The A&R Project - Ciara

For Throwback Thursday, Here's some ideas I had came up with for Ciara around the time she was getting her "Jackie" Project together, which was released in 2015, but worked on between 2013-2015.

Ciara is an artist who I believe hasn’t been given proper due. She should be more significant than she is at the moment, not to say that she isn’t big, but I definitely think that the opportunities for her growth as an artist hasn't been optimized. Ciara is rare, meaning there is no other female artist who can really entertain like her at the moment. The lane of opportunity is wide open for Ciara. The Janet Jackson influence is very prominent, but she has her own unique flavor and style. For her next release, I have what I believe some ideas that could help mold Ciara into the artist we all know she can be.

First let’s start with the music. Ciara has everything already; the look, the moves, the performance ability, what it really comes down to is just having really good songs. From an A&R perspective, this is what I would like to see done and would do with her. Let’s first create a full spectrum of sound for her. Let’s be really dynamic. Ciara, in my opinion, has been kind of in the same few lanes when it comes to her music. Recently, I’ve seen that she’s logged studio time with Diane Warren and Harmony Samuels among others which I think is great! I’m excited to see what they have come up with. I would love to see her with Salaam Remi and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I wouldn’t want Jam and Lewis to make a Janet sound for her, but I think they would understand her voice and artistry really well and come up with something really cool.  There are some artists who do really well with just taking things form multiple producers and songwriters, but Ciara I feel is one of those artists that isn’t good with jumping to whomever, I think what would work best for her are producers and songwriters that get her as an artist. I would also love to see her get back more with Missy Elliott and Jazzy Pha, and not recreate what they did, but grow the sound they had and see what craziness we could get! Ciara really could have a bigger hold over the Pop and Urban lane.

Let’s get Ciara to stretch her vocals some more; use her lower register in interesting ways, experimenting with gritty vocals, just trying different things out with her voice. Ciara really doesn’t have any dark songs in sound or theme, so that would be cool to really see her experiment with that type of sound, something gothic and edgy. As always, I’m a huge advocate for diverse sounds and themes.

Here are a list of songs that I would use as a creative foundation as a start to build material for her next album. These were chosen for different reasons, but mainly sound, theme, vocal performance and just being able to see Ciara do something like it.

• Janet Jackson – “You“, “Miss You Much“, “Love Will Never Do Without You“, “Anytime, Anyplace“, “Feedback“

• Jennifer Lopez – “Get Right“, “If You Had My Love“, “I’m Real (Remix)“, “Love Don’t Cost A Thing“

• Mya – “Case Of The Ex“, “My Love is Like Whoa“

• Michael Jackson – “Who Is It“, “2,000 Watts“, “Threatened“, “Heartbreaker“

• Diana Ross – “Love Hangover“, “Upside Down“

• The Supremes – “Come See About Me“, “I Hear A Symphony“

• *Carpenters – “Rainy Days and Mondays” – I want Ciara to do a full remake of this, update the sound, but keep the genre sound of it. It would be totally left field, but work so well for her I believe. You have to use your imagination when you listen to it.

• Omarion – “Touch“

• Danity Kane – “Sucka For Love“, Key To My Heart“

• Britney Spears – “Toxic“

As I said above, these songs would just serve as a template to build new things out of.

Check out the next post after this one which is Pt 2 and will jump into what I would build around the release to make it pop to the general audience.