14 DAY TRIAL // Adam Lambert, before anything, is a very accomplished singer, critics agree. However, it’s not just that that’s made him so popular with audiences worldwide even before he released a music album, a very rare occurrence these days. The difference between him and other up and coming talented artists is that he knows how to sell himself, a thing he’s the first to admit to.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Lambert – Glambert for his fans – talks anything from his out of the ordinary but very appealing image, his sound and the influences that shaped it in the long run, and the upcoming album, his official debut in showbiz. For starters, the singer notes, his “mission” in music is to bring back the fun of it, while also paying a due homage to old rock. This was the driving force behind the “For Your Entertainment” album, but that’s not to say that people should take it too seriously either.
Lambert is made of paradoxes, it would seem, and the same applies to his music. “I think there are a lot of throwback elements to [the album]. There is a lot of 70s and 80s influence. The first track has a little bit of kitschy-ness to it. But ‘For Your Entertainment’ has a very current pop / dance with a kind of T-Rex feel. I didn’t want to turn my back on my love for classic rock and the audience won’t appreciate that either because I got most of my cred on Idol singing songs from that era. [But] I love commercial pop music and I wanted to make something commercial.” Adam says in the interview.
Yet, while out to make something commercial and pop, Lambert also managed to accomplish another feat, paradoxically breaking off the mainstream he was trying to fit into. This happened, he says, because, before recording the album, he set out to erect himself as the next glam rock god – there was no such male artist on the scene and he was determined to be that one. While singers like Pink, Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera are the closest to being such female idols, there are no male singers who take their performances and image one step beyond mainstream, right there in the realm of art.
Speaking of image, Adam also explains that, in real life, he’s far from what we see on media tours, which again reinforces the belief that, if anything, this is one singer who truly knows how to sell himself in the manner of the aforementioned Gaga, say. “Today I’m camera ready. It took under an hour [to look like this]. But when I’m just living my own day-to-day life, I roll out of bed and I’m a guy. But when it comes to this [promotional] stuff, I’m on girl time. I am weird. I’m nice. But I’m weird. Maybe eccentric is a better word. I’ll pick that label.” Adam states.
For the full interview with Adam Lambert, see the Reuters piece here.