Taylor Swift Makes Billboard Album Chart Her You Know What

The Taylor Swift juggernaut continues unabated! Can anything stop this teenypop invasion of country music? Oh my…(lol)

Off Topic: I just wanted to giva a quick recap of Emily West’s Capitol label showcase at LA’s historic Mint club last night. The poofy dress wearing “Opry Emily” was replaced by the black knit v-neck dressed “Rocker Emily” for this show backed by her full five piece band. Besides performing many of the songs off her unreleased debut album Emily included a more bluesy new song titled “Spend Your Money On Me” that is a nice change of pace. Emily felt inspired being in LA from getting to see clubs like the Troubadour, Whiskey A Go Go, and the Roxy and that motivated her to cover Stevie Nicks’ “Dreams” and Linda Ronstadt’s “When Will I Be Loved”. The funky ambience of the Mint itself moved her to choose a fantastic blues/jazz number titled “I Hate Love” which was the highlight for me. Diana Krall look out ’cause Emily’s coming! (lol) Emily closed with “Blue Sky” and “Rocks In Your Shoes” to a very appreciative industry audience. Emily is about as personable as a human can be and it was a kick watching her hug and work the Capitol label folks. There was a defining “Emily moment” midway through the set when she exclaimed “Look, I’m sweating like Tina Turner! How cool.” If Emily comes your way she is an artist well worth seeing.

Is “breaking country music out of its stereotypes” a good thing when the alternatives images are inspired by the likes of Kid Rock, Lil Wayne, and Jessica Simpson? I think not.

Jack Ingram was interviewed on the radio in Dallas last week and when he was asked about Lil Wayne, he laughed and talked about how everyone around him in the audience thought it was a joke and even a bit sad that he was up there for no reason with a guitar that wasnt even plugged in….

So, to all the journalists who say so: let’s slow down on any talk in which Lil Wayne is helpful in any way to Country Music….

What a great article by Mr. Mazor. The last sentence says it all …

“But there’s no other genre of music that’s pulled off what we have over the last 50 years.”

Country music sees its ups and downs - artistically and commercially - but it’s not going anywhere, and I see it continuing to thrive in the next 50 years.

Brody, point well taken, but I think it’s premature to declare victory in the effort to save country music from extinction, because it is currently on the verge of the abyss. In the past, market forces were allowed to sway the pendulum back when the genre strayed to far into pop, but that isn’t being allowed to happen in this age of conglomerated radio.

The new Trace Adkins song “I Can’t Outrun You” is THE BEST of his career…….

dude, real R&B has been in the grave since like ‘75

R&B died when the drum machine was invented.

R&B died in a Wisconsin lake along with Otis Redding…or not.

Quote- If your are going to try argue that Usher and R. Kelly and Boyz II Men are on par with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, then I’d say you were wagering a lot of your credibility.

Oh no, I am not saying that R. Kelly and Boyz II Men are on par to Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, but that does not mean that those respective 90’s R&B acts killed R&B. The 90s produced some good R&B Acts that upheld the genre - Mary J. Blige comes to mind. I stick to my statement that R&B has been put on life support since 2006.

Rick - you’re absolutely right.

It’s a sad state of affairs in Nashville with the try-too-hard pop and rock stuff dominating while what we all “know” as true Country music is marginalized.

But nothing resonates like good, traditional Country music. And it will never die. Some of this stuff on the radio today will be forgotten.

o0o0oo thanks for letting us know about that link to Trace’s new songs!!!

1. R&B ain’t dead: http://www.amazon.com/Pebble-Pearl-Nikka-Costa/dp/B001DXF9GS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1227145518&sr=8-1

2. Some bit of good news for country. Beyonce has apparently opted to copy X-tina instead of Jessica.

^ Ummm, she already did get the top spot on Billboard

I was actually kind of surprised that Taylor Swift sold so many albums. This looks to be another year of her album never dropping from the top 20. That CMT camp should be interesting haha.

This is totally inappropriate as I am about to quote someone from USAToday online quoting someone else, but if someone can refute this please do:

“Idol Watcher wrote: 2h 1m ago
Regarding Taylor Swift,

She will be headlining a European & Australian tour next Spring. As a bit of advanced publicity, Reuters interviewed her labels management. They asked the question, “How do you think her music will translate to the European Market, since Country isn’t one of our bigger genres?”

Her Managements response?

“We don’t consider Taylor a Country singer at all. She is a Pop singer & her competition is more along the Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Christina Aguillara, lines.”

Now, I for one, find this an incredible statement from a manager whose artist has had an amazing amount of support from Country radio & the Country music buying public. I have a feeling that once Country radio gets wind of this there is going to be some major repurcussions.

I have been saying all along she is not Country, if nothing else this just supports my argument.

PS: The girl absolutely cannot sing live.”

I wrote an article on our website about that quote yesterday. I think we all knew it was coming especially with Big Machine signing the international marketing deal with Universal. I think she is hurting herself in the long run with it. But hey get your money while you can if you dont think you will last.

I think she will last but she will have to change her style to do it. When all those teeny boppers leave her then I hope she chooses to become more country. But I think pop diva is more likely. I think she does show some talent as a writer.