Various sites are reporting today that Lady Gaga will be ineligible for the Grammy for Best New Artist, despite her meteoric rise on the strength of 'The Fame.' Those sites are calling it a snub. Newsflash: it's not.
Lady Gaga hasn't been snubbed; rather, she's fallen victim to the byzantine rules regarding artist eligibility. Gaga was disqualified from being Best New Artist this year because she won the Grammy for Best Dance Recording at last year's Grammy ceremony for her hit single, 'Just Dance.'
So it's not a snub, it's just that the rigidity of the Grammys makes it impossible for that awards show to seem like it's on the pulse of anything remotely hip. Remember when jazz legend Herbie Hancock won Album of the Year, beating both Kanye West and Amy Winehouse? It's not unprecedented by any means.
The real crime is that press like this makes it seem like the Grammys are a barometer for anything cool.
bodyWynonna Judd has beef with Taylor Swift over her Entertainer of the Year win, OMG reports [via USA Today.] Judd feels that Swift needed to pay her dues before taking home top honors at the CMAs.
She told USA Today, "You want my honest comment? Its too much too soon. Time is Gods way of keeping everything from happening at once. Its just too much of a good thing too soon."
There are a couple of points worth making in Swift's defense. First, 'Fearless' wasn't her debut album. She had modest success with her eponymous debut before really jumping to primetime with her sophomore success. Secondly, would it really be smart for country to deny that Swift is the new face of country? Kenny Chesney still makes bank on tour, but his albums haven't reached beyond his Buffett-lite fanbase. Finally, and most importantly, Entertainer of the Year isn't some kind of lifetime achievement award. It was for 2009, which she completely dominated. She wasn't inducted into the Country Hall of Fame with Barbara Mandrell last night.
Judd tried to put things in perspective. 'My thing is, being a home-school mom, I want kids to
earn it, and I think some time ... 'cause mom and I rode in a car for
the first year of our career to visit radio stations. There was a
making of the star, there was a rising up, and the fans went with us.'
Yes, some artists haven't had it as easy as Swift has. But the times have changed. The music industry needs to act quickly to capitalize on artists today and A&R is more or less a thing of the past. If a singer doesn't have a hit immediately, chances are he or she won't get an opportunity to develop. Think about Carrie Underwood for a moment. She was on top of the country world a few years ago, and now she seems like yesterday's news. It can happen that quickly.
Judd complained about the breakneck pace at which the industry moves today. 'Now its over coffee breaks, the success, almost," she added. "You have
to play catch up ... It's like the girl who wins an Oscar and she's
under 20. What do you do from here?'
It's a good question, but in today's music business, there may not be a tomorrow. It's just on to the 'next big thing.' No one can guarantee that even a dynamic, charming performer like Taylor Swift could replicate the run she's had.
What do you think the future holds for Taylor Swift?
When Perry first started making noises about Aerosmith's uncertain future back in September, it sounded like he was trying to turn his frustration over their failed tour into publicity for his solo album. Now it's obvious that Perry has serious doubts about the future of the rock institution he founded almost 40 years ago.
He told the Sun, 'Aerosmith is such a powerful band, I mean it's like a steam
locomotive. You just can't disregard 40 years of four guys who play
together as well as they do. We're just trying to -- at least I am --
trying to figure out what direction the band should take.'
Perry seems to be shopping around for his ideal frontman, too, saying that Aerosmith may be improved with a new singer. Them's fightin' words!
Does it even need to be said that Velvet Revolver have probably found their new lead singer?
bodyLeave it to Sharon Osbourne to take the high road.
Popeater reports that Osbourne went on a tirade about 'Britain's Got Talent' contestant Susan Boyle, who wowed the world with her amazing voice earlier this year. She told 'Opie and Anthony' that Boyle 'is a lovely lady. You just want to say 'God bless' and here's a Gillette razor.'
She didn't stop there.
In a move befitting a guest of 'Opie and Anthony,' she took the low road and said, '[God] gave her the talent. But he hit her with a [expletive] ugly stick.' It gets worse from there, trust me.
Maybe Sharon's missing the point about what made Boyle one of the most interesting stories in music and television in 2009.
We'll see who laughs last when Susan Boyle's debut album hits stores November 23rd.
bodySpinner dug up an interesting tidbit from a recent interview in 'Classic Rock' magazine about what's happening with Aerosmith. We've been following their story since the outset of their seemingly cursed tour, one that ran in fits and starts while bandmembers recovered from injury or illness. It all came to a crashing halt when frontman Steven Tyler was seriously hurt after falling offstage. Since then, guitarist Joe Perry has been very vocal about the possibility that Tyler's days with Aerosmith may be numbered.
Now it sounds like Tyler might welcome that opportunity. He told 'Classic Rock,' "I don't know what I'm doing yet, but it's definitely going to be something Steven Tyler: working on the brand of myself -- Brand Tyler," which sounds like a cross between a marketing ploy and a rehab mantra.
But that doesn't mean that the music will stop. There's talk that the remaining members may find a new lead singer, like fellow rock dinosaurs Journey and Queen. Brad Whitford said, 'I'm not sure how good that would look, it would largely depend on who we could get and who would want to do it.'
Sounds like a great opportunity for Gary Cherone to step into the breach! If he can put up with the Van Halen brothers, singing for Aerosmith should be a cinch!
Pop-country got bashed by country legend George Jones in an interview he gave the AP this week. Jones told the AP that he thinks pop-country stars like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift are good, but "they've stolen our identity." He feels that the new crop of country stars needs to invent a new name for whatever you want to call their music, but it's certainly not traditional country in his opinion.
Fair enough, but it's safe to say that the likes of Underwood, Swift, and Chesney have tapped into something that country's old guard hasn't lately: new fans. Jones finishes his interview by bashing rap music, something that would've endeared him to rock disciples, say, 15 years ago. Now he just seems out of touch.
Underwood herself says she isn't too keen on the pop-country label either. She wants country to be a big tent where artists both old and new can come together and fans can discover all of them. She told the AP that she'd rather call her kind of music "contemporary," which seems to be more of a marketing ploy than to say anything about the sound of young country music.
Frankly, it makes me think of music suitable for a dentist's office.
All of it smacks of backlash against Taylor Swift, whose rise to fame has eclipsed the likes of Underwood, leading NY Times critic Jon Caramanica to wonder if Underwood hadn't prematurely aged against the backdrop of the insouciant Swift. That the ex-'Idol' star would try to distance herself from Swift is no surprise, but why not abdicate the tween audience and play up her sexuality in a bid to be the second coming of Dolly Parton? She has the looks, charm, and songs to pull it off!
It would be foolish for country music to start feuding like so many Hatfields and McCoys at a time when radio promotion is less a part of the music landscape than any time in the past. Country needs to rely on its young stars to drag it from the depths of being music solely for red staters. Country music would be well served by getting out of politics altogether and get back to partying.
Country music has seen dark days in the past. If memory serves, country bounced back from synth-drenched '80s tracks by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, to fun-loving tunes by the likes of Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, and Garth Brooks. It's time to embrace pop-country and expose new fans to the kind of music they want playing at their prom. Is it so bad to want to have fun?
A source close to to the couple says they're still close and will remain friends, but it's hard to believe there won't be hard feelings as Lambert's career is just about to take off.
The source told Us that "Adam is crazy busy right now getting the album done and squeezing in rehearsals" and that "they both felt this moment is too important for Adam to focus on anything else but getting this album out and having it be a huge hit."
Yeah, it's hard to believe how dumping a significant other to concentrate on his career might hurt Drake's feelings. Sounds like the definition of the "It's Not You, It's Me" talk. Ouch.
Lambert will look to capitalize on his 'Idol' success at the end of the month when his debut album, 'For Your Entertainment,' drops November 23rd.
bodyFallen R&B star Chris Brown continues his quest to climb back into mainstream relevancy.
After mistaking his former girlfriend Rihanna’s face for something that would be acceptable to hit repeatedly, Brown has made the PR-approved tour of mea culpas, announced a “fan-appreciation tour,” recorded a new album, and has just released the first video for the single “I Can Transform Ya.” It remains to be seen if he has successfully transformed his public image, but a snazzy video with fellow felon Lil’ Wayne is as good a way to start as any. Watch Chris’s new video below:
bodyIs it safe to say that the music industry has really reached rock bottom?
The latest in a string of parasitic lawsuits in which one of the few artists still making big bucks these days finds Rihanna, the hardest working woman in show biz, being sued by a ECW Wrestling star Paul Heyman, who claims she stole the idea for her risque album cover from an ECW jock jams compilation that came out in '98.
Now, I was willing to entertain the notion that Coldplay may have lifted some of Satriani's stuff for 'Viva la Vida,' only because some crusty A&R relic may have introduced them to it at some point or other in the recording process. It's a stretch, but, hey, anything's possible, right?
Was Yusuf Islam piling on by claiming same? Probably, but he was more or less indifferent, and he was promoting a new album at the time.
This is the worst thing about being a music critic today: I should've studied intellectual property law instead. I'd be richer and I'd be able to make more sense of what's happening to this sorry industry and the abject hackery that seems to fuel its sputtering engine.
There's no way Rihanna stole that idea from an ECW compilation. It's possible that the megacorp she works for may have also produced that album, but it's not exactly novel for a beautiful woman to appear nearly naked on an album. And the barbed wire thing? What's next? A lawsuit from Pamela Anderson claiming that Rihanna stole the idea from her big screen flop, 'Barb Wire'?
This is getting way out of hand. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I think it's safe to say that lawsuits like this are as close to extortion as you can get within the law. But when the most committed music fans are doing things like actively hacking their favorite artists online accounts to steal their albums (Animal Collective and Deerhunter fans are creeps, fyi), the casual fan plays nonchalant pirate, and the rest simply don't care all that much about music, you have to do something to keep a roof over your head.
When is a snub not a snub?
Wynonna Judd has beef with Taylor Swift over her Entertainer of the Year win, 
Are the Toxic Twins living up to their name once again?
Leave it to Sharon Osbourne to take the high road.
Is a Taylor Swift backlash afoot?
Fallen R&B star Chris Brown continues his quest to climb back into mainstream relevancy. 
Is it safe to say that the music industry has really reached rock bottom?