Is The Band Perry Really Trying to Say They Never Went Pop?
Now The Band Perry is lying about things that they don’t even need to lie about. They erased the entirety of their social network feeds under the guise of starting over, when in truth they were just trying to cover their tracks. Then they tried to play this whole victim card around their new single “Comeback Kid” to act like they were bullied by the media and others, when it was the band’s own dumb decisions that resulted in a hiccup in their career. And now their using their complicit friends in country music’s fawning media to rewrite history. And for the life of me, I have no idea why. They’re tilting at windmills instead of letting their music speak for itself.
Regular readers here are all, “Trig! Why do you keep covering this dumb band? They’re not country!”
Well don’t tell them that, because according to The Band Perry, despite mounds of evidence in the form of previous statements and irreconcilable actions, they are now insisting that they never tried to go pop … that it was all a pipe dream of media members that got it all wrong.
The reason Saving Country Music and others keep covering this story is because it just continues to get more incredibly insane around every corner. And in this particular instance, it’s tough to watch the public being misled.
“We never said it,” says Kimberly Perry about wanting to go in a more pop direction, or “going pop” in a new interview at Taste of Country.
Rubbish. Kimberly Perry said it herself.
“We’re pop tarts at heart,” Perry told News4Jax on November 2nd, 2015, setting up their new album Heart + Beat. “We love all styles of music. And with the new album we made . . . we really wrapped in a lot of our love for pop music, and kind of where that cross pollinates with what we love.”
Here is video of them saying it below:
Also, Kimberly Perry said to the Clarion-Ledger on June 9th, “Are we going pop? We have already gone pop. ‘If I Die Young’ was pop. If we end up going pop, it’s only repeating what we’ve already done.”
Furthermore, they released a 100% pop song in “Live Forever.” It was co-produced by a pop producer, RedOne, and co-written by pop writers RedOne and Jenna Andrews. Then remember “Put Me in the Game Coach” they were performing publicly? Or the long-rumored collaborations with Pharrell Williams and Nicki Minaj? Even if The Band Perry had never said they were moving in a more pop direction (which they did), their actions broadcast that intentions loud and clear with the music, the “Live Forever” video, the hip-hop dress, all of it.
Balance this with previous statements from pop country artists like Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood who’ve gone out of their way to say they don’t actively look for crossover attention, and don’t release songs to pop radio, and it’s clear that The Band Perry is blowing smoke. They went pop and failed. And hey, failure happens. People make mistakes. It’s how we all deal with those mistakes that is the judge of our character.
The one correct clarification from The Band Perry is that when it was announced they had signed to the pop label Interscope Records on May 12th 2016, the detail that the deal was actually a collaboration between Interscope and country label Universal Music Group Nashville was initially left out. It was not just a deal with Interscope exclusively.
“Folks were freaking out for a half-minute, like ‘Interscope, is that a pop label?!” says Kimberly Perry to Taste of Country. But the only reason the media picked up on the Interscope deal is because that was the only information that was leaked, and the UMG Nashville info was left out. As soon as the entire deal was announced, everything was clarified and it was fine. But the Interscope info came out on May 12th—over half a year AFTER the band’s statements to News4Jax above and other similar statements to other media outlets, and nearly a year after releasing “Live Forever.”
Sure, there is some nuance here. Was The Band Perry really trying to launch an exclusively pop career, or were they trying to play both sides of the country/pop divide? Either way, pop was a very strong influence on their new direction according to their own words, and they can’t be acting surprised when people took it as a move to pop.
“Will you hear us on pop radio? I hope so, just like you did six years ago with ‘If I Die Young.’” Kimberly Perry says in the new Taste of Country interview, confusing things even more. Clearly they want it both ways instead of doing as Taylor Swift says, “Choose a lane.” They want to be considered country, but release songs to pop radio, but be completely free of criticism for going pop because they’re country.
As Saving Country Music said in the review of “Comeback Kid”:
The Band Perry’s been paying too much attention to their own press and critics… Most fans aren’t invested enough in The Band Perry to care what label they’re signed to. If anything, this song is shining a spotlight on The Band Perry’s drama that many didn’t know about until now.
Why is The Band Perry even choosing to fight this fight? What do they have to gain here? If they want to be considered country, then the first thing they need to do is quit whining, and quit with the choreographed and color coordinated media blitzes. Let the music speak for itself. You want to be considered country? Release a country song. “Comeback Kid” was a very slight step in the right direction, but their pride to need to be right about if they tried to go pop or not has resulted in The Band Perry stepping in it once again.
Nobody wants to hate on The Band Perry. Life’s too short. They just continue to make it easy for everyone.
MH
August 4, 2016 @ 10:11 am
She just needs to shut up and go live off of her major league pitcher husband’s millions and the two brothers can go back to cleaning gutters.
Taste of Country LOLZ.
Darren
August 4, 2016 @ 1:46 pm
I believe her husband is a catcher, and he is currently in the minors.
Justin
August 4, 2016 @ 4:19 pm
Haha, oh. That changes things a lot. I guess she does need to try to keep making it in the music industry.
Scotty J
August 4, 2016 @ 4:27 pm
Yep she’s married to J.P. Arencibia who is a catcher in AAA right now.
MH may have been confusing her husband with Ashley Monroe’s husband John Danks who is a pitcher but I believe he is currently out of baseball after being released a few months back.
Charlie
August 4, 2016 @ 10:24 am
If my job required me to read everything on Taste of Country, I’d file a grievance.
Justin
August 4, 2016 @ 10:27 am
Trig, I missed your poking fun at the CMA “Night to Rock” show on TV last night. I know you usually do that for award shows, but there was plenty to poke fun at :).
Gena Chereck
August 4, 2016 @ 11:37 am
I totally forgot about that (I had ‘South Park’ reruns on instead — “Science damn you, time-child!”); so yeah, I was hoping for, if not a LiveBlog, at least a little write-up. 😀
Trigger
August 4, 2016 @ 12:08 pm
Yeah, I tend to leave the CMA Fest broadcast alone. I’ve threatened doing a live blog during it in past years, but I just don’t know if it’s important enough to. I feel stupid enough doing it during the CMT Awards. Maybe next year.
albert
August 4, 2016 @ 12:46 pm
You are absolutely correct , Trigger . That show is just NOT important enough . I tuned long enough to catch Martina McBride embarrass herself singing an Arrowsmith duet with the ghost of Jacob Marley . She was all sexed -up with nothing to sing . Dunno why they didn’t get Celine Dion .
Lucas
August 4, 2016 @ 11:00 am
As much as I didn’t like Taylor’s departure to synth-pop with 1989, mostly because I really liked Red sans the Max Martin tracks, I can at least respect her for choosing a lane that she knows suits the album. The Band Perry, on the other hand, is really confusing me. I don’t “hate” them, but they’re becoming a lot more untrustworthy for me with their poor decisions they keep on making.
FeedThemHogs
August 4, 2016 @ 12:26 pm
“I can at least respect her for choosing a lane…”
TBP is that 95 year old lady going 45 mph on the interstate straddling the center line. They are doing nothing with their career right now except getting in the way.
KGD
August 4, 2016 @ 11:03 am
Hate to sound like a broken record, but I’d rather read a review of Exodus of Venus than another article about these twits. This is a great site, but honestly, give a signal boost to an artist that deserves it rather than parse the words of artists that get enough (too much?) attention as it is.
And I know at one point you said that it’s not country. It’s not ONLY country, but it is more country than Sailor’s Guide.
And it’s GREAT.
And I know, I know, I didn’t have to read it, but I read all the articles on this site.
Trigger
August 4, 2016 @ 12:12 pm
Since I cover such a broad spectrum of topics, it is difficult to keep everyone happy. There’s a contingent of folks who ONLY read the site for articles like this, and they’ve been hounding me to post about this as well. I try to post as much stuff as I can about as many topics as I can.
I appreciate the folks that read everything I post, but I kind of equate it to a magazine. You’re likely not going to like EVERY article in one, and that’s okay. You skip over them, and read what you want. I try to include a little something for everyone.
I appreciate the feedback.
Shastacatfish
August 4, 2016 @ 3:08 pm
I’ll just add, on the heals of the George Strait album review, that digging up older gems and posting reviews on them is awesome and there needs to be more of it. I would love to hear your take on something like Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection. Not exactly country, but there is a place for it in the discussion.
BwareDWare94
August 4, 2016 @ 11:24 am
Backpedaling cowards, and holy balls that’s a Jana Kramer level fake tan.
Stringbuzz
August 4, 2016 @ 11:27 am
SHUT UP AND PLAY
TS
August 4, 2016 @ 11:34 am
They look like extras in the movie Twilight.
Kevin Smith
August 4, 2016 @ 12:35 pm
The Band who? They don’t even exist in my world!
BrandonRMM
August 4, 2016 @ 1:13 pm
There’s no Band Perry in Ba Sing Se.
Here we are safe. Here we are free.
Tezca
August 4, 2016 @ 1:28 pm
Omg pfft never thought I’ll see an ATLA reference here XD I really like that show
Nadia Lockheart
August 4, 2016 @ 1:20 pm
Like I said in the single review thread,The Band Perry have been like the musical equivalent of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Both tend to compulsively contradict themselves in their statements on a near-daily basis. Both are wildly unfocused in their messaging and prone to erratic decision-making. And whenever either receives deserved scrutiny for their contradictory claims to outright compulsive lying, both get absolutely thin-skinned and attack their critics.
This is why “Comeback Kid” is not going to be their comeback single (they may never have one). Because just like most Americans are sick and tired of hearing public figures like Trump whine about their critics and stew in indignation rather than offer forward-looking ideas and cooperate with others, most listeners of both country and pop music are sick and tired of personalities who spend the plurality of their time whining about critics when much of their wounds are self-inflicted.
That’s precisely what doomed Lady Gaga’s previous album “ARTPOP” before she has since come to her senses and has been expressing a lot more humility since then. And Kanye West may retain a cult following to this day, but can you imagine how much more success he would be having if he only knew how to keep his frickin’ mouth shut? His album sales have floundered since “808s & Heartbreak”, which was approximately the time he started to really become unhinged in his behavior.
herbert wellington
August 4, 2016 @ 4:19 pm
Poor Kimberly Perry, she wants to go solo so bad, but can’t dump the two useless brothers. She’s going insane silently over it, and doesn’t know how to handle the situation. If those were two random friends/guys she met, they’d be gone in a heartbeat. Own flesh and blood? not so easy.
Obviously just me speculating, but I truly believe this to be the case. I’m cutting her slack for not dumping them by now. She definitely has massive potential as a solo act.
BwareDWare94
August 5, 2016 @ 6:49 am
Well, the Band Perry already is her solo act. Her brothers don’t do anything but stand around, mouth sampled harmonies, and look like assholes.
They can both pick but when they’re not recording anything that requires it…
the pistolero
August 4, 2016 @ 5:38 pm
They’re tilting at windmills instead of letting their music speak for itself.
Well, that’s what one has to do when the music really speaking doesn’t really say anything noteworthy, or, worse yet, makes them look like bunch of whiny little bitches.
Tiffany
August 4, 2016 @ 6:11 pm
Here not too long ago, I saw them in an interview where they said they went pop when If I Die Young came out. So, definitely typical TBP. I just interested in seeing how well this song is going to be recieved by radio. Like, Trigg mentioned in his last blog about TBP “Comeback Kid” tries to be both pop and country. And, with “Live Forever” it took a whole month before it actually charted. It is probably too early to tell on that yet. Itunes, however, has been having it on their hot tracks page for the last couple of days. So, I guess time will tell.
marc
August 4, 2016 @ 6:25 pm
“Is The Band Perry Really Trying To Say They Never Went Pop?” “”It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the–if he–if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not–that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement….”
Erik North
August 4, 2016 @ 6:44 pm
I really have to say that The Band Perry is really one of those groups, regardless of genre, that has a habit of being just adequate, not really a stand-out act, even when they are at their most traditional. After “If I Die Young”, I think the only thing of theirs that stands out, ironically enough, is their cover of the John Hartford mega-classic “Gentle On My Mind” for the Glen Campbell documentary I’LL BE ME. At least it bought out the song’s bluegrass origins, which should have been their strong suit. The fact that it has been covered dozens of times since GC’s 1967 version by artists as varied as Elvis, Aretha Franklin, Terri Clark, Lucinda Williams, and dozens of others doesn’t diminish how well it was done by them.
But they have a real Achilles heel, and in my opinion it is Kimberly Perry herself. I just don’t think she’s all that great a singer. Her voice is sometimes all over the place, sometimes it’s really flat. And when she attempts to “rock out”, like on “Done”, the result is little short of disastrous (her “UNNH!” at the end of that song is repellent). She is not a Linda Ronstadt or Pat Benatar caliber vocalist, and she ought to know this by now. If she can’t get it together vocally, I don’t think it matters what genre her and her brothers put themselves in, it could be Game Over very fast.
Nadia Lockheart
August 5, 2016 @ 12:53 am
To be fair, I think Kimberly Perry sounded great in their cover of Glen Campbell’s “Gentle On My Mind”. That is actually my favorite single of theirs to date, and that convinced me she can be an appealing vocalist when she doesn’t try too hard.
The problem is, well, she usually does. I’ll give her this: she did gain a lot of confidence between their eponymous debut and “Pioneer” as you can easily tell by listening to the singles alone. But sometimes having too much confidence can undermine your performance when it’s being wasted on bombast (Toby Keith and Carrie Underwood, I’m looking at you). “DONE” and “Chainsaw” were especially painful listening to because they were all power, no purpose. The only vocal track I actually liked among the singles on that album was “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely”, and it’s a shame that was marred by bland production.
Erik North
August 5, 2016 @ 7:25 am
Very true re. “Gentle On My Mind”, and I think part of the reason is that she realized that, with the multiple number of artists who did it before them and after GC, she could only put her own interpretation on it and hope for the best, and, yes, the end result was really something special. The trick is to do this on a consistent basis without going overboard on production and bombast, as you say, and for Kimberly to aim for a certain vocal dexterity that makes sense, as was the case with “Gentle”.
But you have to wonder if the Nashville record label powers-that-be will even allow that.
Shane
August 4, 2016 @ 7:26 pm
Basically TBP attempted the tried and true method of starting in country and springboarding to pop once they felt big enough to pull it off. Funny thing about the music industry…it’s fickle and TBP definitely zigged when they should have zagged.
So if they’re waffling now I say good. It’s nothing personal. It just gets old seeing a unique genre of music like Country get used like the town whore and ditched when it is convenient. Especially when there are performers all over the place barely making money (if any) hoping to God they eventually get a break while these Bro douches and Pop wannabes fill the airwaves getting money practically shoved down their throats.
Stephanie G.
August 4, 2016 @ 8:07 pm
For the record, your take on the bizarro story of The Band Perry and the input of your readers is fascinating. Their nonsense in the past year should be a warning to all the “pop tart” wannabes who think they are too good for country music. I, for one, say keep it coming with The Band Perry fallout.
Dallas
August 5, 2016 @ 6:02 am
All you writers that be saying that TBP turned pop or that heart + beat flopped ya’ll be the reason that Kim ain’t been getting no sleep
BwareDWare94
August 5, 2016 @ 6:52 am
Wat
Shane
August 5, 2016 @ 8:50 am
Lol he is paraphrasing lyrics from an eminem song
Fat Freddy's Cat
August 5, 2016 @ 7:37 am
I think this story is worth following, not for the sake of TBP per se but rather as it relates to the larger issue of the “popization” (that’s a word ain’t it?) of country music. I see that as a major raison d’etre for this site.
Al
August 6, 2016 @ 9:01 am
I heard “You Lie” out yesterday and have had it stuck in my head all morning. Imagine the audible laughter I let out upon visiting the site and reading this headline.
Camie Jo
August 6, 2016 @ 1:16 pm
This leaves me breathless, raspy and gasping for air.
There was waaaay too much flinging herself around center stage. She couldn’t carry off those high tempo cardio numbers.
Country music is not the author of confusion.
Tiffany
August 6, 2016 @ 7:03 pm
I happened to stumble upon the article on the article where they said they went pop when If I Die Young came out.
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/magnolia/2016/06/08/band-perrys-move-pop-click-bait/85547184/
Erik North
August 6, 2016 @ 7:58 pm
I think there was a pop remix of “If I Die Young” that eliminated the mandolin and fiddle on it. In all honesty, it was probably an early sign that The Band Perry wasn’t all that they made themselves out to be, at least to the country audience, and (in retrospect) to everyone else as well (IMHO).
Trigger
August 7, 2016 @ 10:26 am
Good find.
“Are we going pop? We have already gone pop. ‘If I Die Young’ was pop. If we end up going pop, it’s only repeating what we’ve already done.”
But now they’re saying they didn’t go pop. Got it.
Almost Out of Gas
August 9, 2016 @ 3:44 am
Anxious, that’s what they are. They could move to Sweden, and fit right in with the rest of the conformists… and hey, maybe hang out with some of our great pop producers and find one of their own. That might help. As a Swedish/Texan music fan I’m ashamed of Max Martin and ask you to forgive the rest of us for what he’s trying to do to our beloved genre.
Biscuit
August 14, 2016 @ 7:03 am
I would imagine most major labels are telling acts like TBP that they can be popular with country, rock and pop audiences. Labels are seeking to maximize sales and acts want the broadest audience possible, as it equates to more money and fame. I think much of the commercial musical genre mashing is not a concern with younger fans, who have grown up downloading music. They will buy a song they like regardless of what musical genre boundaries the aong crosses. Listeners really concerned about authenticity within a genre look at it differently and say “that’s not real rock” or “that’s not country enough”, so the artists and labels are challenged trying if they arw trying to market to two very different types of liateners..