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Warner VS Maverick 2004


Roland Barthes
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Interesting recap, thank you! (And thanks for the general "AL" era one, too, will read that as soon as I send this post haha).

Looking back it was all very messy and sad. I didn't remember all those Caresse ironic comments about it. I guess she had some influence too on the situation? After the "Music" album Madonna relationship with Warner was in an all time low - her detaching from a big project like "GHV2" was completely out of character with her previous work until then. It's almost like she wanted the album to bomb to f**k with Warner. And while it didn't, those 7 million copies would have been double with at least a new song and video.

And then I guess it also affected the "American Life" album promo, even if the video debacle was the main disaster there.

That said, Maverick already had a bad reputation with legal drama with artists. I remember Alanis' "Under Rug Swept" album was delayed until they reached an agreement, so I checked again and Wikipedia says this:

"Production of the album was delayed when Morissette became involved in disputes with executives at Maverick Records after she testified at U.S. Government hearings against artist-unfriendly record contract practices. As she put it, she had to go through lawyers to "have a dialogue with people" and take an extended period of time to "have one little thing figured out". Because she was accustomed to having the producers on her albums act as "the buffer to the outside world" during recording, she found it a challenge to handle the situation on her own. "I was trying to be isolated enough to tap into my artistry while keeping people at bay who don't know fuck all about nurturance", she said. Eventually, it became "too much" for Morissette and she took negotiations into her own hands, which meant she had to halt her work on the album: "I had to be willing to throw the record away and not ever release it."

Despite the relatively low sales of Morissette's previous two albums, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and MTV Unplugged (1999), compared to those of her international debut album, Jagged Little Pill (1995), Maverick Records considered her a strong commercial asset and were concerned that she would leave because of the disputes and release the album on another label. For a time Morissette was threatening to leave Maverick (according to Entertainment Weekly), until label founder Madonna intervened and persuaded her to stay."

Music business...

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2 hours ago, Roland Barthes said:

There was a situation with Michelle Branch too.

I wonder how much Madonna was involved with Maverick when she moved to London...

 Mav1.jpg

 

And look what happened to both Alanis and Michelle’s careers after they left 😂😂😂😂

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I remember in the early 00's that dispute between M and Warner specially that "Impressive  Instant vs Amazing" drama.  I even recall reading about Warner comissioning Friburn & Urik to remix Amazing (I wonder if those mixes exists). During the period of American Life creation process there were constant reports about Warner not being convinced about the super electronic sound and extreme vocoder use. (I was happy with that electronic direction, trying to imagine the possible new era sound). I remember the rumours about a new track called X-static process being super electronic and edgy, so I was surprised when I heared the acoustic toned down final result, but learned to love it :). Maybe some tracks evolved to a more acoustic sound for a personal decision or that dispute between M and Warner, guess will never know. (Unless some of that reported ultra edgy sound demos surface someday :tongue:)

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Just now, Drum Dub said:

I remember the rumours about a new track called X-static process being super electronic and edgy, so I was surprised when I heared the acoustic toned down final result, but learned to love it :).

I think this was just the fans' assumption because the title implies a more electronic sound, similar to Impressive Instant. Same with Intervention.

And Maverick seemed to be a sinking ship at that time, and every party involved wanted to get rid of their share for too much money.

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45 minutes ago, androiduser said:

I think this was just the fans' assumption because the title implies a more electronic sound, similar to Impressive Instant. Same with Intervention.

And Maverick seemed to be a sinking ship at that time, and every party involved wanted to get rid of their share for too much money.

yes I agree!

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I remember reading that Stuart did a dancey version of Xstatic. Beautiful song. If it exists, it's one I'd love to hear most.

I remember the Amazing /Impressive Instant drama from the time. But I didn't quite realize the drama with GHV2 and the Maverick situation. This makes my tin foil wig tingle a bit. I never understood why the same company who didn't think "II" was single worthy, would think that anything from AL would be a hit?( I LOVE the album but come with me) Especially the title track. And with THAT video at the time....After reading all this today, I think they were like "ok sweetheart, knock yourself out". They wanted her to fail to "put her in her place". 

 

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7 minutes ago, Kacper said:

How's the situation of Maverick anyway? Wikipedia states they're defunct since 2009, but they have Instagram, and official site that doesn't quite work. What's going on?

From Wikipedia:

Since 2009, the label has been defunct, with its retained acts now recording for Warner Bros. Records directly. In 2014, the brand was revived as a management group founded by Oseary with Live Nation Entertainment.

I guess that (the 2014 rebranding) didn't get too far in the end.

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50 minutes ago, Roland Barthes said:

i know, sorry, you can go directly to mad-eyes.net  and read the 2004 news archives.

After all it's their work so they deserve the trafic & kudos

Whoaaa... what am amazing site, which I have never seen before. looks like my weekend internet surfing plans are sorted :)

 

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