Ryan Tedder’s Official Statement on the Kelly Clarkson/Beyonce Controversy

By On 07/29/2009 · 90 Comments · In Uncategorized

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ETA: Tedder deleted his prior My Space message to make sure his carefully-worded PR statement was the one that stands.   Tedder defends himself, while complimenting Kelly at the same time. He never mentions the phone call he and Kelly had, which I suspect went down exactly as she said.

I don’t expect Kelly or her label to respond. The idea, I imagine, is to allow the story to die as quick a death as possible.   I can already feel the press is losing interest.

I don’t believe Perez Hilton’s unsubstantiated bit of gossip HERE for a minute.   Kelly will keep supporting the song, and it will sink or swim on it’s own merits.   Maybe the recent publicity will give it a little boost.

Producer/songwriter, Ryan Tedder has released a statement today on the Kelly Clarkson/Beyonce controversy:

“Already Gone” is one of the best song I’ve written or produced since “Bleeding Love” and stands tall on it’s own merits apart from “Halo”.

They are two entirely different songs conceptually, melodically, & lyrically and I would never try to dupe an artist such as Kelly Clarkson or Beyonc into recording over the same musical track, the idea is both hurtful & absurd.

I think when people hear “Already Gone” they will hear what I hear-one of the greatest female vocalists on earth giving her most haunting and heart-breaking performance on a song she helped write.

I challenge people to listen and form their own opinions.”

Tedder made an initial statement yesterday, that he later deleted from his myspace.

 
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  • hardkandy

    What does Jay-Z have to do with Chris Brown?

    OT: he’s Rihanna’s mentor. And I think he did do something about Chris Brown, I read from a twitter of Chris Brown’s back up dancer that the reason Chris didn’t get to take part in BET Awards’ tribute to MJ is because Jay-Z didn’t want him to.

    Anyway, I think if Ryan didn’t want to be called out in public.. he should’ve given Kelly the same professional courtesy and told her, “oh hey remember one of those songs I made for your album, I’m giving Beyonce the exact same backing track to use for one of her songs in an album that will be released before yours. Hope that’s cool with you.” Unprofessionalism begets unprofessionalism.

  • http://twitter.com/cara_lee pj

    Anyway, I think if Ryan didn’t want to be called out in public.. he should’ve given Kelly the same professional courtesy and told her, ‘oh hey one of those songs I made for your album has exactly the same backing track as the one I gave Beyonce. Hope that’s cool with you.’  Unprofessionalism begets unprofessionalism.

    Unless it’s an industry standard, which it seems to be (Stargate, anyone?). It sounds like Kelly got her track first, and then it went to Beyonce, if this is all true. I personally hear as many or more similarities in other songs than these two, by different writers, so I think this seems like Kelly being insecure and not able to express it in a more productive way.

    Besides, two wrongs don’t make a right.

  • Sherena

    I think if she were going to go public with allegations against him, she could have afforded him some warning. Professional courtesy.

    No one seems to be showing Kelly any professional courtesy, especially not the people on her label. Or was Clive Davis’ hate campaign professional courtesy? Making her do this saccharine apology album– and then not letting her choose even her third single–?

    Honestly, I think the interviewer brought the topic off and Kelly, being an impetuous person, just said what came to mind. And she had talked to Ryan before about the subject, so he wasn’t completely blindsided. He probably brushed her off, from what I gather.

    Yes, she could’ve given Ryan more warning, but frankly that’s the least important aspect of this whole deal. Ryan could’ve given her warning that he was giving Beyonce the same backing track.

  • hardkandy

    No one seems to be showing Kelly any professional courtesy

    Hmmm exactly. I don’t know why Kelly is expected to show professional courtesy to a guy who basically pulled a fast one on her.

    And of course the similarities will not be obvious to everyone, but a lot of people do hear it…. when Kelly’s album first leaked, that was one of the first things I noticed, I think I even posted it here in MJ’s before. And most importantly, the artist who has to have her name attached to the song hears it.

    ETA: Haha yep I wasn’t imagining it, I did post it, I found it in the comments section HERE

    And she had talked to Ryan before about the subject, so he wasn’t completely blindsided. He probably brushed her off, from what I gather.

    This too.

  • http://twitter.com/cara_lee pj

    I get what y’all are saying, but here’s the rub. The label is sitting pretty. They don’t give a shit. They are loving the controversy. Her words mean nothing to them. Ryan Tedder was working (I’m guessing) with good faith that his producing/songwriting was within the norms that are established within the industry. I’m sure Kelly is familiar with those norms. If she doesn’t like them, well, she has choices.

    ETA: And yeah, I’m not sure went down with her and Ryan, but human nature dictates he wouldn’t have posted hastily if he hadn’t been blind sighted. Perhaps she called him and they worked it out and now she’s going all apeshit? Note she didn’t say what his response was or how it was resolved.

  • http://twitter.com/cara_lee pj

    No one is denying the songs are similar. The same? No. Perhaps we should hire the peeps who decided the Vanilla Ice/David Bowie/Queen case. Or we should just wait for Kelly to put her money where her mouth is and sue… but she’s probably going to make too much money off that song to make it worth it…

  • hardkandy

    If she doesn’t like them, well, she has choices.

    Yea she has, and she chose to speak out against Ryan and her label. If they drop her or cut off her promo, then that’s a chance she chose to take.

    But whatever happens or does not happen to Kelly’s career after this, it doesn’t change the fact that Ryan Tedder seems to be a one trick pony and Kelly’s words has somehow served as a warning to other artists who want their stuff to be unique, to steer clear of Ryan Tedder.

    No one is denying the songs are similar. The same? No. Perhaps we should hire the peeps who decided the Vanilla Ice/David Bowie/Queen case.

    Of course the two songs are not the SAME, they have different lyrics. But the beats and the backing track is the same and that is just as important part of the song as the lyrics, IMO. Especially in pop music.

  • http://twitter.com/cara_lee pj

    But whatever happens or does not happen to Kelly’s career after this, it doesn’t change the fact that Ryan Tedder seems to be a one trick pony and Kelly’s words has somehow served as a warning to other artists who want their stuff to be unique, to steer clear of Ryan Tedder.

    Well, I appreciate that we are debating something other than Glambert vs. Kris/Danny/whatever.

    I actually want the best for Kelly. I think she’s probably the Idol winner that I would like the most if I met her. I just think that if the problem is really with the label, she should keep it there. I wouldn’t care who the songwriter was… Tedder or Stargate.

    As for the song… trashing your own song is not a good way to generate sales. LOL. She may not care about the money. Another reason to show some guts and strike out on her own. I’d be interested in what she would do with that.

  • hardkandy

    ^^Well from what I gathered in her interview, she did try to keep it with the label only, trying to keep them from releasing the song as a single but they wouldn’t budge so she had to take it to her own hands to let people know the deal with this song.

    I definitely want her to part ways with RCA already… and I’m not sure she even has to go indie even after that. I’m sure there are a lot of other labels out there willing to give her a home, she still has a pretty big name after all. Hopefully she finds a label where she can make the music she really wants to make.

  • http://musicgoesforever.blogspot.com samgamgee

    Wow, there’s way too much analysis on Kelly’s career here, lol, so here’s mine:

    When Kelly put out My December, she said she needed it for herself, which I agree because Breakaway had been a monster album after all, so why not let the girl decide on her own on the next cd. Again, I still believe that My December is among the top 10 best albums this decade but I won’t go into details because it’s just too tiring. lol At one point she said that she’d allow the record label to have their way on her fourth album if they’d let her have MD. So there you go, I believe that AIEW is a bit of compromise with the label and you can’t fault her for that, she’s just honoring her words.

    Maybe it’s calculated risk since at her age of 27 – she’s not too old to veer away from the pop world yet. She’d have a lot opportunities to do indie music later on if she so decides. She’s just making the most of her young age which is already teetering towards the point where pop may already be awkward for her. She’s been saying a lot lately how she would like to do blues album or partner with White Stripes which may be a hint that she’d want to take that risk again on her 5th album. You see, timing is everything and she has brilliantly laid out her career path in a way that would allow her to do everything at least once in her lifetime.

  • http://www.dancin.ca dancin

    i really dont hear the similarities and
    being as cynical as i am

    controversy sells ?

  • lucy

    i really dont hear the similarities and
    being as cynical as i am

    controversy sells ?

    Could be. But it could also be that, if you’re a musician and the person singing the song, the similarities would sound quite glaring to you, even though they might not occur to people who aren’t so familiar with it. … Kelly being Kelly, I think this is more likely. I don’t get the impression that she causes controversies for cash but that she basically just blunders into controversies because she’s kind of an impetuous and maybe cranky person, who hasn’t felt really satisfied with her music career for a while now. Who knows, though, of course?

  • julesb2183

    My problem is if she goes and embraces “her artistry” again for her 5th album (if she has one), we’ll get My January – nothing new. But in her mind it will be okay because she had all the say.

  • lucy

    My problem is if she goes and embraces ‘her artistry’  again for her 5th album (if she has one), we’ll get My January – nothing new. But in her mind it will be okay because she had all the say.

    Well, if she gets into a contract where she takes more of the risk, like an indie contract, then there wouldn’t be anything the matter with that, as far as I can see.

    Artists and performers have to grow and change to get longevity anyway, and I suspect it’s darned near impossible to grow and change as a performer without having some foul-ups, mistakes, and missteps along the way. How many people who’ve made 30 or 40 albums haven’t had some stinkers in there or at least some that were very much liked by a niche audience but not by the public at large (which is more the My December story, in my opinion.) (And do we really know that Kelly has nothing new in her besides My December? I have a kind of strong suspicion that she could do non-angsty rock, country-flavored ballads, and a whole lot more, if she felt like it, and maybe she would!)

    Anyway, the only problem with doing the small-selling album in the case of most major-label contracts (I guess some are structured differently) is that the label will get furious at you because they stand to be the bigger losers if you don’t have a gazillion-selling album. .. Plus, the days of the gazillion-selling album seem to be getting ever farther behind us, so it’s quite possible that new forms of music distribution will be opening up that will give disgruntled pop princesses and others more options for what to do anyway, especially the ones who already have enough money to last a lifetime, like Kelly.

  • anna in vegas

    I have a kind of strong suspicion that she could do non-angsty rock, country-flavored ballads, and a whole lot more, if she felt like it,

    But didn’t she kind of do that unsuccessfully with Reba? :ponder_tb:

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