Coach Pharrell Williams is really really tired of of being asked if The Voice will ever produce a star! During a press junket on Monday, the Grammy winning singer bristled when confronted with the oft-asked question:
“The show is not a record company. It’s a training camp. It’s an academy. And you only advance forward when you have what it takes to move forward. And there’s nothing wrong with working for something. There’s nothing wrong with having your eye on the prize and not winning. But there’s always a winner, and there’s eleven other people that ultimately end up going home. But they go home different people, because they’ve had tutors that they would never ever in a million years probably have met. I don’t understand why we have these interviews, and people ask that same question every time. That’s not why we’re here to do this interview. We’re here to do this interview because… we want to explain to you what this is and what it means to us. It’s a gift. The show is not about someone signing a record deal and getting signed. The show is about a bunch of people who really care about people that they encounter, and make sure that they’re changed when they walk off.”
TESTY! Too bad, because those are questions he and his fellow coaches will continue to face until The Voice actually joins American Idol and X Factor as a show that graduates singers that go on to major chart success.
Fellow coach, Christina Aguilera, also weighed in on the question:
“Whenever the journey on the show ends, we don’t need instant gratification for their success right away. I mean, their journey is kind of just beginning. This is the training ground. I always consider my training ground to have been The Mickey Mouse Club when I was 11 and 12. I didn’t make a hit record at 13, 14. I made ‘Genie in a Bottle,’ which was the start of my career, at 16, 17, which was years down the road. The true talent doesn’t evolve like that. Like, true success, sometimes it takes time to build something great. You have to start with an awesome foundation, and then allow yourself the patience and the time to mature and to grow into something long-lasting.”
Christina. These many of these contestants ain’t kids. Some of them, like last season’s winner, Craig Wayne Boyd, are near the end of the road. They’re looking for a quicker pathway to success when they audition for singing shows.
Pharrell thinks record deals are passe anyway!
“My two cents is I always tell them stop worrying about the industry, because that is kind of non-existent. Most artists that are being broken today are not being broken by labels, they’re being broken by themselves. Radio doesn’t chase what record companies tell them to chase, they chase what feels good, what’s out there. So you’re just as empowered as any other artist. … It’s really all on you. And I wouldn’t concentrate so much on the business, as I would the music. Because if you don’t have great music, it’s not going to go viral anyway.”
Uhm. Without a major label spending a gazillion dollars on promotion, it’s extremely difficult for an artist to break on radio. Seriously, Pharrell. We all get that The Voice isn’t a vehicle to break stars. But there’s no point in dissembling to make your point.
Via TV Guide
