Gee, whoever would have thought a wacky publicity stunt, such as recording your album in a bubble in the middle of Manhattan, might take away some of your credibility? And who on earth would have thought that MTV might have edited the "reality" show about said publicity stunt in a way that didn't actually represent the band and what they were doing?
Pretty much everyone. Except Cartel, that is.
After taking some time off, after not becoming the massive success MTV/ Dr Pepper had hoped the bubble stunt would turn them into, the band is back, and they're talking a bit more honestly about their experience in the bubble. In one of my favorite quotes ever, singer Will Pugh said, "I still feel like a large majority of people didn't understand it. I still don't fully understand it. The way that it got promoted and the way it actually was were two different things."
I think he's underestimating the majority of people. Most people understood it just fine: it was a cheesy, transparent publicity stunt, and the band, being relatively young and naive, thought Dr Pepper, MTV, and their new major label had their best interests in mind. I guess it's easy to sit behind a desk and look at it for what it is, when you have that distance, though. If you were in the band, with people telling you how this will make you the biggest band of the year -- and offering you tons of money? It would probably be next to impossible to turn down.
And let's not forget that Cartel was brand-new to the major labels and their way of working when they went into the bubble experiment... it's almost hard to not feel bad for them at this point, considering how it all panned out for them.
That said, they're still not saying anything all that bad about the bubble. Despite the album selling less than 50,000 copies, and not really earning them any manner of critical acclaim, they said they'd do it again, according to Will Pugh. He said, "If we had to do it again, with no recollection of how it turned out, we would have done the exact same thing. Why not?"
Ummm... because it didn't work so well for you? Just a hunch. Though I suppose if they were all simultaneously struck by the fictional illness of amnesia, and didn't remember how this all turned out, they'd be back at square one and it would make sense for them to do it again. That said, I'm pretty sure they're the first and last band in the bubble, since it wasn't a cheap stunt and nobody really profited for it.
See? Something good did come of this: we'll never have to see a band in a bubble again. Now if only MTV could stop "Making the Band," we might be heading towards a new renaissance in music.
