WARNING THIS MAY BE THE LONGEST POST OF ALL TIME..... DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE 2 HOURS!!!!! Thanks to sgr91, we have the list of all that have gotten deals major and indie from the show. MeagsMatt made a good observation that it seems all these people are all over the map talent wise, genre wise, and seasonally it seems to change. Well, I've decided to torture myself and analyze the seasons 1 by 1 to see if we can see what the deal is. I know in the end this is pretty pointless, but at the very least, it gets us talking about something other than just Matt not having a deal yet, and maybe we can see some silver lining and/or some patterns that have occured! So here goes! BTW, all this info comes from Wikipedia (only used the sourced material- so it's not made up)
Season 1RCA/19R - Kelly Clarkson (1)-- she's a pretty famous case, we know her 1st CD was fast paced to the stores, since she's been up and down. Still very successful Genre: pop music.
RCA/19R - Justin Guarini (2)-- solo album released nine months after the show (June '03) coinciding with the disaster that was "From Justin to Kelly" this most likely had something to do with poor record sales. Genre: R&B/Jazz/kind of all over the place
RCA/19R - Nikki McKibbin (3) She was urged to record a country album, didn't take the advice--nothing releasable was ever recorded. Genre: undefinable
19R - Tamyra Gray (4)--Simon Fuller signed her to his own label (not under Sony) in 2002 right after the show. Her 1st album was not released until 2004--sold poorly, most likely due to the length of time between show and release. Genre: R&B/Pop
RCA - Ryan Starr (7) -- under contract with RCA, refused to be turned into an Avril Lavigne type. Battled for 3 years, no albums. Genre: Rock
Koch - Jim Verraros (9)-- released an album in 2004, it was revamped in 2005 and re-released by Koch. Genre: Pop
-in season 1 the only ones signed directly after the show were Kelly, Justin, and Nikki by Sony. Tamyra was hand picked by Fuller for his newly formed label. It seems the pattern with these contestants are they waited too long to release their material and then they were forgotten by the Idol public.
Season 2J Records/19R - Ruben Studdard (1) 1st CD sold farely well (~1 mil) other albums have done fairly well within the Gospel world, not so much within popular music. Seems to have faded since the show. Genre: R&B/Gospel
RCA/19R - Clay Aiken (2)- Did very well right out of the gate, has faded since, now on Broadway Genre: Pop/AC
Curb - Kimberley Locke (3)- had a decent single right out of the gate, sold alright-- now mostly does reality tv but still records. Genre: R&B/Pop
Lyric (a division of Disney) -- Josh Gracin (4)--had some decent success in the country world, not so much outside of that. Genre:Country
Vangaurd - Kimberley Caldwell (7)-- this is a recent signing... no CD yet. Genre: Pop?
Indie- Carmen Rasmussen-- never heard from again, didn't even know she had a CD out. I guess it was released in 2007 Genre- Country
-in season 1 only the top 2 were signed after the season. It seems these people all had decent success in their specific genre but have since faded. Or Carmen who had no success because she signed with an Indie and released it 4 years after the show.
Season 3J Records/19R - Fantasia Barrino (1)-- mild success right away-- since dropped from 19(but not J Records) has done well on Broadway Genre:R&B
RCA/19R - Diana DeGarmo-- released an album- no success what so ever. Not very popular on the show, despite finishing 2nd. Genre- Pop
Universal - Jasmine Trias (3)-- the oddest signing to date-- not very popular on the show released an album in 2005- it was sold exculsively through Taco Bell and Pizza Hut-- no success Genre:Unknown
World Records (division of Warner) - George Huff (5)--had a CD do well in Gospel-- that's about it. Genre:Gospel
Maverick Records (division of Warner) - John Stevens (6)--Album produced by David Foster (aka old fogie music) did well in Jazz sales-- not in popular music Genre: Jazz
Arista - Jennifer Hudson (7)-- we all know the story with her. Got this plum deal because of "Dreamgirls" Genre: R&B
Indie-LaToya London-- no success
Indie- Jon Peter Lewis -- no success
-so it seems that this season had some stylized success i.e. did well in the genre specific areas, not so much in pop music.
Season 4Arista/Nashville 19R - Carrie Underwood (1)-- we're all well aware of her success. Most successful contestant to date. Genre: Country
RCA/19R - Bo Bice (2)-- watered down 1st album, turned into more pop, mild success, health issues derailed career for a bit, indie label now with more his style music, successful on the tour circuit Genre: Southern Rock
Arista - Mario Vazquez (quit)-- had that 1 single. Got greedy and thought he could do it on his own--he couldn't.
Constantine, Nadia and Nikko-- not much for these 3 either.... Constantine's now on Broadway, Nadia's an actress I think, and Nikko's back to just being Ozzie Smith's son (which I think is awesome anyway! lol)
-this season had little success. Carrie is huge-- country people do well from this show. Bo is still mildly successful on tour circuit.
Season 5Arista/19R - Taylor Hicks (1)-- not a very popular winner w/in 19E,somewhat watered down from what he wanted to do, not marketed well, what little success he had was overshadowed by Chris. still records- not much success in pop music. Genre: Blues
RCA/19R - Katharine McPhee (2)-- released album, mild success, successful model/actress, 2nd album coming soon. Juries still out on McPhee Genre: Pop
RCA/19R - Chris Daughtry (4)-- well documented success.. 2nd album out in July we'll see if he can sustain it (I CAN'T WAIT!!) Genre: Rock
BNA/19R - Kellie Pickler (6)-- pretty decent success in country. sustained her career. touring with Taylor Swift. Genre: Country
Lyric (divison of Disney) - Bucky Covington-- had a little bit of success out of the gate, 2nd CD out in September. Juries still out. Genre: Country
EMI - Mandisa (9)-- just released 2nd album (non holiday) doing quite well in Christian world-- not so much in pop world. She looks fabulous now btw! Genre: Gospel
Ace, Paris--- not so much from them, Ace is doing well in tv and won a Grammy.
Elliot-- well documented indie success due to great 1st single-- 2nd album not doing so hot though.
-this season obviously has been the most successful. Like was stated above Elliot was offered a contract from 19 but turned it down. IMO, the reason there were so many signed from this season was because 19 worried about the sales potential of Hicks and McPhee--- they needed more deals to counteract that. Most of them are still around though.
Season 6Jive/19R - Jordin Sparks (1)-- mild success,prolly due to her genre splitting 1st CD. 2nd CD coming out soon. Juries Out. Genre: Pop/R&B
Arista/19R - Blake Lewis (2)-- actually allowed to put out his kind of album-- didn't sell well. Dropped from his label. Currently working on material (via his Twitter) Genre: Blake-- don't know how to describe it lol
Lyric (divison of Disney) - Phil Stacey (5/6) mild success in Country. will release Christian album this year. Genre: Country/Christian
Mandisa, Lakisha, Chris Sligh and Brondon Rogers signed with Indies--- not much between these guys.
-not very successful season. Only Jordin has done well.
Season 7RCA/19R - David Cook (1)-- successful, I think he'll sustain it if the material gets better for 2nd album. Seems to be pretty popular tour stop. Genre: Rock
Jive/19R - David Archuleta (2)-- has some success. A few decent singles. Huge overseas. Touring with Demi Lavato. Will most likely stick around. Genre: Pop
Atlantic (division of Warne) - Jason Castro (4)-- Juries still out. Getting great buzz if MJ's is to be believed.
BNA/19R - Kristy Lee Cook (7)
Brooke and Michael signed with Indies--- Juries still out. Brooke getting good buzz though. Haven't much about Michael
-Juries still out on this season. Has a ton of potential. The addition of instruments seems to have helped (GOOD FOR MATT!)
Well, it seems the patterns don't bode well for anybody signed with an Indie label. Only Elliot has had any success going that route and has found it difficult to sustain. Another pattern I've seen is that the season's which seem to be the most successful (1,5,7) seem to have the most post Idol success; while the least successful seasons (3,6) seem to be the least successful post-Idol. I think this bodes well for the season 8 crew. It seems that most of the people who have success right out of the gate, do so because of the popularity of the show then fade away (Ruben,Clay, Fantasia). The ones who sustain the success are very relevant to the music scene now (GOOD FOR MATT!!!!) Then it seems most of these people are successful within their genres but not in popular music, which is why we don't hear about them much. Contestants from Idol need to strike while the iron is hot and not wait around to release their albums-- those contestants are almost never successful (JHud being the exception) Success happens because of good material, good marketing, and fanbase loyalty.
So how does this bode for Matthew. I'm almost 110% sure that he will be signed by a major label. He's 20 times more talented than 95% of the people signed by a major record label.It seems he doesn't have much of a shot with 19, unless they see this season like season 5. Juries still out tho. Whether it's one of the BIG labels we all know remains to be seen-- but I'll say I think he's got a more than good shot. To succeed Matt needs to get with a decent label- one that will nurture him and market him. He needs to release a CD within the next year, year and half. The most important thing is to get in touch with good producers, song writers, and collaborators to work on his stuff. I'd say so far, he's doing an excellent job at this. So everyone say it with me: HE'S GOING TO BE OK!!!!!!!
see--- longest post of all time. But I'm a natural researcher and you put info like this in front of my face and I'm going to analyze it.
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Subject: Re: MTV thinks Matt should be next to get a record deal... 
Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:18 am
