t92780 wrote:
I wish I could find that interview that John said something like; I feel Americana music will start to trend again and I want to be a front runner.



The point is, he's seems to be chasing the next thing, it failed IMO with last two albums and came across as forced, which included his attire, which made it worse. Perhaps all successful people worry about fading, I do when consumers aren't trending for a month on my stuff, but I learned to keep my eye on the road and not panic, not change, stick to my roots, which to date have served me well.....to date...lol. Perhaps, he feels like his tank is empty, getting a little or lot desperate when he see 's down trends and forgets what got him here in the first place. It's tough to see the graph trend down, I understand, but a panicking sales person never sells.



I'm not saying stick to one ingredient, no, mix it up for fun to change things up to stay fresh, play covers like XO, etc, but only to surprise at a show. Put out a second album in a year that's fun for you, if it's well received great, if not, who cares, it's not the core. He seems to have become an artist more concerned about status and branding.....forced.



Forced = Failure.



Long day at the office, hope I expressed myself above as intended....and let's not forget, I'm as big, or bigger fan of his then anyone.


I think that any time an artist puts out music, they're hoping that it sells. However, I don't think JM was trying to follow any kind of Americana trend to cash in or anything like that - weak argument IMO. What we know is that JM declared himself done with the pop game in late 2010. I think it was obvious to everyone that B&R and PV were not going to sell like his previous albums.

More well crafted argument is that JM realized his public image was a disaster and used the Americana phase to rebuild his public image with honest/apologetic songwriting and to come back gradually into the mainstream being more humble (recently shedding the attire/persona, spending more time in LA/getting back on TMZ, putting the Trio back together in the studio, etc.).