Taylor Swift Destroys Music, Ears at Grammys
I stopped watching the Grammys a long time ago; before I started earning a living as a recording engineer, before a label insider told me what I had long suspected: that the entire thing was rigged like a Cuban election. I stopped watching simply because it was too painful to see what was so obviously a giant marketing event that bore little resemblance to what it was supposed to be: an awards show for musicians that deserve to be recognized.
I was reminded of all that last night, when I tuned in twice, for about 5 minutes a shot, both times to find Taylor Swift on-screen. The first time, she was receiving one of the four awards she won, and actually thanked her record company for letting her write every song on her album. I'm certainly no fan of her writing or singing (more on that in a moment), but nothing says more about why I hate the industry than that statement right there. It shouldn't surprise me that music has become so formulaic and machine-driven that singers actually feel its necessary to thank their record company for "letting" them write music on their own album, but it still pisses me off.
But Swift isn't really much of a singer (at least not without, I suspect, copious application of Auto-Tune), as I learned the second time I saw her and she was performing with Stevie Nicks on the old Fleetwood Mac song, Rhiannon. To say she was a bit pitchy would be like saying downtown Baghdad is a bit fucked up.
I've provided a link here to find out for yourself: she butchers what I assume is one of her own songs first, then finds complete disaster in the second, with Nicks (fair warning: if you have any cats in your home, I'd suggest you lock them in a room with no humans or other objects you don't want clawed up). The last song she sings proves that not only is she a crap singer, her voice, when not treated with effects, is incredibly annoying.
The whole horrible thing just reminded me of everything I hate about the music industry.
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