Adam Lambert interview: "It's not easy out there for a male popstar"

Oh, was waiting for that! Seems it's not possible to have a sensible discussion about what's hurting Adam's career without someone leaping to his defence and treating it all as an attack on Adam. None of us are disputing how good he is. What we are doing is talking about why his brilliance isn't translating into the kind of success he should have. Talking about Adam's right to his own vision is all very well, but doesn't get anywhere. We can all sit round going "yey Adam, you're brilliant", but that's a bit boring. What I want is for the number of Glamberts to increase, and it's nice to chat to people who are also looking at why this might not be happening as fast as he deserves.

Your comment is mainly comprised of (1) Things that we all agree on, and (2) Straw man arguments that no one said. We all love Adam, we are all happy he is openly gay, we all think he is hugely talented and charismatic. But as people who love him, we also want to see him do really really well. That means we will think of strategies and things he could do differently to accomplish this. If you love your child, does that mean you never think that there are things that the child could do differently to get what he wants? As a matter of fact, I think we all think this way about people we really care about.

I see what you say, and you are not sayint it do be an a**hole with Adam, i agree with everything. But... it really bothers me the fact that artists have to shape themselves in order to get more audience. I would probably not like him that much if he was like this teen artists we have, with catchy songs that talks about absolutely nothing! I like his honesty, i like him being true to himself and doing whats reflects who he really is. It s**ks for one side, cuz he won't hit the massive audience, but it also s**ks on the other side, cuz he will have to shape himself to adjust to this conservative society that wants things to be like baby food, no surprises, no criativity.
I think that this is his struggle, and it's easy for me to pick honesty intead of stupid massive music industry, but i have my work and my mone, and Adam's music it's his work. If he don't get the public, he will not get the money. Long story short: F**ked up society!

Many many Glamberts would LOVE a rock and roll album. Don't know where you got the idea that they wouldn't. But the labels, and Adam himself, appear to think that rock and roll isn't current and doesn't sell big to the masses anymore. Adam himself likes to be in with current trends.

I think he perhaps lost an opportunity to MAKE it current again after Idol, riding on the coat tails of his success there. Everyone was wild for this 'rock god' (as the judges called him), but then he came out and did pop.

Lol, you two are the worst.

Agree about the video - not interested in any of the other three participants - stripper was vulgar - dancer boring - and trans self-infatuated - where the heck was the videographer where Lambert was concerned - AL just a bit player, for pete's sake? - very disappointed - all his other vids - FYE, WWFM, IIHY, BTIKM, NCOE - featured him prominently, as it should be. GT was better than ALN, but still didn't feature him enough. Yes, AL should use his immense male appeal like the others you've named - don't know how this vid passed the test of a release ostensibly promoting this beautiful, charismatic performer. Truly a great missed opportunity, imo -

Unfortunately, while his talent is perhaps greater than anyone else out there his music isn't. I like listening to his work because I love Adam but don't think many of the songs are outstanding in and of themselves. And he makes poor singles choices - he releases the wrong ones from his albums as singles. Why was Strut never released? And Fever? And for the slow number, Soaked, which shows off his voice. I think they were hoping that Ghost Town might be a club stomper, but it can't work because only part of it can be danced to. Another Lonely Night is the first sensible choice he's made, and it should have been the first release, not second.

And too much of America is very conservative. Sam Smith may be gay, but he was never flamboyant (make up etc) in the way Adam was.

Sam Smith was embraced more here because he is from another country,would have been a total different ballgame for him being a American Male Pop star who is gay and furthermore Adam himself helped make the path much easier for Sam Smith to follow in the U.S.

Agree Adam hasn't released his greatest songs or videos, but his current single and the whole The Original high album is OUTSTANDING! Do you hear all the on the radio? There is nothing I can put above Adam's music. NO WAY!

The song "Fever" was given to Adam by Lady GaGa. I don't think conservative radio would have given it a chance since the lyrics state "there HE goes my baby walks so slow....". It might have done well in Europe.

I seem to remember hearing that he refused to alter the lyrics so as to make it palatable for America, which is why they didn't use it. He's his own worst enemy, which is really frustrating for his fans.

I don't know if I'd say that the whole album is outstanding, although I do like it, but this is definitely his best single and video so far. I'm just so frustrated that his catchiest tunes, the ones that would get in people's heads and be remembered, aren't released. Not everyone wants to buy a whole album, and it won't even occur to them if they don't like the headline single.

I keep hearing (among non-fans) the line "but can you remember a single one of his songs? No." We all know that's a lot to do with lack of radio play, but it's also to do with hummability, catchiness or whatever you choose to call it (as he's chosen not to go the "rock" route or the "soul" route, the latter of which wouldn't suit his voice anyway).

His music rarely takes advantage of what his voice can do. If you've got the best voice out there, which he has, then the way to market yourself, to make yourself stand out, is to use it. Not make homogenous club music. I want to hear him SING.

Yep. The singles choices have not been great. Most people agree on that, but the problem is everyone thinks different songs would have made great singles. For example, I think Can't Let You Go and Sleepwalker could have been major hits. Strut too. The most boring generic songs (which Adam did not write) were chosen as the first two singles on Trespassing.

No, the on the radio isn't better than Adam's singles. But the thing is, Adam was introduced to the American public as someone with a mega voice. Plus he just has too much gravitas and presence to be presented as your average male pop tart. So, when he comes out with average nice-sounding songs that don't leave you awestruck and flabbergasted by the vocals, people don't know what to do with it. The old fans already have him pegged as having a VOICE, and they want to hear it do its thing. The only chance of him succeeding with a more pop sound is to appeal to new fans who don't have a pre-conception of him from Idol.

"The Light" is the one that has the hummability and catchiness, and will become the club stomper he was hoping to achieve with Ghost Town
Also, "underground" struck me as all kinds of great.
Yes, I hope he uses his rare voice, as well as charisma and showmanship

The word on "Fever" is that he wouldn't change the pronoun - but there were certainly tracks on his second album "Trespassing" that, as Billboard wrote, would have been hits in a fairer pop world. And never a fan of SS and his plagiarized music - he arrived on the scene years after Lambert who went through a time of far less acceptance of gays - and, imo, suffered for it commercially because of that -

Big fan of "The Light" - hope it's next -