CMA awards????

[onewilyfool]

Is it my imagination, or does the CMA "Entertainer of the year" not sing very well????

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtH2L5I6vYM

 

Just wondering...

[Scratch47]

Guess I understand where 'Country' music is headed as that is what the younger market demands. At lease I think they're demanding it... For whatever reason, I don't appreciate the 'New Country' sound; might be just me, but as a geezer, I seem to have outgrown the glitter that accompanys the movement. For the most part, it's Willie Nelson tunes and Americana these days...

[fp]

No it's not your imagination and it sure ain't country music anymore !

Taylor Swift I'm sure is a nice sweet girl but come on. to call her music and 90% of the other stuff country is ridiculous.

When I hear these so called country singers on the radio they all sound the same to me, I swear they are clones !

A few I respect, like Brad Paisley. I'm sure Waylon is turning in his grave !

[zombywoof]

Maybe it is just me but much of what is called country music sounds an awful lot like bad 1970s southern rock.

 

Think I will go and put on some Skid Roper and the Whirlin' Spurs.

[EuroAussie]

Its coz she plays a Taylor, automatically takes all the mojo away.

 

However quite a cunning play by Bob Taylor to create a love child to have a marketing ploy 25 years later - visionary genius.

[jdd707]

This is a long running argument that is still unresolved. Remember, if you are old enough and you dare remember, when Chet Adkins began producing in N'ville the sound became very smooth with backing of violins (not fiddles) and other strings ... some horns ... think Patsy Cline or Eddie Arnold .... or Chet himself. Many "true" country fans and artist thought that music was an insult to country music. Over time the sound returned to a more traditonal mode ... think Outlaws .... Willie and Waylon and the boys. Bluegrass, an ingteresting off shoot, comes and goes. Then another swing to a "modern" country sound. All in all there is good music in most eras.

 

Having said that, Taylor Swift is about marketing and, as you said, doesn't sing well, just sells well.

[Jeremy Morton]

She may not have been singing a very challenging song but her performance was much better than many of the other performances. Rascal Flatts, talk about flat, Sara Evans, if you cannot sing that song in key please pick another one, Faith Hill, i guess it was ok? Kenny and Grace potter by far the best performance of the night! Brad and Carrie were also just OK, Zac Browne Band with Greg Allman doing georgia was pretty cool.

Taylor flopped a couple of years ago singing a duet with Stevie Nicks and has been improving ever since. Who can really sing harmony with Stevie Nicks she goes all over the place. I am not a fan of Taylor Swift but she most definitely sang and played better than a majority of other performers that nightso props for that.

[onewilyfool]

Well...I guess she wasn't nominated SINGER of the year, just entertainer...to say she was the best of the worst isn't saying that much....I just think country music has lost it's way....I'll stick with Willie, Waylon, Kris, Johnny.......I guess I'm just behind the times.....but if being behind the times means appreciating good music, I'll admit to it....

[vincentw]

here ya go. this is what "singing" is.

 

[fortyearspickn]

She may not have been singing a very challenging song but her performance was much better than many of the other performances. Rascal Flatts, talk about flat, Sara Evans, if you cannot sing that song in key please pick another one, Faith Hill, i guess it was ok? Kenny and Grace potter by far the best performance of the night! Brad and Carrie were also just OK, Zac Browne Band with Greg Allman doing georgia was pretty cool.

Taylor flopped a couple of years ago singing a duet with Stevie Nicks and has been improving ever since. Who can really sing harmony with Stevie Nicks she goes all over the place. I am not a fan of Taylor Swift but she most definitely sang and played better than a majority of other performers that nightso props for that.

 

Grace played a nice H'bird. Was the icing on the cake. I have to also agree on the Rascal Flatts observation. I have never understood their popularity as Country Western artists. A few years ago, the popular style for male singers was a sorty of whining singing - that at least has seemed to run it's course.

It is the big record companies who decide all this. Sort of like politics. At least in music - we can listen to what we like. I always enjoy the CMAs - but was disappointed to see some of the more traditional artists like George Strait and Alan Jackson seemed to have been completely eclipsed.

[Scratch47]

I just think country music has lost it's way....I'll stick with Willie, Waylon, Kris, Johnny.......I guess I'm just behind the times.....but if being behind the times means appreciating good music, I'll admit to it....

 

+1. Well stated...

[Lee M]

Is it my imagination, or does the CMA "Entertainer of the year" not sing very well????

 

Just wondering...

 

I think it's pretty well accepted that Ms Swift is not a great singer. Her fans don't care, they come to see her (she's certainly pleasant to look at) and be entertained. Most of them don't notice when she's a little pitchy and probably wouldn't care. Let's face it, popular entertainment these days is based far more on looks and sex appeal than musical talent.

[j45nick]

I don't even bother to listen to mainstream country music anymore. Too much of it sounds like just another variation on mainstream "pop" (if such a thing still exists). My wife says she can't tell one young female "country" vocalist from another, and she's a singer. I have to agree.

 

Maybe it's just part of getting old. My parents didn't think much of Elvis, either. Of course, I had pretty mixed feeling about him as well, but he certainly was different from mainstream "white" popular singers in the mid-late 50's.

[onewilyfool]

Well, the song she sang is not really a "country" song. As a matter of fact, most of these songs on the CMA are "rock" themed and could easily be sung like rock songs, but are sung with a nasal delivery, throw in a slide guitar and WOW....you have a "country" song!!! I just feel country is processed, vanilla, prepackaged, sound-alike pablum...that exists in it's present state because of a very unsophisticated listening base.....or because of Jack Daniels.....lol I agree with Nick's wife, not only can I not tell the difference between female country singers, NOR can I tell the difference between most of the male voices...THEY ALL SOUND ALIKE!!!....lol

[Lee M]

In a similar thread on AGF, one wag said the only difference between rock/pop and country is that in rock they say can't and in country they say "cain't".

[j45nick]

not only can I not tell the difference between female country singers, NOR can I tell the difference between most of the male voices...THEY ALL SOUND ALIKE!!!....lol

 

Can't disagree with you on that one. I never had any trouble telling Hank Williams from Buck Owens.

[The G]

Can't disagree with you on that one. I never had any trouble telling Hank Williams from Buck Owens.

 

So true.

[onewilyfool]

Can't disagree with you on that one. I never had any trouble telling Hank Williams from Buck Owens.

AMEN!

[Gilliangirl]

I watched the CMA awards, in between making perogies, and there were a few good parts. I did howl over the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill doll scene with Brad and Carrie! Whenever Taylor Swift or some of the other new country types came on I'd get up and check on the perogies. Sara Evans was sooooo pitchy. And I don't usually mind her. I've heard that sometimes artists will be pitchy in front of their own peers because of nerves, but I don't know how credible that is. Kenny and Grace did a great job.

[fumblefinger]

All the aspersions being cast at young Taylor were once cast upon a young Robert Zimmerman

and also upon the young "Bouncing Pebbles"---eerr sorry "Rolling Stones". I was a BIG Beatles fan.

The times were a changing. We have now become our parents; soo-- maybe the times haven't changed??

[dhanners623]

All the aspersions being cast at young Taylor were once cast upon a young Robert Zimmerman

and also upon the young "Bouncing Pebbles"---eerr sorry "Rolling Stones". I was a BIG Beatles fan.

The times were a changing. We have now become our parents; soo-- maybe the times haven't changed??

 

I'd say, "Yes, you have a point, but...." with the "but" being that Dylan and the Stones had substance and attitude, two things Taylor Swift Inc., lacks and has been unable to manufacture. What she does not lack, though, is a well-oiled publicity machine and good looks. Not to sound catty, but if she had hit the scene weighing 50 or 75 more pounds and had bad hair or skin, nobody would've given her music a second listen. That's just the way our society is and the music industry mirrors that.

 

But hey, with AutoTune, anyone can be a star. That invention, as much as anything, has probably done more to ruin country music than anything else. Beforehand, you at least had to sing well (i.e., Cline) or have a distinctive voice (i.e., Cash) but now, you just have to look good. The engineers will take care of the singing part.

[fumblefinger]

Sadly, you're not wrong DH. There's a girl from my little home town in Canada who can sing

rings around Taylor but was told in Nashville to go home and lose 50 lbs.

 

Then of course, there's Australia's famous"singing budgie", Kylie Minogue. With untold

layers of back up singers, strings, intonation machines and a cute butt, she has managed

to pull off several world no.1 hits.

[onewilyfool]

It's kind of like those "Boy Bands"..Talent doesn't matter.......you can "produce" a STAR out of thin air with the right PR.....and electronics.......and celebrity hookups......

[ChrisA83]

I wouldn't call that song "country" - it's just a pop song, and sounds the same as most "pop" music nowadays. There's also the "R&B" strand of pop that all sounds the same.

People to do talk about the good old days, but there was a LOT of rubbish around then too, it's just that no one remembers it now. Even I think about how good it was in the 90s (being 28), but actually it really wasn't - I only remember the good/my favourite bands.

 

 

One time I asked my friend what kind of music she was in to, she said "the top 40".

[TommyK]

Yes, sadly, success in the music industry has not much to do with talent. This has forever been the case in Rock and Roll, which has infected Nashville. I suspect, when you go to New York to get marketing advice from the likes of Sharon Osbourne, that is to be expected.