both Taylor and Kelly Clarkson: and, how all of you hopeful, young, stars to be can avoid such tragedy.
Okay, what happened:
You probably saw or heard about the Taylor Swift 2010 Music Awards incident/scandal. Basically, Taylor swift performed live along side the legendary Stevie Nicks and, after winning 3 top vocalist awards, sounded like a first timer at a local tone-deaf Karaoke night. I've included a video of this performance at the bottom of this post for those that haven't had the pleasure of seeing this. Be warned, it's hard to watch, I think - and pretty sad.
Then what happened...
Taylor's label released a statement explaining that she might not be just about hitting the high notes like Kelly Clarkson and the American Idol contestants. They
explained that it isn't about Taylor being a technician - for Taylor its a deeper connection about her soul and how she speaks directly to her audience, etc. etc.
Then...
Kelly corrected the Taylor Label's statement, saying that while "Idols" might hit some high notes, they also tend to hit the right notes! (ouch)
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My defense of both girls:
TAYLOR SWIFT DEFENSE:
Historical context:
I saw Taylor perform live right at the beginning of her stardom. She had recently recorder Her Tim Mcgraw song and it had just started getting attention. I remember thinking what a cute, gentle and sincere girl she was; I remember thinking that her voice and musical ability was curiously unremarkable for being showcased at such an event; however, I thought that it would be cool for this nice girl to have a hit song, and since she's so young, I'm sure she'll develop some ability.
Not more than a month or so later, I saw Taylor appearing on a national morning show - singing and selling the Mcgraw song. Then on another, and another, and another. Then she made 1 album of immature yet catchy, and very simplistic, songs. Then she won like best vocalist or best new artist or something like that at the next Music awards that came around. She then was popularized into the stratosphere throughout the following year until 2010, when she sweeps up 3 major awards prior to butchering Stevie Nicks songs and 1 after.
Defense: I think that Taylor's unfortunate performance did not expose Taylor as much as expose the greed of those who used her and the daftness of everyone who worshiped idolized her or who were shocked at all when reality struck. The greedy bastards in the industry used the shit out of this girl and then didn't protect her from what happened. Taylor didn't do anything wrong accept for having only slightly more singing ability than most of us. This barely 15 or 16 year old girl didn't have an ounce of intention to fool or scam anybody when these greedy fuckers abducted her image, to use in making a product for themselves. They knew it was 95% packaging, not her. Of course she assumed it was 95% talent and "xfactor," with just a few standard refinements. Hell, I didn't know I sucked until almost twice her age; so, I'm sure if 10 million people told me I was awesome at age 16, I wouldn't have bothered to notice how little the image and product resembled reality.
To Taylor: don't let this destroy your life Taylor. Look at it this way, most of us never receive more than a couple people appreciating us for more than a day, let alone millions praising us for 3 years; and, most don't get a handful of millions for being over estimated. Laugh at the crazy good fortune, protect the money, and start off on a new path. You'll be great unless you can't let go of the pride and spend the next 50 years miserably failing to prove that you can sing and really are a superhuman star.
In summary: You can't sing; however, you are adorable, young, and probably the only element not to blame for anything.
Kelly Clarkson Defense:
Kelly needs no defense really; accept, it must be clear and defended that Kelly is no mere "Idol contestant," Kelly was dragged into this thing because the greedy bastards chose to use Kelly in reference, as part of a strategy to explain and improve the Swift situation. It may or may not been a clever idea to characterize Idol as "the technical amateurs that perhaps aren't quite superstar talent like Swift, so they overly focus on the technical dressing." Regardless, it was very wrong and foolish to choose Kelly to mascot this characterization. Kelly is one of the few, one of the most, authentically masterful artists alive. Instead of trying to convince this fact with more words, I am providing you with the following video.
This video shows two important things: 1. That kelly Clarkson is no mere media invention but has freaking out of this world talent and ability; 2. Secondly, for anyone that feels fooled by Taylor Swift, or who has any trouble distinguishing between virtuosity and marketing, this video is an example of what authentic, legitimately worthy of praise, and divinely gifted talent looks like.
Why this video:: I chose this video, in part, because it is so opposite of the airbrushed, scripted, packaged, smoke and mirrors fake artistry crap that is mainly what is pushed upon us consumers by the greedy bastards. It is awesome - Kelly runs in, wearing sweat pants and looking like hell. She arrives just in time - about 2 seconds in time - to sing this song live on radio - to promote her concert is some damn European country. No reverb, backup singers, drowning out harmonies, or auto-tuners. Anyway, without pause nor grandiose introduction, Kelly Clarkson sings the living shit out of this song. She doesn't only hit the high notes and right notes Mr. greedy bastard Taylor Swift producer; that's right, she sings the shit out of this song in a way that's "from soul to soul" if there is such a thing.
The Evidence:
More...
If you wish to see another example of divine talent, and the only teenager I've ever seen, who's artistic maturity, ability, and expressiveness matches that of any fully realized, artistic genius at their peak, check out Tiffany Alvord in previous posts.
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The Taylor Swift 2010 Music Awards Performance with Stevie Nicks:
