Betty Boo

Betty Boo
Betty Boo
Nama lahir	Alison Moira Clarkson
Berasal dari	London, England
Genre	Pop tarian, Rap, Hip-Hop
Pekerjaan	Penyanyi-pengarya lagu, ahli muzik,
Instrumen	Vokal
Tahun aktif	1989 -kini
Syarikat rakaman	Rhythm King; Sire; Instant Karma
Pengkarya berkait	She Rockers; Beatmasters; WigWam; Jack Rokka; Girl Thing

Alison Moira Clarkson, lebih dikenali sebagai Betty Boo, adalah seorang seniwati pengarya lagu pop-rap British. Dia pertama kali menjadi kejayaan arus aliran pada zaman 1980'an dan awal 1990'an berikutnya suatu collaboration dengan The Beatmasters dan perkerjaan solo subsequentnya, yang spawned sebilangan single penempatan carta, lebih digelar pada 1990 dengan 'Doin' The Do'.

Pekerjaan[sunting | sunting sumber]

Penghibur[sunting | sunting sumber]

Clarkson mempelajari kejuruteraan nada suara di kolej sebelum mendapat suatu talian hit di antara 1989 dan 1992. Terdahulunya mempunyai nama samaran "Betty Boop" untuk kemiripannya dengan watak kartun, dia berubahnya untuk mencegah pertikaian trademark dengan para pemilik Boop. Dengan kacukan Dusun dan Scotland, dia mempunyai suatu kelihatan yang tidak kebiasaan, striking dan berpakaian mildly provocative dan revealing.

Boo bermula bekerja dengan kumpulan She Rockers, sebelum berada dalam solo. Her big break came with the 1989 number 7 UK smash, "Hey DJ - I Can't Dance (To That Music You're Playing)", with The Beatmasters. The next single, "Doin' The Do" followed and was another number 7 success for her in 1990, also reaching number one on Billboard's dance chart in the United States. One year later, this song was also used for the Magic Pockets Amiga video game by the Bitmap Brothers as the title tune. Her debut album Boomania was hailed by many as a witty, contemporary pop masterpiece and sold very well. ^{[perlu rujukan]} "Where Are You Baby?", Boo's biggest solo hit to date, reached number 3 in August 1990. "24 Hours" (December 1990) was the last single from Boomania, and although it was a hit, it was less so than previous releases.

Nevertheless, Boo still returned with a new record deal with (WEA) in 1992, and her follow up album, GRRR! It's Betty Boo. The album itself suffered very disappointing sales in the UK, reaching only number 62. It did, nevertheless spawn a hit single in the summer of 1992 - "Let Me Take You There". "I'm On My Way", which featured a musical quote from The Beatles' "Lady Madonna" (the brass riff using all the original players) was very well received by the media ^{[perlu rujukan]}. It did not sell well though, and the next single, "Hangover" fared even worse, barely scraping the Top 50. In 1999 a Best Of compilation (effectively an expanded version of Boomania with extra remixes and a different running order) was released and sold moderately well.

Pengarya lagu[sunting | sunting sumber]

After her solo career effectively ended when her mother contracted terminal cancer in the early 90's^[1], Clarkson turned to songwriting, at the request of Chris Herbert^[1], who was in the process of forming a new, all-girl group. Chris asked Alison to contribute to the project after revealing that she was his inspiration in forming one of his previous projects, The Spice Girls;^[1]

He told me that when they were auditioning for the Spice Girls, they were looking for five Betty Boos - larger-than-life cartoon characters. He asked me to get involved in this other band he was putting together, Girl Thing, because he wanted this signature Betty Boo sound, a bit of hip-hop.

Alison went on to co-write a number of songs for Girl Thing, including "Pure and Simple". Although the group's A&R man, Simon Cowell, initially rejected Clarkson's song^[1], it was included in the Japanese edition of Girl Thing's self-titled debut album, released in 2001. The song became a huge, record-breaking hit single when it was re-recorded and released as the debut single of Hear’Say - winners of the reality TV show, Popstars - in March of the same year. On the release, Clarkson commented; "The arrangement they used was almost identical. I never met the band. It was a bit disheartening".^[1] However, despite finding renewed success by writing for other artists, Betty didn't care much for the audition-based manufactured pop process which spawned them;^[1]

This audition-based pop star thing just didn't exist when I was around, or at least I wasn't aware of it. I came from a hip-hop background, did very credible underground music. As a pop artist, I had my own image. I had got to help the directors with the videos, I worked very closely with an art designer on the sleeves and stuff. It's completely different now... Popstars was the whole thing I completely loathe in pop music. I don't like the idea of people being auditioned to be in a pop band. They may as well be working on a cruise liner. Pop music will not evolve if it carries on like this. I think Popstars exposed how a pop group is made. It should put an end to it completely. Even if Pure and Simple was a successful record, I'm not that passionate about it. I'm more passionate that the programme itself might have changed people's view about pop.

Clarkson has also written songs for Girls Aloud, Louise Nurding, Dannii Minogue and The Tweenies.^[1]

Comeback[sunting | sunting sumber]

In 2006, Betty formed a pop duo called WigWam, with Alex James, bassist from Blur. They released a one-off single also entitled "WigWam".

In August 2007, she released a new single titled "Take Off". The song, which was playlisted on Radio 1's dance-oriented shows, was a joint project with the London-based dance act Jack Rokka and, as such, is much more dance-oriented than her previous work. She went on to perform the collaboration in a live set at Manchester Pride in 2007, along with some of her other songs. The video sees Betty Boo's trademark look resurrected and even features the 'Boosters' - Betty Boo's backing dancers, who always appear with identical hair and outfits to Betty - and the Betty Boo spiral. Betty appeared on ITV's Loose Women on 16 October 2007 to promote the single, and has also appeared as an interviewee on BBC Three's "The Most Annoying Pop Songs..." show, passing comment on several songs that made the top 100 list.

Diskografi[sunting | sunting sumber]

Album[sunting | sunting sumber]

Boomania (1990) UK #4, AUS #68
GRRR! It's Betty Boo (1992) UK #62
Doin' the Do: The Best of Betty Boo (1999 - comprises tracks and remixes from Boomania only)

Single[sunting | sunting sumber]

Hey DJ / I Can't Dance (To That Music You're Playing) / Ska Train (with the Beatmasters) (1989) UK #7
Doin' the Do (1990) UK #7, AUS #3
Where Are You Baby? (1990) UK #3, AUS #19
"24 Hours" (1990) UK #25, AUS #94
"Let Me Take You There" (1992) UK #12, AUS #97
"I'm On My Way" (1992) UK #44
"Hangover" (1993) UK #50
"Catch Me" (1993)- not released as a single in the UK
"Thing Goin' On" (1993)- not released as a single in the UK
"Wigwam" (2006) as part of WigWam with Alex James UK #60
"Take Off" (featuring Jack Rokka) (2007) UK #92