Product Vs. Promotion: Ameriie

Published: Saturday 30th Jun 2012 by Rashad

Underrated.  Just one of the many things often named with ‘1 Thing’ hitmaker Amerie Rogers.  Her humble beginnings may have found her lost in the shuffle of a new wave of early 2000s R&B belles, but the musical melting pot that was her debut album ‘All I Have’ quickly set her apart.  A melting pot, hinting at R&B, soul, pop, and hip hop, that seemed filled with almost as many diversities as the singer herself.

Led by the mid tempo ‘Why Don’t We Fall In Love’, fans quickly fell in love with this beauty’s varicolored vocal stylings, accented by layers of decorative harmonic arrangements.  A quality that would remain a distinct constant, yet misprized feature of her offerings.

However, it was the introduction of ‘1 Thing’, the lead single from the 2005 ‘Hitch’ soundtrack (Will Smith) and her sophomore album ‘Touch’ that saw R&B lovers really get in touch with her work…

Bringing the once-centralized D.C. ‘go-go’ sound to the masses, Rogers landed 2005’s big summer single (and her first and last top 10).  And despite earning her two Grammy nods, the singer’s later experimentation with more radio friendly material from the album (‘Touch’ feat. T.I., ‘Talkin’ About’) fell on deaf ears.  Deaf ears certainly awakened by news of the singer’s move to Def Jam (after a lengthy war with Columbia), her tertiary release ‘Because I Love It’ (with no official singles Stateside) and its follow-up ‘In Love & War’ both got no love for record buyers.

Some blame the product and the absence of longtime collaborator Rich Harrison, others blame the lack of promo.  And while we patiently await the singer’s 5th studio album ‘Cymatika’

That Grape Juice wants to know…where is the disconnect? The beauty, the body, the moves, the sound. If ever a marketing inventory saw a check beside every quality, Amerie‘s (now Ameriie) packaging would have that.  The singer even conformed to more electro-pop attempts (see: ‘Outside Your Body’), to limited success.  What’s missing?

Product or Promotion?

Your thoughts?

Comments 34

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  1. coco June 30, 2012

    she’s got beauty & body , Amerie is on boring person…no personality

  2. joker June 30, 2012

    product? like what? you’s really all nuts and chasing bucks… huh?!

    definetely a lil promo. tease a big audience. if it works they’ll like it.

  3. Angie June 30, 2012

    Her music is okay. I still listen to her first album. I agree with the fact that she has no personality. I don’t know anything about her. She tries to dance sometimes and looks kinda silly. She is not aspirational enough. She seems too ordinary.

  4. I’m not throwing shade, but June 30, 2012

    Her first album was great to me, but then weight loss, a nose job, sexed up image and mediocre second album with strained vocals (maybe side affect of nose job) she became looks over music. Although i have all of… most of Amerie’s albums i only listen to the first and the rest are patchy.
    Unfortunately for Amerie (as well as Ashanti, Christina Milian) Okay vocals are being frowned upon (although great vocals are not selling) A comeback will be hard.

    • Jasmine June 30, 2012

      I agree. I think she should go back to Rich again because they had chemistry. I think she cannot sing…she can just carry a tune. However, on her first album I actually thought she could sing because the production was good r&b and a fit with her voice.

      • Ziggy Stardust June 30, 2012

        “All I Have” and “Touch” were great albums. Rich Harrison was to Amerie what Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis were to Janet Jackson. They fit like a glove together. His production along with her voice was just a great combination. I don’t know how true it is, but there have been rumors that Amerie was upset that he had gone to work with Beyonce on her, “B’Day” album with two songs that sounds very much like her style. Remember “Suga Mama” and “Freakum Dress”? Both of those songs were produced by Rich Harrison. And, when you think about it, they both sound like something Amerie would have done. That was her signature style. And, it’s been said that Amerie was upset because Rich gave her “style” to another artist. That was one of the reasons why they “supposedly” parted ways. Anyway, her career wasn’t the same ever since they parted ways. They should get back together. Her voice was different, (she didn’t sound like anyone else), and the production of her music was just really, really good.

      • andrea jones August 17, 2012

        @Ziggy I agree with you 100%, Amerie can sing and she’s just who she is. It’s a shame that as an artist people can’t respect you as an Artist, every song is not going to be fire and for the record she’s all that! Ameri is “one of a kind” I really hope she has a huge come back…I would love to hear something by her and Niki Minaj.
        for a come back she has to do it huge right now!
        spice it up some “A”

  5. All I have June 30, 2012

    All I Have is a great album that still gets burn on my laptop…Her second album also had some gems, I think the industry did her dirty. BILI wasn’t that bad.

  6. JohnVidal(RIP Whitney-truegreat) June 30, 2012

    Since when is this girl a hit maker? Just asking. Maybe I´m missing something

    • I AM NOXEEMA JACKSON June 30, 2012

      I think TGJ is referring to Why Don’t We Fall In Love, and 1 Thing.

  7. Y’all People Drain Me… June 30, 2012

    People on this site act like they work in the industry and always is harsh for no reason. Also can not deliver and intellectual answer. Amerrie does have what it takes to suceed in this business and she wants to do it on her terms that may or may not work for her. All she needs is the write people behind and she could be bigger than what she is. But it may be a little to late. Rich Harrison and her makes great music together that’s undeniable. I think Rich kind of mess things up because he was giving that same sound away. Thing is she was on Columbia with B and since B was the bigger artist, they put Amerrie on the back burner even tho Touch was made way before B first CD. But as usually people thought Ameriie was copying B and that wasn’t the case. Amerie was wearing pumpum shorts, pumps and crazy hair in WDWFIL video. So whenever she would do things people like y’all and other industry folks would think she was copying B. Amerriie stays consistent and tries to do other things with her music and her song writing. But this day and critics don’t like real music and artist. Just generic Bulls***. She may not have the best vocals but she can be a force to wrecking with..

    • Angie June 30, 2012

      Please educate yourself on the difference between “right” and “write” before you talk about other people not being “intellectual.” Really?

      • andrea jones August 17, 2012

        HERE WE GO, YOU KNOW WHAT SHE MEANT SO STICK TO THE SUBJECT. YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING AND IT’S ALWAYS NEGATIVE . YOU MUST BE A TEACHER CORRECTING GRAMMAR ON (HEAR) DID YOU GET THAT? LOL, I’M SURE YOU DID BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT RIGHT!

  8. Virtuoso Intellect June 30, 2012

    She’s just a one hit wonder. Every decade there are always struggling singers hovering around.

  9. johny blue June 30, 2012

    It’s promotion at the end of the day, she’s got the product, but promo is horrible. Packaging too, hate rihanna all u want but that’s the only reason she’s had so much success, what she lacks in talent she more than makes up for in packaging and promo. Ameriie just needs to put together the album we all know she’s capable off and get the right people behind her. I’d love to hear her work with swizz beatz or Ryan Leslie

  10. Dave June 30, 2012

    Strained vocals? Dead. Her voice is raspy, period. She’s explained how she kinda damaged her voice at a basketball game back in the day. Ameriie has a 3 vocal octave range, I’ve heard her sing live & she can touch just about every not live as she does in studio. Her vocals have always been like that. & I take the statement about a mediocre 2nd album as an opinion. “Touch” is an exceptional album. I mean “Talkin About”, “Rolling down my face”,
    “Not the only one”, “Why don’t we fall in love (Richcraft Remix)”, “Come with Me.” idk wth you’re listening too. & being a 1 hit wonder? “Why Don’t You Fall” in love was a hit, it was a top-40 hit, peaking at #23 on Billboard hot 100, & #9 on billboard r&b/hip hop singles. & “Talkin’ About” from my knowledge was not an official single, if anything it was a promo single. Her 3rd album “Because I Love It” did not fall on deaf ears, it was ONLY released overseas, period, & it got exceptional critical acclaim. “In Love & War” was a great album too for the Funk, Soul, Rock & Roll, R&B, audience. I mean songs like fan favorite “Higher”, “Red Eye”, “Brown Eyes”, “Why R U.” I think the issue with Ameriie isn’t necessarily her, I just think people only wanna hear one thing from her, which is R&B. Everybody is no narrow-minded. Soon as you start doing other sounds that are apart of you, people hold you to that one sound that introduced you to the world. Because I always hear people say, “she needs to do another R&B” album. No, you either need to like her for who she is, or don’t, because she can’t create something that isn’t in her at the moment. Luckily she is giving fans some R&B from her inspiring “The Prelude” EP. I think Ameriie’s biggest issue is promotion & marketing. Her labels never promote her, but she always has the product for it’s respective market. Look @ “In Love & War”, the album packaging & artwork was amazing, the production was great, but it just didn’t go anywhere. She was in the studio laying down harmonies, coming up with concepts, writing her OWN lyrics to her songs, she always has the product. People need to start accepting people for who they are & stop acting like one person in the game can only have success. That’s why music is so lame now, nobody gives anybody a chance really, so now you hear this recycled “dance/electro” sound. Then y’all get mad “oh R&B needs to come back”, but do people really support it? Nope… Monica in my opinion put out a great R&B album “New Life”, about real things, laying down real vocals, with some great production, but that fell on deaf ears. Her label in my opinion promoted the heck out of her, she was doing constant radio interviews, sessions @ aol, all the tv shows performing, thou I don’t think “It All Belongs To Me” was the right song to give promo too, but still. Lot’s of people release these quality albums, but they all fall on deaf ears. It’s the consumers, & it’s the labels with their promotion/budgeting/marketing, in my personal opinion.

    • Riyadh Mizrahi July 1, 2012

      Dave I love you dude!

    • Iwishabitchwould July 1, 2012

      Dave! Great key notes..Touch was her best album and everyone of her albums deserve accolades she is genius with the pen, her vocals are crisp and raspy, and she can dance…best video to date…”Hear em All” she killed that video!

  11. number1k9 June 30, 2012

    Back in 2002 I hated Amerie.

    Then ‘1 Thing’ came out in 2005, and I hated “1 Thing” too!

    BUT, then “1 Thing” just became to infectious and I LOVED it! I loved it so much I went out and bought ‘Touch.’ Album had at least 5 good songs on it, that I liked/would still listen to today!

    I wanted “Touch” as a single to have success, it had that Crunk soudn to it, but came near the tail end of the Crunk/R&B movement, so prob why it didn’t catch on. Sad, but life.

    In general I think Amerie does release music good enough to match her peers, and def good enough for the R&B audience at mimimum. Def for Pop crossover she needs WAY more promotion, and also a more hybrid fusion sound. Like “1 Thing” had a good throwback sound, yet it was Pop enough to hear on CHR and Urban radio, something you need for a crossover Pop hit nowadays.

    Really wanted her Trey Songz collabo “Pretty Brown,” to be a hit for her, least R&B wise, but wasn’t. Oh well, maybe if she gets the promo she needs, and works on getting that perfect Urban/Pop hybrid soudn as “1 Thing” had she will be able to at least get back in the Top 10 of the R&B charts.

    Really truth be told NOT every R&B based artist should try to be mainstream. If it happens let it be naturally; don’t chase it!

  12. 12345 June 30, 2012

    Its both.

    Her vocals are bad people hate rihannas vocals but there are strong and full sounding but this chick sounds too rough and when she does adlibs and goes higher, shes soundsn screeching its just aaaaaaaaaaaaah.

    touch was a good album, though.

    Yes her personality is too intellegant and too grown. she has no funny side or sassy side. people dont like smart people

  13. Dave June 30, 2012

    And btw, Ameriie has a Lyric voice, she’s a Lyric Soprano. Her voice will always be “lite” or ‘thin.’ Rihanna is more of a Contralto/Alto. & Rihanna shouldn’t be compared because she’s a studio singer. I wouldn’t even call her a singer at all, personally.

  14. credits June 30, 2012

    “In love and War” is one of the few r&b gems to come out in the last 3 years. And it’s a collection of songs, a distinctive sound that you can’t get with anyone else. I seriously hope she is not going to dive into that electro-pop stuff because she has been very consistent thus far and i love her for that.

  15. dustin June 30, 2012

    my opinion? and this will come under fire but f*** it.

    her issue is that urban audiences don’t want intelligent, cerebral and educated women at the top. they also tend to only reward artists that struggled early in life. they want a rags to riches story (exception beyonce). thats why informed and talented women with something to say like ameriie get lost in the shuffle and hood chicks like keysha cole stay selling records (even though they often sing off key). i saw ameriie live in LA a couple years ago and she MURDERED it. such a good live performer. whoever mentioned her not being “aspirational” enough makes a point but it really drives home the fact that perception is reality. people don’t see a struggle so they see no reason to root for her.

    that said shes one of THE most talented chicks in the game. bottom line.

    • Dave June 30, 2012

      YES, all of this!

    • Ziggy Stardust June 30, 2012

      So true! You have never heard of any drama being tied to Amerie’s name, (I know she changed her name by adding an extra “i” into it. I still have to get used to it. Lol.), which is one of the reasons why the industry doesn’t care for her. When there’s no scandal or drama, there’s no interest. The “rags to riches” comment is nothing but the straight truth. They love it when they know you’ve grown up in the ghetto (or) has had a hard life and you’ve managed to pull yourself up by the boot straps. But, anything outside of that, they think that you’re too safe and boring.

    • Riyadh Mizrahi July 1, 2012

      I FREAKING LOVE YOU DUSTIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  16. lsb June 30, 2012

    I think she needs good promo with good songs like her first two albums.

    Her album with def jam was not good the songs was not single material. she needs to make an album like touch.

  17. POP ROYALTY ( Révolution) June 30, 2012

    def Promotion. she make good songs !! a good performer , looks s*** , etc ….

    She got what it takes to be #2 after Beyonce or Even Bigger.

  18. MelyB June 30, 2012

    ^ DAVE & DUSTIN’S comments, they are right on the money. I am an Amerie fan – have been since her debut and in my mind she has always stayed true to herself as an artist. She still does r&b-ish tracks with guitar influences that I happen to love. Between the release of her 1st & 2nd albums, a lot changed in the music industry and that’s also when I noticed a rise in “stanning” where she was pitted against other artists to her detriment.

    I think that if BECAUSE I LOVE IT had been promoted properly, she would’ve achieved success because that album had more than a few really great tracks. In fact all of her albums have exceptional tracks that STAY on my ipod.

    Amerie’s biggest problem is promotion – she’s been on two major labels where she was not even close to being a priority artist. Therefore she & her team had to do a much better job in selecting her first single because she only gets that one chance to promote the song & do a video. Her secondary problem as I believe Dustin mentioned is that she is an intelligent, cerebral drama-free artist hence “boring” to some. She doesn’t flash her T&A, doesn’t court paps & keeps her private life private and I guess some people just can’t relate to her & separate her music from some persona that they’d like her to have.

    • Dave June 30, 2012

      Yes, you are right on the ball!

  19. Love on top July 1, 2012

    “TOUCH” the song omg how the f*** did that s*** flop? I mean the song is better than 1 thing ! Ugh hate america

  20. Riyadh Mizrahi July 1, 2012

    I LOVE AMERIIE.

    HAVE HER ALBUMS THINK SHE IS CLASSY, MULTI-TALENTED, EDUCATED AND BEAUTIFUL AND MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE ARTIST. SHE IS A GREAT ROLE MODEL FOR YOUNG GIRLS AND THE REASON WHY SHE ISN’T AS FAMOUS IS BECAUSE SHE IS GENUINE. SHE IS NOT A MANUFACTURED PUPPET DOWN WITH A STUPID AGENDA. SHE IS HER OWN PERSON WITH IMMENSE TALENT. EVEN IF SHE WOULD GET ‘PROMOTION’ IT WOULD PROBABLY BE AT THE EXPENSE OF BEING A PUPPET WHICH I DON’T SEE SOMEONE AS INTELLIGENT AS AMERIIE SELLING HER SOUL IN THAT WAY.

    LOVE YOU AMERIIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  21. Iwishabitchwould July 1, 2012

    I think CYMATIKA is gonna be her comeback album…simply because she has said numerous times shes going for a more pop sound! This is the crossover appeal she needs.

    BOTTOM LINE IS R&B DOESNT SELL BECAUSE MINORITIES DONT BY MUSIC. Point. Blank. Period. Thats why monica & keyshia are struggling…along with one of the best R&B vocalist letoya luckett. Its that stubborn will to stick to that “Ghetto Love and Heartbreak” that is hindering their careers… thats why for a chocolate sister KELLY RO IS RUNNING THE GAME TO ME…She has had crossover success with pop and continues to switch things up while still serving you Hard R&B tracks. its this concept-pill that Keyshia, Letoya, & Ameriie…all need to swallow…and fast because contracts are running slim now-a-days and you cant just hop to another label and get out music like you used too.

    Ameriie still has that hit factor in her! and I hope I see it with this new album because she DAMN WELL deserves it!

  22. J-T November 11, 2012

    She compares a lot to Ciara when it comes to the Urban audiences

    Their debut albums are when they’ve just happened to make their names known to the world. Typical “rags to riches” storyline that many urban artists, especially females, supposedly go by. Love songs, and street anthems.

    Usually now, people say that their debut albums were their bests, but I feel that their Sophomore albums are when their crafts was better defined for them as individuals, without taking away inspiration from their debut albums. Then once in a while they do experiment with sound (usually the 3rd albums) but it’s all for building more into that craft in a creative way.

    Not to mention urban audiences expected Amerie, and even Ciara, to be here for a season, rather than as long as they are alive and kicking. If anyone references their debut album as their best, that should be proof enough that they only wanted them in for a season. Nostalgia, being another factor.

    Honestly, I feel that urban audiences label Beyonce as the only recent black female r&b singer that dances, too, and it should remain that way.

    My personal suggestions to them, especially Amerie, is to venture overseas, because they are more loyal to music than the U.S. is. They are even more loyal to urban music than our own urban audience in America. Amerie already has a good amount of fans in Korea, knowing her heritage and her understanding of the language. Most of it anyways. She should venture out to them more on her upcoming projects.

    In America, and typically Urban America, unless you are Beyonce, have scandal in your name (Rihanna), or sing constant love songs and heartbreak songs (Brandy, Monica, Keyshia Cole), they’re either not checking for you, or only checking for you temporarily.

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