Bob Lefsetz's take on Taylor Swift:



I’ll say that I was impressed with the Michael Jackson tribute.  No, not his kids, who certainly aren’t his biologically, and acquitted themselves quite well, but the performances…  Everybody could sing!  Could almost make you a Celine Dion fan. Especially after experiencing Taylor Swift.

How awful was she?

Dreadful.

"Fearless" deserved to win Album of the Year.  I was glad it did.  Scuttlebutt was it was DMB’s year, but to say "GrooGrux" is good is to be a tie-dyed hippie hanging out in the parking lot before a show that features great playing but mediocre material. "GrooGrux" sold to a small coterie, most people don’t care.  But Taylor Swift is as mainstream as you can get.  Triumphing in two formats.  Speaking her truth to her audience.  I love "Fearless".  You can play it from start to finish, again and again, it’s honest.  But last night’s performance…

Do you remember Billy Squier’s pink video? Which killed his career overnight? Take a peek: 'Rock Me Tonight'
What was a hard rocker doing prancing around in a pink tank top?  What was a neophyte artist doing sharing a stage with a legend who made it before auto-tune, before studio tricks could make anybody a singer?

I don’t need to analyze the performance.  (Hell, what I don’t get is how Taylor rearranged her own hit song.) But what I am interested in is the impact.  Because now, everybody knows that Taylor Swift can’t sing.  Is this what they’ll remember?

Now unlike Billy Squier’s pink video, there won’t be endless repetition on MTV.  And one can question how much of the target audience saw this performance.  But the cognoscenti did, and to what degree do they now want to distance themselves from Ms. Swift?

In other words, did Taylor Swift kill her career overnight?

I’ll argue she did.  Oh, I’m not fully convinced of that, but let’s start from this position.

She’ll be even further hated in Nashville (and what kind of fucked up world do we live in where the CMAs are better than the Grammys?)  I’d love to say whored out Top Forty radio stations will ignore her, but this is doubtful, still…

In one fell swoop, Taylor Swift consigned herself to the dustbin of teen phenoms.  Who we expect to burn brightly and then fade away.  From New Kids On The Block to Backstreet Boys to Miley Cyrus.  A wall is created, stating you can’t come any further. Debbie Gibson can appear in shows on Broadway, but she can’t have a hit record, the powers-that-be won’t let it happen.

Taylor’s too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made.  And those surrounding her are addicted to cash and are afraid to tell her no.  But last night Taylor Swift SHOULD have auto-tuned.  To save her career.

They say it’s easy to fake it in the twenty first century.

But one thing we know is the truth will always come out.

It’s hard to be a singer if you can’t sing.

Ultimately, we want our stars to be genuine.  Without this credibility, your time atop the charts is brief.

Taylor Swift shortened her career last night.  And since she says she calls all her own shots, she has to shoulder the blame. Yes, her dream came true, she made it, she’s a star, but the real test is longevity.  Elton John can play with GaGa decades later.  Will Taylor Swift be duetting with the stars of the 2030s?  Doubtful.

lefsetz.com


Hope the kid has banked some cash.
It might be 14:59 for her...

I LOVE Green Day's, 21st Century Breakdown, it was one of my favorite albums of the year! One of the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of the CD is a KILLER version of The Who's mini rock opera, A Quick One While He's Away!

Lefsetz still loves the album.

He just realized that she can't cut it live, and had previously accused her of using Auto-Tune.
She even called him to deny it - Taylor Swift Calls.

Funny that he thinks she should've used it last night...

this much i know.  i caught the final 2 hours of the awards last night and i enjoyed it.  the taylor swift duet with stevie nicks was great as well as her other 2 songs she did....she was a bit off key, but who cares.  i thought the 4 singers that did the michael jackson tribute was awesome.  i missed the lady ga ga elton john bit.  i watched the bon jovi songs....errrr.  but the thing i did notice is that they moved this show on like never before.  i can remember watching this presentation in the past and whe performers would be accepting their awards they would get all long winded and seem to carry on for hours telling there glory stoys and thanking this and thanking that....not last night.  it seemed on and off....say your thank you's and say them fast and bam you're out of there otherwise they start playing the music and brightening the lighs.  they seem to have it down now when accepting your award....say your speal for 45 seconds and then get the fuck off the stage...i like that.

from the 2 hours i watched this show i must say i liked it.  the presentation was excellent and so were the costumes and what not.  tonights gonna to be a good good night...i give it an A

get down

owwwwwwwwwww

i can't stand green day....every song they sing sounds like the last one.   fuck that idiot singer

LadyJane wrote on Feb 1^st, 2010 at 11:21am:



Absolutely. She was flat all night. I could barely listen.....well, I didn't listen after awhile.

I was pretty mesmerized by Pink's performance.

I'm not a country girl, but you can tell that the Zac Brown Band has talent...and loved seeing Leon up there.

I even enjoyed the Michael Jackson song....maybe not all of the performers {but I loves me some Smokey Robinson. , but I liked the song.

I did NOT need to hear 2 vocalists SCREAMING "Bridge Over Troubled Waters". That is not a screaming song. 

And, what's the use of having rap stuff when you have to bleep most of it out? Don't like rap. Never will.

Ok, I guess I can admit that Green Day is a guilty pleasure for me, too.  At least there is some semblance of music there! Melody---verse, chorus...

I think that Lady GaGa, Pink, and Beyonce can all sing. Beyonce has a wonderful voice. It's just the choice of "music"....

And, I've come to the conclusion, that it's really not ABOUT the music anymore. One critic was saying today that he didn't go to bed singing any song from last night---because they really aren't "songs" anymore! Just a bunch of notes, arranged and somehow remembered by the hard memorizing vocalist. It's really all about performance with so many of these acts.

Will we be listening to any of this music 40 years from now?? As we do our Stones and Who and Kinks and such? Most of it will be long gone and forgotten. And so will the "artists".

Yeah, I'm old too. But........"They REALLY don't make 'em like that anymore!"

Sioux wrote on Feb 1^st, 2010 at 6:25pm:



i hear what you are saying there souix , but lets not jump the gun here, times have changed. sometimes it seems it is all about glitz and glammer and who can be the weirdest [example lady ga ga]  what i was thankful during last nights grammys was there was not a lot of the hip hop rap crap. when i heard about the upcoming michael jackson tribute i set in to believe it was going to be a half hour scene...not that i hate michael, but i was glad to see it was 4 good performers came out and did a good 4 minute version of 1 of his songs.  i think the grammys are getting it together these days because the the artists that win awards have just seconds to give there thanks before they move along and we don't have to hear their long winded boring glory stories of yesteryear.  they have 30-40 seconds to say their thanks and move along...thank god

Martha wrote on Feb 1^st, 2010 at 3:21pm:


I love the fact that someone who sings like Bob Dylan consistently gets nominated for a 'best vocal' performance, and sometimes even wins.

Odd choice of nomination for Bruce. 'Working on a Dream' is a Bruce-by-numbers song and wouldnt be many people's choice for being anywhere near the best song on that album.

Yeah, I really thought there was a lot of good variety this year, actually. Very little rap....and I enjoyed the brief "thanks" as well!

LadyJane wrote on Feb 1^st, 2010 at 10:48am:


I like some 'new stuff' and don't get it when people our age just dismiss shit because it doesn't speak to them personally.
You're right, Lady Gaga is her own thing and you can't deny the talent of people like Beyonce and Pink.....
But i haven't watched the grammies since Helen Reddy and Andy Williams co-hosted...now those were the days - because they didn't pretend to be cool. It was what it was.

The backlash from Taylor Swift's Grammy performance continues...

Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of Swift's record label Big Machine Records, issued a statement in defense of TS.

“The facts say she is the undisputed best communicator that we’ve got," Borchetta said. "So when she says something or feels something it affects more people than anybody else. Maybe she’s not the best technical singer, but she is the best emotional singer. Everybody gets up there and is technically perfect people don’t seem to want more of it. There’s not an artist in any other format that people want more of than they want of Taylor. I think (the critics) are missing the whole voice of a generation that is happening right in front of them. Maybe they are jealous or can’t understand that. But obviously the people that she talks to are engaged with her. No one is perfect on any given day. Maybe in that moment we didn’t have the best night, but in the same breath, maybe we did.”

tennessean.com

left shoe shuffle wrote on Feb 4^th, 2010 at 12:48pm:


I'm sorry but a sheet of sandpaper has more emotional content than Taylor Swift's singing voice.