I fell bad for Claire Cottrill, aka Clairo.
The 22 year old singer was turned into a commodity by her father, a marketing exec, in a really cynical attempt to manufacture a star.
It didn’t work.
Clairo was featured as s digital cover of Rolling Stone this month despite no one having ever heard of her. She also appeared on Jimmy Fallon, and was starting to make the media rounds billed as a “star.” Again, no one had ever heard of her.
Her album, “Sling,” was released last week. It sold 2,700 downloads (and maybe CDs if there are any). Total including streaming was 11,500. That was the first flush. According to Buzz Angle, “Sling” has sold 2 copies in the last couple of days.
“Sling” is now completely gone from the iTunes top 200 after briefly appearing at number 100.
Is Cottrill talented? Sure, like lots of young people. She has to put in the time, the gigs, the effort, get her songs out there. It has to happen organically. The public didn’t know what was going on. We were being told Clairo was a star before anyone had heard her music. Also I’d go back to just using Claire Cottrill. It’s an alliterative name, catchy enough. Let Clairo go.
This kind of thing never works. Years ago, Hollywood tried to invent a couple of actresses as stars– Gretchen Mol and Julia Ormond. They were each very talented, and have gone on to solid careers. But putting the horse before the cart– covers of magazines and so on before they were known– made cynics out of everyone. It’s a mistake.
