I know we’ve pretty much beat the Taylor Swift issue to death…but while reading my Sunday issue of the Tennessean today, I came across an extremely well-written piece about the backlash Taylor Swift’s Grammy performance has created.
OK, there’s the talent deal. Some people are bemoaning a world in which an imperfect singer is able to reap Grammys and dollars and such while phenomenal vocalists go unnoticed. In the first place, skill in music is no assurance of conventional success. If I made a list of Ten Most Talented Nashville Musicians, it would surely include Tim O’Brien, Charlie McCoy and Jon Randall, none of whom would make the list of Ten Best Known Nashville Musicians.
And there’s this: Many onlookers will call a non-songwriter who can sing well “talented” and then deny the talent of a less-than-powerful vocalist who can write memorable songs. Taylor Swift writes memorable songs that cross genre lines and sell millions. If I were talented enough to do that, I wouldn’t be writing this column. She does it as a 20-year-old. She did it as a 16-year-old. She does that with co-writers and — on half of her Fearless album — by herself. Songwriting is a talent: Susan Boyle is not more talented than Kris Kristofferson, although she has the superior vocal range.
Swift would have had no problem if she had just done what most country stars do: She could have run her vocals through an auto-tuning processor that knows the note she’s supposed to be hitting, grabs the note she hits and shifts her pitch up or down (in Sunday’s case, it would have been up) into artificial perfection. Almost every A-list recording artist uses this technology in the studio, and most use it live, without apology.
Does that mean your favorite country star can’t sing? It doesn’t mean that at all. It means he or she believes you want the concert to sound just like the record, which was brushed, polished and Auto-Tuned in the studio. That’s the nature of record-making today, and it has changed the sound of our music. Listen to Percy Sledge’s 1960’s classic “When A Man Loves A Woman” and you’ll hear his pitch waver as he sings with a horn section that is out of tune. If he recorded that today, the public would hear his voice and the horn section in perfect tune, though the processing would likely remove much of the performance’s emotional impact.
Swift chose not to have her voice tuned at the Grammys, and then she delivered a less than convincing performance that came on the heels of other less than convincing awards show performances. Is she a particularly strong singer? Of course not. Is she a talentless fraud? Of course not. She makes records using the same technology and methodology as everyone else in town. She’s a 20-year-old who got famous before coming into her own as a vocalist. Give her some time. Or go listen to something else if you’d like. When I got home from the Grammys, I checked and found out that Swift’s televised performance had not changed the way my Tom T. Hall records sound at all. Relief!
Swift has delivered subpar awards show performances in the past, and people lifted eyebrows but not poison pens. Backlash seems to hit different people for different reasons.
Britney Spears lip-synched performances for years, but backlash didn’t come until she chunked up a little and appeared mentally unstable. Ashley Simpson lip-synched and was castigated. Tiger Woods cheated on his wife and lost fans, respect and sponsorships. Kobe Bryant cheated on his wife, was accused of rape and remains a popular basketball star. Sara Evans delivered a wince-inducing vocal performance at the 2006 Academy of Country Music Awards, just before picking up the top female vocalist prize, and it was no big deal.
Lost in all of this is that a pleasant, respectful and bright young woman is dealing with the angry disapproval of so many people who would do well to just change the channel or pop in another CD or download something else if they’re not impressed with her.
I’ve read, over and over again, people volunteering that they “hate” Taylor Swift. Now, the world has plenty of hate-able things, from war to famine to Lane Kiffin. And we’re going with the barely post-teen who sings about fairy tales and princesses and stuff? Really?
There is plenty more in this article…and it’s worth the read…Taylor Swift supporter or not. You can read it here. My defense of Taylor has never been on whether she can sing or not…I don’t think she’s the best singer in the world…but she’s also doesn’t cause ‘bleeding ears’ like so many claim. And she’s still talented…and talent wins awards. I’ve heard the best singers…sound…well…pretty darn bad…so when someone who’s never claimed to be the best sounds flat…well..that’s to be expected. I don’t expect everyone to agree. After all, variety is the spice of life. I just wish that people could give the girl credit, instead of saying it’s a fluke…It’s all PR….Obviously there is more to it than that…and that’s all I have to say about that….
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Very well written.
Sweet Jeezus I am bored with this “story.”
Bored with the story is an understatement. Many have been bored with the ENTIRE Taylor overload for A VERY LONG TIME…can we just move on from her and discover that there are REAL COUNTRY ARTISTS OUT THERE WHO CAN SING? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
LOVE Taylor. Whether she’s the best singer or not. She’s talented and that’s all that matters.
Well I guess she has chosen not to wear her auto-tune for all of her performances! Give me a break! She cannot sing so why do people make excuses for her? Believe it or not…people can make up there own minds whether an artist can or cannot sing. For all of these people saying not to gang on poor Taylor because she had an off night, are just fooling themselves or they themselves are just tone deaf. Kanye West is the best present ever given to her. She is 20 years old now-she is no longer a child. Call what it is…she cannot sing!
a refreshing read. i wish all reporting was this well thought out. thank you for sharing.
I like Taylor but lets face it…. Grammy performance was bad!!! She is very talented girl and a great role model. I am not sure what happened at the Grammys but it was not good and I felt bad for her. That was one show where you want it to be really good. I couldn’t even hear Stevie Nicks singing. Somebody screwed up there and I think it had alot to do with the tecnical part of the show. I have seen Taylor in concert and she was good and put on a great show so I know she can sing and everyone has a bad nite. The first time I saw Brad Paisley it wasn’t real great and I was a little dissapointed. However, the next 5 times I saw him it was really good. Everybody has bad nites but it was too bad this one was the Grammys.
The article is defensive and not entirely honest. Yes, the Swift machine generates a lot of money for the industry. Still it’s short-sighted and cynical to believe the record-buying public will continue to support an act who can’t sing now they know it. Taylor cannot sing, not on the Grammys, not on any stage. Fix that and all the debate goes away. To credit her for not using Autotune to sound awful is missing the point – intentionally.
I’m sorry, but I’m so sick of hearing the same excuses over and over. Taylor, and her label, should take responsibility for what happened, and stop covering it up. Everyone always says Taylor wants to appear real and “human?” Usually people can understand making mistakes- but ignoring something that has gotten so big makes Taylor appear even worse in my eyes. Either she doesn’t know that she is no vocalist, or she is too high and mighty to believe that she’s “too good” to address all the backlash.
Taylor has not improved in four years; she is not going to become a better vocalist. She’s an average writer, but I think it’s about time people expected more maturity from her. “Today Was A Fairytale” and “Jump Then Fall” were both released and recorded this year- and they’re no different than anything she wrote at 14, 15, or 16.
I’m not really understand the “there have been performances just as bad as hers” argument, either. Diference is, these people are not winning the highest awards in music. They’re not rewarded the “best of the best” honors when they clearly are not. Taylor is, and it the industry seem very hypocritcal; she can win dozens of awards, but others who are at the same level cannot?
Taylor is 20 years old; if she wants to be treated like an adult she needs to start acting like one.
Distilling things further, seems to me there would not be such a firestorm of public criticism if Taylor Swift was not being given awards in the “vocal” categories at the CMAs and Grammys. You can debate the merits of a best of album as being subjective. But when Taylor is awarded top honors in the vocal categories when she plainly can’t sing, well, that’s just wrong. People have had enough of this sort of sham whether it be from government or the record industry. There’s plenty of real singers in Nashville and beyond who are also being wronged by this marketing charade.
Apologies to the writer — Taylor Swift still cannot sing and is over publicized. The tweens love her; they are too young to know talent.
I appreciate both sides of this story, and think there is truth in some of the opinions of both the supporters and detractors. What I find troubling in the way SOME of the people who are anti-Taylor are so harsh in their judgement. Are you practicing to be Simon Cowell’s replacement or something? I’ve lived long enough as a huge music fan to have seen that these things are cyclical–there are spells where youth, raw talent, and blurred genre definitions are the big thing, and then other years where experienced, polished talent that reinforces accepted boundary definitions are the big thing.
Whether Taylor Swift can sing or is talented or needs to grow up or whatever is NOT the end of the world; eventually there will be a new hot female we’ll all be talking about and Taylor will have the opportunity to mature into an adult without everyone picking her apart at every turn. Becoming an adult is challenging enough for an ordinary person; how much more so to be living under such attention? Given Taylor has kept true to her image as a good role model instead of turning into the next Britney or Lindsay under all this publicity is enough for me to respect her regardless of what I think of her music.
Your defense of Swift’s talents are offensive. You talk as if only misguided,musically ignorant sheep are listening. You say Taylor is as or more talented than say Susan Boyle or Carrie Underwood or Pink (just naming talented vocalists)..well you are wrong. Her songwriting is average at best, but it does speak to a lot of 8 year olds, lots of tweens and teens who would love to look and be like her and some hormone crazed men – young and old. If indeed, as your assessment suggests, that Taylor is so fantastically talented as a song writer then there is a catergory for that.Songwriting. The grammys and the CMT gave this girl awards she did NOT deserve as a singer. And while great lyrics are wonderful, anybody with musically au courant knows that a truly gifted vocalist can sing a few la-la-la-la’s and totaly blow you away.Without the vocals, songwriters would be very well-versed poets at best.
Thank You Mary Katherine…finally…someone sees what this is all about….Its the harshness that doesn’t completely seem justified…Have an opinion…but must you be so mean about it? Um..no.
Hmmmm…all very interesting. In every walk of life, it seems, we are now expected to accept less! Children who perform below educational ‘standards’ are being passed on. God forbid we make anybody feel bad about: not doing well on a test, not performing well on a playing field, yes your not really qualified…but, because of your race/ethncity/sex…YOU GET THE POSITION! So many examples of this exist in our society, today…now we are being told…by ‘experts’, that someone, whom of which cannot sing, deserves to be recognized for this inability????? I’ve heard, and from an excellent source, that Ms. Swift is a genuinely good and gracious person. And one must credit her for her ability to attract so many young listeners; however, I refuse to buy into the latest societal and liberally generated initiative and believe that she is a great singer…Isn’t that what that award represents? Award programs have lost all credibility for me…By the by…I was a huge ‘concert goer’ back in the 70′s, 80′s, 90′s (all genres)…honest to God…I never witnessed a single poor performance…they were true professionals. And now that I’m a country fan and have seen several concerts, including many young performers, I have yet to see a performance as bad as any that Ms. Swift has had on television! I want her sooo badly to hit the right notes and I cringe and even get physically ill when she does not. I’ve even mouthed a little prayer hoping she would…I like her; but, can no longer listen to her live…even with the use of an ‘auto-tuning processor’. She can sing, but she is, without a doubt, a bad singer. Sorry Ms. Swift…