As I have said before, I am fascinated by the extremes of opinion regarding Ashlee Simpson: I see nothing to really love or hate. She's more "authentic" than many (she writes, has an actual band, works in a "rock" mode), and less so than many others.
She doesn't suck, she isn't particularly good - she just IS, as far as I'm concerned. And yet her debut album has sold 2.6 million copies (9th best of all albums in '04) to passionate fans worldwide, on the one hand, and on the other, she was absolutely pilloried for her SNL misadventure and was actually booed at the Orange Bowl for her halftime performance, which wasn't very good but no worse than many singers would be under similar circumstances.
To a certain extent I feel sorry for her in that she has been singled out when she is no better or worse than dozens of others.
Now, over 35,000 (and counting) people have signed a petition demanding she shut the hell up and go away:
- To: Geffen/DGC Records & JT Simpson Entertainment
We, the undersigned, are disgusted with Ashlee Simpson's horrible singing and hereby ask her to stop. Stop recording, touring, modeling and performing. We do not wish to see her again.
She cannot match the sound of her voice that can be found on her CDs, when she sings live. She simply yells the words (sometimes the wrong ones) into the mic.
We are so sickened by her "performing" that we are taking this opportunity to demand that she stop.
Sincerely,
Showbiz is tough.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Berlin
I think her fame/infamy has a lot to do with her sister and the fact of her own reality series. One she can control, the other she can't. In a weird sort of way, she's kind of the ultimate celebrity of the Reality Age: the Osbournes paved the way, Paris and Anna Nicole Smith are the laughing stock, and Ashlee is the crowned queen: a degree of talent, connections (sister) up the wazoo, and a television series on MTV.
Makes you think about what The Monkees must think of all this, doesn't it?
By the way: The Stop Ashlee Simpson movement is not the first of its kind. A while back I stumbled across H.O.P.E. (Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment) which was formed in reaction to Ashlee's debut album, Autobiography.
Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
2 - Al Barger
Ashlee Simpson is a big nothing, artistically speaking. That's not a moral judgement against her, but an aesthetic judgement.
I will admit to a bit of resentment toward her, a feeling I don't enjoy. Still, she's got a tv show and a multi-platinum album not really even because of superior hustle, but just pure dumb nepotism. Seeing this young idiot getting a highly coveted slot on SNL while so many great musicians are eating rats annoys me, and makes me disinclined to cut her slack when she screws up badly on something she didn't deserve in the first place.
Still, I conclude that there's nothing to be crappy with Ms Simpson over personally. Fame and fortune was basically just handed to her, and what was she supposed to do? Turn it down?
By rights, my beef is with the industry {queue "Radio, Radio") that pimps this nonsense- and with the young idiots who actually pay money for such foolishness.
3 - Bill Lamb
So Ashlee Simpson is this generation's Milli Vanilli...or something similar. I agree, Eric, I'm kind of amazed there is such an uproar.
Pop singers lip-synching? Yikes! (sarcasm intended)
Maybe Ashlee should take comfort in the fact that Paula Abdul (another singer who apparently benefited tremendously from studio 'enhancement' of her voice) has made a mint on 'American Idol' in the twilight of her show business career.
4 - mrbenning
I'm amazed to find myself saying this, but Paula Abdul actually had a legitimate career as a cheerleader and dancer before stepping up to the pop music slot machine. She's one of the few who made it.
Ashlee on the other hand happened to slide in on the heels of her b-list pop singer sister. This makes her an easy target.
It makes me wonder why music is so much harder to break into than acting. I can think of a long list of Hollywood stars (though most I can think of are legitimately talented actors or actresses) that get a leg up in show business because they're a Coppola, a Barrymore, a Leigh, or a Paltrow. Most of them didn't get shat on, aside from Sofia, when they were making their start.
Maybe it's because of the legitimacy of dramatic art versus manufactured pop. Maybe it's because you can start out low key in Hollywood, whereas in pop music you're generally dead before you're out the door. Either way I feel bad for the girl. She probably didn't know what she was getting into.
If I had Ashlee's address I'd write a letter telling her to retire and try again in 10 years. Continuing like this is only going to make things worse.
5 - Eric Berlin
Paula Abdul was a well-known choreographer before she broke out as a pop singer. I believe she led the Fly Girls on "In Living Color."
I don't think nepotism is that different between the music and acting worlds. There are plenty of pop stars that get their start due to rich/famous heritage (Lennon, Iglesias, etc.).
6 - Eric Olsen
I think what it comes down to is she has had the misfortune (after incredibly good fortune as has been mentioned) of becoming a symbol and as such her name will be bandied about fairly far apart from actual reality.
She isn't Milli Vanillia: she writes (at least some), she definitely sings on her records, her band actually plays and she actually sings (other than SNL) live - those are very substantial differences from a duo that did NOTHING but dance around and take photos
7 - Jason
I'm with you, Eric... I'm shocked, shocked to learn that she lip-synched her performances. It seems that the ire directed at her is based more on the fact that she got caught than the fact that she was mouthing words in a live performance on national television.
So this petition effort is silly and misplaced. That said, I'd happily sign a petition to make her a blonde again.
8 - Eric Olsen
I would join you on that, Jason: blonde and a nose job and she'll be Jessica
9 - Albanesse
Hey,
My opinion is that she should be shat on... for the sole reason that it is implied she is a struggling performer. The reality show is a farce. IF she said "hey, my dad really got me all this" I would feel better about her. Her music... maybe she does write her songs.. who knows, but does it take that much to write a pop song today
10 - Eric Olsen
yes, but once put in that position by dad, sis and whomever, she is still the one who has to go up there and do it, and at that she is most certainly "stuggling"
11 - BRICKLAYER
Perhaps a few months spent in a van touring the country with Mudhoney, or Gwar, or Deicide would help toughen up this PYT to the rigors of the music business, and thicken her satiny sweet smelling skin (I bet it has the aroma of Grape Bubbleyum, or sugar cookies-yummy!). Other than the methamphetamine addiction, she would pick up a ton of great experience. Or perhaps an internship at Discord records. A few months of packaging melodyless angular "rock/post-post hardcore" cd's into recycled boxes would make for fantastic reality tv! Preparing a vegan box lunch for anarcho-punks as they prepare to protest something or other by banging drums outside the Whitehouse, while former members of Minor Threat sneak admiring peaks at her perky rear end: Priceless.
12 - Eric Olsen
Bricky, we just don't hear enough of this kind of cheerful subversion from you anymore - w etink you don't like us.
13 - HW Saxton
43,509 signatures against Ashlee so far.
14 - Eric Berlin
Total aside: I saw Mudhoney live in San Francisco about three years ago. Great show -- they can still bring it.
15 - Eric Olsen
man, they are smoking with the sigs! If they get, like, 10 million does she have to leave the country or become a nun or something?
16 - Albanesse
Sorry about the misspelling I was running to get a sandwich at Quiznos. Okay, about her going up on stage and having to do the job where it counts. Then she should be ready for the worst. I am a performer (sketch comedy) and have played for 11 people and gotten laughs that made it great and then played for 200 and not gotten a smile. From the beginning she is surrounded by a crew and agents that say she will make it. In truth she has made it, but now it is beyond PR to keep her going. She has to prove she can stay up there. I don't think she can. This is no fault of her own, she has been packaged for the role and my thing again is how she is being packaged. I will never see her as someone that gave up something to live out this dream. Vanilla Ice was beat upon for not being “street” enough and I think she is the Vanilla Ice of this decade… hell, at least he was really street or at least White Trash.
Please excuse any spelling, grammer or judgment errors.
17 - mrbenning
Hopefully she manages her money as well as Vanilla Ice has. It's a long belly flop to the bottom.
18 - Lono
It's all the (forgive the spelling) shadenfreuden. We are jerks who take joy from the suffering of others. I'm not proud, but at least I'll admit it.
19 - Eric Olsen
I guess I am trying to ge tat why we are exercising our tendency toward schadenfreude on this particular performer at this particular time.
20 - Alex Rawls
What surprises me about all the Ashlee furor is how little of the hostility and the sense of being cheated is aimed at Joe Simpson, Geffen and MTV. Neither she nor Lindsay Lohan - to name 2 - have the muscle on their own to get an album made or a video on MTV without a lot of help and cooperation. It seems more reasonable to go after the cynical bastards to worked hard to create the impression that the emperor had clothes than the poor, tone-deaf dear who's been convinced she has a lot more to offer than she does.
21 - Eric Olsen
that makes a lot of sense Alex - the old "star-maker machinery" is going stronger than ever
22 - Eric Olsen
or at least it thinks it is
23 - Dawn
Again, I ask, why poor Ashlee? So she was caught lipsynching, my goodness is that a crime punishable by death?
If being a crappy artist who doesn't deserve the honors bestowed upon them is a crime then I can name several hundred who should be publicly stoned - and as for her peers, let me say this, Lindsey Lohan should be stripped of her diva crown and forced to have "skanky ho" tattooed on her forehead - I mean honestly, she is far more offensive on the scale of the undeserving of fame and wealth.
24 - DJRadiohead
Being less shitty than something really shitty means you are still shitty. Ashlee Simpson is not the shittiest artist out there. And that should appall each and every one of us. It should appall us that there is something shittier than Ashlee Simpson. Because there is.
But I am not going to defend shit. Because shit is shitty.
25 - Eric Olsen
no shit