Grammys

[woody]

I tried to watch the Grammys objectively tonight. Made it only as far as Jamie Foxx dancing around, "singing" a song through a pitch controlling device. Does anyone loathe this crap disguised as "music" as much as I do?

[XenoMorph]

I watched the following performances:

Lady Gaga + Elton John
Beyonce
Taylor Swift + Stevie Nicks

Lady Gaga is awesome... She's a good musician and a great performer... Her voice is very well trained, and when she isn't doing cheesy pop hits, she's really quite a fantastic singer..
Beyonce... Soooooo hot.... Drool... but the performance lacked any musical substance... pure theatrics in my opinion...

Taylor swift at least went for the musicians approach to performance... I.E. stand on stage and sing with your band.... However, she's absolutly terrible live... Even my 11 year old, a noted Taylor Swift fanatic said, "I never thought I would say this, but she's horrible live..."

Stevie couldn't do anything to help her either... Stevie just hit her notes, and watched as Taylor wallowed around looking for hers... It was really abysmal...

[outsider]

Agree about Taylor Swift, very thin voice.

Lady GaGa awesome? no one will remember her in 3 years.

[XenoMorph]

Agree about Taylor Swift, very thin voice.

Lady GaGa awesome? no one will remember her in 3 years.

Disagree about Lady Gaga... I think she will be around for quite some time... But there's no way to predict the future... we'll bump this thread in a couple years if gas drilling hasn't destroyed the tunk forums servers...

I predict her getting fed up with the "pop culture" theatrics and writing a serious album in the next couple of years... Which will bomb on the pop charts, but explode everywhere else...

[Banger]

Pink stole the show.

[woody]

The circus show was impressive, the song sucked. The outfit wasn't bad, either.

[XenoMorph]

I agree... Pink's performance was great on mute... otherwise it wasn't anything special...

I can't help but to mention though that the drummers that played for some of these acts were absolutly amazing...

[bassline9287]

How about Bon Jovi? The guy is totally washed up. He can't even come close to hitting the high notes he could hit years ago. That is particularly evident in the new writings for the band. Maybe the smog in Jersey has finally gotten to him.

Did anybody see the performance by Dave Matthews Band? They consistently outperform the rest of the acts, yet they get no recognition. They lost album of the year to Taylor Swift, who performed like crap

[woody]

John Bon Jovi coulden't hit the notes in the 80's either. My band opened for them in '89. I wandered around before the show and found a room of keyboards under the drum riser. Had a guy hitting all his high notes that were sampled on a keyboard. total bullshit!

[Rockit]

I did see Dave Matthews, and yah, he did quite well. He's a seasoned live player, so this was a piece of cake for his band.

Taylor Swift is a young, cute girl who has some pop song writing talent, but she's not quite ready to be dropped on stage with Stevie. I thought this performance might have been a one-time off key flook, but I listened to quite a few live clips on youtube and found she's very pitchy on several performances. If anything, she doesnt lip-sing, but beyond that, she needs more work. Even given that, she has monster record and tour sales. Stevie sang her notes, but at points I thought how difficult it is to sing in tune when Taylor was so flat. It was kind of funny because Taylor was really rockin out. I dont think she'd have made it to Hollywood if she tried out for American Idol. Its funny how things work, but I cant begrudge her success.

The voice pitch machines are pretty irritating after about ten seconds. Even the Black Eyed Peas used one on nearly 80% of their recent album. Thats a bummer as I normally love what they do. They are a good live band with real instruments and drummer on stage when they tour. Fergie and Will I Am can both sing, so overuse of that crappy effect takes away from the performance.

Pink and Lady Gaga are both talented singers. Id like to see Pink do a balls out rock album. Her voice is taylor made for rock music. Daughtry had the right idea when he stayed rock after American Idol. Yah, its an entire record of over produced rock ballads, but at least its rock. Hopefully Pink will go that direction as she matures...drop the drum machines, etc. For now, we'll have to listen to the same four chord progression in every single one of her predictable songs. Lady GaGa is visually over the top, but under it all she can really play the piano and write songs. I think she'll have some staying power.

All in all, this years series of award shows were pretty unmemorable. Rap has dominated while bands have taken a backseat. I guess its exactly what the music business deserves. Singer songwriters are a mere sideshow these days. Writing teams are responsible for most of the pop garbage filling the airwaves right now. Songs take absolutely no risks. We can guess the next chord and cheesy lyric before we hear it. Will I Am said it best in his liner notes in their new album, "the music business as we know it is over"

All I can say is, I sure hope some singer songwriters will lead the new crusade, and not a drum machine and vocal pitch harmonizer.

[outsider]

Reminds me of something John Phillip Sousa said after Edison invented the phonograph. "Music is no longer something that's played, it's something that's consumed"

[woody]

Reminds me of something John Phillip Sousa said after Edison invented the phonograph. "Music is no longer something that's played, it's something that's consumed"

That may be true, but for the bulk of our lifetimes, the two co-existed nicely. Most of my life was consumed with chasing that record contract , sell records, and TOUR. These days, I don't know anyone that wants involvement in the music biz.