Bait & Switch

"Bait & Switch" is track 2 on Romo's third studio album POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death. The song was written and produced entirely by Romo and its structure was influenced by China, with the intro and middle 8 borrowing elements from Type O Negative's "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)". It was released as a double A-side with "Hell Is A Discotheque" as the album's second single on January 18, 2010.
==Background==
After Hannah's discovery at Belle Ball's funeral, Belle's team of executives want to make her a star, on the condition that they market her using a "bait and switch" tactic that entices people to buy her records on the basis that she is a "substitute good" offered in Belle's absence. The song's intro and middle 8 consist of stream of consciousness monologues presented from the point of view of one of the executives, intended to motivate Hannah to listen to their every word in order to rise to the top.
The executive's first monologue gives examples of how artists can become famous by sounding like the biggest names of the moment; Michael Jackson is cited as one of the examples, but Romo originally intended for the line to name-drop Britney Spears. The line was changed to commemorate Jackson following his death.
==Reception==
Reviews of "Bait & Switch" were mostly positive, and the song is largely considered one of the highlights from POPSTAR 2. An analysis of the song from Q went as far as saying that "Bait & Switch" should have been the album's lead single instead of "TITS-FM!"
The unconventional use of lengthy, spoken-word monologues, was cited by some sources as "risky", but that it generally "worked very well". A review from Allmusic stated that the first monologue "dives deep into the thinking of modern record executives, out to make quick bucks by mass producing flavors of the month. One read of the lyrics will have you saying 'Nickelback'".
The verses were also praised for their look into the dark realities of how record companies market their stars. A review from Q reads that "in 'Bait & Switch' Romo seems to liken the modern day record industry executive to a common paedophile".
Romo was lauded by anti-drug advocates for the line "We won't ask you to pop pills unless it helps you clear your head". She wanted to reference celebrities' tendencies to use drugs without glorifying it because she did not wish to influence poor role models, especially taking into consideration that in recent years celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and DJ AM died from prescription drug overdoses.
Conversely, the song was chastised by parents' groups for its perceived encouragement of sexualizing children.
==Track listings==
CD1
# Bait & Switch
# Hell Is A Discotheque
# Girl, Interrupted
# Deep Comatose/Physical (live at Shell Ruin: All That Glitters)
CD2
# Bait & Switch (Dresden & Bareilles Switchblade Rock Mix)
# Bait & Switch (KLA Jailbait Bitch Switch Mix)
# Bait & Switch (Dance in the Snow Remix)
# Hell Is A Discotheque (DB Anti-Nisha Unsexy Buttercrap Holmes2Die Mix)
# Hell Is A Discotheque (Alesha's Infernal Superstar Remix)
# Bait & Blunt (Romo vs. Paulo)
# Hell Is A Disco Stick (Paulo's ROFL ROMO'S GOT A BIT DONG Remix) 
==Music video==
The video was shot over a period of two days in late December 2009, along with the video for "Hell Is A Discotheque". Romo concentrated most of her single's video budget on the latter A-side and spent a paltry $25,000 to shoot "Bait & Switch", most of the budget going towards editing and post-production.
Romo not only co-directed the video, but portrays two characters, the album's protagonist Hannah and a record executive named Ms. Phinlay. Hannah visits a business called the Music Showroom (which is set up and managed similarly to a car dealership) to apply for a job as one of their talents, but must first ace an interview with owner and proprietor Phinlay. Phinlay tells Hannah the business uses "bait and switch" to generate revenue, by substituting originality with copycats (examples of this are given throughout the video, from the intro where customers request older talent such as Louise Harlow but salespeople substitute them for newer ones like Ana Simpson instead, to dance routines during each chorus where Phinlay dances with obvious lookalikes of past stars). Phinlay goes on to give Hannah a makeover and produce her records in between her monologues, demonstrating that she must do everything as she is told if she wants to become famous, mirroring the song's message and lyrics almost exactly. The video concludes with Hannah being offered for sale at the Music Showroom, with the salesperson pitching to a customer that she "could essentially be a reincarnation of Belle Ball". Upon hearing a sample of "Bathroom Entourage", the buyer is convinced and quickly commits to the purchase.
Phinlay's blackboard demonstrations are exact parodies of Glenn Beck's political commentary program on Fox News. The newspaper clip she tears in half is a scathing review of POPSTAR 2 published by a little-known independent newspaper based in Cardiff. Phinlay uses the iPhone application "I Am T-Pain" to autotune Hannah's vocals.
==Promotion==
Full time promotion began the week after the Christmas charts, with Romo quickly unleashing her acid tongue against the likes of Sexy Star and Camilla Holmes. Romo's return to attack stance came following her third place ranking in the most recent URAPS Rate and continued sales successes; in the wake of the poor chart entry for previous single "TITS-FM!" and her two major awards losses at Urapopstar Awards 17, Ensemble reps decided to ply Romo with "happy drugs" to alter her personality so that she could appeal to a mass audience in the same vein as friend and mentor China.
To promote the single, Romo performed at the Shell Ruin tribute concert All That Glitters, performing a medley of Ruin's "Deep Comatose" and Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" (the chorus of which closes "Deep Comatose"), along with a slightly amended version of her own "Dance On My Grave". The "Deep Comatose" performance appears on the CD1 format as a B-side. Furthermore, Romo announced her second headlining tour, Usurp The Throne, with support acts Logan Cross and The Warning; the tour will feature an intermission from the narrative set with a tribute to Ruin, which was done because Romo's original plan was to support Ruin on her headlining tour, Live At Last, and Romo's UK dates included many of the venues Shell was to play.
Romo also got caught in a number of embarrassing situations, such as finding herself playing around with mannequins in a sexual manner and dressing up in a sci-fi-inspired ensemble at a nightclub that eventually led her to spend an afternoon in "Star Wars Jail". She also made headlines for going out with a 16-year-old, leading the media to dub her a "cougar in training".
Following Elice Claire's success dabbling in country and western-inspired pop, Romo experimented by performing an impromptu acoustic country set with Mark Charlie Wilson during a concert, much in the style of CMT's Crossroads series.
She also signed on to be a spokesperson for Hawaii's board of tourism after multiple visits to the 50th U.S. state and much enjoyment out of it.
==Controversy==
The impending release of "Bait & Switch/Hell Is A Discotheque" drew headlines for demonstrating Romo's willingness to take chances on the charts. Originally she was going to release January 11th and face off against Jack Stevens and Alex Washington, but after a late start on promotion she moved to January 18th, where her biggest competition was from Paulo Araujo's latest single, "Blunt". The tight competition, with many believing Paulo to be the winner when all is said and done, became a source of man-made controversy in the world of Romo.
Romo was notably absent for two weeks after announcing the date change, and blamed it on Paulo for she believed his tea was cursed. She thought Paulo was doing everything possible to attempt to get the upper hand on her release date, further adding that she thought bad blood between them had sunk in during recent weeks because of Romo's support of Paulo's ex-boyfriend Alex Washington. Paulo, however, said he hoped Romo would beat him on the charts because it would squash beliefs that she was just a passing fad on its way out.
Things remained quiet between both parties since then, until on January 11, 2010, when Romo responded to predictions that Paulo would reach #1 by announcing "a global tea boycott" if the predictions became true. Paulo responded in an interview on GMTV that the singer is nothing more than the plastic personas she created in her POPSTAR albums, crying after saying he thought she was his friend. The event contributed to a nervous breakdown that put Paulo in the psych ward, immediately leading to a massive backlash against Romo - even on her own official message boards and social networking pages - because she took her attempts to reclaim #1 too far.
Romo's friendship with China took a downturn, especially in the weeks following China's immense success with "Not Gonna Tell" and Fortune Favours The Bold, as Romo believed she was on the same level as China but not achieving the same results. China was deeply saddened by Paulo's hospitalization, and Romo's self-centered tendencies came out once again as she got in a bitter fight with China about how wrong she was during the whole situation. Many reports surfaced following the fight that Romo and China would end their friendship, although it ultimately did not happen.
==Chart performance==
"Bait & Switch" entered the Urapopstar Airplay 40 in late November 2009, and has so far peaked at #11.
"Bait & Switch/Hell Is A Discotheque" debuted at #2 on the Urapopstar Top 40 Singles Chart with 90,548 copies sold. Despite losing a fierce chart battle with Paulo Araujo, the single gave Romo her best first-week sales to date, barely beating the 89,232 figure amassed by her collaboration with China, "Belle Ball/Covergirl". It held on to the runner-up position the following week, outsold by China's "Dead Famous". The single sold a total 309,836 copies, enough to be certified platinum.
==External links==
Lyrics
Category:2010 singles
Category:Romo singles