My Love Letter to Taylor Swift

Oh Taylor Swift. Where to start with you dear, where to start. First off: I love that song “Teardrops On My Guitar”, and that other one “Love Story”... Oh, and that other one, “You Belong With Me”. They get in in my head and stay there. Damn you for that. Our relationship could’ve ended there and I would’ve been fine, but alas you had to win dozens of awards, beat Beyonce on MTV, incur the wrath of an ego-maniac, win more awards, and be the only female artist in history (IN HISTORY) to end the year with two albums in the top 10. Oh, and you have had more legal (and probably illegal) downloads of your music since that particular stat has been tracked. All of this has got me thinking about you and now I think that perhaps you are far more than just some girl with a guitar... you actually might matter to music.

Awhile back, in sticking to my theory that you are only important to pop culture if Andy Warhol would’ve painted you, I said just that to some friends who were “hating” on you. Now, keep in mind that doesn’t neccessairly mean that your music in any good (the fact that I think Warhol would’ve painted you), but I defintely think you are a pop culture reference point. This has happened for several reasons; mainly by accident.

First off you are the 'great white young hope of singer-songwriter female driven “country” music'. No stress there... just thought you should know that this is the burden that has been bestowed upon you by your friends in Nashville. I have started referring to you as America’s Sweetheart and I actually mean it with no irony. You are inspiring a generation of girls to pick up a guitar and write a song and that is HUGE. Anybody who wants to give you shit about that... you send them to me. I mean as much as I love Lady Gaga, Little Boots, Beyonce, and such; if i had a little girl I think I feel a little less overwhelmed if she listened to, admired, and wanted to be Taylor Swift (then say Ke$ha). There is a 'princess next door' quality about you that some find annoying, but I find somewhat endearing; if not charming. Part of your attraction is that some people want to believe in a fairytale every now and then and you've somehow incorporated this ideal into your persona. It might even be an accident, but it kinda works... for now at least.

Second of all, you are somehow becoming the bridge between the old-falling-apart notions of the the way music industry was and the glossy-digital-downloadable reality of what music wants to become. A lot of this is due to your age. Your first album came out at 16... word spread about your MySpace page (yeah, it was that long ago), and before you know it your were becoming a country-folk phenom. Couple that with the fact you can play a guitar and write your own songs and you were just the girl Nashville was wating for. The perfect combination of the past and the future. Country music had new safe little bubble to float on for a bit. Ahh, but then someone at your label had the wherewithal to do a pop mix of “Teardrops On My Guitar” (which is how I began my interest in you) and you then started to infiltrate the pop world. Brilliant, but dangerous. You now have a new whole audience of fickle people to deal with... good luck with that.

See, this leads to the third phase on your road to pop culture relevance: Kanye West and the MTV Music awards. You could have just stayed in your happy, safe world of white horses, acoustic guitars, and girlish notions of romance; but you entered the leagues of the big boys( & girls) and you beat them. And I cheered a little, because I thought you were the underdog, wrote pretty good songs, and are kinda ‘adorkable’ yourself to boot. Kayne, (who I love) did what the biggest artist in world of any era does... he makes a exhibition of himself and in doing so brought you along for the ride. Welcome to pop culture relevance, where you too can be a question in 'Trivial Pursuit'

Now you’re here. This the is big girl ride now. The backlash has started: Your live performances aren’t good enough (even though you really sing), you win too many awards (even though your songs are quite good), you are a little too awkward and “awshucks” for some people (even though you are but 20 years and probably still figuring out life...much less all this pop shit).

But unlike Gaga, Beyonce, Ke$ha, or some random American Idol winner you didn’t get dropped into this world by choice; you arrived here sorta by accident. Now you outsell those gals and probably will for years to come. On top of that you'll only half to expel a quarter of the energy they do to remain relevant. You don't have to wear crazy outfits, experiment with 'new sounds', or even have big elaborate tours. You just have to write good songs and sing them... fairly well. This is why you might get hated on for a bit, but hang in there. If you stay smart I think you’re gonna be ok and I actually have a feeling a lot of really great, ‘award winning’ music is still in you; hell, maybe some anger might even come out of you eventually...that could be fun. Don’t get hung up on all this awards crap though...they are meaningless. Just write me another song like “Love Story”.

Somewhere Only I Know: The place where Blake Lewis matters

It’s effing Blake Lewis stupid. He is the most talented person to ever be on American Idol. Sorry, argument over. I realize many people will never take American Idol seriously, which is too bad really. As a pop music fan the show is perennially entertaining and really has produced some great pop stars & thus some great pop songs (“Since U Been Gone”: Kelly Clarkson... Hello!).

Blake Lewis fascinated me the first time I saw him on the show which in itself was a minor miracle since usually I am obsessed with girl pop stars. He did his little beat-boxing thing which was clever, but when he sang he sounded like a lost synth-pop throwback lead singer from the ’80’s. I was intrigued.

At one point during the sixth season of Idol he sang “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane and I was a fan; if for nothing else simply because he knew that song and then proceeded to nail it. He struck me as an artist, which made him seem a bit out of place on a singing show. Blake Lewis would talk about producing, DJ’s, and remixing and then he would apply all that shit to his performance. Several times during that season I would turn to my girlfriend smiling and simply say, “Damn, this guy is good. He was just born on the wrong side of the pond.” He was always on. And I was right.

He came in second that year, but I felt confident it didn’t quite matter; he was gonna be ok based on pure talent. His first record Audio Day Dream came out and I bought it. It was quite good if not a bit scattered, but there were definitely swatches of the pop brilliance I had seen during his performances on Idol.

I guess I was sorta wrong, because that album just sold ok and Blake Lewis got dropped from his label like so many Idols before him (Ahh, the fickle world of pop culture and record labels). He was luckily (and smartly) picked up by Tommy Boy Records... which leads us to now.

Last month Blake Lewis quietly put out one the best records of the year, Heartbreak On Vinyl. It is simply brilliant if you enjoy dance/electronic/pop music. It harkens back to 1980’s pop music and at this point I wouldn’t feel crazy mentioning it in the same breath as Thriller, Off The Wall, Rhythm Nation 1814, or other great cohesive pop masterpieces from that decade. Heartbreak On Vinyl is that good. Each time I listen to it I hear something else I like. It is electro-pop goodness.

Therein lies the rub. Once again I find myself thinking Blake Lewis is probaly just simply on the wrong side of the Atlantic Ocean. Right now across the pond there is a 80’s Synth-Pop Revival going on (i.e. LaRoux, Little Boots, Sam Sparro, Calvin Harris, etc.). America is not really on that boat right now. I was playing the record for a friend the other day and she summed it perfectly, “This is really, really good, but it doesn’t fit in anywhere.”

I hope that the record finds an audience. I am making a personal crusade include a track on mix cd’s I make for people and play it for anyone who I think has a snowball’s chance in hell at caring. It’s really damn good.