I want you to fail. I mean that.

Not really…but that seems to be the general attitude in today’s world.

Whenever something positive happens it gets very little attention.

For instance, on Concreteloop there were photographs of Michelle Williams (from Destiny’s Child) visiting children to inspire them to anything they want, and she has also joined the campaign to promote awareness of HIV/AIDs by wearing ‘Until’ bracelets. Did this get any attention from the general public? Of course not.

But the rumours that Michelle was broke (meaning in the poor house) got much more attention. Not only was it a chance to laugh and mock her situation, but also an opportunity to bash Beyonce and her family.

But why would you be more interested when someone fails?

In my opinion, it is because you are failing yourself. There is something, or many things, that you dislike about your own life, but you don’t want to address them. Instead you focus on the negative happenings in others’ lives to distract away from your dissatisfaction with your own life. You thrive on anything bad. You don’t want to hear about Beyonce marrying Jay-Z because you’d rather read about their marriage problems. You don’t want to hear about Chris Brown taking Rihanna to meet his mother because you’d rather look at the photos of Rih-Rih’s face after the ‘incident’. You don’t want to congratulate Ciara on pushing until her album came out because you’d rather laugh at her ‘flop’ album.

Do I want you to fail? No…but you want me to.

Ciara debuted at No.3, selling approx 81,000 copies.
Chrisette Michele debuted at No.1, selling approx 83,000 copies.

Since Ciara came on to the scene five years ago, people have been less than impressed with her vocals. On other hand, Chrisette’s voice is admired by many, and her raw talent is clear. The ‘mainstream’, more marketable Ciara has had ample promotion (not on Beyonce’s scale, but quite a bit), but after two ‘buzz’ singles and a single with the highly in demand Justin Timberlake, her album sales are still….well…

What happened?

Three years ago, things were on the up. Ciara’s sophmore effort, Evolution, opened with approx 300,000 sold in the first week, which was over double her debut album’s first week sales. Her first single, Promise, was doing big things worldwide, her songs were featured on movie soundtracks, and there seemed to be a (rumoured) blossoming relationship with 50 Cent.

What happened?

The same thing that happened to Jennifer Lopez, Ashanti, Mya, and many more singers who lack the vocal talent to make them stand out from the average Joe’s voice. Please don’t think that I’m bashing any of these artists or Ciara, because I’m a fan of or like them all. However, even I can’t pretend that they could go head to head with the likes of Beyonce or Christina Aguilera.

For goodness sake, what happened?

Eventually the public gets tired of the celebrity’s image and starts looking for something deeper. Suddenly people don’t get about fashion lines, ‘cute’ couples, hot beats, sexy dance moves, controversial music videos, or anything else but the vocals that aren’t there. Then the CD sales disappear, and another young person finds themself back in the real world.

But who knows…the public is fickle, so if Ciara revamps her image (and maybe goes back to her dance roots instead of the usual ‘Look, I’m sexy!’) there could be room for her at the top.