The Lone Holdout

I think I may be the only person left who just doesn't understand Taylor Swift's popularity. Of course, I don't fully understand the popularity of Mylie Cyrus (who sings through her nose) and the Jonas Brothers (the less said, the better), either, but maybe that's a post for another day.

I watched the Academy of Country Music Awards last night while grading papers. Swift made several appearances throughout the show, but given how successful she has been this past year, I guess that's really no surprise. She's appeared on almost every music awards show in recent memory, always performing some variation of a "woe is me" song. She even won two awards last night, including Album of the Year over such musical stalwarts as George Strait and Montgomery Gentry.

I had confirmed for me last night what I have believed all along. She cannot sing live. At least, not on key. Each time she has sung on an awards show, I am left wondering how anyone can stand to listen to her for an entire concert. Her voice must benefit a great deal of the work done in the studio. Is this another one of those instances where the performance is made by skilled technicians rather than the singer? I think that must be the case.

I also imagine that the look she sported last night and that she tends to favor--a short dress with cowboy boots--is going to be a popular look for a while now. More's the pity.

Look, I get it on some level. Young people need role models and idols too. They should have someone who is much like themselves in terms of emotional development (those overwrought emotions!) but far more talented than themselves in order feel like they have something to aspire to become. And I'm okay with that. I don't begrudge Swift or Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers their success. I just wish they weren't touted as being skilled musicians, and I wish the airwaves weren't always filled with their music or with music by performers like them.

Several years ago, one of the managers for one of the boy bands that was popular at the time (I usually can't tell them apart, to be honest) was asked why such bands continue to be popular. His reply: "Because they keep making teenage girls." I think that might account for all of these young people who keep appearing on the music charts and on awards shows and even on the big screen--in 3-D, no less.

I'm earning my old fogie credentials in saying this, I know, but if this is the future of music, I'll be listening to oldies for the rest of my life. And I don't think that will be such a bad thing, after all.