Adam Lambert - "Ghost Town"

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

I like the video. The styling and effects call to mind the work of Steven Klein. His X-Static Process video series featuring Madonna was like that. Some of the promo videos he did for Madonna's tours would also be in that style. Some of the dancing and voguing is similar to what Kazaky does.

[secretchef]

I like it. Not sure it's my favorite of his, but he looks great. Like Hype's Booty video, the fast edits are a bit overwhelming but I do like he didn't go literal on the Ghost Town theme. Artsy, stylistic and a bit reserved for him.

He's put some behind the scenes shots on his Instagram

instagram.com/adamlambert/

[downsouth]

I like the video. It reminds me of Rihanna's Four Five Seconds on speed with eye candy.

[Rumors]

I really like the video and it enhances the song/performer which is what a video should do. However, I do agree, that the quick cuts needed to be a little slower. Overall, good job. Should be a very nice hit for him. Time will tell how that will translate into single and album sales.

[foxxden]

first week of adds is promising but why is the music video not on vevo yet

adam is performing this on ellen tomorrow.

[Libra]

Apr 29, 2015 23:42:37 GMT -5 foxxden said:

first week of adds is promising but why is the music video not on vevo yet ?

Warner doesn't Vevo.

[jimmyt]

The video just makes that chorus even worse with the cheesy dance sequence. It remains a decent song ruined by the chorus for me.

I can see this getting plays in the evenings, late night but I will be surprised if it is a mainstream pop hit.
But hey it seems to be doing well at the moment.....

[suttonplace]

Apr 30, 2015 0:55:07 GMT -5 jimmyt said:

The video just makes that chorus even worse with the cheesy dance sequence. It remains a decent song ruined by the chorus for me.

I can see this getting plays in the evenings, late night but I will be surprised if it is a mainstream pop hit.
But hey it seems to be doing well at the moment.....

Its already being playing outside of evening and late night hours at some big chr and hac stations...for a guy who hasn't been on pop radio in about 5 years, the radio response so far has been really good

[jimmyt]

Apr 30, 2015 7:59:02 GMT -5 suttonplace said:

Apr 30, 2015 0:55:07 GMT -5 jimmyt said:

The video just makes that chorus even worse with the cheesy dance sequence. It remains a decent song ruined by the chorus for me.

I can see this getting plays in the evenings, late night but I will be surprised if it is a mainstream pop hit.
But hey it seems to be doing well at the moment.....

Its already being playing outside of evening and late night hours at some big chr and hac stations...for a guy who hasn't been on pop radio in about 5 years, the radio response so far has been really good

3 years... But hey it ended badly last time with all sorts of allegations of him being blacklisted for being gay and him getting fans to berate radio chiefs for not playing him...he seems to have turned that relationship around.

Will be interesting to see how this performs.

[jjose712]

Apr 30, 2015 9:38:56 GMT -5 jimmyt said:

Apr 30, 2015 7:59:02 GMT -5 suttonplace said:

Its already being playing outside of evening and late night hours at some big chr and hac stations...for a guy who hasn't been on pop radio in about 5 years, the radio response so far has been really good

3 years... But hey it ended badly last time with all sorts of allegations of him being blacklisted for being gay and him getting fans to berate radio chiefs for not playing him...he seems to have turned that relationship around.

Will be interesting to see how this performs.

Well, 3 years ago he barely was into the top 50 for a week, so it was 5 years ago the last time he had a real hit on pop.

The problem with Adam never was being gay, the problem with him (with his label is a different story) is the image he projected.
There are a lot of people (and we know some radio stations are pretty conservative) who have no problem with gays in theory but sex in a different story, and Adam never had an innofensive look, and his first song to radio was about hardcore sex (that was a pretty bad idea, when you come out a talent show your first approach must be pretty near to what people liked about you on the show, and then try a departure of that).

Adam was one of the most exciting contestants on AI ever, a show that had a lot of talented people but nobody like him before (or after). Everybody knew he was a talented vocalist and there was a lot of buzz around him by the time he released the material.
Then they messed all up, and Pink saved the day with Whataya want from me.

In five years a lot of things changed. I don't think Sam Smith would be the incredible hitmaker he is now in 2009. He probably would get an Adele 19 treatment, with good album sales and no presence in pop radio.

Right now being gay is less and less a problem on radio, in the last two years several gay singers had hits in the top 50 chart, in fact more openly gay singers had hits in pop chart in the last two (or even the last year) than in the decade before.

The truth is Live like we're dying was top 10 on pop and Whataya want from me peaked at 13, and If i had you had a lot of trouble to reach top 50. It was pretty clear there was some resistance to play him. Of course it could be because he was a talent show contestant (he received that treatment from his label with the second album) or his looks, but he was way more popular than what radio reflected (of course he is not a lone case, we have Shawn Mendes right now in a similar situation and he has nothing to do with Adam).

This era could be a success or a faliure, but at least his label seems clearly behind it trying to make it happen, and that's something that didn't happen on his second album and even in the first he succeed more for his own merits and buzz than for the work of his label.

And about his fans, generally AI fans have bad reactions when radio reject to play their artist, so complaints are pretty normal (and sometimes are even justified)

By the way, good update on Hot AC today

[suttonplace]

If I Had You peaked in the top 20 (around 16/17) on chr and around the same on hac...it peaked in the 30s on the hot 100..it didn't have any trouble getting into the top 50 and got solid play on big stations like z100 -- I heard it all summer long that year on the radio.... It was his lead single last era, Better than I know myself (seriously, what were they thinking....) had trouble breaking top 50 on chr

[foxxden]

Apr 30, 2015 11:43:09 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

Apr 30, 2015 9:38:56 GMT -5 jimmyt said:

3 years... But hey it ended badly last time with all sorts of allegations of him being blacklisted for being gay and him getting fans to berate radio chiefs for not playing him...he seems to have turned that relationship around.

Will be interesting to see how this performs.

Well, 3 years ago he barely was into the top 50 for a week, so it was 5 years ago the last time he had a real hit on pop.

The problem with Adam never was being gay, the problem with him (with his label is a different story) is the image he projected.
There are a lot of people (and we know some radio stations are pretty conservative) who have no problem with gays in theory but sex in a different story, and Adam never had an innofensive look, and his first song to radio was about hardcore sex (that was a pretty bad idea, when you come out a talent show your first approach must be pretty near to what people liked about you on the show, and then try a departure of that).

Erm, I don't know how you can say being gay wasn't an issue with Radio play back in 2009 when Adam was the first openly gay artist to chart on Pop since Melissa Etheridge in 1994. Of course, RCA was a clusterf*ck of a record label and didn't do him any favors but if a song about rough heterosexual sex (some even think rape) like "Blurred Lines" can be one of the biggest Pop hits of all time than that is a double standard and very much has to do with being gay.

"Whataya Want From Me" should have been a bigger hit at Pop. It sure feels like it was as it's recurrent airplay was pretty strong for a while after it peaked.

Trespassing album was more the label's fault by picking awful singles and ignoring the more radio friendly pop songs.

[jjose712]

Apr 30, 2015 15:10:18 GMT -5 foxxden said:

Apr 30, 2015 11:43:09 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

Well, 3 years ago he barely was into the top 50 for a week, so it was 5 years ago the last time he had a real hit on pop.

The problem with Adam never was being gay, the problem with him (with his label is a different story) is the image he projected.
There are a lot of people (and we know some radio stations are pretty conservative) who have no problem with gays in theory but sex in a different story, and Adam never had an innofensive look, and his first song to radio was about hardcore sex (that was a pretty bad idea, when you come out a talent show your first approach must be pretty near to what people liked about you on the show, and then try a departure of that).

Erm, I don't know how you can say being gay wasn't an issue with Radio play back in 2009 when Adam was the first openly gay artist to chart on Pop since Melissa Etheridge in 1994. Of course, RCA was a clusterf*ck of a record label and didn't do him any favors but if a song about rough heterosexual sex (some even think rape) like "Blurred Lines" can be one of the biggest Pop hits of all time than that is a double standard and very much has to do with being gay.

"Whataya Want From Me" should have been a bigger hit at Pop. It sure feels like it was as it's recurrent airplay was pretty strong for a while after it peaked.

Trespassing album was more the label's fault by picking awful singles and ignoring the more radio friendly pop songs.

What i say is that being gay was not the problem, if he was gay but look totally innofensive like Sam Smith i don't think being gay would be such problem (yes, i know things have changed a lot in recent years) but all the AMAs controversy didn't help him.

In my opinion the whole strategy to launch his career was a big mistake. Adam was very divisive on idol except when he sang ballads, people loved his ballads so in my opinion it was pretty clear the way to start his career.
Instead of that the label wasted his first impact on Time for miracles when that song never was intended to be a single, and For your entertainment was a big mistake as first oficial single (and i like the song).

The second era was bound to fail, because Adam needs a label to support him on radio, airplay is important to reach new audiences and his lable failed miserably, not even after getting so much publicity for being number one on the bb 200, the label move a finger to promote him.

Being gay is always a disadvantage (right now it's easy to overcome than in 2009 and in some cases even help the artist because avoids the label having crazy ideas about the way to promote him) but if he was a little more average in his looks and played a little safer with the singles i think it could overcame back them because there were a lot of good buzz around him. Fortunately for him he was very good at interviews and on live performances, but even he recognizes that for a while he thought his career was over before the start after the AMAs performance

[Sarah.]

Solid first live performance of the song and I'm sure it'll get more smooth as he performs it more

[frank]

Such an awkward song to perform live - it just doesn't work for me. I feel like the hook is based more in the production/whistling rather than the lyrics, and watching him awkwardly dance just made the instrumental portions seem longer than they actually are.

He had amazing vocals, as expected, though.

[slamina]

Apr 30, 2015 20:15:49 GMT -5 frank said:

Such an awkward song to perform live - it just doesn't work for me. I feel like the hook is based more in the production/whistling rather than the lyrics, and watching him awkwardly dance just made the instrumental portions seem longer than they actually are.

He had amazing vocals, as expected, though.

I agree. The awkward dancing was uncomfortable to watch. He has potential to pull if off. He needs more substantive choreography planned with background dancers. The random moves thrown in as is aren't working. Vocals were fine, but the song isn't really rangey enough for him to show off his pipes.

[Sarah.]

I actually liked the kind of freestyle dancing he did. The song itself seems kinda hard to transfer over to live just because it bounces between low key and then amped up, but I'm sure he'll come up with some killer arrangements.

[Juanca]

Yeah, I also liked this performance. He looks comfortable and confident in the stage and dances well :) it'd be awesome to have some dancers of course, but that may come in Idol or other show. His voice sounds great, and he looks sexy and modern, which is great for a pop male artist... It's about time to have someone that doesn't wear simple shirts and jeans or boring suit and tie
The song reminds me more of Wake me up now in that the verses are slow and emotional, and the chorus is mainly instrumental. Hope audience can warm up to this one!

[wonderstruck94]

Apr 30, 2015 15:27:03 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

Apr 30, 2015 15:10:18 GMT -5 foxxden said:

Erm, I don't know how you can say being gay wasn't an issue with Radio play back in 2009 when Adam was the first openly gay artist to chart on Pop since Melissa Etheridge in 1994. Of course, RCA was a clusterf*ck of a record label and didn't do him any favors but if a song about rough heterosexual sex (some even think rape) like "Blurred Lines" can be one of the biggest Pop hits of all time than that is a double standard and very much has to do with being gay.

"Whataya Want From Me" should have been a bigger hit at Pop. It sure feels like it was as it's recurrent airplay was pretty strong for a while after it peaked.

Trespassing album was more the label's fault by picking awful singles and ignoring the more radio friendly pop songs.

What i say is that being gay was not the problem, if he was gay but look totally innofensive like Sam Smith i don't think being gay would be such problem (yes, i know things have changed a lot in recent years) but all the AMAs controversy didn't help him.

In my opinion the whole strategy to launch his career was a big mistake. Adam was very divisive on idol except when he sang ballads, people loved his ballads so in my opinion it was pretty clear the way to start his career.
Instead of that the label wasted his first impact on Time for miracles when that song never was intended to be a single, and For your entertainment was a big mistake as first oficial single (and i like the song).

The second era was bound to fail, because Adam needs a label to support him on radio, airplay is important to reach new audiences and his lable failed miserably, not even after getting so much publicity for being number one on the bb 200, the label move a finger to promote him.

Being gay is always a disadvantage (right now it's easy to overcome than in 2009 and in some cases even help the artist because avoids the label having crazy ideas about the way to promote him) but if he was a little more average in his looks and played a little safer with the singles i think it could overcame back them because there were a lot of good buzz around him. Fortunately for him he was very good at interviews and on live performances, but even he recognizes that for a while he thought his career was over before the start after the AMAs performance

long time lurker and usually I just read without ever feeling the need to respond but I wanted to respond to some of what you have said here because you make some interesting observations. 

The AMA performance absolutely hurt him with U.S. audiences and some of his Idol fan base but it also helped him get out from under the idol stigma of being an "All American" cookie cutter/bland artist.  It was a win and a lose in equal measure IMO.

I never found Adam's overall look to be that outlandish but I do agree that middle America has an easier time digesting a gay man that they can pretend isn't likely having sex over a gay man who they not only know is having sex but they can visualize it.  I'm not sure Sam Smith would have the success he's having without an artist like Adam to be honest because he's like the polar opposite and makes people feel better by allowing them to say they support a gay artist.  Sam is also super talented and his songs are great so he's successful on his own merits too but like someone said above, if this were 2009 he would have gotten the Chasing Pavements radio treatment and probably not much more.

Time For Miracles wasn't the first official single and in fact was never sent to radio for adds.  It was a promo song for the movie 2012 and nothing more.  Sony Pictures paid for the video not RCA.  For Your Entertainment was the first official single and that could be called a miscalculation for sure because had the song been performed by a straight female artist it would have been a monster hit, as it was, radio absolutely refused to play it because of the overt sexual tones.  The video for that was amazing though so I'm glad we got that out of it at least. 

I agree the second era was bound for failure because of the lack of label support and also because the label picked terrible songs. 

Personally I'm thrilled that Adam didn't dumb himself down just to get airplay on radio.  I'd rather an artist be true to themselves at all times rather than pandering to the narrow minded people who want everyone to be the same. 

thanks and goes back to lurking :)

[secretchef]

Solid vocal, still love, love the bridge. He could use some dancers to help fill up the sparse stage, but maybe that's not daytime talk show appropriate, idk. But he looks amazing.

[Sir Benji]

I've never really cared for Adam's persona or his off-putting personality, but that performance was great and so is this song.

[George]

I've been hearing this moderately on the radio here. Then again, we are his hometown.

[dajire4]

Yeah, nothing wrong IMO in that performance. The dancing was very gay but nothing wrong with that at all. Also, for the first time I'm finding Adam to be hot. I'm excited for this era

[Q3]

Looks like "Ghost Town" is going to get a nice radio promo tomorrow --- Ryan Seacrest said on his syndicated show today it was going to be played on AT40 on Saturday. :)

[josh]

This has at least 350 spins. :)

[downsouth]

Did Ryan say the song is going to be played or that Adam will be on the show? There is a big difference in the two.

[secretchef]

May 1, 2015 17:52:58 GMT -5 Q3 said:

Looks like "Ghost Town" is going to get a nice radio promo tomorrow --- Ryan Seacrest said on his syndicated show today it was going to be played on AT40 on Saturday. :)

He didn't say played that I'm aware of. He said Adam would be on the show and the song was great.

[jjose712]

May 1, 2015 9:06:55 GMT -5 wonderstruck94 said:

Apr 30, 2015 15:27:03 GMT -5 jjose712 said:

What i say is that being gay was not the problem, if he was gay but look totally innofensive like Sam Smith i don't think being gay would be such problem (yes, i know things have changed a lot in recent years) but all the AMAs controversy didn't help him.

In my opinion the whole strategy to launch his career was a big mistake. Adam was very divisive on idol except when he sang ballads, people loved his ballads so in my opinion it was pretty clear the way to start his career.
Instead of that the label wasted his first impact on Time for miracles when that song never was intended to be a single, and For your entertainment was a big mistake as first oficial single (and i like the song).

The second era was bound to fail, because Adam needs a label to support him on radio, airplay is important to reach new audiences and his lable failed miserably, not even after getting so much publicity for being number one on the bb 200, the label move a finger to promote him.

Being gay is always a disadvantage (right now it's easy to overcome than in 2009 and in some cases even help the artist because avoids the label having crazy ideas about the way to promote him) but if he was a little more average in his looks and played a little safer with the singles i think it could overcame back them because there were a lot of good buzz around him. Fortunately for him he was very good at interviews and on live performances, but even he recognizes that for a while he thought his career was over before the start after the AMAs performance

long time lurker and usually I just read without ever feeling the need to respond but I wanted to respond to some of what you have said here because you make some interesting observations. 

The AMA performance absolutely hurt him with U.S. audiences and some of his Idol fan base but it also helped him get out from under the idol stigma of being an "All American" cookie cutter/bland artist.  It was a win and a lose in equal measure IMO.

I never found Adam's overall look to be that outlandish but I do agree that middle America has an easier time digesting a gay man that they can pretend isn't likely having sex over a gay man who they not only know is having sex but they can visualize it.  I'm not sure Sam Smith would have the success he's having without an artist like Adam to be honest because he's like the polar opposite and makes people feel better by allowing them to say they support a gay artist.  Sam is also super talented and his songs are great so he's successful on his own merits too but like someone said above, if this were 2009 he would have gotten the Chasing Pavements radio treatment and probably not much more.

Time For Miracles wasn't the first official single and in fact was never sent to radio for adds.  It was a promo song for the movie 2012 and nothing more.  Sony Pictures paid for the video not RCA.  For Your Entertainment was the first official single and that could be called a miscalculation for sure because had the song been performed by a straight female artist it would have been a monster hit, as it was, radio absolutely refused to play it because of the overt sexual tones.  The video for that was amazing though so I'm glad we got that out of it at least. 

I agree the second era was bound for failure because of the lack of label support and also because the label picked terrible songs. 

Personally I'm thrilled that Adam didn't dumb himself down just to get airplay on radio.  I'd rather an artist be true to themselves at all times rather than pandering to the narrow minded people who want everyone to be the same. 

thanks and goes back to lurking :)

You are right about the departure from idol stigma, the problem is that departure was not well planned. When you have such buzz after a talent show is better to offer what everybody is expecting of you as first single. The impact of Whataya want from me could be way bigger if that was the first release.
Time for miracles was a mistake, because people was eager for what Adam had in store, and they wasted the first impact on a song that never were going to be released as single. Time for miracles was number 8 on itunes, and made the top 50 on the hot 100 based only on sales. That first impact should be used on the real first single.
Releasing something edgy is a good idea for someone who comes from a show so family friendly, but never as the first single. The AMAs performance could be a great impact if we were talking about a third single with an album with two previous hits, but as first single was simply too risky. Radio has little problem in put people from talent shows in low rotation (in the case they even give them a chance), fortunately the label move fast to Whataya want from me and that solved the situation.
That performance showed that big hypocrisy of some tv station, where Adam was banned when they didn't hava a problem with letting Chris Brown perform.

Sam Smith benefited not only from Adam previous presence on radio but from Adele big success as balladist. Of course he has his own merit because i can't remember an artist making a big impact against all odds and with less effort.

Adam has the big advantage that he didn't disappear even after Tresspassing flopped, he kept enough buzz around him to be signed fast after being dropped by his old label. This time the label is betting on him, that doesn't mean that success will be guarantied (at all) but at least he will get a fair chance

[keepitreal]

Personally I'm thrilled that Adam didn't dumb himself down just to get airplay on radio. I'd rather an artist be true to themselves at all times rather than pandering to the narrow minded people who want everyone to be the same.

I feel the same way. Adam is also the type of person that moves forward instead of dwelling in the past. I don't think he's nearly as upset about his career as some fans are.

I thought the Ellen performance was pretty good. The first performance is now out of the way so the performances should only get better.

[Deleted]

This is hot! Performance was nice too, I actually enjoyed his dancing.