If you tuned into the Grammys on Sunday night, you probably caught
Taylor Swift
’s performance with Stevie Nicks. It’s since gotten a lot of backlash from the critics who have slammed the performance.
The
New York Times called Swift “painfully out of tune” and The
San Diego Union-Tribune said that “her karaoke-level singing made a good argument in favor of using Auto-Tune.” And those are just to name a couple.
But Taylor’s label boss has been quick to come to her rescue. Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview on Wednesday, “This is not American Idol. This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. She is the voice of this generation. She speaks directly to (her fans), and they speak directly back to her. This is not American Idol,” he added.
“This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.”
Kelly Clarkson has now added her two cents to the issue, writing on her blog:
Wow…..Dear Scott Borchetta,
I understand defending your artist obviously because I have done the same in the past for artists I like, including Taylor, so you might see why its upsetting to read you attacking American Idol for producing simply vocalists that hit ‘the high notes’. Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor because you know what, we not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well. Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable, but throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better. I have been criticized left and right for having shaky performances before (and they were shaky) and what my manager or label executives say to me and the public is “I’ll kick butt next time” or “every performance isn’t going to be perfect” ……I bring this up because you should take a lesson from these people and instead of lashing out at other artists (that in your ‘humble’ opinion lack true artistry), you should simply take a breath and realize that sometimes things won’t go according to plan or work out and that’s okay.
Sincerely,
One of those contestants from American Idol who only made it because of her high notes.
Wow Kelly let him have it! Did you catch Taylor’s performance? What did you think about it? Tell us your thoughts below!
