahead anyway, knowing everything he knew about what he could expect, certainly took guts.

Having made it through the first audition, he could have played it safe but never did. He even sang Cher's Believe during Hollywood week when his "theatricality" still seemed an obstacle to him getting through to the Top 13. Adam later acknowledged that being associated with Cher at that point was possibly not the wisest move, but taking that chance nevertheless paid off as he was given a coveted spot for the live TV shows.

Still taking risks during the live shows, he covered the greatest of the greats and turned well-loved classics upside down. He also dared to take on arguably the greatest rock song of all time, sung by one of the most revered male singers of all time, creating a landmark moment in Idol history with Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. Having already attracted contempt from some quarters for supposedly making Johnny Cash spin in his grave with his version of Ring of Fire (although I'm with those who say the rebel in Cash would have fully approved of Adam), tackling the iconic Led Zep song and exposing himself to comparison with the great Robert Plant was truly brave.

Many have described Adam Lambert’s album 'For Your Entertainment' as courageous because, being so eclectic, it flouts the music market rules that an album must fit into a genre for it to sell. Apparently, those that sell the music need to know how to label it and what box (literally) to put it into in the shop; radio stations need to know what box it came out of, to know whether they can play it; and the public needs to know what box it's in to know whether to buy it. And all this time I thought music was about whether you liked it or not. How naive. Adam, however, was not naive. By the time created his album, he was no stranger to the music industry and its ways. He was introduced to music from a young age by his father (who’d been a college DJ), he played in a band, and he had friends in all areas of the music business, some successful, some struggling. He knew how ruthless the industry is, that almost nobody gets “discovered” any more, that you don't get signed unless you already have a following and, crucially, that talent simply isn’t enough. He also knew the rules about genres and neatly-labeled boxes. But as anyone who has seen his Idol and pre-Idol performances knows, Adam Lambert is not someone you can neatly label. He has been influenced by diverse musical genres and performs in a breathtaking range of styles, from Brigadoon tunes at one end of the scale to the self-penned Glamorize at the other.

In June 2009, the multi-faceted entertainer said "My thing is I don't want to do one specific genre. I'm more about fusion. We want an album to have a cohesive sound, but it could be a collection of different styles." In the digital download age where much of the music-buying public buys only their favourite tracks from an album rather than a whole CD, that approach makes sense. Nobody wants to listen to 12 variations of the same thing. And call me a gnat but even a single 4-minute song predictably conforming to the verse-chorus-verse-chorus format can challenge my attention span. Give me twists and turns, crank up the drama, shock me in the middle-eight, throw some rock into an electro-pop song, and end with a bang...or even a laugh. Most of the tracks on ‘For Your Entertainment’ do exactly this. While not every song made today can aspire to be ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Queen’s masterpiece is one of the biggest hits of all time and forcefully makes the point that you can ignore musical convention and still make best-selling music. If Randy Jackson and some radio stations are “confused” by an eclectic CD, so be it. A homogeneous, conveniently-labeled album would not have been an Adam Lambert album.

Currently a favourite among the paparazzi and the media in general, Adam knows that his every word will be put in print and dissected; exposing his deep feelings therefore takes guts, particularly for a man, and even more so at the start of a career. His candour in interviews is intriguing as he discusses, among other things, his issues with weight and poor self-image. With Oprah in January, he talked openly and honestly about occasionally feeling lonely. While he is deeply grateful for the opportunities fame has brought him, he acknowledges that at times it has meant he will stay at home alone rather than going out, because it’s preferable to dealing with the attention a trip to the shops will bring.

For someone who admits that he spent many years disliking his looks, and for whom the demons of poor self-image still resurface from time to time, he seems surprisingly willing to draw attention to his physical appearance. He could choose to avoid any kind of judgment of his looks by blending into the background. Yet his style and fashion choices are bold, glam and edgy, inviting comment, because that is who he is and where his aesthetic tastes lie. He would rather risk ridicule for standing out as himself, in all his glittering glory, than take the safe option and be one of the bland, beige multitude.

I don't believe Adam is different for the sake of it. Just as there was no defiance in his lack of apology after the AMAs, simply integrity, I don't see it as defiance or a deliberate decision to set himself apart in any way through his looks, music or interviews. He is simply not your ordinary guy. When he is conspicuous, when he expresses himself in ways that may surprise or even shock, he is just being himself. To the delight of the one of the ladies on ABC’s The View, who said he wasn't a typical “good Jewish boy”, he quipped “It's just that my dreidel spins the other way". I believe he was talking generally about being different, not just about being gay. Sometimes it takes courage to allow the world to see you spinning "the other way".

As he will shortly embark on worldwide travels to promote his music internationally, he'll need to draw on that courage as he takes another leap. In some countries he visits he will benefit from the same prominent and lengthy exposure on American Idol that he had in the US, thereby guaranteeing him a large instant fanbase; in others such as the UK he will be entering unknown territory.

Being told he will be iconic by Paula Abdul and a worldwide star by Simon Cowell has placed monstrous pressure on Adam Lambert to succeed not only everywhere on the planet, but to succeed more spectacularly than anyone has for decades. For the moment, he seems to have the wisdom to know that such success is far from guaranteed and the courage to take the risk anyway.


Etty Payne
RockStar Weekly UK Correspondent




http://www.rockstarweekly.com/content/view/1445/
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