Scotty McCreery’s fall

‘Idol’ bits: Scotty McCreery’s fall, Phillip Phillips, Jordin Sparks

A few days ago, there was a pitch to songwriters to come up with particular types of tunes for Phil Phillips, Jessica Sanchez and Skylar Laine. MJ broke the story.
What made the pitch for Phillip interesting was how it didn’t sound anything like Phillip’s tastes:

OP/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.

Phillip is clearly not into the pop stuff but more into a darker, Damian Rice-style of music. And he was Tweeting with a 19 Management person about the subject, which MJ details. In it, he wrote, “I like moody songs that have meaning… make you think.”
Based on his behavior on the show, he is both humble but headstrong. I can’t imagine what the behind-the-scenes battles are looking like over how his first album is going to sound like. Will they try to turn him into a Train/Script type act? (Think Bo Bice and that hideous “Real Thing” song). They certainly will try.  Phillip is not really set to become a big rock star a la Steven Tyler or even like John Mayer. So this will probably be his first – and last – album with the major label.  But we shan’t be too pessimistic yet. Let’s see what he turns out.
His single “Home,” in the meantime, sold another 217,000 copies last week and now has exceeded one million copies. Thank the London Olympics! Radio airplay growth is still relatively modest. It’s No. 18 on the Hot AC chart and No. 43 on the top 40 chart, according to Mediabase 24/7.
- Here’s Scotty McCreery’s stage fall. He’s fine. He said headliner Brad Paisley shortened the stage on him as a prank. Ha. Ha?