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).

WEBSITE:

www.pinkspage.com.

gil kaufman