Time running out for Robbie Williams
British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams seems to be at the last stages of his career. He seems to have run out of musical ideas, checked himself into rehab and most recently won the ignominious honour of worst album of the rear for his latest album ‘Rudebox’ by NME magazine.
But things were not always like this for him. At one time, after quitting the massively successful boy band Take That, he was Britain’s darling – its pride and joy.
What could be the most telling and consequential sign of his downward spiral in his life in general is that try as he might, the singer just could not break into the American market. And you cannot be really big if you don’t crack that market.
Not that Williams didn’t try. It’s just that America could care less. And it doesn’t seem like it is going to change anytime soon.
Williams started his career as a member of Take That in 1990. He was just 16 then. And till 1995, the year he decided to quit the band, they were hugely successful. He left the band under unclear reasons but it was clear that he felt he was constrained and suffocated.
He wanted to express himself more freely and his first release as a solo artist was a tongue in check rendition of George Michael’s hit ‘Freedom’.
He sold more albums in the Britain than any other British solo artist in the history. He won an impressive and yet unsurpassed 13 Brit Awards and has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.
At the peak of his fame Williams wryly said that he’s ‘the one who put the Brit in celebrity’. At that time, it was not hard for anyone to believe that. But now Williams is beset with problems that seem to plague every aspect of his life.
But Americans just can’t take Williams seriously. At times he can seem very campy and ridiculous parody of himself.
Rocker Sheryl Crow, speculating on why Williams cannot make it in the US, said: ‘There’s a camp element to Williams that’s too threatening to Americans. American men don’t want to see anything that’s burlesque or vaudevillian, they want to feel their artist is brooding and macho.
‘Most of our male artists are so aggro they don’t even look like rock stars, they look like roadies. Williams’ songs are very melodic and I think he takes a lot of his inspiration from Elton John, which does not seem to be what kids in America are into right now.’
Yet another problem is that his musical style and persona is more appealing to gay men in the States. So, when Williams in most of his songs laments about dealing with his fame, it doesn’t make sense to people in the US who have never even heard about him.
Indo-Asian News Service / earthtimes.org