All the headlines were coming out about Jewel’s new look. “She’s having fun!” “She’s playful!” Blah blah.
And then that crazy video came out where she satires a lot of the trappings most music videos have – product placement, scantily clad women, etc. So I started to think that Jewel was just offering up a heaping of social commentary.
Then the album cover was shown and it’s Jewel wearing weird neon clothes, and I kept thinking, hmm, more social commentary! She’s playing around with image.
Then she did the sexy cover of Blender and I started to question it.
Then I bought the record, and here’s the problem: the music sucks. Not only has she developed a new image, her music matches it. Jewel used to be a folk singer with a pop slant. Now she’s a pop singer with a minimal folk slant.
The image is the music. The music is the image. There’s no seperating it now.