Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

It’s a doggy dog world.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

So many bastards, so little time.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

You are here: Home / Music / Grammy’s Open Thread

Grammy’s Open Thread

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I realized my inane babbling stomped all over Anne’s Grammy open thread, so here is a new one.

BTW- Taylor Swift has the most perfect skin and is breathtakingly beautiful even if I couldn’t name one of her songs. Because I am human, I always check out the tabloids when I am waiting in line at the grocery, and I read a couple of trash gossip sites (The Superficial is my favorite), and it just seems like there are a lot of people out there who hate her, Cameron Diaz, and Gwyneth Paltrow, and I have never really figured out why, mainly because I don’t really care to spend too much time figuring out why they hate them.

But they just seem like such a weird group of essentially decent and harmless people who do their own thing and are popular, but there is some sort of simmering resentment towards them that I have casually noticed.

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155Comments

  1. 1.

    ruemara

    She’s young, beautiful, quite talented, successful, rich and is living her dreams. What’s not to hate? I spend 1 day manning my booth, watching people pull up in massive SUVs and dickering over a $5 item while wearing brand name everything and I could pretty much press a button that blows up this massive shitpile of a planet, with glee. When you just see all that desirable stuff you are not, you get pissy and mean. Which is why haters should be ignored.

  2. 2.

    Comrade Jake

    Swift has seen so much success so quickly, and she mostly has teenage fans. I think that explains much of the hatred directed her way. Very difficult to ignore how exceptionally talented she is, in any case.

  3. 3.

    justawriter

    Same reason people hate on cruises, it fills the time while waiting for the onrushing black wall of death.

  4. 4.

    burnspbesq

    I hate Taylor Swift because there is a mob of hugely talented young female country/bluegrass/Americana artists who aren’t getting the attention they deserve because TayTay has sucked all the air out of the room.

    Do the names Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Hull, Aoife O’Donovan, Holly Williams, Ashley Monroe, Kacey Musgraves, Amanda Shires, or Caitlin Rose ring any bells?

  9. 9.

    Lolis

    I read an article on Huff Po claiming that Gwyneth Paltrow’s relationship advice for women is that when you are really mad at your husband you should suppress all the feelings and just give him a bl@w_job. I think that is why people hate her. It may not be true, but it is believable, based on other things she has saii.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    Could someone turn down the wind, please? It is making me anxious, I’m sure because my big tree fell on my house due to straight line winds.

  12. 12.

    Anya

    Swift —- bad music and bland songs

    Gwyneth Paltrow is so out of touch and flaunts her wealth while pretending to be a regular mother. She has this very exclusive website where she talks about her life while giving advise as a regular mom. She never acknowldges that being very wealthy, jet set type with nannies in tow her advice and solutions are ridiculous to non millionaires. She’s unrelatable. Hence the dislike…

  13. 13.

    maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor

    But they just seem like such a weird group of essentially decent and harmless people who do their own thing and are popular,

    This is more than enough reason for many people to hate them.

    FSM bless you, Mr. Cole.

  15. 15.

    PsiFighter37

    ‘Radioactive’ is generic rock at its best (or at least what counts as its best in the current desiccated form of the genre), but mixing them with Kendrick Lamar was a fucking phenomenal idea. By far the best performance of the night, far beyond Beyonce’s little striptease number w/Jay.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    @Anya: Word. Gwyneth is entitled and pretentious. One of my friends and I rolled with laughter when she tried to sell a long-sleeved white T-shirt for $95 and the advertising copy made it sound like that was just something normal people do. I’ll stick to my $7 Old Navy.

  18. 18.

    cmorenc

    @Lolis:

    I read an article on Huff Po claiming that Gwyneth Paltrow’s relationship advice for women is that when you are really mad at your husband you should suppress all the feelings and just give him a bl@w_job.

    Hey, works for me !

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @burnspbesq: Oh, come on. Swift is a pop star (steel guitar variety). Pop stars are always more popular and more focused on the LCD than “serious” musicians. So it has ever been. I can play hipster music snob with the best of them, but let’s not pretend that Swift is stealing attention from more deserving artists. She is operating in a different medium; they ain’t gonna get her gigs if Swift disappears – Hayden Panettiere would probably replace her.

  21. 21.

    repeatevent

    Taylor Swift’s earlier songs were often hard for a feminist to swallow. A “wait for Prince Charming and don’t be easy, girls!” vibe. I know that riled me up. But she was very young and she’s getting better on this front as she gets around to adulthood.

    Gwenyth Paltrow is totally oblivious about her privilege. That makes her hard to like. Though I agree with others that this has some humor value.

    Cameron Diaz, I don’t know. I like her.

  22. 22.

    John Dillinger

    My understanding is that Taylor Swift uses her songs to take potshots at each ex-bf. Definite lack of maturity. She should release some revenge porn instead.

  24. 24.

    Gin & Tonic

    Not about Grammys, but there was some discussion here a day or two ago about Orthodox priests in Russia – where the church is completely a tool of the government. It’s very different in other countries. Regardless of one’s views on the church, this is a very powerful image. http://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-protesters-occupy-government-buildings-075337566.html In Ukraine, the Orthodox hierarchy is widely viewed as independent, and anti-government to the extent that it is feasible for them to be.

  25. 25.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    Taylor Swift has the most perfect skin and is breathtakingly beautiful even if I couldn’t name one of her songs.

    Doesn’t matter much. As far as I can tell all of her songs sound the same.

  26. 26.

    Linda

    Honest, I don’t know why people have this degree of hate for people who they don’t know, and haven’t killed anybody. Yeah, Paltrow has walks around in a cloud of unwitting privilege, but that just rates a good belly laugh. There seems a lot of hostility not only towards celebrities, but whole groups of people like “snowflake” kids and baby boomers, or whatever. Maybe people are just angry about their lives, and cast around for a focus.

  28. 28.

    Spike

    Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, and Blake Shelton. To quote a classic Sesame Street bit: “One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong.”

  29. 29.

    PsiFighter37

    As someone who has played musical instruments in the past, I feel bad for Willie. Why are they even having him up there pretending that he’s actually got his amp turned on.

  30. 30.

    magurakurin

    I don’t even know who Taylor Swift is. In fact, if it weren’t for the pronouns in people’s post I wouldn’t have know if they were a man or a woman, or girl or boy….because I don’t know how old she is either.

    And if Gwyneth really blows her husband everytime he makes her mad, he must push her “make me angry” button as many times a day as the monkey in the cocaine-test cage.

  31. 31.

    John Cole

    Oh, see, like I said, I don’t follow this stuff. I had no idea why people hated them. They just seemed like reasonably harmless rich white celebrities who don’t do anything overtly offensive or cause problems and just sort of seem to be living their lives and not being dicks about things.

    From where I sit, they are pretty innocuous performers who mainly don’t fuck up my world and in some instances make it better, so I didn’t get why people hate them.

  32. 32.

    PsiFighter37

    And best country album goes to some Katy Perry lookalike entitled ‘Same Trailer, Different Park’. Way to perpetuate stereotypes.

    PF37 +several weird beers at this point

  33. 33.

    Ruckus

    @burnspbesq:
    Is that Taylor’s fault? Did she offer the contracts or just sign them?

    I don’t hate people because they are successful, but I hate successful people who are but shouldn’t be because their talent is miniscule or because they act like the world owes it to them.

  35. 35.

    Anya

    @Suzanne: What about when she advises working mothers how to keep a balanced life without actually acknowledging that she has nannies that look after her children.

    She’s full of shit.

  37. 37.

    Allen

    I agree John. I’ve literally gasped while turning pages in a magazine and being confronted with a picture of Swift. And she’s tall. I’ve told my wife–who is also tall–that Taylor Swift is the only woman in the world she has to be worried about. Well, except for the fact that there’s zero chance I’d ever meet her, since I don’t particularly care for her music either, and even if I did I’m 100% certain I’d come off like a complete idiot.

  39. 39.

    Bostondreams

    @burnspbesq:

    Do the names Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Hull, Aoife O’Donovan, Holly Williams, Ashley Monroe, Kacey Musgraves, Amanda Shires, or Caitlin Rose ring any bells?

    And Musgraves wins over Swift..

  42. 42.

    Calming Influence

    Grammys? If only it were so. In our small compound tucked away in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I am completely surrounded by no men. For me it will be an evening of female residents and friends, tuning in to last week’s Downton Abbey, this week’s Downton Abbey, and then loud discussions about Downton Abbey continuing on into the night, drowning out any following programs that may be on the television equipment.

    I will be drinking Guinness and pretending to be a down-trodden Irish tradesman, muttering unintelligible curses in a slurred imitation brogue.

  43. 43.

    PsiFighter37

    @Bostondreams: I had to listen to way too much country music when I was younger. But even despite the inbred hatred for it, I can recognize that artists like Alison Krauss and Garth Brooks had/have way more talent than this lady had.

    Original music today sucks, and I’m getting old.

  46. 46.

    PsiFighter37

    On a coolness factor, Daft Punk + Pharrell + Stevie Wonder is off the charts. However, the overall performance was still not up to Imagine Dragons + Kendrick Lamar. ‘Get Lucky’ is a good song, but it doesn’t showcase the talents of Daft Punk at all. I almost wish they had played ‘Aerodynamic’, because that is a song I could set myself on fire to.

  48. 48.

    wil

    Couldn’t care less or more about those three. Taylor Swift is cute and looks like a nice person. The other two I probably wouldn’t recognize if they weren’t on a screen.

    But if Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber got in a room together and Obama drone-striked ’em, his approval rating would go up ten points overnight.

  52. 52.

    PsiFighter37

    I only know Carole King because my mom is a huge fan of her music, but damn, she puts Paul and Ringo to shame. She’s got more talent than both of them do combined now.

  54. 54.

    Anoniminous

    I bestirred myself from apathy and googled the Grammy winners. Cindi Lauper got one? She’s still around?

  57. 57.

    PsiFighter37

    @Omnes Omnibus: Objectively, maybe, but that just makes me sad because no matter what, the Beatles will always be iconic. Even when the world’s half-underwater a century or two from now, people will know who the Beatles were, and they’ll know that it was Paul, John, George, and Ringo. All of them count.

    @Gin & Tonic: To be honest, the first music I acquired out of my own free will was either a punk rock album or a Billy Joel album (whose concert at MSG I am going to tomorrow…hell yes).

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    @Gin & Tonic: I got a CD player for Christmas in 1992. I got three CDs with it from my mom and my grandparents. My grandparents prefaced giving me their two albums by saying, “We wanted to get you something that was appropriate for us to give you,” and I unwrapped Amy Grant’s Christmas album. Then they said, “We also wanted to get you something that you’d like,” and they handed me “Automatic For The People”. My mom gave me “Achtung Baby”. The Amy Grant thing got resold real quick. I still have the R.E.M. and the U2 And they are still two of my favorite albums.

  60. 60.

    Cassidy

    @Lolis: I’ve been saying for years that if women really wanted to rule the world, all it would take is a couple well timed blowies a week. I think that’d be worth twenty minutes of anyone’s time.

  61. 61.

    Another Holocene Human

    States that subsidize intercity buses (private and/or Amtrak):

    ME, NH, MA, RI, NJ, VA, CA, OR–and I’m sure there are more

    States with significant state-supported Amtrak routes OR non Amtrak intercity rail:

    ME, MA, VT, NY, VA, NJ, NC, IL, MI, MO, TX, OK, WA, OR, CA, NM+, IN*, PA^

    +–Rail Runner
    *–South Shore interurban line and now the Hoosier State
    eta: ^-sooper reluctantly because GOP

    But all intercity bus is private enterprise/free market/genius of capitalism and Amtrak is the sole master and arbiter of who “gets” rail service and who doesn’t. Goddamn Amtrak, who died and made them the boss of me anyhow? ////

  62. 62.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Suzanne: The first album I bought for myself with my own money was “Freak Out.”

    ETA: And Frank died a year after you got that CD player.

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @PsiFighter37: The Beatles may be iconic, but I have always preferred the Stones. (And Prince over MJ; Clash over Pistols; ‘Mats over Husker Du; Nirvana over Pearl Jam; but I am split over Biggie/Tupac)

  65. 65.

    GregB

    Definitely getting old and grumpy and want to tell everyone but Chicago(minus Robin Thicke), Ringo Star and Carole King to get off my lawn.

  68. 68.

    Spike

    Wonder why there are no gratuitous celebrity crowd shots during this Metallica song? I picture most of them looking like the principal at the end of Marty McFly’s guitar solo.

  70. 70.

    Suzanne

    Can LL Cool J be put out to pasture already? He has been so irrelevant for so long, and yet they keep trotting him out year after year just to piss me off, I KNOW IT.

  71. 71.

    PsiFighter37

    Why the hell did Metallica do a piano mashup of ‘One’? Worst. Idea. EVER.

    Write new good music to perform at the Grammys, not mashups of greatest hits. ‘Death Magnetic’ was decent, just do a follow-up with proper sound mixing.

  73. 73.

    PsiFighter37

    Can I mention how much the livebloggers for NYT sucks right now? These shithead assholes actually get paid money to not be funny and to be asshole jerkoffs.

  74. 74.

    burnspbesq

    @Cassidy:

    Maybe they should be better.

    Maybe you should have a clue before you click on “submit.” Every single one of them can play, sing, and write rings around Ms. Swift. Which you would know if you had spent any time listening.

  75. 75.

    Suzanne

    @PsiFighter37: we are an hour behind you out here, and so I just watched the Kendrick Lamar/Imagine Dragons thing, and you are right that it was awesome. This Kacey Musgraves person is also quite charming.

  77. 77.

    PsiFighter37

    I thought that the whole marriage thing with Macklemore’s ‘Same Love’ would be tacky, but it was pretty tastefully done (although really? Was Queen Latifah the best officiant possible?).

    Reminds me I’m getting married in 7.5 months. Gay, straight, interracial, old, young – it’s all the same love. Still surprised at how much the country has changed in the past 10 years, when Democrats were running scared from all the gay marriage bans that are falling down now.

  83. 83.

    rk

    @John Cole:

    I know why Taylor Swift is hated. She was cute when she started, my daughter was a huge fan (We’d get her album from Target the day it was released for many yrs). Her early songs were about breaking up with her boyfriend. Then, she moved on to songs about breaking up with her boyfriend. Then she progressed to songs about breaking up with her boyfriends and so on and on and on. My daughter is sick of her. Taylor Swift comes across as a self pitying annoying complainer. She has a huge fan base of course. But I feel like telling her to snap out of it when I hear her songs.

  84. 84.

    Suzanne

    @gbear: I’m not a big country listener, so I’ve missed Musgraves. Her little song she performed was pretty cute. I thought Taylor Swift’s performance earlier this evening was actually pretty great. My daughters are Swifties, and I took Spawn the Elder to see her a couple of years ago, and I thought Taylor was great. I think some of her songs are really solid and the production and entertainment value was impressive.

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @burnspbesq: The ‘Mats captured the spirit of the upper Midwest in the 80s better than any other group. If you have a problem with that it is your problem, not mine.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Are people actually watching the fucking Grammies? I know that my totebagger* and hipster tendencies keep me away, but really?

    I watched Downton Abbey and Sherlock on PBS.

  89. 89.

    trollhattan

    Know a big city pro photographer who’s quite complementary of Taylor Swift because she’s always very polite and accommodating with the press–evidently that’s quite rare for those who achieve her rather high shelf on the celebrity cupboard. I wouldn’t recognize a song of hers if offered a stack o’ cash, so have no comments on her talent while yes, give her props for being somebody who can practically melt a camera by just being in the room.

    The kid loved her at eleven and now at twelve, seems to have moved on. It’s how they do.

  93. 93.

    Violet

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t understand watching the Grammys. I am just not interested in them. The only reason I see to watch them is to see something crazy happen live. But these days it’ll all be available tomorrow if I’ve missed it.

    I just don’t care what pop star is doing what. I must be old.

  94. 94.

    mai naem

    I only know one of Taylor Swift’s songs(actually I don’t even know the title.) She does have that too big head for her skinny body thing going which is usually seen on eating disorder people. Not hating, just something I noticed about her a long time ago and, actually, it’s not as noticeable now as it used to be. She seems like a nice person.

  95. 95.

    Suzanne

    @trollhattan: Swift is not who I would be listening to if I didn’t have kids, but she is much, much better than much of what else is out there for teens and tweens.

  96. 96.

    PsiFighter37

    And, of course, the Grammys ends on a note that is out of step with the current generation.

    #total_fail

  97. 97.

    mai naem

    @gbear: I heard her interview with Terri Gross. I guess Musgraves is a songwriter who wrote for other people. She seemed pretty talented.

  99. 99.

    Hal

    @Suzanne: I just downloaded Pure Heroin and I’m really liking it. If this is her start at 16 then I’m looking forward to what she does with some maturity.

  100. 100.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: How is Sherlock this season? I am saving them to watch with a friend.

    Edit: And I didn’t even realize Swift was country until I got to your comment above.

  101. 101.

    Suzanne

    Carole King is a singer-songwriter who has always left me….meh. This duet with Sara Barelles is not changing that opinion.

  102. 102.

    trollhattan

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Ah, that connects some dots. Typical tween stuff avec banjos, fiddles and slide guitar for countryfication. re. the vid–where the hell did that horse come from?

  103. 103.

    Irony Abounds

    @PsiFighter37: Well I know Carole King because, well, I’m old, but you’re right she is phenomenally talented. Her songwriting talents have been a bit underappreciated in my humble opinion. People think mostly of her Tapestry album and the songs that follow, but she wrote or co-wrote tons of songs in the sixties before making it as a singer in her own right.

  104. 104.

    andy

    Everybody who says Blurred Lines is a shit song ought to know that context is so so important. As ever, the wrong people are getting recognition!

  105. 105.

    andy

    @WaterGirl: So far so good- I saw the first series 3 episode and it was a lot of fun, since a theme running through it was the whole idea of fandom.

  106. 106.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @trollhattan: They couldn’t book a unicorn.

    @WaterGirl: Sherlock is straying further from the canon this season. I will leave it at that. My parents gave the Complete Works as an X-mas present when I was 11. I have expectations.

  107. 107.

    gbear

    @Omnes Omnibus: I give The Mats the nod because they took themselves so much less seriously than Husker Du, who were nothing if not serious.

    I also liked Bob Mould a lot less after reading his book. All the people around him were either not understanding him, failing him, or just not measuring up (shitting on Chris Stamey’s musicianship was a dickheaded move). I suppose I should just be glad that Paul Westerberg knows better than to write his memoir.

  108. 108.

    Bostondreams

    @PsiFighter37:

    You can tell this from ONE song? Impressive. I disagree. ‘Merry Go Round’ is fantastic, and a cold takedown of small town ‘Real America’ that is really well done.

  110. 110.

    PsiFighter37

    I want to burn the NYT live bloggers on a stake. How do people get paid real money for that kind of shit, unfunny, Williamsburg-bred commentary?

  111. 111.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Sounds like they are taking too many liberties with the characters or stories. How do you feel about the sherlock series on TV?

    Did you watch Sherlock unlocked? or un-whatever it was? I did watch that and thought the background on Sherlock Holmes was interesting.

  112. 112.

    trollhattan

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Heh, indoozle. Am curious who looked at the vid and said, “Hey, you know what this shot needs?”

    All together, “It’s raining horsesunicorns, lord it’s….”

  114. 114.

    dr. luba

    @Gin & Tonic: There are two main orthodox churches in Ukraine. The Russian church, Moscow patriarchate, which is sucking up to the Yanukovych regime, and does the bidding of Moscow, and the independent Kyiv patriarchate, which is a non-canonical church, and which has been supporting the protest movement.

    When government goons began breaking heads in November, the student protestors ran to a KP monastery where they were protected. The Kyivan church, and patriarch Filaret, has been on actively their side since.

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @gbear: Basically, you summed up my feelings about the two bands. Husker Du were better technically. They were better lyrically. But, Paul and the gang (peaking in my view with “Tim”) caught something from our region that no one else ever did. Like this.

  118. 118.

    MCA1

    @Omnes Omnibus: Totally agree. Her music is bland, teeny pop aimed at mass audiences. So what? Go ahead and diss the music, not the individual. Or rail at a universe where vastly more people want to listen to music that doesn’t challenge them in any way than does. But unless and until she’s done something loathsome outside of the music itself, there’s no reason to hate Taylor Swift herself. Unless you want to make the case that it’s loathsome to go chasing the big bucks, in and of itself, but good luck with that. The fact that she’s getting a lot of attention while Kathleen Edwards and Ruth Moody toil in relative obscurity is not evidence of a cause/effect relationship, and pinning that on her is just “I discovered ______ way before they were cool but now I hate them because they sold out and now you dipshsits listen to them” hipsterism.

    That said, I’m somewhat in agreement with some of the dissing on Gwyneth Paltrow, though. She does come across as utterly narcissistic and completely oblivious to how ludicrous her life is. I don’t hate her, as I don’t know her and it’s impossible to really tell anything about a public person without knowing them personally. But let’s just say I’d lay odds I wouldn’t like her all that much.

  119. 119.

    Suzanne

    Well, we had a blissful Miley-free evening.

    I think Ms. Cyrus should take the fact that she wasn’t nominated for anything or invited to perform as a great big FUCK YOU after that freak show she inflicted on us all a few months ago.

  120. 120.

    Violet

    @MCA1:

    Or rail at a universe where vastly more people want to listen to music that doesn’t challenge them in any way than does.

    A lot of times people don’t want their music to be challenging. They just want to sing along, or otherwise enjoy a catchy tune.

  123. 123.

    Suzanne

    @MCA1: The thing is, though, I have now listened to a ***lot*** of Taylor Swift, and some of her songs are actually pretty good pop songs. She has a reputation for writing songs about dumping her boyfriend, and she has earned that, but some of the deeper cuts off her albums are actually more sophisticated and better written than that. I am not saying that she’s an amazing songwriter by any stretch, but she is certainly more than competent, and she is a good entertainer. Again, when I am in the car by myself, she’s not who I pick to listen to, but it’s not like she sucks.

  125. 125.

    lamh36

    Man, the Grammys was brutal tonight.

    Fairly boring all the way around. IMHO, most interesting this is Macklemor and Lewis sweeping ALL the RAP categories over heavyweights like Drake, Jay Z, and Kanye West. Also beating out Kendrick Lamar who was IMHO completely robbed in all those categories Kendrick Lamar’s performance, the best of the night I think, was proof positive that loss or not, he was def robbed, but hey, it’s the Grammy history so I”m not much surprised by their hip hop winners much. Shoot, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Notorious B.I.G. have never won Grammys and they are considered the G.O.A.T (google is folks). So at the very least Kendrick Lamar is in good company and at the very least he can be congratulated for NOT letting his sole time on the Grammy stage be un-memorable.

    Damn Grammys are always too damn long anyway…Good night BJ.

  126. 126.

    Tripod

    Swift catches a lot of shit from would be purists. Yes, “country” now means bland suburban pop. The industry tracked the migration from rural America into the suburbs. So fucking what?

  128. 128.

    FlipYrWhig

    @lamh36: I watched the SNL episode with Drake. He sucked at every phase of his supposed craft. I saw Kendrick Lamar as musical guest whenever that was. Terrible. I don’t get why anyone would think these were good performers. Maybe the venue doesn’t suit them, but, ugh. Jay Z, for that matter, is a kick-ass producer and a terrible performer, IMHO.

  129. 129.

    lamh36

    @FlipYrWhig: The GRAMMYs award for Best Album which is a reflection of the totality of an album. Kendrick Lamar’s album and for that matter Drake’s and even Kanye’s (T. Swift’s arch-nemisis) albums were both more fully realized albums than Macklemore and Lewis was. If you haven’t actually heard any of the albums or you aren’t really a fan of either artist or the genre, then you may disagree I guess.

    But it’s pretty widely considered that Kendrick Lamar had one of the best rap albums of the year, way more so than Macklemore and Lewis…period. So yeah, Macklemore and Lewis sweeping all the RAP categories was a def snub of Kendrick Lamar.

  130. 130.

    FlipYrWhig

    @lamh36: Macklemore seems well-intentioned and slightly clever, but that “Same Love” song is very bad as a song. As a message, fine. As a song, feh. I haven’t kept up with hip-hop since the heyday of Public Enemy and De La Soul, but none of the much-praised acts lately, which, true, I haven’t listened to at album length, only single by single, appeal to me. YMMV.

  131. 131.

    McJulie

    Maybe it’s just me, but it also seems like female celebrities are more frequently subjected to more intense levels of inexplicable hatred.

  132. 132.

    Radio One

    I think pop music is much better now than is was ten to twenty years ago, but at the same time I’m older and don’t really care even remotely as much about contemporary pop music as I did in the past.

  134. 134.

    Allan

    I was surprised when Colonel Sanders came out and sang a Madonna song because I thought he was dead.

  135. 135.

    Cassidy

    @burnspbesq: Youre fun to mess with. I don’t really care, tbh. I don’t listen to much folk or Americana or bluegrass, etc. Omnes, was right, though, no matter how much you wish it, those girls aren’t going to suddenly get the spotlight if Swift is gone. There lack of fame has nothing to do with her’s.

  137. 137.

    maurinsky

    I don’t really know any of Taylor Swift’s music, but the Grammy’s have always been the worst awards show, IMO. There is so much awesome music that is ignored by that group, and I have long believed that sales drive the awards, rather than talent/skill.

  139. 139.

    MCA1

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yuck to those – I’m all for covers, but sometimes just let a Dylan song be Dylan’s unless you’ve really got the life experience and chops to sell the lyrics. I don’t think I said there’s no talent there at all, though. I was just agreeing with you that oftentimes it’s directed at a different goal and not as worthy of derision as burns was positing. Sometimes a pop act is just a pop act, sometimes it’s a pop artist, and sometimes it’s a great way to hide limitations in talent the way being a solo act performing in small venues with an acoustic guitar exposes them. In any event, I’d rather lament the system (of which the Grammy’s are perfectly emblematic) than the individuals who live in it.

  142. 142.

    R3

    @Penus: I remember when Automatic came out, it was the last great REM album IMO. Out of Time was the one that hooked me into their stuff, and then I found out about their early stuff (which was by far their best work).

    But Automatic was an impressive reinvention after they hit supergroup status.

  143. 143.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I remember a time when I hate, hate, *hated* Madonna. Because I thought her music was kinda catchy, and she was kinda sexy, and sometimes it would seem like she was touching on something deeply human in her music (which she probably was – she’s a frickin’ amazing entertainer, you don’t become that without some human connection!). But, see, she was super-popular. It was okay to be hot for, and love, Suzanne Vega (who didn’t seem like a big hitmaker and who is a poet), but not *Madonna* ferchrissakes.

    So I was openly scornful. Which is some of the most dishonest bullshit a person can indulge in, if you think about it.

    I can’t speak for any other entertainer haters, but that’s what I think about when I hear people all het up about seemingly harmless people.

  145. 145.

    R3

    @LongHairedWeirdo: “Borderline” is the ultimate 80’s pop song, and Material Girl was a refreshingly honest exploration of female sexuality. It’s hard to imagine “No Scrubs” happening without Madonna’s influence.

    And for the record I see nothing wrong with female sexuality or the fact that Madonna celebrates it, any more than I see a problem with the Rolling Stones reveling in male sexuality. A little unapologetic raw sexuality is a good thing, so long as it’s honest, and not the phony crap that the Lordes of the world indulge themselves in.

  146. 146.

    R3

    @Paul in KY: I have often wondered if the Beatles would have been better or worse off with a better drummer. Their music seemed flawless, though. Any significant change would logically have been a bad thing. But he was terrible, of that there can be no dispute.

  147. 147.

    R3

    @Paul in KY: I have often wondered if the Beatles would have been better or worse off with a better drummer. Their music seemed flawless, though. Any significant change would logically have been a bad thing. But he was terrible, of that there can be no dispute.

  150. 150.

    MCA1

    @Paul in KY: I absolutely cannot tell if this is trolling, sincere, or sarcastic. Well played, sir. If sincere, it is one of the few bona fide, absolutely dead wrong things I’ve ever heard in the completely subjective world of taste in music. So wrong it’s hard to know where to even start. That is an execrable song, poorly sung, with lyrics so inane they approach Armageddon, transmitted through one of the dumbest melody lines I’ve ever heard. Wait, you ARE trolling! Dammit. Again, well played.

  152. 152.

    nefarious interloper

    Boring bunch. Not worth the energy to hate or feel anything, one way or the other, except a big fat yawn.

  153. 153.

    Paul in KY

    @R3: You are crazy. Ringo was a fine drummer. He’s not Neal Peart or Travis Barker, but he is/was great at keeping the beat going & not getting in the way of the other instruments. Also, his drumming is basically what Paul/John wrote, so he didn’t come up with the amount of drumming he does (or doesn’t do) in their songs.

  154. 154.

    Paul in KY

    @MCA1: I’m not. Post Beatle solo stuff (leaving aside Paul’s work with Wings, as it is not technically ‘solo’) is not anything much (IMO). ‘It Don’t Come Easy is a great song. Went to number 1, I think.

    I do think there are 2 or 3 Wings songs that are better.

  155. 155.

    MCA1

    @Paul in KY: Well, that bascially eliminates McCartney if you don’t count Wings, which had a fair number of pretty good songs (most of which he wrote, I think). Still, George and John gave us plenty of good songs, including, without limitation:

    – What Is Life
    – Give Me Love
    – Dark Horse
    – You
    – Imagine
    – Working Class Hero
    – Mind Games
    – Woman
    – Jealous Guy

    and any number of others that top “It Don’t Come Easy” as, in case I didn’t mention it, IM(not so)HO that’s an atrocious song. :^)

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