I think the ugly truth is the AMERICAN MUSIC INDUSTRY DOESN'T LIKE DARK SKIN. They see it as a liability. Lets use Whitney Houston as an example. As talented as she is in the 80's her skin tone was an issue. Earlier pictures of her before she was famous showed a almond brown girl, by the time hair and make up was done with her you would've thought she was a tad bit fair skinned, and clearly she is not. Clive knew he would indeed have to make her look a certain way for the masses to take hold of her. Lets flash forward to 2010; theres a beautiful singer DONDRIA, aka Phatttfat, whom was discovered via youtube. She couldnt get a deal and it wasnt because she couldnt sing, or she wasnt beautiful, it was the tone of her skin; she was too dark. Even after JD signed her to SOSODEF she still is having that issue. Her video is shown in complete black n white, in fear that her skin tone will damper her possibilities of success. 3LW- They kicked out Naturi because she was too dark for the image they wanted. She indeed was the more talented singer of the 3, however her chocolate skin made her a liability. They tried covering it up by adding another choco-girl in their mold however we can see clearly they let that 3lw dream girl for a light bright CHEETAH GIRL, and even after the CG's were failing to maintain relevance in a Miley Sirus world, they didnt go back to 3LW, they kept the white girl and became the CHEETAH GIRLS. HMMM I WONDER WHY? NOW CIARA has another issue, and unfortunately it has nothing to do with the way she looks; its the way she sounds. Ciara has been doing the same thing since 2004, nothing about her has changed. Her lyrics havent gotten deeper, her dance moves havent evolved, and she simply hasnt said anything moving, which as an artist is almost required. People aren't going to put their money on someone who doesnt appear to have longevity but so much. Yeah when the song is hot, we might download the single, get the ringtone, but we're not buying an entire album of lets say, SOULJA BOY.She has yet to prove she can handle a ballad, which is something you're going to have to conquer if you're going to call yourself a singer. EVEN RIHANNA found some cat curtiling ballads and made them hits. Ciara needs to show EVOLUTION which she hasn't, although she named her 2nd album that.