The Moment that ended the musical careers of Both Ashlee and Jessica Simpson.

[Spicechinodiva]

In 2004 Outside the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. Another unfortunate incident happened. A moment we all can never forget. The day Ashlee Simpson was proven to be a legit manufactured pop star and not only did it end her music career. It also made Jessica Simpson less popular as well. Just by Guilty by association.

 

In October 2004. Ashlee was invited to perform at The iconic pop culture show Saturday Night Live. First performance went off and well. However the second performance was a disaster and a train wreck. Plus one of the biggest copouts. I remember watching TRL. She was explaining what the doctors advised, and such. But I also noticed the audience was shaking their heads and giving eyes like why are you lyin'. The atmosphere was like. You got caught being a fraud. A live performance in 2005 at the orange  bowl. Is also a trainwreck as she's singing live but very off key. Proved the manufactured point. 

 

Her next album sold less. Bittersweet world tanked and she was dropped by her label. 

 

Father joe who was also trying to salvage what little career Jessica had as well. Eventually saw both of his daughters dropped. Jessica owed one album left under her Sony contract. They dropped and she fullfiled her contract by issuing a playlist. The best of Jessica Simpson.

 

Joe also got vilified at this time. 

 

In short. Ashlee took down what could have been a Texas version of the Osmonds. To the Knowles Jackson family status in Music. 

 

I know you like Jessica. But Did Ashlee deserve that Automatic cancellation due to a horrible mistake. 

 

They mention Britney and the 2007 VMA incident. 

 

But a huge difference is. Britney already established herself as a pop star. 

[NormaJeanSpears]

the 2000s had so, so much contempt for women brewing. after the 90's was so prosperous, crime rates fell, the cold war paranoia was over, we had a surplus budget, music hit an all time high in commercialization, and a new wave of musicians, especially females with a teen appeal, started to explode in the end of the decade. the whole decade seemed like such a clean sweep to prosperity; it was like things were looking up after the drop off from the 50s-80s. all the good will crashed when 9/11 happened and it trickled into all parts of like, even our attitudes to pop singers.

a huge cynicism kicked in after 9/11. it's odd, but music seemed to react pretty quickly, as did public attitude, in ways that are only noticeable in hindsight--how would 9/11 do anything to pop radio? it made people scared in a very serious way, and very angry, and launched us into two wars, the economy slowed. all that meant conservatism crept up, paired with the bush presidency in the US. We suddenly had a vendetta against the "falsehoods" presented to us; it was like all those commercialized things were offensive to us now, they must have caused what we were stuck with, and we were angry so we took it out on perceived pop culture commercialism despite it being just about as detached from 9/11 and the warhawks of the west as something that widespread could be. it really permeated in all ways, and would be worthy of a longggg article or series of pieces. the immediate and direct implications of the sudden cascade of events between 2001-2004 is talked about plenty and is tragic as ever considering all the people that died. as time goes on and we're more detached from the visceral shock of lives lost and countries changed, maybe more attention can be paid to the ways it influenced our pop culture. i think it would be cool.

ashley and her sister are both examples of how our eyes shifted against female performers by and large. of course, neither got the vitriol our fav britney did, but they're definitely worth talking about. jessica was never given a chance, she was reviled as stupid and untalented from the go (despite being a pretty competent singer) and was one of many objects of hate by the "not like the other girls" mentality of the day. of course she was gonna get eviscerated when our minds had shifted to avril's and p!nk's singing about being different from the other girls and namedropping the britney's and jessica's in their songs and videos to their own benefit and at the detriment of those (equally or more hardworking) women; to melodramatic, intoxicatingly angsty nu metal acts like linkin park; and outright foul prejudice, violence, and aggressiveness-for-fun via people like eminem capturing the countries attention. jessica never really did anything wrong, in fact her career was never given a chance. not by the people running it, not by record labels, not by listeners. she could have been a genuine star instead of someone characterized as a symbol of that y2k aesthetic nostalgia that's coming into view on the pop culture treadmill. early comparisons were made to people like celine dion. imagine a jessica without endless public ridicule, a public that wanted to prove she was inept and fake, and management that profited off that commercialism then had not a hand ready to help her when the backlash to that commercialism enveloped the public consciousness and the feeding frenzy began.

ashley, in contrast, really did make gaffes that were her own doing. it's funny a bit because she was almost like a midway between a jessica and an avril, a britney and a p!nk, etc. she ended up going nowhere and fizzing out faster than any of those ladies. she really, really should have known better than to keep making excuses and transferring the blame, denying, and then performing when she knew it would be bad bad news. i don't remember if she got the same public fixation as the y2k party princesses as i call them (chiefly britney, paris, lindsay, nicole, mischa barton etc but also probably women that weren't partiers as much but still got a high level of ire and were gossip fodder like jessica) but she was obviously ridiculed and disliked. she fueled the fire of that movement without a real reason to keep doing so. it didn't crash down until the US's biggest tabloid fixation was in under psychiatric hold,  then the world economy crashed, and then lastly the UK's biggest tabloid fixation died of alcohol poisoning. kind of sobered people up to how they had treated these women and didn't ever give them a chance to prove themselves.

there are a lot of parallels with this era and the disco era. both ended in a huge, pretty prejudiced and chauvinistic backlash driven by political unrest and militarism. it impacts the pop music we consume in ways unappreciated by fans of it i think.

[Spicechinodiva]

13 minutes ago, NormaJeanSpears said:

the 2000s had so, so much contempt for women brewing. after the 90's was so prosperous, crime rates fell, the cold war paranoia was over, we had a surplus budget, music hit an all time high in commercialization, and a new wave of musicians, especially females with a teen appeal, started to explode in the end of the decade. the whole decade seemed like such a clean sweep to prosperity; it was like things were looking up after the drop off from the 50s-80s. all the good will crashed when 9/11 happened and it trickled into all parts of like, even our attitudes to pop singers.

a huge cynicism kicked in after 9/11. it's odd, but music seemed to react pretty quickly, as did public attitude, in ways that are only noticeable in hindsight--how would 9/11 do anything to pop radio? it made people scared in a very serious way, and very angry, and launched us into two wars, the economy slowed. all that meant conservatism crept up, paired with the bush presidency in the US. We suddenly had a vendetta against the "falsehoods" presented to us; it was like all those commercialized things were offensive to us now, they must have caused what we were stuck with, and we were angry so we took it out on perceived pop culture commercialism despite it being just about as detached from 9/11 and the warhawks of the west as something that widespread could be. it really permeated in all ways, and would be worthy of a longggg article or series of pieces. the immediate and direct implications of the sudden cascade of events between 2001-2004 is talked about plenty and is tragic as ever considering all the people that died. as time goes on and we're more detached from the visceral shock of lives lost and countries changed, maybe more attention can be paid to the ways it influenced our pop culture. i think it would be cool.

ashley and her sister are both examples of how our eyes shifted against female performers by and large. of course, neither got the vitriol our fav britney did, but they're definitely worth talking about. jessica was never given a chance, she was reviled as stupid and untalented from the go (despite being a pretty competent singer) and was one of many objects of hate by the "not like the other girls" mentality of the day. of course she was gonna get eviscerated when our minds had shifted to avril's and p!nk's singing about being different from the other girls and namedropping the britney's and jessica's in their songs and videos to their own benefit and at the detriment of those (equally or more hardworking) women; to melodramatic, intoxicatingly angsty nu metal acts like linkin park; and outright foul prejudice, violence, and aggressiveness-for-fun via people like eminem capturing the countries attention. jessica never really did anything wrong, in fact her career was never given a chance. not by the people running it, not by record labels, not by listeners. she could have been a genuine star instead of someone characterized as a symbol of that y2k aesthetic nostalgia that's coming into view on the pop culture treadmill. early comparisons were made to people like celine dion. imagine a jessica without endless public ridicule, a public that wanted to prove she was inept and fake, and management that profited off that commercialism then had not a hand ready to help her when the backlash to that commercialism enveloped the public consciousness and the feeding frenzy began.

ashley, in contrast, really did make gaffes that were her own doing. it's funny a bit because she was almost like a midway between a jessica and an avril, a britney and a p!nk, etc. she ended up going nowhere and fizzing out faster than any of those ladies. she really, really should have known better than to keep making excuses and transferring the blame, denying, and then performing when she knew it would be bad bad news. i don't remember if she got the same public fixation as the y2k party princesses as i call them (chiefly britney, paris, lindsay, nicole, mischa barton etc but also probably women that weren't partiers as much but still got a high level of ire and were gossip fodder like jessica) but she was obviously ridiculed and disliked. she fueled the fire of that movement without a real reason to keep doing so. it didn't crash down until the US's biggest tabloid fixation was in under psychiatric hold,  then the world economy crashed, and then lastly the UK's biggest tabloid fixation died of alcohol poisoning. kind of sobered people up to how they had treated these women and didn't ever give them a chance to prove themselves.

there are a lot of parallels with this era and the disco era. both ended in a huge, pretty prejudiced and chauvinistic backlash driven by political unrest and militarism. it impacts the pop music we consume in ways unappreciated by fans of it i think.

@Roxxy

@JordanMiller

 

We have no choice but to stan this comment 

[Midnight]

Jessica was never all that popular anyway, I mean her first album Sweet Kisses was a hit but after that her only memorable hit was With You. Both their careers were not that strong that's why they resorted to doing reality t.v after that nobody took them seriously, and I don't think anybody ever did especially Ashlee. Ashlee always came off as very manufactured. I do enjoy some of their music though so I'm not hating I'm just stating what I think.

[RadicalOptimism]

Although they weren’t popular like Britney was you still knew who they were. Jessica will always be tied to Britney, Christina and Mandy. Those four although not reaching the same levels of success were still iconic in their own way. Everyone (at least in the states) knew who they were and they were almost everywhere. It’s pretty impressive considering social media wasn’t a thing back then. Jessica and Nick Lachey were like the Kardashians at one point and countless parodies came out parodying them. 
Ashlee’s first album was also a big success and believe it or now was the #1 album by a female artist in 2004. She sold almost 400K copies her first week. Singles wise her album after the SNL controversy did very well and were all top 40 hits. 
They reached a level of success that most up and comers nowadays would be envious of if they didn’t have the social media and streaming exposure they do. Yes they may not have had hits after hits but what they managed to succeed in a short amount of time is nothing to turn a side eye to. 
Funny that Ashlee got ridiculed for doing something so many artists have done but **** happens. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk 

[NormaJeanSpears]

2 hours ago, MidnightCarlisy said:

Jessica was never all that popular anyway, I mean her first album Sweet Kisses was a hit but after that her only memorable hit has With You. Both their careers were not that strong that's why they resorted to doing reality t.v after that nobody took them seriously, and I don't think anybody ever did especially Ashlee. Ashlee always came off as very manufactured. I do enjoy some of their music though so I'm not hating I'm just stating what I think.

but in this skin outsold sweet kisses, public affair (the song) did fairly good (its gold in the US), these boots are made for walking is certified platinum alongside with you and i wanna love you forever. i remember seeing her as a kid--i used to see the MV for public affair on Vh1 particularly back then. she was never one of the biggest stars but she was a pretty consistent fixture for like pushing a decade and has sold some records 

[Puppy]

It’s sad Jessica couldn’t have a solid career, she is the talented one. Ashlee...more like Joe trying to spawn another cash cow. She should’ve never went into singing, it wasn’t right for her and felt forced and their excuses of her throat issues, it’s just to cover up that she can’t really sing. The Simpson sisters are not like Beyoncé and Solange, Ashlee was just fine as an actress and carving her own niche. 

[babyimmafreak90]

I lived for Ashlee Simpson when she was around tbh. I was like 13-16, don’t judge. A guilty pleasure song of mine is still Outta My Head (Ay ya ya). The production is bad but it is such. a. bop 

She didn’t deserve the OTT reaction she got for lip syncing. She wasn’t the first and she won’t be the last. If it was a dude, no one would have cared and they would have put it down to a head cold or some bs. 
 

Side note: a public affair by Jessica Simpson is still on my mega gay playlist. BOP. The Simpson girls had bops y’all 

[Midnight]

[YoungOne]

I loveJessica and Ashlee tbh.

Sadly jessica was pushed as a Britney replica just like happened with Mandy and Christina.

it was meant for them to get expired contracts since the labels only wanted Britney’a album sales and impact and they didn’t.

christina basically lived as Britney’s shadow and lived from Britney’s haters as well. That’s why she lasted a little more before becoming a failure.

Ashlee was a cute story for the people but her reality gave her the attention at the end, not her talent as an artist, Ashlee got fans for being relatable as the young abandoned sister who was overshadowed by Jessica. She told her story and she got some love back for it, but her career was meant to end since at that time labels had so much power and social media couldn’t help to fandoms to still sticking to their artists. So not only Ashlee lost, many other  artists did too, without controversial issues.

that SNL mess was management’s fault.

and Ashlee didn’t have what it takes to endure that and keep going, both sisters promocional schedule didn’t make their careers skyrocket because they didn’t work their ***** off for it, that’s the true.

 

 

 

[theholyspearit22]

Just gotta say Ashlees album Bittersweet World is full of bops. Seriously. 
I suggest you guys revisit it. Love it.

I love tracks from both Ashlee and Jessica’s careers. 

[ColdAsFire88]

I really liked Ashlee and I bought all three of her albums  she filled a niche in pop music that was not being fulfilled (Hi Avril). I remember her second album getting a lot of attention and it had top 40 hits Boyfriend and L.O.V.E but then SNL happened and it ruined her...its pretty sad because I think she would have been around more after that. She had the song Invisible after “I am me” era and it was a top 40 hit but she took too much time off before releasing Bittersweet world.

I went to go see her live during her autobiography era and it was so much fun but when she was touring for I am me era...they were literally giving away tickets to fill the outside auditorium in Denver. It was kind of embarrassing...

I think Jessica turning into a reality TV star ruined her pop music career. She kept trying to act, hair line, fashion line, skincare and became known for her weight/dating rather than music. Love her voice but her pop music wasnt anything unique. I was hoping she would go the country route but she chose to manage her fashion and hair extension line. In the end she has had the last laugh because shes LOADED with money 

[icybaby]

I actually liked Ashless songs love, boyfriend and outta of my head. SHe had smth. And i don't think her careed ruined only bc of lip syncing disaster.  I think they had similar music style with Lindsay Lohan.