Poor, poor Taylor Swift.

There are plenty of reasons to want to like Taylor Swift. She writes her own songs. She appeared on CSI. Uhm...that's all I got.

There are, unfortunately, more reasons not to like her. Nevermind anything appearance-wise (yes, I hate skinny white blonds). Nevermind her genre of music (psuedo pop-country for teenage girls). Sure you can pick on the poor lyrics and normal vapid songwriting.

But what really blows it away is the terrible, terrible voice.

A few artists out there aren't blessed with a great voice, but manage a great studio performance. Think Smashing Pumpkins. I'm sure you've seen people that don't put on quite the live performance you were hoping for, and are easily outdone by their recording.

When I saw Taylor Swift during the Haiti special, I was flabbergasted at why she was anything like a nationally recognized name. I'm not a Britney fan at all, but at least she was an obvious product. Swift appeared to have no more (in fact, less) talent than many singers I have seen at the corner bar or open mic night. I've shared the stage with people that sing better, pretty often. And yet here she was, being marketed and pushed and accepted.

For the Grammies, I guess I was expecting more. Maybe she had improved, gained some polish. Maybe she had settled in after touring, and the Haiti show was nerves. But no - she sounded horrible. I mean, outclassed by Beyonce and Pink, sure, of course. Being outclassed by Lady Gaga, well, now you shouldn't really be singing anymore. Taylor Swift was over her head - and instead of sort of acknowledging that, she went full bore, bringing up Stevie Nicks for a duet, which sounded like a great vocalist and her untalented neice. This was a travesty. These two shouldn't be on the same stage.

I don't hate Taylor Swift personally. I hate the industry that pushes these people that don't have much talent, and warps them into a product. Then it pushes that product on everyone, spending thousands on studio takes and engineers and auto-tune to make them sound decent. And sometimes, like with Avril Lavigne or Christina Aguilera, you have a great talent to start with. Other times, it's just trash.

Taylor Swift should not be winning awards, at least not with her level of live performance. She should be working and practicing, or switch to songwriting. The fact that kids are gobbling this up (along with trash like The Bravery, Paramore, and other crap) is just sad. - EO