The Savage Animal 04.09.08: Groomed to be Doomed
Posted by Mikey MiGo on 04.09.2008
In this week’s Savage Animal, 411’s Mikey MiGo takes a look at some of the children actors who have now embarked into their music careers. Some of the Disney Divas and Nickelodeon Superstars are as obvious as Justin Timberlake, but what about Alanis Morissette and Fergie?
This past week was an uphill battle against this horrible flu that's been going around. It's just really mean congestion and a sore throat. I took a lot of antibiotics and drank generic NyQuil products as I vegetated between working on the things I must get done and watching the entire season of "Freaks and Geeks". I had remembered the show exsisting, but never actually watched it until this past week. I started and got hooked HARD. This show was perfect and the fact that it was cancelled is another black eye to NBC's horrible decisions. With last year's cancellation of "Studio 60", the axing of "Ed", and the cancellation of this show I actually don't know if I want to really trust the network anymore. If they decide to take a chance on something other than Law and Order spin offs and give a show more than one year we wouldn't have a problem. But I want show security. I want to watch a season of a new show and know we'll at least get another to see where things go. I know this is all disposable entertainment, but c'mon!
Saturday did end up being a sorta busy day. Early in the morning I drank a pot of coffee and felt wired so I ended up working on randomness until the afternoon reading for "All The Love In The World". After the reading, I uploaded the footage from the day's session and went to a local concert. We scooped up a friend and headed out to the Emisis show. They recently parted ways with their former lead singer and have opted to do something a bit unordinary and the drummer actually does lead. I know there are a hand full of bands out there that have done this in the past, but it's just a unique set up to experience. I've been cool with these guys for awhile and know they're legitimately awesome musicians, but Brian was great as a front man. I've always been a fan of Emisis and don't see that changing, but the switching of vocal role upped their game A LOT in my book. Still, I wish they'd play more of their originals and not so many covers. Their own material is just as strong and in some cases better than the stuff they're covering. Still, it was very good and I look forward to the next one I get out to. Sunday then resulted in some mindless hours of VH1 Reality TV, working on projects, and doing some location scouting. Overall, things are looking good.
The Lollapalooza line up was announced and I got pretty much exactly what I asked for last week. Radiohead, Rage against the Machine, and Nine Inch Nails all headline this years Chicago festival. I am going to go to this show simply because it's Nine Inch Nails and I've not seen them in over a year. That's way too long, dammit. But the whole thing about seeing Radiohead for the first time has me excited too. What I'm sorta frowning upon is the ticket prices. It's over $200 for a Three Day Pass. Granted, there's like 100 bands, I think I only like about a dozen of them. Out of that dozen or so bands I like, I'd probably only go out of my way to see around six of them. Then toss in the fact that if one or two were in town at the same time like this that I'd probably have to be picky. More than likely I'd go to two concerts at most and odds are they'd have one or two bands from the line up together anyways. So, I really don't see $200 as a wise investment for the show, but will swipe my credit card into the pits of the bank of Perry Farrell and accept that this is my only chance to see Nine Inch Nails this summer in Chicago. I spent $140 for Nine Inch Nails and Dresden Dolls a few years back. It's pretty easy to toss a few more bucks into the pot to see Radiohead, The Raconteurs, Kanye West, and even Lupe Fiasco.
GROOMED FOR DOOM Disney Divas and Nickelodeon Superstars.
There are those who take the long hard route of forming a band and practicing in their garage. They play the same songs over and over again and finally get a shitty bar gig to perform at. This slowly snowballs and the songs get better, the crowds get bigger, and the venues become more respectable. This is all in hopes of landing that big record deal. It may happen, but in most cases it won't.
Then there are those whose parents got them onto a television show at an early age. Granted in some cases these child celebrities will actually do what the above paragraph described, but all in all they have it a little easier than most. Their namesake is already marketable and if their show was on longer than two or three seasons then odds are there is already a built in fan base.
Today I wanna take a look at the music careers of a few former child actors. Some may surprise you and some are so obvious that my brain shut off two paragraphs ago.
WHO: Justin Timberlake/Brittney Spears/Christina Aguilera SHOW: "MMC : The Mickey Mouse Club" The 411: Before she shaved her head, let her baby drive, and started speaking like Madonna Brittney Spears was a mainstay on Disney's "MMC". Before he was one of the most successful pop singers of all time, Justin Timberlake was on this show. Before she became a pop superstar and grew really big um… vocal cords, Christina was on "MMC" as well. It's hard to separate these three into their own categories. We all know who these three are and the prominence they all had on pop music of the late 90s and now (well, in two of their cases). It's hard to keep yourself reminded about the origins of these world famous entertainers and even harder to believe they all came from the same show. There were more too. Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling, and others went on to do their own thing on primetime television or make really great movies.
WHO: Fergie SHOW: "Kids Incorporated" The 411: From 1984 till 1989, this little girl named "Stacy Ferguson" was on a children's show about a rock band. I was very young during this time period, but my pop culture memory would not allow me to forget this show. In retrospect it seemed really low budget and cheap looking, but as was the times. It was just like apples and oranges when you compare her image from the 80's show till now. It's hard to take someone as being "hip" and "ghettoish" when they were wearing neon colors when I was still diapers. She wasn't the only one on the show to go on to show off their talents as the show featured Jennifer Love Hewwit as well. They'd basically just perform whatever songs were hot on the charts at the time, which I guess was good practice for someone who'd eventually be making her own hit songs.
WHO: Hillary Duff SHOW: "Lizzie McGuire" The 411: Before "Hannah Montana" there was "Lizzie McGuire". With some research, there were only 65 episodes but at the time it caused a tidal wave of hysteria. Hillary Duff played the character "Lizzie McGuire" for only two years but I don't think anyone can argue the side that say's the show isn't the sole reason she's a household name. She would go on to date the guy from "Good Charlotte" and make a few albums. It seems most of her younger fan base moved on to Hannah and the older ones moved on to something with more edge and substance. Still, she hasn't gone off the deep end like over Disney Divas, so she has that going for her.
WHO: Drake Bell SHOW: "The Amanda Show"/"Drake and Josh" The 411: This guy is just starting to get more mainstream attention as the lead in "Supehero Movie", but he's been around for awhile. I believe the first time I saw Drake Bell was as "Young Rob" in one of my favorite movies, "High Fidelity". Apparently he was also on "The Amanda Show" with Amanda Bynes, but I think most people know him from the hit Nickelodeon show "Drake and Josh". He has released two albums already and has another on the way. It may not be Metallica, but the tweenage girls and sheltered teens seem to love his shit. Good for him and even better for him that he's breaking into movies and trying to be more "edgy".
WHO: Alanis Morissette SHOW: "You Can't Do That on Television" The 411: Remember that show from the 80's where people would get slimed? Yeah, there were a few, but the one we're talking about was "You Can't Do That on Television". Back in the day there was an aspiring little actress named "Alanis Nadine" who got on "Star Search" and more importantly for this column, got on this Canadian based television show. She was part of a nifty ensemble cast, but when the show was reaired in later days Nickelodeon actually just showed the episodes with her in them. If you get a chance to see this show give it a few minutes and see what many mid 20 adults grew up on. Sorta sad, huh.
WHO: Raven-Symoné SHOW: "The Cosby Show"/"Hanging With Mr. Cooper"/"That's So Raven" The 411: Raven has to be at least semi-famous for the WWE to bring her in for a one minute spot at Wrestlemania 24. She started off on "The Cosby Show" as the cute little "Olivia", but would then go on to become an indentured servant to the Disney Gods. Raven got her own show on Disney called "That's So Raven" and had success with her "Cheetah Girls" stint. Now she's graduated to theatrical released Disney movies. People can say whatever they want about her appearance, but in the right setting she's entertaining and has the potential to have the most "serious" career of this specific generation of Disney Divas.
WHO: Nick Cannon SHOW: "All That"/"The Nick Cannon Show" The 411: Yeah, yeah… he's also the star of "Wild 'N Out", but there's a lot more to this guy's backstory. He's actually a Nickelodian alumni from way back. He got his start on "All That" like a few others in this column have and like Drake Bell he got his own spin off show creatively entitled "The Nick Cannon Show". He's most famous for his adult show on MTV, but he's been putting out music since the early parts of this decade. I won't even lie about it; I really dug that "Gigolo" song that Nick had with R Kelly from a few years back. I almost used it as my entrance music for wrestling is how much I did like it. Hopefully, you've skipped over this paragraph by this point.
I never said I was a fan of these people, but I do know I'll get a lot of shit for this column. Still, you'd be lying or horribly sheltered if you didn't grow up and watch at least one or two of these people. Who would have expected these people to blow up the way they did? Sometimes it's fate, luck, destiny, or just great marketing. That's for you to decide.
What children stars of today do you think will impact pop culture in the future?
MY "WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM" REVIEW IN 411 WORDS OR LESS
I've always been a fan of Hunter S. Thompson and an even bigger fan of Bill Murray. That being said, I'm sorta kicking myself for taking so long to finally see this movie. Off the bat I'm just going to say it, this movie and Murray's Thompson was A LOT better and less "creepy" than the version Johnny Depp portrayed in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Even Hunter S. Thompson himself would disagree with that statement and I can understand why, but it's still my opinion. Depp was GREAT in the role, but he made Hunter seem inhumane and over exaggerated. When you over exaggerate the already over exaggerated Thompson then you're going a little toooo far. I've seen interviews with Hunter and I have no whims about saying that Bill Murray did a much better job in this 1980 movie than Depp as really "getting" the character. Del Toro played Lazlo in "Fear and Loathing" and in this movie it was the great Peter Boyle in a role that I had never expected. In "Fear and Loathing" they portrayed the character more erratic and deranged. Boyle brought a sense of spontaneous delight to the character, but he also stood for something. I just really liked this movie. "Fear and Loathing" is a movie you put on with a group of friends and partake in whatever legal or illegal substance you prefer. "Where the Buffalo Roam" is a movie that gives a more realistic and hearty peek at who this Hunter S. Thompson guy really was. Now if we could have had the "Fear and Loathing" script with the sensible characterizations of "Buffalo" then we'd be in great shape here. If you love "Fear and Loathing" like so many people do because of Hunter and want to hear "Richard Nixon" say "Fuck The Doomed" then you MUST see this movie. If you like it because it's a "crazy drug movie with Johnny Depp" then stick to the more known flick about Hunter.
RANDOM THOUGHT
I don't even like college basketball, but the last minute three pointer in the NCAA made me shout "OH SHIT!" really loudly. Rock on Kansas and Memphis for making me slightly care about college basketball. I apologize now for forgetting about this game and who played in the championship within three days. Go Team! Go!
That was a rough column to put together. I've been swamped with work, writing, producing, and preparing for world takeover. I've said it once and I'll probably say it again, but this column is one of the few sure shot "escapes" I have from the horrors of the real world. Music is good. Until Next Time…. Have a Great Week!
