Watching the Grammys, one thought came to mind. And that is, seriously? Are these the MTV awards? Taylor Swift? Seriously?
She was sitting in a room full of professional musicians, a singer-songwriter barely out of her teens, who can barely play her instrument. The best word I can use to describe her would be inoffensive. Seriously. Taylor Swift is so bland, there’s no way you can’t like her. Meanwhile, Neko Case was in the audience. She walked away with no awards. Taylor Swift got to go onstage with Stevie Nicks, and you know what I learned? Taylor Swift can’t sing. At all. And someone thought it’d be a good idea to put Taylor Swift onstage with Stevie Nicks. Like Stevie Nicks could somehow magic her Fleetwood Mac mojo to Taylor Swift. Now, granted, she may have had an off-night, but she also couldn’t sing last year, and if you’re writing a bunch of inoffensive country songs with basic chord structures, if your album is going to be held as the pinnacle of music achievement for the year, I think you should at least be able to croak it out.
There are defining moments when you could tell the ratio of art versus commerce was getting way, way, WAYYYY out of hand. And every year, at the Grammys, you can watch a bunch of those moments. Where they’ll pair new stars with old stars, in an attempt to draw ratings. Where will Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers be in 30 years?
I guarantee you they won’t be performing with the next up and coming acts. So there’s a lesson here. If you sell the most albums (read: appeal to 13- and 14-year-olds), you can win an award for music excellence. Something is backwards.
She sounded like a teenaged girl singing Taylor Swift songs in the shower… oh wait.
huh. of all the easy targets in this year’s winner’s lineup (Black Eyed Peas!), you choose Taylor Swift? i’m no Swift booster, but she can write a damn good tune — no Stevie Nicks, sure, but few are. i thought her singing & guitar playing was pretty ace too — no Slash, but again. and as the best selling artist of the year (take that Susan Boyle!) her appeal ranges far past pre-teens, but even if it didn’t, who cares?
personally, i don’t think she wrote the best album of the year (DJ Quik ftw), but of those nominated, who do you think did better? Dave Mathews Band? please.
Sorry she cant Sing!!! I dont know why they let her perform live? I have seen her live on other shows over the years and they all sounded bad. She has to use AutoTunes in the studio to corect her vocal. She may write her own songs (Thats what they tell us) who really knows? She looks nice and everything but if she’s writing her own songs she should have someone who can sing perform them. I think we’ll find out that somebody big in the music businees with lots of money is pushing her. She didn’t make it with her vocal’s.
I, too, am amazed that someone who can’t carry a tune can be so successful; what a frustration for those who really can sing and want to showcase their talent. I was at the CMA’s in Nashville and heard Taylor sing two live songs…she may be the nicest young lady around, but vocally, she’s very overrated.
I dont think she really deserved it.She is a good singer, though.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard Taylor sing live and she sounded horrible those other times as well. She is a studio singer! She writes good music but she needs someone else to sing her songs. Her vocals are very disappointing.
I agree about her poor performance the grammy nite. I like her songs in radio but not after I heard her real voice. She does not deserve the grammy award.
It’s not her fault! She’s just a victem of the music biz. Long story short. Country Western was dying. Young rural teens turned away from country and begun listening to Rock and Hip-Hop because there was nothing about Country Western music that appealed to kids. The artist were a bunch of old guys and the lyrics were sad and depressing. Country writers began writing about the “Death of Country Western”. Saying that if the young rural kids won’t listen (and buy the music) then the country music industry would no longer be viable once the youth of today become adults, because they’d continue to listen to (and buy) Rock and Hip-Hop, not country. So, they began the movement toward creating Rock & Hip-Hop-sounding “Country” (dropping “western” from the name completely). This upset a lot of the old guard of Country Western, but, it didn’t matter, because the strategy was working. Taking it to the next level, and upsetting the old guard even more, they began to actively recruit Rock and Pop artist to do country songs in order to save the music genre (Darius Rucker, Kid Rock, Bon Jovi, Nelly, Danny Gokey, etc.). Now they’re going all out, spending huge sums of money to get their young stars (and their music) featured in Hollywood movies in an effort to attract younger fans. They’re agents began spending even more money to network with every major event bookie to get country artist to perform during halftime shows, talk shows, news shows, etc. They’re even attempting to clean up their image from “good ole boy’s” to nice guys in white cowboy hats (even leaving the hats on the tour bus and performing with baseball caps now). Now they’re going all out “right-wing” politics and trying to convince the rest of us to follow along. Ok, no big deal. But, when they start “buying” award show’s to try to convince us (as sweet as Taylor Swift is) that she had more of an impact on American music in 2009 than did Lady Gaga (who kept us dancing, partying and feeling good all year, hit after hit), well, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere…and just say…NO WAY!!! A lot of good artists worked really hard to make 2009 an absolutely memorable year music-wise. And, cute she may be, Talor Swift was definitely NOT among the TOP artists of 2009. Top artists were artists like: Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Nickleback, Fergie, Beyonce, Third Eye Blind, etc. 10 rich guys going out and buying 100,000 albums each to donate to the cause of getting country on the top of the charts, and greasing the sweaty palms of those on the take at the Grammy’s does not make Taylor Swift the “Artist of the Year” as her performance at the Grammy’s clearly proved!