Wednesday, June 5, 2013

W.W.C.I.I.T.M.I. Post 3: Aubrey O'Day

This is a series dedicated to women who despite success in the U.S. Music Industry, have est. a very complicated image for themselves.


Round 3 of this post goes to over-boiled sexpot of Danity Kane, Celebrity Apprentice alumna and considered by fans of RuPaul's Drag Race as the worst guest judge in show anthology, Aubrey O'Day.

MTV's guilty pleasure ["stomach staple" of their line-up] (YouTube persona and Juicy Magazine contributor Shirea L. Carroll would use the term "part of the reality chitlins circuit"), When I Was 17 revealed that prior to subjecting herself to Diddy's infamous Making The Band, Aubrey was an ordinary girl; image issues and all.

Cut to her first breakout on Making The Band "3.1". That version came after Making The Band 2 group "Da Band" would be dissolved after being [in the nicest way possible] a no-hit blunder. Music mogul/rapper/eccentric Diddy [who was answering to "P. Diddy" at the time] had decided to make the next big U.S. and International girl group phenom. In "3.1", he made the decision to keep 3 of the 7 girls left that were the band at the time. He wasn't impressed with the collective, but decided to keep O'Day along with Malika and Aundrea Fimbres.

In "3.2", Malika would be cut and O'Day and Fimbres would make the final group alongside Shannon Bex, Wanita "D.Woods" Woodgett and Dawn Richard. Naming themselves after an anime like character Richard had drawn named, "Danity Kane", they would go on to "3.3" where O'Day's tension with the process was est. At some points recording their eponymous debut effort, most of the songs had little vocal input from O'Day and had her sulk in the parking lot.
After being told that [to an extent] "some songs are just going to be this way, but you still matter", she re-entered the studio and proceeded to ride the success of a functioning Making The Band group.

From S4 of that show as featured roles, O'Day and Combs' feuding was starting to reveal the cracks in DK. She [apart from wanting to maintain a slutty image] openly accused Diddy of trying to screw over the group by secretly working with Dawn on solo stuff for her. 2 things with that...

1. She is right to question her value in the group. Any potential signs of wanting to dissolve the group to start solo efforts should be made clear.

2. Playing Devil's Advocate for a bit...even if he was indeed trying to do that at the time, they were his decisions to make. She had the nerve to act like she was on the same executive level as Diddy demanding what his intentions were.

Cut to the S4 finale and O'Day is fired from the group; D. Woods had been fired as well for some type of solidarity with O'Day.
Ironically, looking back this proved she had some perceptiveness to her; Dawn would still work with Diddy in the One Hit Wonder why the fuck they named themselves act "Diddy-Dirty Money". That and Dawn would release a 2013 solo album, Goldenheart, but independently (Which is some level of code for "Won't be shit sales wise).

Eventually in 2011, O'Day partnered with the Oxygen channel for her reality show "All About Aubrey". The best part of this show (Yes I typed that with no irony) bitch fests aside was that it showed off her voice which kicks ass. Her debut solo single, "Automatic" was an iTunes sensation. BONUS: Aundrea shows up towards the end of the series [and then bails out for unspecified reasons; *Side note; they did mend their friendship as was revealed in one of O'Day's Ustream videos*]

As of now, her Celebrity Apprentice 3rd place finish (Same season as Comedy Central's "loveable" stomach staple, Lisa Lampanelli) w/ reputation as a mega-bitch according to Arsenio Hall and Clay Aiken; guest judge role on RuPaul's Drag Race being read down the house [despite the "tasteful" remark, "Hers {perfume} is the only one that I would wear. Everything else smells like...grandma's vag to me."] career is sort of in a stand still.

Apart from "Automatic", two other songs "Wrecking Ball" and her EP effort single "Before I Drown" are the only other known fully released songs from her. Songs from "All About Aubrey" that haven't been heard of since the show to my knowledge include "Hitchhiker", "Goodbye Heartbreak" and "Ego Trippin'" ft. Aundrea Fimbres. The sad thing is that Aubrey can actually sing but has always been overshadowed by what makes her one of the many W.W.C.I.I.T.M.I.; her slutty image and in a way overly bitchy attitude.

Her original sex kitten image was est. in "3.2" when Blender Magazine had her in a photo shoot that had banked off of her "3.1" fame. It turned to slut in an infamous cover and spread for Complex Magazine. In the  behind the scenes video and finished product, Aubrey was featured in some type of nightclub/bar atmosphere and posed rather slutty with strobe light effects all around her. Dawn would go on record w/ People Magazine and relay that the spread and shoot helped further her divide her and Diddy's rift alongside alienating younger fans of DK.
The bitchy attitude came in S4 when she had been arguing back and forth with her boss. For all of Diddy's faults he did have more leverage than she did no matter how much she hated that. That was another violation of an ugly truth with girl groups:

The image the label sets flies for everyone involved in the group;
different sides get to come out when your solo stuff does.

Despite a kickass vocal, let Aubrey's status as one of many W.W.C.I.I.T.M.I. remind us yet again of the golden rule of girl groups [not to be confused with the ugly truth above]:

Pretend to play nice with others if you want others to press play on your solo efforts.

Up next; she has The Voice but an image that needs Coaching.

No comments:

Post a Comment