cory_hughes wrote:
I've said it before many times and I will say it again, It is disgusting and appalling that Taylor and Carrie for that matter are winning awards that clearly belong to the likes of Martina and Reba. Taylor especially couldn't hit a note to save her life and don't even get me started on her live performances! What does Reba and Martina have to do to get noticed anymore? All I can say is my 5 year old daughter can sing and preform better than Taylor. I think the Academy needs to give their heads a serious shake and the Grammys, well they can have them!

The awards are always going to go to the newer hot stars more often than to the seasoned veterans.
And you cannot compare Carrie to Taylor. I'm not a fan of Carrie, she annoys me for some reason, but Carrie can actrually sing, and sing very well.

cory_hughes wrote:
It is disgusting and appalling that Taylor and Carrie for that matter are winning awards that clearly belong to the likes of Martina and Reba.
... What does Reba and Martina have to do to get noticed anymore?

They have been noticed. Often. Over several decades.
When Martina won her fourth CMA she pointed that she is aware that the adulation will not go on forever. It can't and it didn't.

But even when Martina was winning, some complained. Heck, I have friends and family who still say that Martina should not have won all those CMA awards because most of what she does is not country music—as they define it, i.e. she does not sound like Tammy Wynette or Loretta Lynn.

Then, as now, time marches on.

Cordially,
Tom
--
Give one heart. Get back two.
That's the paradox of I Love You.
--
Blessed is the believer who knows love is our Redeemer
And the only breath of life for these times in which we live

MichelleF wrote:
How can someone even compare Taylor and Carrie? They are completely different and Carrie has an amazing voice!

I also don't believe that the reason Taylor was so bad was because of "not being able to hear herself" or whatever. I have never seen her give a good performance on TV, so what about all of those other times? And Scott Borchetta just seems pathetic trying to defend Taylor. He is bringing down other artists by saying that although they are technically good singers, they aren't "true artists" like Taylor. Instead of doing that, maybe they should be getting Taylor voice lessons.

Well, what I was saying is that the reason she was louder than Stevie Nicks was due to the mixing not being right.
And if that was off, then maybe she really couldn't hear herself well enough. No singer, Martina included, can sing well if she can't hear herself. Martina always has her wedgies in front of her and John in charge. She always knows what she sounds like and her vocals rarely, if ever, waver. Maybe because she works at it more than others, maybe because she has John. (I saw her use in-ear monitors, I think for the first time, last Sunday. SHe did well, but she was still better when on the main stage.)

But even if one is "great", this doesn't mean you can sing well live. I recall a Crosby, Still, Nash and Young concert I went to in NJ that was so awful, with each singer being off key and out of time, all night long, that it took days for my sensibilities to recover. (I'm not sure they have yet.)
Are they untalented louts with no business being on stage and undeserved accolades?

Cordially,
Tom
--
Give one heart. Get back two.
That's the paradox of I Love You.
--
Blessed is the believer who knows love is our Redeemer
And the only breath of life for these times in which we live

MichelleF wrote:
The Grammys isn't the first time Taylor has given a bad, out of tune performance. It seems that every time I see her on TV, she is struggling. I also don't think she is an AMAZING songwriter like some people make her out to be. Yes, she writes catchy songs that young girls can relate to...but award winning songs? I don't think so. Her songs are all about boys and relationships and many of her songs also consist of the same three chords over and over.

I'm also quite tired of the shocked and "OMG I WON?!?!" face every single time she wins an award. She can't seriously be that shocked all the time. It just all seems so fake to me. And this is coming from someone who used to love Taylor when she was first starting out.

I also don't think that "being 20 years old" has anything to do with her terrible performances. There are plenty of people 20 and younger who can sing a lot better than Taylor.

Agreed. Age has nothing to do with how well you can sing in my opinion, the band One More Girl are two sisters 19 & 20 and they have 10x the better singing voice than Taylor. I do think experience and time can help a person fine tune their voice but in order to do that they need to have a good solid instrument to begin with which Taylor doesn't.

Tom,
Isn't VOCAL the same thing as SINGING they both have to do with your voice. So in my opinion when a category is named "Best Female VOCAL" it should be judged on the actual VOCALS. Or they should re-name the category "Best Female Artist"


Also, come on everytime she sings you can't blame "Technical" issues for the lack of her good singing voice. Sometimes she does sound worse than others and maybe there were "technical" issues but everytime! Give me a break. The only performance of Taylors I was actually pleasently surprised was when she sang "Run" at the George Strait tribute. And comparing Taylor to Carrie is ridiculous, everyone knows I am not the biggest Carrie supporter but she does have an amazing live singing voice.

"FORGIVE, sounds good
FORGET, i'm not sure I could they say time heals everything but I'm still waiting."

The only thing Taylor has going for her is the kiddie class. The true country music followers know who can sing and who can't, which is definitely not Taylor. I wish all the radio stations would find other songs to play besides hers. I do not own a Taylor cd now or ever will.. Someone help that poor girl!!

1. She writes "good" songs.
2. She's a cute girl.

Her voice is VERY lackluster. I about died when she was butchering the Stevie Nicks songs at the Grammy's.
---------------------------
- Laura
"You can google woohoo"? - Martina
Find me on Facebook.

Merriam Webster's definition for VOCALIST is.....

Drum Role Please.....

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vocalist


----

Taylor cant sing for ****, live or after multiple dubs on a cd. Just my opinion.
But the really hilarious part of this is, they choose now to bring it up. When she was doing a duet with a woman who ALSO hasn't been able to sing on key for her entire career....Stevie Nicks.
LMAO! Most of her stuff with Fleetwood Mac was just drug addled mumbling.

It was a battle of the bad female vocalists up there!

LOL

This whole earpiece excuse is nonsense! Great vocalists have managed to sing for many previous decades without the aid of earpieces.
Example: At the Little Rock show during I'm Not Leaving You, Martina had earpiece issues. It appeared to be getting caught up in her necklaces. Finally she gave up, pulled it out of the back of her shirt, and tossed it back toward the drumkit. I kept watching to see if a tech guy was gonna give her a new one, but they didn't. She did the last third of her show without an earpiece. Because....she had floor monitors. She didn't miss a note either. They had floor monitors at the Grammy's too. So a bad earpiece is no real issue for an actual talented singer. It only becomes a problem if you're a bad singer to begin with.

Teenage popularity is all that is carrying Taylor. Just like those popular Disney machine churnouts. She just went about it a little differently.
The shelflife on this usually last 5 or 6 years. After that, hardly anyone still remembers who you are, or were.

This too....shall pass.

When in doubt, always do the RIGHT thing from your own heart.

PamelaG wrote:
Thought this was interesting aswell...

http://blog.cmt.com/2010-02-16/taylor-swifts-fans-are-louder-than-her-critics/

Taylor Swift's Fans Are Louder Than Her Critics

I've been relatively silent about Taylor Swift's Grammy wins and her performance on the broadcast back in January. I guess I figured all the music critics out there had said enough. (And after Scott Borchetta and Kelly Clarkson got in a fight, I really did not want in on that.) They spoke out loud and clear that Swift's vocals were not up to whatever benchmark it is they measure vocals against. But you know who is even louder than all those critics combined? Taylor Swift fans.

I can only vouch for about 16 of them, but I think they are a good representation of the "critics" that really matter right now. They were the teenagers and their mothers I carpooled with to and from a high school dance this weekend. (Go ahead and insert your little soccer mom jokes right here. I really don't care. I'm a suburban mother between the ages of 35-54, so I am the country music demographic and I'm very much OK with that.) These girls sang along with every word to every Taylor Swift song. They yelled at me to turn it up! Play it again! Go back to the beginning! And I also heard a lot of "Omigod I love this song!"

What I didn't hear, ever, was any analysis of her vocal nuances. Nor did any of these women even mention the Grammys or the aftermath that played out online and in major daily newspapers. Their love of Swift is purely because of her music and her personality. People tend to gravitate toward her lyrics, her infectious melodies and well, just her. She connects with her audience on so many levels, and her enthusiasm fuels their enthusiasm. That's, I think, the big picture that critics sometimes miss.
----

I'm about as far from a Taylor Swift fan as you can get but that woman has hit the nail on the head. First Taylor appeasls to the most lucraticve demographics for entertainment.......young females and soccer moms. And she also was dead on about the personality. So many of the REALLY big stars have a "cult of personality" surrounding them......many of them are polarizing/controversial ones which seem to be the artists I gravitate to. Taylor may not be my choice of personalities but it is plain to see that she has it for the 2 biggest demographics for music and entertainment.

So I don't have to be a fan of hers to "get" why she is so big.