Pink
Pink
Singer
With brightly colored hair and a Philadelphia-bred moxie to match, R&B/pop singer Pink scored multiplatinum success with the release of her first album, Can’t Take Me Home, in 2000. Pink’s follow-up release in 2001, Mlssundaztood, also earned multi-platinum sales and displayed a rock and blues edginess not present on her more mainstream pop debut. “The first album was a good introduction—it was testing the waters…. I was the lead singer of two punk bands and sang gospel in all-black churches. I wanted this album to represent that,” Pink told Rashaun Hall of Billboard magazine about her sophomore release. Adding to the pop star’s success was her contribution to the Grammy Award-winning song “Lady Marmalade,” which appeared on the Moulin Rouge film soundtrack. Not content to simply provide music for film, Pink stepped onto the big screen in Rollerball in 2002.
Born Alicia (some sources say Alecia) Moore c. 1979 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pink grew up listening to the music her mother collected: Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Shirley Mur-dock, and Donny Hathaway. Her father, a Vietnam veteran and guitarist, introduced her to the music of
For the Record…
Born Alicia (some sources say Alecia) Moore c. 1979 in Philadelphia, PA.
Began singing with a gospel choir, c. 1982; sang with a local punk band, recorded first original song, c. 1983; sang weekly at a hip-hop club beginning c. 1984; joined Basic Instinct; joined Choice, signed a record deal with the LaFace record label, c. 1985; released Can’t Take Me Home, 2000; sang on a remake of the 1970s hit “Lady Marmalade” for the Moulin Rouge film soundtrack, 2001; released Mlssundaztood, 2001; appeared in the film Rollerball, 2002.
Awards: Billboard magazine, Best New Female Artist, 2000; Grammy Award, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Lady Marmalade,” 2002.
Addresses: Record company —Arista Records, 6 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. Website —Pink Official Website: http://www.pinkspage.com.
Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, the Mamas and the Papas, and Billy Joel. “I’d watch him play and we’d sing guitar together,” she explained to Julia Chaplin of Interview. “That made me want to make music, because I was a really bad kid, so I was like, ‘Let me just make him proud,’” Pink told Shirley Manson (of the band Garbage) in another conversation for Interview. Pink earned her nickname for the shade her cheeks turn when she gets embarrassed. She later dyed her hair to match, and her pink hairdo became her trademark.
Pink’s progression to the charts started early. She started singing with a gospel choir at 13. At 14 she was singing with a local punk band and had recorded her first original song. She scored a weekly spot at a hip-hop club by the time she was 15. She was hand-picked to lend her strong voice to an R&B girl group, Basic Instinct, but her bandmates kicked her out “because they were black and I was white,” Pink told Chaplin in Interview, “but the politically correct reason that they gave me was because I didn’t fit in well in the photos.” Although she has admitted to having other troubles as a white singer in the traditionally black R&B genre, Pink maintains that “We are all pink on the inside.” She then sang for the R&B group Choice, which signed a record deal with the LaFace record label when she was just 16, but the group disbanded before recording. On her way up, Pink dropped out of high school and worked at Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and a gas station.
LaFace kept Pink after Choice dissolved and paired her with producers and writers like Arista president Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Darryl Simmons, Kevin “She’kspeare” Briggs, Babyface, and 112. The result was Pink’s debut album, Can’t Take Me Home, which made its way onto the American top 40 album charts, fueled by fans who agreed with critic Christopher John Farley in Time: “this 20-year-old’s music is better than her name.” Despite Entertainment Weekly critic Rob Brunner’s review of the album—“there’s hardly an original musical moment on it”—Can’t Take Me Home earned double-platinum status for sales and produced the topten hits “There U Go,” “Most Girls,” and “You Make Me Sick.” She earned an MTV Video Award nomination for Best New Artist.
In 2001 Pink sang on a remake of the 1970s Patti LaBelle hit “Lady Marmalade” for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack with R&B divas Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Lil’ Kim. The song featured a sexy video in which the ladies appeared as scantily clad cabaret dancers. “I was the total alien at [sic] that video,” Pink told Manson in Interview. The night before the shoot, the young star was so nervous she didn’t sleep. “I’ve always hung with guys and I’m a total tomboy, so I was really nervous,” she admitted. The piece was named MTV’s Best Video of the Year and Best Video from a Film. “Lady Marmalade” became Pink’s first numberone hit and earned the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2002.
On her follow-up effort Mlssundaztood, released in 2001, Pink broke the “record company golden rule,” according to Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly. Don’t confuse fans by changing your sound, style, or image. The gamble worked, however, and she successfully became “an entirely different artist.” This was not entirely surprising, though, since as executive producer Pink had far more control over Mlssundaztood than she had had with her first album. “I’m a songwriter and a musician,” she said in an interview with Honey. “I can’t be a puppet.” Her producers balked at her new direction, but she got her way. “At first,” Pink continued, “L.A. Reid thought, ‘She’s abandoning her fans.’ But he believed in me. I couldn’t have done it without him.”
The change was based on her collaboration with former 4 Non Blondes leader Linda Perry, who cowrote and coproduced much of the album, and whom Pink had idolized as a young teen. “I loved her. I thought I was her when I was 13,” Pink told Manson in Interview. She got Perry’s number out of a makeup artist’s phone book, went to her house, and within a month had recorded 15 songs. The bonding, writing, and recording process with Perry was “amazing, liberating, inspiring,” Pink said in her website biography, “what making music should be like.” Pink told Manson that Perry was “the stepping-stone for my [new sound],” and the reason she had taken artistic control of the album. The critics agreed: “Pink deserves respect for expressing herself instead of going through the teen-pop motions,” wrote Rob Sheffield for Rolling Stone.
“I hope this album shocks people who think they know who I am or what I’m about,” Pink said in comments included on her official website. Indeed, she cowrote many of its songs, producing very personal, introspective lyrics—songs like “Don’t Let Me Get Me,” about self-loathing, and “Family Portrait,” about her parents’ messy divorce; when they finally heard the song both “cried for days,” according to her website. In “My Vietnam,” she goes “over the top,” according to Farber in Entertainment Weekly, comparing her own troubles to the war. While the album “lack[s] adult depth,” Farber continued, Pink “captures girlish confusion with greater accuracy and delight than Alanis Morissette’s supposed bible of the form, Jagged Little Pill.” Critic Smith Galtney wrote in Time Out New York: “Although not quite as great as some reviews would have you believe, Mlssundaztoodls still pretty… good.” The album’s first single, “Get the Party Started,” written by Perry, climbed high on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In 2002 Pink began to expand her career into other strata of the entertainment spectrum, making her big-screen debut in Rollerball.
Selected discography
Can’t Take Me Home, La Face, 2000.
(With Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Lil Kim) “Lady Marmalade,” Moulin Rouge (soundtrack), Interscope, 2001.
Mlssundaztood, Arista, 2001.
Source
Periodicals
Billboard, December 1, 2001.
Entertainment Weekly, April 14, 2000, p. 73; November 23, 2001, p. 79.
Honey, March 2002.
Interview, February 2001, p. 109; December 2001, p. 36.
People, November 26, 2001, p. 45.
Popstar, February 2002.
Rolling Stone, December 6-13, 2001.
Stuff, January 2002.
Time, April 17, 2000, p. 84; December 3, 2001, p. 77.
Time Out New York, January 3-10, 2002.
USA Today, November 23, 2001.
Online
“Pink,” All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (January 24, 2002).
Pink Official Website, http://www.pinkspage.com (January 24, 2002).
Additional materials were provided by the Arista Records publicity department, 2002.
—Brenna Sanchez
Pink
Pink
Singer and songwriter
Born Alecia Beth Moore, September 8, 1979, in Doylestown, PA; daughter of James (an insurance salesman) and Judy (an emergency room nurse) Moore.
Addresses:
Record label—c/o Arista Records, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019.
Career
Began writing songs, c. 1991; made singing debut with Schools of Thought, c. 1992; stint in punk band as young teen; briefly member of Basic Instinct; signed to LaFace label as part of R&B trio Choice, 1996; became solo artist, c. 1998; released debut solo album as Pink, Can't Take Me Home, 2000; released M!ssundaztood, 2001; released Try This, 2003.
Awards:
MTV Music Video Awards for best female video and best dance video, 2002; Grammy Award for best female rock vocal performance for "Trouble," 2004.
Sidelights
Though pop/R&B singer Pink did not always sport her signature pink hair, her reputation as a woman with edgy tendencies did not change. After a difficult early life, Pink emerged as a popular singer with a big voice and distinctive persona in the early 2000s. With three very individual albums to her credit—each of which sold into the millions world–wide—Pink was a popular black sheep. As Lorraine Ali wrote in Newsweek, "A healthy dose of obstinacy and attitude—and a maybe–not–so–healthy amount of anger—have made the 23–year–old Pink (born Alecia Moore) one of the current pop scene's only credible anti–heroes."
Born in 1979, Pink was the product of the stormy marriage of James and Judy Moore. She grew up the same city she was born in, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, located outside of Philadelphia. Her parents' marital problems began when she was a toddler, but she remained especially close to and influenced by her father, a Vietnam War veteran who worked in the insurance industry. He taught her many survival skills, including how to fight, use knives and guns, and break wrists. He also played guitar and introduced her to the music of Bob Dylan and Don McLean. From an early age, Pink was seen as tough.
Before Pink was ten years old, her parents divorced. She never talked about what went wrong or consciously realized how it affected her until years later. Pink began acting out within a few years. Though she had asthma, she began smoking when she was nine years old, a habit she kept up for many years. Pink got her first tattoo when she was 12, and her tongue pierced the same year. Pink also began writing songs when she was 12. She made her singing debut with a rap group, Schools of Thought, headed by Philly club dancer/friend Skratch, when she was 13.
By the time Pink was 14, she was doing drugs and running away from home on a regular basis. She was also arrested on several occasions for rebellious misdeeds. Music remained an important part of her life. Pink explored many music scenes, from rock, punk, and rave, to hip hop, folk, R&B, and gospel. She also liked to go to clubs and hang out with skateboarders. She rode skateboards, and also participated in a number of sports including kickboxing. Pink lived with her mother after her parents' divorce, but got kicked out when she was 15 years old because of the lifestyle she was living. Pink later admitted that she was a wild and difficult teenager. After briefly living with friends and relatives, Pink moved in with her father.
By this time in her life, Pink was determined to be a musician, though she also held mundane jobs like working at McDonald's to help support herself. After stints in a punk band and as a member of Basic Instinct, a vocal group signed to MCA, she joined a woman–only R&B trio called Choice when she was 16 years old because this group seemed to have the best chance of success. In 1996, Choice was signed to the LaFace label by L.A. Reid, a successful R&B producer.
It was during her two–year stint with Choice that Pink took on her colorful nickname. There are several versions of the story of how she came to be called Pink. At the time, she had pink hair, though sources also say that she took the name because of the character Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs. Another version claimed that she was so named because she turned pink after being embarrassed in front of a boy she liked. While the name Pink stuck, she did not have as much success with Choice. The group struggled with creative conflicts, but Pink was able to rediscover her love of songwriting when one of the artists they were working with, Darryl Simmons, had her co–write a song with him, "Just To Be Loving You," for the group.
After two years, Choice could not make it work with producers. Reid believed that Pink had a chance as a solo artist and began grooming her for such a career. However, Reid and Pink each had a different vision for the direction of her solo career. It was a harsh education for Pink on how the music industry really worked. She believed that Reid wanted her to compromise who she was. Despite their differences, Reid continued to have a hand in the way Pink's career developed even after he became president of Arista Records. Pink also joined the label.
Pink's first album, 2000's Can't Take Me Home, was full of slick, overproduced songs, including the first single "There You Go." Most were dance–pop–R&B numbers aimed at a teen audience. The songs did not say much and Home was a critical failure, but the album managed to sell two to three million records worldwide. One point of controversy among record buyers was Pink's ethnicity. She told T'cha Dunlevy of the Gazette, "That's part of the mystery of Pink. Nobody knows what I am. Everybody thinks I'm what they are. White people think I'm white, Spanish people think I'm Spanish. Some black people think I'm black. I don't really care. Just listen to my music."
While Pink wrote or co–wrote seven of the 13 tracks on the album, she did not like how the record sounded and wanted to take more control of her career. She did not want to be a typical created–and–controlled R&B singer, but be honest and refreshing. Despite these qualms, the success of Can't Take Me Home proved to Pink that she could sing and sell records.
To take charge of her career direction, Pink fired her manager and hired a new one, the successful Roger Davies. She also stood up to her record company so that she could create an album that better reflected her personality and sound. She wanted to be more rock than polished R&B/pop. Of her struggles, she told Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times, "Everything in this business is designed to encourage you to play along. They know people are so hungry for stardom that they'll just follow the record industry game. I know because I was ready to do anything when I started out. But I found that selling records wasn't enough. I told myself after the first record that I'd rather go back home and start all over again than be trapped in a one–dimensional world any longer."
To that end, Pink chose to work with Linda Perry as a producer and co–writer of eight songs on Pink's second record, 2001's M!ssundaztood. Perry had been part of the rock group 4 Non Blondes which had minimal mainstream success in the early 1990s, and she had been struggling on the fringes of the music industry for a number of years. With Perry, Pink retained an R&B–dance–pop oriented sound, but she also became harder, edgier, and with a rock sound accompanying lyrics that better reflected who she was. Pink sang about herself, her rough teenage years, and her problems with her family and the music industry, often in an emotionally intense fashion.
Critics and audiences responded to the change in direction of Pink's sound. M!ssundaztood more than eight million copies worldwide, with five million copies in the United States alone. As Alexis Petridis wrote in the Guardian, "Whatever you made of the actual music on Missundaztood, it was a brave and radical career shift. Despite the mainstream, crowd–pleasing sound, there was an undeniable sense of shock about the album—it had been a long time since any pop artist had attempted to make music whose primary emotion was anger."
M!ssundaztood produced a number of hit singles for Pink. One was the first hit single "Get the Party Started," which became a club hit, then a huge pop hit. Another hit single was "Just Like a Pill," in which Pink sang about her personal insecurities. "Family Portrait," a hit worldwide, was about her parents' marital problems and its effect on her. The song was very hard for Pink to sing, but also was cathartic for her.
Following up such an intense record proved difficult for Pink. In 2003, she released Try This, an album that featured a number of musical styles recorded primarily in her own home studio. While Pink again worked with Perry on three tracks, seven songs on the record were co–written and produced by Tim Armstrong, a punk rock icon. Armstrong also played guitar and provided some vocals. The songs ranged from the punk rock–oriented "Trouble" to the R&B–type ballads "Waiting for Love" and "Love Song." "Oh My God" was recorded with rapper/performance artist Peaches, while "God is a DJ" was a pop/rock anthem.
While many critics praised Try This, others pointed out that it sounded much like Pink's second record but without the danger and the radio–friendly hooks. Still, many reviewers found much to like, including her attitude, image, and her work ethic. Joan Anderman of the Boston Globe wrote, "In a pop music landscape littered with boardroom–approved sex kittens and photo–ready rebels—yes, Pink is all that, too—the 24–year–old singer has an actual personality. She's cheeky and funny and blunt, all of which infuses her third album, Try This.…" Newsweek concurred: "Thanks to boot–stomping tempos, hissing guitar and rough–and–tumble melodies, the music finally matches Pink's acerbic lyrics and overall bad attitude."
Though Pink impressed many critics, the record–buying public was less impressed. The first single, "Trouble," only reached number 16 on the Billboard Top 40 charts, and was not much of a hit on radio either. "God is a DJ" reached the top five of the charts in the United Kingdom. The slower sales of her singles did not bother Pink. She told Nekesa Mumbi Moody of the Associated Press, "I don't judge myself on how well my songs do at radio, or how much my album sells. A failure and a success is all how you look at it. I've been creative to my highest potential at this point of my life, and I'm super proud of myself for making it this far."
Pink planned on touring extensively in support of Try This and remained sure of her vision for her musical career. She told CNN.com, "I'd rather fall down for what I believe in and for what makes me tick. Is that smart? Who knows. Might not be. But there's still some fear in me—I want to be understood. I want to be heard."
Selected discography
Can't Take Me Home, Arista, 2000.
M!ssundaztood, Arista, 2001.
Try This, Arista, 2003.
Sources
Periodicals
Associated Press, November 24, 2003.
Billboard, November 15, 2003.
Boston Globe, November 11, 2003, p. F4.
Daily Telegraph (London, England), November 7, 2002, p. 25.
Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), October 17, 2000, p. F8.
Guardian, November 7, 2003, p. 17.
Independent, August 22, 2003, p. 15.
Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2003; November 9, 2003, p. E49.
Newsweek, September 1, 2003, pp. 56–57; November 10, 2003, p. 66.
People, November 10, 2003, p. 29; December 15, 2003, p. 78.
USA Today, November 23, 2001, p. 10E.
Online
"Latest News," Official Pink Website, http://www.pinkspage.com/news/index.html (February 9, 2004).
"Pink: Bio," MTV.com, http://www.mtv.com/bands/az/pink/bio.jhtml (February 9, 2004).
"Pink: Expect the unexpected," CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/11/music.pink.reut/index.html (February 9, 2004).
"Pink pics," AskMen.com, http://www.askmen.com/women/singer/58c_pink.html (February 9, 2004).
—A.Petruso
Pink
Pink
Singer
With brightly colored hair and a Philadelphia-bred moxie to match, R&B/pop singer Pink scored multiplatinum success with the release of her first album, Can't Take Me Home, in 2000. Pink's follow-up release in 2001, M!ssundaztood, also earned multiplatinum sales and displayed a rock and blues edginess not present on her more mainstream pop debut. "The first album was a good introduction—it was testing the waters. … I was the lead singer of two punk bands and sang gospel in all-black churches. I wanted this album to represent that," Pink told Rashaun Hall of Billboard magazine about her sophomore release. Adding to the pop star's success was her contribution to the Grammy Award-winning song "Lady Marmalade," which appeared on the Moulin Rouge film soundtrack. Not content to simply provide music for film, Pink stepped onto the big screen in Rollerball in 2002.
Born Alicia (some sources say Alecia) Moore c. 1979 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pink grew up listening to the music her mother collected: Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Shirley Murdock, and Donny Hathaway. Her father, a Vietnam veteran and guitarist, introduced her to the music of Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, the Mamas and the Papas, and Billy Joel. "I'd watch him play and we'd sing guitar together," she explained to Julia Chaplin of Interview. "That made me want to make music, because I was a really bad kid, so I was like, ‘Let me just make him proud,’" Pink told Shirley Manson (of the band Garbage) in another conversation for Interview. Pink earned her nickname for the shade her cheeks turn when she gets embarrassed. She later dyed her hair to match, and her pink hairdo became her trademark.
Pink's progression to the charts started early. She started singing with a gospel choir at 13. At 14 she was singing with a local punk band and had recorded her first original song. She scored a weekly spot at a hip-hop club by the time she was 15. She was handpicked to lend her strong voice to an R&B girl group called Basic Instinct, but her bandmates kicked her out "because they were black and I was white," Pink told Chaplin in Interview, "but the politically correct reason that they gave me was because I didn't fit in well in the photos." Although she admitted to having other troubles as a white singer in the traditionally black R&B genre, Pink maintained that "We are all pink on the inside." She then sang for the R&B group Choice, which signed a record deal with the LaFace record label when she was just 16, but the group disbanded before recording. On her way up, Pink dropped out of high school and worked at Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Wendy's, and a gas station.
LaFace kept Pink after Choice dissolved, and paired her with producers and writers like Arista president Antonio "L.A." Reid, Darryl Simmons, Kevin "She'kspeare" Briggs, Babyface, and 112. The result was Pink's debut album, Can't Take Me Home, which made its way onto the American top 40 album charts, fueled by fans who agreed with critic Christopher John Farley in Time: "This 20-year-old's music is better than her name." Despite Entertainment Weekly critic Rob Brunner's review of the album—"there's hardly an original musical moment on it"—Can't Take Me Home earned double-platinum status for sales and produced the top-ten hits "There U Go," "Most Girls," and "You Make Me Sick." She earned an MTV Video Award nomination for Best New Artist.
In 2001 Pink sang on a remake of the 1970s Patti LaBelle hit "Lady Marmalade" for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack with R&B divas Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Lil' Kim. The song featured a sexy video in which the ladies appeared as scantily clad cabaret dancers. "I was the total alien at [sic] that video," Pink told Manson in Interview. The night before the shoot, the young star was so nervous she didn't sleep. "I've always hung with guys and I'm a total tomboy, so I was really nervous," she admitted. The piece was awarded MTV's Best Video of the Year and Best Video from a Film. "Lady Marmalade" became Pink's first number one hit and earned a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2002.
A New Direction
On her follow-up effort, M!ssundaztood (2001), Pink broke the "record company golden rule," according to Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly: Don't confuse fans by changing your sound, style, or image. The gamble worked, however, and she successfully became "an entirely different artist." This was not entirely surprising, since as executive producer, Pink had far more control over M!ssundaztood than she had had with her first album. "I'm a songwriter and a musician," she said in an interview with Honey. "I can't be a puppet." Her producers balked at her new direction, but she got her way. "At first," Pink continued, "L.A. Reid thought, ‘She's abandoning her fans.’ But he believed in me. I couldn't have done it without him."
The change was based on her collaboration with former 4 Non Blondes' leader Linda Perry, who co-wrote and co-produced much of the album, and whom Pink had idolized as a young teen. She got Perry's number out of a makeup artist's phone book, went to her house, and within a month had recorded 15 songs. The bonding, writing, and recording process with Perry was "amazing, liberating, inspiring," Pink said in her website biography. Pink told Manson that Perry was "the stepping-stone for my [new sound]," and the reason she had taken artistic control of the album. The critics agreed: "Pink deserves respect for expressing herself instead of going through the teen-pop motions," wrote Rob Sheffield for Rolling Stone.
"I hope this album shocks people who think they know who I am or what I'm about," Pink said in comments included on her official website. She co-wrote many of its songs, producing very personal introspective lyrics on songs like "Don't Let Me Get Me," about self-loathing, and "Family Portrait," about her parents' messy divorce. Critic Smith Galtney wrote in Time Out New York: "Although not quite as great as some reviews would have you believe, M!ssundaztood is still pretty … good." The album's first single, "Get the Party Started," written by Perry, climbed high on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
For the Record …
Born Alicia (some sources say Alecia) Moore c. 1979 in Philadelphia, PA; married Carey Hart, January 7, 2006; separated February 2008.
Began singing with gospel choir, c. 1982; sang with local punk band, recorded first original song, c. 1983; sang weekly at hip-hop club beginning c. 1984; joined Basic Instinct; joined Choice, signed a record deal with the LaFace record label, c. 1985; released Can't Take Me Home, 2000; sang on remake of the 1970s hit "Lady Marmalade" for Moulin Rouge film soundtrack, 2001; released M!ssundaztood, 2001; appeared in film Rollerball, 2002; recorded "Feel Good Time" for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and appeared in the film, 2003; released Try This, 2003; issued I'm Not Dead, 2006; toured extensively to support I'm Not Dead, 2006-07; appeared in horror film Catacombs, 2006.
Awards: Billboard magazine, Best New Female Artist, 2000; Grammy Award, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, for "Lady Marmalade," 2002; Grammy Award, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, for "Trouble," 2004; MTV Video Award, Best Pop Video, for "Stupid Girls," 2006.
Addresses: Record company—Arista Records, 6 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. Website—Pink Official Website: http://www.pinkspage.com.
Expanded Her Career
In 2002 Pink began to expand her career into other strata of the entertainment spectrum, making her big-screen debut in Rollerball. She contributed "Feel Good Time" to the feature film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle midway through 2003, and also had a small cameo in the film. She followed with her third album on November 11, 2003, Try This. "With Try This," wrote Stephen Thomas Erlewine in All Music Guide, "Pink has firmly established a voice of her own, and in doing so, she's made another tremendous modern pop record." While Try This reached number nine on Billboard's top 200, the album sold less well than its predecessor. The album's first single, "Trouble," only climbed to number 68 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Try This, however, received a better reception in Britain and Australia, selling over three million copies.
In 2006 Pink issued her fourth album, I'm Not Dead. "This is the third album in a row where she's thrown a curve ball," wrote Erlewine, "confounding expectations by delivering a record that's wilder, stronger, and better than the last. And while that's no guarantee that I'm Not Dead will be a bigger hit than Try This, at least it's proof positive that there are few pop musicians more exciting in the 2000s than Pink." I'm Not Dead rose to number six on the Billboard charts, and the album produced three successful singles, "Stupid Girls," "Who Knew," and "U + Ur Hand." The video for "Stupid Girls" also won notoriety for lambasting celebrities like Paris Hilton, and subsequently won an MTV Music Award for Best Pop Video. Pink supported I'm Not Dead with a major tour in 2006-07 that included dates in Australia, the United States, and Europe. She has also continued her film career, appearing in the horror film Catacombs in 2007.
In 2005 Pink proposed to motocross racer Carey Hart, and the two married in Costa Rica on January 7, 2006. The couple separated in February 2008. Pink is a vegetarian and a supporter of PETA, and has been critical of other performers, including Beyonce, for wearing fur. Speaking of her future as an artist, Pink told Music OMH, "I think one will always be misunderstood. That's the human quest—to be completely understood—but I don't think it happens. But that's the charm and beauty of life. … I think it would be way too comfortable if you felt understood and everything was fine."
Selected discography
Can't Take Me Home, La Face, 2000.
(With Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Lil' Kim) "Lady Marmalade," Moulin Rouge (soundtrack), Interscope, 2001.
M!ssundaztood, Arista, 2001.
Try This, Arista, 2003.
I'm Not Dead, La Face, 2006.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, December 1, 2001.
Entertainment Weekly, April 14, 2000, p. 73; November 23, 2001, p. 79.
Honey, March 2002.
Interview, February 2001, p. 109; December 2001, p. 36.
People, November 26, 2001, p. 45.
Popstar, February 2002.
Rolling Stone, December 6-13, 2001.
Stuff, January 2002.
Time, April 17, 2000, p. 84; December 3, 2001, p. 77.
Time Out New York, January 3-10, 2002.
USA Today, November 23, 2001.
Online
"Pink," All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com (January 24, 2002; August 3, 2007).
"Pink—Don't Try This at Home," Music OMH,http://www.musicomh.com/interviews/pink.htm (August 3, 2007).
Pink Official Website, http://www.pinkspage.com (January 24, 2002).
Additional materials for this essay were provided by the Arista Records publicity department, 2002.
—Brenna Sanchez and Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.
Pink
PINK
Born: Alecia Moore; Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 8 September 1979
Genre: R&B, Pop, Rock
Best-selling album since 1990: Missundaztood (2001)
Hit songs since 1990: "Get the Party Started," "Just Like a Pill"
After her moderately successful debut album, R&B singer Pink somehow convinced her record company that her image was due for an overhaul. Though a new artist of Pink's caliber and age generally doesn't have much sway, the teenage singer prevailed, switching from the girlish R&B pop singer of Can't Take Me Home (2000), to the edgy, confessional pop rocker of Missundaztood (2002), a transition that gained her a massive audience and indelible pop hits with songs such as "Get the Party Started" and "Just Like a Pill."
Pink was born Alecia Moore in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a small town just outside of Philadelphia. At thirteen, the singer—who had adopted the childhood name Pink as a professional moniker either as a result of her dyed pink hair or a childhood incident in which she had her pants pulled down and her cheeks blushed pink—began rapping with her friend Skratch's local rap group, Schools of Thought.
After seeing the fourteen-year-old singer perform her weekly five-minute set at Philadelphia's Club Fever, an MCA Records representative tapped Pink to complete the line-up of the short-lived R&B girl group Basic Instinct. After the dissolution of the group, Pink was asked to complete the three-singer line up of yet another girl group, Choice, signed to LaFace Records.
Choice, too, would flounder, but the relationship with LaFace would not, eventually bringing Pink to the attention of the label's co-founder, "L.A." Reid, thanks to her songwriting skills. As a girl, Pink had been turned on to folksingers such as Bob Dylan and Don McLean by her guitar-playing father, James, and the songwriting bug had never left her. Reid paired Pink with producer Daryl Simmons, who asked the singer to write a chorus for the song "Just to Be Loving You," which rekindled Pink's interest in songwriting.
Reid signed Pink to LaFace as a solo artist and placed her in the studio with his partner, Babyface, and Simmons, who helped shape the singer's solo debut, Can't Take Me Home. The album, on which Pink co-wrote half the tracks, sold more than half a million copies thanks to the hit "There You Go," a brassy kiss-off to a former boyfriend. Songs such as "Split Personality" and "Hell Wit Ya" are classic late-1990s R&B, imbued with thumping machinelike beats, thick bass lines, and a sprinkling of hip-hop slang.
The album established Pink alongside such teenage pop singers as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, as well as edgier R&B artists such as TLC and Kelis, but, thanks to her cropped pink hair, tattoos, and street-inspired sartorial style, Pink's image was less refined than that of her peers. A mix of skateboarder, techno raver, and rocker, the somewhat tepid music on the album failed to live up to Pink's wild child image.
Teaming with Mya, Lil' Kim, and Christina Aguilera, Pink was part of one of the biggest worldwide pop hits of 2001, a remake of Patti LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade," from the soundtrack to the film Moulin Rouge. In the video, the quartet are dressed in risqué lingerie, with Pink emerging as the flashiest, most alluring member of the impromptu supergroup; the song won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. It was the beginning of a career makeover that would put Pink securely in her element.
Taking Control and Bursting into Superstardom
True to her rock roots, Pink teamed with her musical hero, ex-4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry—who had a semi-hit with the 1993 rock song "What's Up?"—to write half of the songs for Missundaztood. The Perry-penned disco pop anthem, "Get the Party Started," exploded onto the charts upon its release. Even though critics called it pure ear candy, Pink's vocals are noticeably more raw and the production is more progressive than the songs on the singer's debut.
The songs on Missundaztood are noticeably more personal, none more so than the hit dance rock song "Don't Let Me Get Me." The litany of personality flaws and life lessons ("Everyday I fight a war against the mirror / Can't take the person staring back at me / I'm a hazard to myself ") includes a line in which Pink complains about being compared to Britney Spears and a section in which she playfully chides boss Reid about his career advice ("L.A. told me / You'll be a pop star / All you have to change / Is everything you are.") With more rock guitars, guest appearances from Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler and Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, as well as songs about her struggles as a hell-raising child, Missundaztood clicked with fans, selling more than 4 million copies.
Pink celebrated her liberation by touring as an opening act for retro rocker Lenny Kravitz during the summer of 2000 and, in the fall, recording a song for the soundtrack to Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), as well as filming a cameo for the film.
At the tender age of nineteen, music industry newcomer Pink took hold of her career and stopped being the person her handlers told her to be. The results were a hit R&B/rock album and rebel girl image that connected with millions of fans and secured a second chapter to Alecia Moore's story.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Can't Take Me Home (Arista, 2000); Missundaztood (Arista, 2002).
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pink
pink1 / pingk/ • adj. 1. of a color intermediate between red and white, as of coral or salmon: her healthy pink cheeks bright pink lipstick. ∎ (of wine) rosé.2. inf., often derog. having or showing left-wing tendencies: pale pink politics.3. of or associated with homosexuals: a boom in the pink economy.• n. 1. pink color or pigment. ∎ pink clothes or material: she looks good in pink. ∎ (also hunting pink) the red clothing or material worn by fox hunters.2. a pink thing, such as a rosé wine.3. the best condition or degree: the economy is not in the pink of health.4. inf., often derog. a person with left-wing tendencies. See also pinko.• v. [intr.] blush, as from embarrassment: I tried to hide my embarrassment, but I think I must have pinked a bit. PHRASES: in the pink inf. in very good health and spirits.turn (or go) pink blush.DERIVATIVES: pink·ish adj.pink·ly adv.pink·ness n.pink·y adj.pink2 • n. a herbaceous Eurasian plant (genus Dianthus) with sweet-smelling pink or white flowers and slender, typically gray-green leaves. The pink family (Caryophyllaceae) includes the campions, chickweeds, stitchworts, and the cultivated carnations.pink3 • v. [tr.] 1. cut a scalloped or zigzag edge on. ∎ pierce or nick (someone) slightly with a weapon or missile. 2. archaic decorate: April pinked the earth with flowers.pink4 • n. hist. a small square-rigged sailing ship, typically with a narrow, overhanging stern.pink5 • n. dated a yellowish lake pigment made by combining vegetable coloring matter with a white base.
pink
Politically, pink is used as a mildly derogatory informal term for a person of left-wing tendencies.
pink elephants hallucinations supposedly typical of those experienced by a person who is drunk.
pink pound a term for the perceived buying power of homosexuals as a consumer group, recognized in the 1980s; by the 1990s, the pink economy was seen as a substantial element of the business world.
pink triangle a triangular piece of pink cloth sewn on to clothing to identify homosexual men in Nazi concentration camps; in later use, a symbol indicating support for homosexual freedom and rights.
Pink 'Un the informal name for the Sporting Times (1865–1931), which from April 1876 was printed on pink paper.
See also sky-blue pink.
pink
In figurative usage, pink denotes the finest example of excellence, as in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, ‘I am the very pink of courtesy’; from this developed in the pink of condition to denote the best possible state of health and spirits.