Is Phillip Phillips Doing Battle With his Record Label?

UPDATE: Phillip responds too: “there is no battle between the label and I..just making it clear ha just a whole bunch of internet say so.”

UPDATE: 19 Entertainment responds to our story via twitter: “Rumor Control: No battle btw @phillips & label. The post was written for another artist. Nathan Porter isnt a mgr at 19. Blogs got it wrong.”

Uh OK. So I guess that listing that specifically name checks the American Idol winner is referring to the winner who lives in an alternate universe? And I would have NO idea who Nathan Porter is if Phillip hadn’t returned his tweet. The Idols have some sort of relationship to him, that’s pretty obvious. (“Artist Management” is how Nathan described his job at 19 in his Linked In profile, which has since disappeared, along with his twitter handle).

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Is Phillip Phillips doing battle with UMG? Yesterday, I posted an item from TAXI the A&R service, that was clearly looking for songs for the most recent crop of Idol graduates, including, the winner, Phillip Phillips.

The ad for Phillip read:

POP/ROCK SONGS with MALE VOCALS in the style of David Cook, Paul McDonald, with elements of John Mayer, Train, and Jason Mraz, etc., needed by an A&R Manager of a Major Label for an AMERICAN IDOL winner working on his debut album. They’re looking for FRESH, UPLIFTING, and RADIO-FRIENDLY songs that are stylistically within the range of the referenced artists while bringing something NEW and FRESH to the table. They’ll be looking for the Top-40 Radio side of Pop/Singer-Songwriter/Rock, nothing overly moody or introspective. Your songs should be FUN and CATCHY, with BIG sing-along CHORUSES.

Which sparked a discussion. Is this the way Phillip presented himself on show? Isn’t his persona that of a serious singer songwriter? Surely, TPTB won’t attempt to turn him into some HAC pop/rock guy, when he clearly appears to come out of the Dave Matthews/Jam band genre.

Well. Maybe Phillip saw the ad. Because here’s what he tweeted a few hours ago:

Could Phil have been reacting to this from the ad? “They’ll be looking for the Top-40 Radio side of Pop/Singer-Songwriter/Rock, nothing overly moody or introspective.”  Then he returned a tweet from Nathan Porter, who, as it turns out, works in artist management for 19. Hm.

Even more interesting is Nathan’s timeline of tweets. Is he joining Phillip in some sort of battle against the label?

If Philip is fighting a battle, he’s not going to win it. If he gets the record he wants and is a pain in the ass in the process, TPTB may not support it. But on the other hand, if he compromises too much, he’ll be left with a record that doesn’t represent who he is as an artist. And therein lies the problem most of the rock guys–save Chris Daughtry–have had post Idol. Kris, Lee and David–the latter two in particular–had to compromise so much on their first record, it made it hard for them to establish an identity in the musical marketplace.

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of record Phillip will eventually make. To be honest, I can’t imagine him doing the pop/rock thing and pulling it off. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who can put his heart into something he’s not feeling. Having said that, I’m still not completely sure what kind of record Phillip wants to make. In interviews he calls it Rock/Jazz with some acoustic stuff. Whatever that means, it’s probably not very commercially viable, and the record label will never stand for that.

Pull out your lawn chairs and break out the Mai Tai’s people! The party is just getting started! (I love record release season!).

About mj santilli 34841 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!