On the Taylor Swift defensive

Taylor Swift's Grammy appearance continues to provoke debate, this time with her label manager chiming in to defend the vocal talents of the young star. "Maybe she's not the best technical singer, but she's probably the best emotional singer," Big Machine head Scott Borchetta told the Tennessean late Wednesday night.

Pop & Hiss was especially critical of Swift's duet with Stevie Nicks, noting in our live blog that pairing Swift's good-natured charm with the distinct Nicks wasn't the best showcase for the young star. Times critic Ann Powers went further, writing that "Swift gave a strikingly bad vocal performance at Staples Center on Sunday, sounding tinny and rhythmically flat-footed."

The Tennessean asked Borchetta to respond to such criticisms. He told the paper, "The biggest message is (the critics) are not getting it. Because the facts say she is the undisputed best communicator that we've got. When she says something, when she sings something, when she feels something, it affects more people than anybody else." 

Borchetta's Taylor-as-punk-rock defense would hold a little more weight if she didn't sound relatively perfect on record. Yet anyone who was surprised hasn't been paying attention. In hindsight, Swift's Grammy appearance wasn't all that different from all her other live television performances, as the video below should prove.

Yet when Grammy voters gave her the gift of album of the year, Swift was no longer just a genial country-pop star with a penchant for crafting arena hooks. Overnight, the star now represents the highest class of the industry.

Swift has torn down the boys club that has been mainstream country the last few years, and become the genre's biggest female star since Shania Twain, if not the biggest female pop star in the universe. At such a young age, and with only two albums of teenage tales of heartbreak under her belt, Swift may now have the misfortune of having to defend the trophy, and the artistry it supposedly represents.

-- Todd Martens. 

Read the Tennessean: Taylor Swift's label chief responds to Grammy criticism

Photo: Taylor Swift and  Stevie Nicks. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Telling It]

The thing that you guys don't get is that popular doesn't mean better.And as far as good role model that is very very subjective.Recently there are reports that she hooked up with john mayer at a Nashville hotel.Please stop calling her a kid-it's very annoying.She's 20 years old and a grown woman- not a kid or a teenager anymore.She's a terrible singer and always has been and will be, now let me finish.Taylor might could learn to sing on key a little more if people would be honest with her and tell her you had a bad performance and you seriously need to work on that.Instead of dismissing it and acting like it's no big deal.All the while her singing gets worse because everyone's kissing her behind instead of telling her the truth so she can get better.

[brandon]

i totally agree that taylor swift is a horrible singer. those of you who say she's a good performer must be blind...she is prancing around all stiff and rehearsed (i swear i can see her counting) like some grown up jonbenet. every time she is on a stage i feel like i'm watching "toddlers and tiaras". she's clearly the product of a stage mother who over indulged her daughter to the point that she believes she is a great singer. what i don't understand is how they can get everyone else to believe it with them.
i don't believe that people think she is a wonderful singer or even an entertaining performer. nope. i think the voters who decide the winners of these awards are simply too lazy to do the research to vote appropriately. they remember who won the award at "that last award show", or who the buzz is about , or the article they read that said who was going to win. then they see that name on the ballot and check it. if the winner was decided by people who were paying attention, there is no way taylor would have won album of the year and no way that beyonce would have set a grammy record. either the voters are sheeple or the award is fixed.

[Kelsey Holder]

This just doesnt make sense. Taylor did great that night.Her voice was perfect with stevie nicks and i dont know why they are saying that she didnt sound good. But If she has to defend the award then why did they give it to her! They must really like i am a fan myself i love taylor swift she is amazing and very heartfelt and i think she deserved the award. They need to stop picking on the innocent ones. They just want to start conversation for one of the ones who havent done anything wrong.

[ladyofargonne]

Without lip syncing you find out who is genuinely talented and who is a product of engineering. Years ago I went to a couple concerts of bands I really loved. Their music and voices were beautiful recorded. Live they stunk.

[Nancilot Wowser]

" ... the best emotional singer." Unreal! Scott just buried himself, especially in Nashville. To say Taylor sings with more emotion that anyone else is laughable. Let's just look at Nashville females acts alone -- Martina, Lee Ann Womack, Carrie Underwood, Rimes, annoying Jennifer Nettles ... or what about Alison Krauss, a female who's won more Grammy awards then any other female in history -- they all sing with entirely more emotion, and each of their vocal ranges is infinitely better than Swift's, and it isn't even debatable. Scott, seriously, enough damage control, bro. Your starlet flopped, she always flops live, and she'll continue to do so. She's a p*ss-poor singer, and a bad guitarist. As far as writing, well, how many more songs about fairytales and high school romance can the world stomach? Not much more. Taylor is a classic example of right place, right time ... like N'SYNC or the Backstreet Boys. The world ate it up because there presently wasn't much of it. This girl, sadly, is destined for failure -- and for one reason and one reason only -- she isn't talented enough a singer, writer or instrumentalist to continue to validate herself as genuine.

[Tommy 305]

Come on people, did you see this KID sing in the Grammys, I did, "SHE SUCKED." She's always sucked. To give this girl one of the highest achievement awards is a fraud and the other nominees should be Fricking Pissed OFF. Life is not fair and it sure wasn't for the others in the categories that Taylor Swift was the winner of the Fraudmmys. Please recognize the real talent.

[urmmm]

Puhleeze, she stunk when she sang live on Dancing with the Stars too. No one wants to admit that KANYE was right, I think she's collected enough trophies from the sympathy voters. She's had her year of retribution, now time to reward real talent.

'

[tq]

I find most of comparisons regarding taylor swift display a rather shocking ignorance of the fact that taylor is primarily a song writer. Many other country western stars best hits this year were written by taylor. Shania Twain is the only valid comparison but she co-wrote her songs. I'd say Shainia is a much better singer and Swift is a much better writer. Kris Khristofferson might be the best comparison but of course he was much older when he became a star and like Taylor his fame was of rock and roll proportions. Judging from her SaturdayNight Live performance I'd say she also has his acting ability.

[Paul Randall]

Kanye was right.

[Paul Randall]

How about the Barbara Kruger ripoff set in the video. Shameless.

[terry terry]

It seems everybody has turned into Kanye West! All of you guys would have gotten on the Grammy stage drunk and try to take Taylor's award away and give it to Beyonce! What HATERS!!

[Jodi]

To be fair,NOBODY sounds like they do on their album,unless their lipsyncing.Faith Hill,Tim Mcgraw have admitted to using ''Autotune''.Usually when you take an artist out of their element they won't be spot on,I have heard Taylor in her element and she is marvelous,is she Whitney Houston,no,but lately Whitney hasn't been as good as she once was.Taylor is a 20 year old girl people,she recorded her first album at 16,she is still learning,that's what an artist is supposed to do,they have to learn things in order to get better.I would love to see her critics get up on stage and sing.I saw her kind of songs being brought up,AGAIN I say,she is 20 years old,most people her age or younger are learning about love,good or bad,what kind of stuff do you want her to sing about,going to a club and getting drunk,yeah thats good role model material,she writes about her life,NOTHING wrong with that,lets see u do it.She was the best selling artist of 2009 and you have to be insanely stupid to think she wasn't gonna get awared for that.

Also,her fans are not ''tone deaf'' just because we love her personality along with her songs.

Gotta give Taylor credit,at least she sings LIVE,forget the quality for a second,Britney,J-Lo,Hilary Duff sometimes gets slammed for lipsyncing at award shows or live in concert,but Taylor gets up and sings LIVE and she is the one getting slammed now,well I guess her critics enjoy lipsyncers then.Critics don't know crap anyways,most walk around with sticks up their rear anyway.Go to a Swift concert,see her in her element,then you may say something completly different.

[Jodi]

Calm down folks,its not like Miley Cyrus,Selena Gomez,Jonas brothers or heidi Montag won album of the year.

If I hear her awards are fixed one more time,she was the BEST selling artist of 2009 people,album of the year doesn't just mean the quality of the singer,its the songs themselves too,say whatever about her singing,but cannot deny the girl can write songs,in a music world where some artist have a write come in and they say here sing this.

[Shame]

The 'emotional singer' defense does not apply to Taylor Swift. Not only can she not technically sing, she shows absolutely no emotion or feeling when she takes to the mic. Just a thin, whiny, flat, off-key caterwaul. And every live performance is awful. Not lip-syncing and not using Auto-Tunes is not enough. There has to be some kind of skill. There are many singers who may not be technically anywhere near perfect, but who are great singers because they are able to convey style, emotion, drama, etc. - and sadly. Taylor has not of that.

[Kane]

Dear Kelsey Holder:
It's very nice that you like Taylor and want to defend her. However, either you are in complete denial or just cannot hear: Taylor did not 'do great' and her voice was not 'perfect'. She was flat, off-pitch, off-key - in a word, horrendous. Even her label president admits that she was off (due to 'technical difficulties', of course) in his defense of her.

[Charles]

tinny is a sound traditional to country and mountain music, so that should be a compliment to a singer classified as country not a criticism. and she has had that sound to her voice since i first heard her music video for the song "tim mcgraw" back in 2006 on cmt. I was very politely surprised that so many other people took a liking to her music so quickly when she first came out, because even in country music that type of distinguishing sound has been squashed more and more over the years and faded largely into the background, with many executives insisting it wasn't popular or liked anymore.. well evidentally they were wrong, considering how popular Taylor Swift's music has become in less then four years time now with just two full albums and a walmart exclusive teaser album in between the two full albums under her belt so far.

And despite all the criticism she has faced already, she's maintained her class and poise very well, and when she has eventually spoken out like when she did about her break-up with one of the jonas brothers band members, she does so playfully and fairly briefly and then moves on with her life. very commendable in my view. In the past ten years there have been some very popular music artists who have sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me and i couldn't stand to hear any of their material, to the point of shutting a radio off or leaving somewhere to avoid their music sometimes. and no one ever seemed to criticize them that i ever saw in the media, so compared to that, Taylor is facing way too much criticism, because compared to some of the popular artists in recent memory, she can sing way better then they could. and anyway its all a matter of personal preference, if you don't like someone's music, don't listen, and leave those of us who would like to enjoy music in general with alot less of the drama and criticism alone please. basically not everyone has to be a classically trained and gifted singer in order to make music that's popular that people want to listen to. The argument could probably even be made that the entire country genre is basically going against that mold, because country music is mountain music, people singing in their living room or on their back porch or something for fun after a long day, to pass a few hours pleasantly til it was time to do it all again the next day, its an escape, and no one ever usually cared how anyone sounded much, that wasn't the point. Granted a professional singer is typically held to a higher standard of singing, such isn't and hasn't always been the case. Nothing against people who are capable of singing a song "perfectly" each and every time or most of the time or what-not, but that isn't always a mandatory requirement to being able to sing or being popular, it just helps whoever is capable of it usually.

[steve]

I'm sure she's very talented but this Grammy snafu was not a one time thing. I saw her perform on SNL and couldn't believe how off-key and terrible it was. Yes, terrible mistake to put her next to Stevie Nicks - who sounded amazing!

Posted by: Kenneth | February 04, 2010 at 01:05 PM

I too saw her on SNL and thought badly of her performance there. I knew nothing of her then and have see her a few more time on TV since. I kind of understand her appeal with her fans now. With vocal training she could be a better singer but the danger is loosing the raw energy she gives off. The music industry is littered with weak singers that are popular and sing worse. With a little luck and some more song the fans like, Taylor could have a good career.

[Ursula]

However Scott Borchetta tries to spin the story, the truth is known now to many more people outside Nashville. The record label calculated they could sell America on a role model - without caring about musical ability. That worked as long as the money was paying for pr and radio spins to a specific market. Stepping onto a bigger stage, however, all the cracks start to show. Next time maybe the marketing geniuses will look for a role model who really can make music - without Auto Tune in the studio, and a team of co-writers and ghost writers.

[ben]

This exposes Grammy's for what it is . . . unworthy of what it represents.
There are a lot of better musicians that go unnoticed by award-giving bodies, especially the Grammy's. We should not be deceived in believing that whatever the Grammy puts its seal of approval is necessarily good. We should take it upon ourselves to discover good music and not look to the direction of critics to tell us what is good.

[AT]

Wow, horrendous. I'd heard it was bad, but wow. Sounds fine in the studio, but live is the true test, is it not? Sad that they couldn't wait to bury Taylor in the awards she should be getting in a few years--not now. Clearly the Grammys are still about the market. Remember "My Humps"?

[robert m]

she's pretty and has virtually no artistic value whatsoever

she's pop drivel wrapped in a candy wrapper

if she was 40lbs overweight, ugly, and sang the same songs, she'd be laughed off of every stage

[Alice]

Live performances are NOT Taylor's strong suit. That doesn't mean she sucks completely. I've seen her in concert and it definitely was not as bad as it was at the Grammys. She gets nervous when she's not around her fans. If you watch videos of acoustic sets of her, they're pretty good. She tries to scream when singing at an award show. I wish they let it go. The album was phenomenal and deserved the album of the year, regardless of live performances. I'm done. If you wanna hate on her, go ahead. I couldn't care less anymore. Still, I proudly call myself a fan of hers.

[Em]

Listen, Taylor is a great self promoter! She's come of age in a time of twitter, YouTube, Facebook, blogs, texting, etc. She hooked her fans at the beginning and I believe her fame has more to do with being out there and taping her every move than her music. It's the young fan who is dominating the markets, by using technology.

I saw the Grammys last Sunday & TOTALLY cringed at her vocal performance (but that happens every time I catch her). Putting her next to Stevie Nicks was another HUGE mistake, that's like expecting a wild jaguar to be able to handle a house kitten!

Like other commenters have noted, this is NOT the first time that she has been off-key and flat while singing, and yes, I also saw her on SNL, she's always off key, ALWAYS! Sorry, but Taylor can not sing! It's studio hijinks that make her come off so flawless on her records. How do I know? My ex and many friends are in the music industry and I've seen AAALLLLL the in studio tricks to make a singer sound MUUUUCH better than he/she really does.

And sorry, Shania Twain CAN blow (sing). She's (Shania) is a powerhouse performer!

[Carol]

Now I don't see that Taylor's performance at the Grammyu's was in any way bad. Taylor is an amazing young artist and song writer, and because she has won so many awards and also sold so many albums, I feel that many are jealous and have attacked her with a vengence. I also feel that some are mad that Taylor won Album of the Year, however, it is quite obvious by the record sales and the fact that Taylor wrote or co-wrote every song on her Fearless Album and so many of her songs from the album have made it to the top 20 - Taylor won this top award very legitimately! The Hollywood and music communities and people in general (with the exception of the wonderful Country Music Family of artists) LOVE to see an artist rise up AND then they CAN'T WAIT to TARE them DOWN. That is disgusting! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Taylor Swift and her music/voice/songs & I am NO TEEN, I am an adult over age 40 and love many kinds of music. Taylor is the sweetest young artist out there today; sincere, real, wholesome, focused and someone every young person should look at as an example of hard hard work, determination and talent and how far it can take you. I wish Taylor Swift many many many more years of much continued success and I applaud her parents because they have raised a wonderful young lady.

[friend]

i wrote this paragraph back in 2008. just found it again online:

i am from Reading PA and knew Taylor Swift’s family. She grew up on a small horse/tree farm on Freemansville Road, not “Wyomissing, PA” like her bio insists. She moved to Wyomissing later on, right before she moved to Nashville. Trust me - there are NO horse farms in Wyomissing. It’s filled with big, expensive homes and mansions. Her house had an elevator in it, for christ’s sake. I’m sure they implied she lived in Wyomissing her whole life because it sounds more “country” (ala like “Wyoming”).

Taylor Swift has always had a luxurious and wealthy lifestyle… Her dad made his millions off being a stockbroker in NYC. Got her some sleazy junior “record deal” with Sony by the time she was 12, even though she had minimal songwriting experience, if any. A few years later she was getting huge endorsements by Taylor Guitars and appearing in Abercrombie and Fitch ads, years before she ever had a cd out, only being a tween at this time (ahem, daddy’s money). Her dad also at this time got her involved in the Britney Spears talent agency (you know, cause that’s so country). TRUST ME - SHE ONLY GOT ALL OF THIS BECAUSE HER FAMILY IS LOADED.
Ever wonder why she can’t sing for s— live? Here’s your answer. She is a joke around here (Berks County) to the people who truly knew her “abilities”. I’ve heard she is shunned around the musical Nashville scene as well. She attempted to get into acting before this too. Her family has sold her since the beginning. She also wasn’t really country off the bat. She was attempting to do more of a pop acoustic route until it was recommended by a friend to go country (I still have her lackluster demo cd laying on my shelf). She is Avril Lavigne in country boots….a man made product of the music industry.

STOP THINKING SHE IS A TALENTED SONGWRITER. She pays for it all people! This girl probably barely knows how to tune her guitar. “Co-writing” today is the equivalent of telling someone to write a song for you, footing the bill for it, and then slapping your name on it. This type of payola in the industry has been going on for years. It’s gotten so worse in recent years that I would compare it to the steroid scandal in the sports industry — all integrity has been lost. Don’t worry though, more and more people are realizing Taylor is a phony (her tone-deaf videos on youtube never lie) and more people are speaking out. I read an interview of her once where she stated when she was 11 her family drove down to Nashville and she walked down music row knocking on the doors of labels and handing out her cd, making it sound like she was a freaking cow girl. Puhhhh—-lease. Don’t EVER believe the hype.