If we're going to live in a world where we choose to idolize certain people we don't know (i.e. a world in which celebrity reigns supreme), we ought to look up to those who are actually special. People like Beyonce or Lady Gaga. People who are creative and who mix playful teasing with a splash of seriousness. People who can carry a tune and who exude confidence. People who (dare I say it) have real talent. In essence, people who are not Taylor Swift.
It's been about 3 days and I still haven't managed to pick my jaw up from off the ground after watching John Legend open the Grammy envelope and say that Taylor Swift won Best Album of the Year. Album of the Damn Year. Had anyone ever heard the song "Single Ladies" or listened to a track or two of "The Fame"? While Beyonce's album "I Am....Sasha Fierce" was not her strongest one to date, it's safe to say that in general Beyonce possesses more talent in her left pinky toe than Taylor Swift has in her entire body. Also, Lady Gaga put forth an album that was completely unique and has repeatedly challenged the music industry to re-think what is salable. Plenty of people dig what Lady Gaga has put out there in the music stratosphere in the past few years. And Beyonce will always be a queen (even if this last album wasn't her best showing). That's why I'm still so dumbfounded, confused, perturbed, upset...I could keep going...by this win. It makes no sense why this little girl won Album of the Year.
In truth, the song "You Belong with Me" is cute. I listen to it sometimes when I'm feeling ridiculous. I feel it. Especially the part where she goes "Standing by waiting at your backdoor/All this time how could you not know/ You belong with me?/ You belong with me" It's touching. But in Beyonce's song "Ego" she breaks out with the lines "Usually I'm humble, right now I don't choose/ You can leave with me or you could have the blues/ Some call it arrogant, I call it confident/ You decide when you find on what I'm working with/ Damn I know I'm killing you with them legs/ Better yet them thighs/ Matter a fact it's my smile or maybe my eyes/ Boy you a site to see, kind of something like me" It's pure fierceness! She's playing with the idea of male perspective, taking ownership of her own body and proclaiming the power she has an attractive, strong woman. All in a playful way, of course.
Similarly, Lady Gaga's song "Money Honey" is an incredibly fun song with a bit of edge to it. She says, "Thats money honey/ Well I'm your lover and your mistress/Thats money honey/When you touch me, its so delicious/Thats money honey/Baby when you tell me the pieces/Thats money honey/Thats m-o-n-e-y...so sexy" I don't know about others, but I'm not trying to be anybody's "mistress" anytime soon. I don't want to be a slave to paper, either. If we could read between the lines a bit in this song, we might see that Ms. Gaga is toying with idea of the Almighty Green. At first money sounds appealing but her tone tells us it's really not. She's one tough cookie and although she's joking around in the song, there's still a subtle punch in there.
In comparing these three artists and their lyrics, I get more and more frustrated in thinking about Taylor's win. I guess in a twisted, perverted way, Kanye put her on the map and turned her into the underdog people want to root for. Or, another way of looking at it (which I'm leaning more towards now) is that she's a manageable figure. She's twenty, blonde, a stick figure and sings in a placid voice about wanting high school boys to notice her. Who doesn't love that? I don't.
She might have sold 3.2 million albums in 2009 (which is definitely 3.2 million more albums than I'll ever sell...even though I sound like Whitney in my own head) but that doesn't make her talented. She's the perfect example of something palatable, something that American tastes can digest. I really hope that we stop rewarding mediocrity, though. If we're going to pay to listen to artists, it's important that they show us something audacious that we don't normally think about (females' genuine celebration of their sexuality or the power of money) instead of the same old story about how hard it is to find a man these days. In order to be paid millions, you gotta give me something to work with. Some meat and potatoes. Something to chew on.
Taylor, where's your message? Where's your gripe with humanity? Why are you wearing a ridiculously cheap brown wig in your video for "You Belong With Me"? And why are your average voice and minimal stage presence enough to make you a Pop Star? What's up with that?
