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Jewel's 0304 turns 20 years old this week!


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Jewel did what?? THAT!

Jewel_-_0304.png

The year is 2003 and a Folk singer-songwriter dared to go against the grain and work with producers who had previously found success with the Spice Girls. The media backlash was REAL. 

So many people were calling her a sellout. There was also a TRL moment that had the media talking. Unfortunately it's hard to find all of the gossip and drama surrounding her at that moment. The story was that she flashed the camera. She was really causing the drama in Summer 2003. 

Other hits from the album 

"Stand"

"2 Become 1"

 

And HIGHLIGHTS include

"Sweet Temptation"

"2 Find U"

"Haunted"

 

I'm not gonna lie - this album is in my top 20 of all time. Do you have memories of 0304??? What are your fav tracks??? 

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This is an epic album. She is so hot and humble and honestly a great songwriter. This type of thing is what makes me question why someone who started infinitely weaker in every sense (vocally, musically, in terms of composition) as Swift was so praised, while someone doing the same and far better in every sense, was bashed constantly. And what, TS came out 3 years after this record, didn´t she? Again, I am not trying to say something against Swift, but if you have heard Jewel´s  vocals, songs, etc, you just can´t help but wonder if "talent" is really all that counts for success. If talent were the only thing, Jewel would have been infinitely more successful than she is or ever was. Now, of course, she has not been as prolific, granted. But she deserved less criticism. 

Quote

 

 

Edited by Bigno
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3 hours ago, Bigno said:

This is an epic album. She is so hot and humble and honestly a great songwriter. This type of thing is what makes me question why someone who started infinitely weaker in every sense (vocally, musically, in terms of composition) as Swift was so praised, while someone doing the same and far better in every sense, was bashed constantly. And what, TS came out 3 years after this record, didn´t she? Again, I am not trying to say something against Swift, but if you have heard Jewel´s  vocals, songs, etc, you just can´t help but wonder if "talent" is really all that counts for success. If talent were the only thing, Jewel would have been infinitely more successful than she is or ever was. Now, of course, she has not been as prolific, granted. But she deserved less criticism. 

 

My perspective on your comment: Jewel, while she's branched out many times, started as a folk singer. It's actually shocking how successful her debut album was commercially, and it was the right place and time, IMO, in the 90's. One of those things that would not have been that successful if it had dropped a decade earlier or later. Jewel is more successful than I would've expected a folk singer who grew up in a small town in Alaska to be. Taylor, on the other hand, moved to Nashville as a child to try to break into country music. She even sang with an artificial Southern accent to sell it.

Compare Jewel's 'Who Will Save Your Soul?' to Taylor's music video for 'You Belong With Me' in which she plays a cheerleader and a marching band girl. Jewel never aimed for commercial success as intently as Taylor. I think Jewel has said that when she started, she signed a record deal with a very small advance, smaller than some she was offered from other labels, because she only wanted to do it if she could be true to her vision. 

I absolutely agree with you that Jewel deserved less criticism for this album. It's funny to me that the same people who bash an artist for an experimental album outside their regular style would probably also bash an artist for doing the same kind of thing on every album. 

Edited by IsraeliMatt
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I love to watch Andre dance on "Intuition"s video :mcry_mariah_carey_proud_beaming:

I think this album was probably misunderstood because she's so good at everything she does, it really seemed like she was a generic pop chick -- especially if you don't pay attention to the lyrics... hence why they probably called her a "sellout".

This interview is very insightful:

"My whole thing, my whole career was save your money so that you could make any art you like. I never had to have a record be successful. So that lets you take risks, that lets you fail. So I knew it was going to make a popper. I knew it would be really controversial, because in the ’90s, credibility was everything. Selling out was a big deal. For women, you had a tremendous amount of extra pressure on because there weren’t many female singer-songwriters. You’re held to this real standard, and so were the men — just credibility-selling.


I felt like selling out was repeating myself. I felt like selling out was doing what people expected me to do and being afraid to be authentic. So for me, the pop album, it was funny that it was considered a sellout when it was the opposite. To me, selling out was never changing because people wanted to do a “You Were Meant For Me” 2.0 or 3.0. Maybe the world would’ve been happy if I made “You Were Meant For Me” 2.0 and 3.0, but I would’ve known I was selling out. I would’ve known I was playing it safe for public approval.


It was just so where I wanted to go creatively. To me, the consistency in all my music has been the heart. I write like a singer-songwriter, which means 80 percent of the record is about culture. It’s not about love and just trying to be hooky. And writing a pop song that it isn’t about a relationship, it’s really hard. So writing “Intuition” was incredibly difficult, right? To write a pop hit that is about intuition and something really soulful.
"

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11 hours ago, Pattycakes said:

I loved this album. The label forced her to make a pop record and a lot of the songs were a middle finger to them.

I don’t think her record label forced her. She did that record on purpose. Especially with Intuition video and song, they were both used to make fun of pop/music culture at that time. 

Edited by SJK
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24 minutes ago, Lane said:

Honestly besides Intuition this album wasn't very good IMO. I'd much rather put on her debut album or Spirit. 

As a young person, this album introduced me to Jewel and lead me to her older material. I will never forget hearing "pieces of you" for the first time and hearing her say the gay "f" word. I was shook by her honesty. It def juxtaposed 0304 and 2000s pop.

Edited by jordeezyIZkarma
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6 hours ago, SJK said:

I don’t think her record label forced her. She did that record on purpose. Especially with Intuition video and song, they were both used to make fun of pop/music culture at that time. 

@Pattycakes

What I recall is Jewel saying the label forced her to write a single called 'Intuition' because it was going to be used for a commercial, not forcing her to write a full album of this style. That's just what I remember her saying. 

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16 hours ago, IsraeliMatt said:

My perspective on your comment: Jewel, while she's branched out many times, started as a folk singer. It's actually shocking how successful her debut album was commercially, and it was the right place and time, IMO, in the 90's. One of those things that would not have been that successful if it had dropped a decade earlier or later. Jewel is more successful than I would've expected a folk singer who grew up in a small town in Alaska to be. Taylor, on the other hand, moved to Nashville as a child to try to break into country music. She even sang with an artificial Southern accent to sell it.

Compare Jewel's 'Who Will Save Your Soul?' to Taylor's music video for 'You Belong With Me' in which she plays a cheerleader and a marching band girl. Jewel never aimed for commercial success as intently as Taylor. I think Jewel has said that when she started, she signed a record deal with a very small advance, smaller than some she was offered from other labels, because she only wanted to do it if she could be true to her vision. 

I absolutely agree with you that Jewel deserved less criticism for this album. It's funny to me that the same people who bash an artist for an experimental album outside their regular style would probably also bash an artist for doing the same kind of thing on every album. 

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I absolutely agree with you. At the end of the day, not everybody wants Taylor Swift level of fame and clearly, Jewel did not. Also, as you said, it is not the same to be living  out of your van coming from an abusive background in Alaska, than having your rich dad buy half a record company for your career to flourish. I am the first one to recognize TS's work ethic, but she is not the only hard worker nor the only good writer in the business, so it would be pointless to ignore the immense advantage her privilege gave her. As you  also mentioned, people call anyone experimenting with genres "a sellout" so...

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On 5/31/2023 at 7:36 AM, glorified.ho said:

I love to watch Andre dance on "Intuition"s video :mcry_mariah_carey_proud_beaming:

I think this album was probably misunderstood because she's so good at everything she does, it really seemed like she was a generic pop chick -- especially if you don't pay attention to the lyrics... hence why they probably called her a "sellout".

This interview is very insightful:

"My whole thing, my whole career was save your money so that you could make any art you like. I never had to have a record be successful. So that lets you take risks, that lets you fail. So I knew it was going to make a popper. I knew it would be really controversial, because in the ’90s, credibility was everything. Selling out was a big deal. For women, you had a tremendous amount of extra pressure on because there weren’t many female singer-songwriters. You’re held to this real standard, and so were the men — just credibility-selling.


I felt like selling out was repeating myself. I felt like selling out was doing what people expected me to do and being afraid to be authentic. So for me, the pop album, it was funny that it was considered a sellout when it was the opposite. To me, selling out was never changing because people wanted to do a “You Were Meant For Me” 2.0 or 3.0. Maybe the world would’ve been happy if I made “You Were Meant For Me” 2.0 and 3.0, but I would’ve known I was selling out. I would’ve known I was playing it safe for public approval.


It was just so where I wanted to go creatively. To me, the consistency in all my music has been the heart. I write like a singer-songwriter, which means 80 percent of the record is about culture. It’s not about love and just trying to be hooky. And writing a pop song that it isn’t about a relationship, it’s really hard. So writing “Intuition” was incredibly difficult, right? To write a pop hit that is about intuition and something really soulful.
"

Thank you for sharing. I just saw this. I agree with her, selling out would have been staying in the route that gave her success. Also the album was pure irony but people never got it.

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