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MA Awards Try a Younger Model
Country Music Association voters largely turned their back on tradition in anointing teenage country-pop star Taylor Swift and a whole slate of relative newcomers with most of its top honors at Wednesday's CMA Awards ceremony in Nashville, Tenn.
The CMA bypassed long-serving veterans including George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban in making Swift the youngest recipient of its top honor, entertainer of the year, an award meant for the musician who exhibits the most impressive all-around performance during the preceding year.
By that criteria, it was hard to argue with their choice: The 19-year-old has sold more than 10 million albums in the three years since she released her debut, making her the biggest thing in country and pop music.
“All I could think about was the fact that all my life the entertainer of the year award was always such an unattainable thing, such an unattainable dream, then there I was walking up to the stage,” Swift said after the ceremony. “It took awhile to sink in. It's so overwhelming I'm stuttering.”
Swift won all four categories in which she was nominated, taking home trophies for album of the year, female vocalist and music video.
“Thank you for saying that you like my diary,” Swift told voters, and by extension, fans, when she collected the best album prize for 2008's “Fearless.”
In an era of declining music sales, the CMA voters chose to reward Swift despite her youth and, this year anyway, abandoning the axiom that the country establishment is slow to embrace the new.
The Nashville-based CMA characteristically has been more tradition-minded than the West Coast-based Academy of Country Music and certainly more so than the Grammy Awards-bestowing Recording Academy. Yet in addition to Swift's perfect batting average, the organization picked Darius Rucker, the former leader of rock group Hootie & the Blowfish who struck platinum with his countrified solo album “Learn to Live,” as best new artist.
Freshman trio Lady Antebellum upstaged Rascal Flatts in being named group of the year, and duo Sugarland beat out long-reigning twosome Brooks & Dunn, who recently announced that they will retire following a 2010 tour.
That left just two awards for singer, songwriter and guitarist Paisley, who had come into the show with a field-leading seven nominations. He won for male vocalist and musical event, an award he shared with Keith Urban for their duet “Start a Band.”
New blood also reigned in the single and song of the year categories, with awards to Lady Antebellum for the single “I Run to You” and Jamey Johnson for his “In Color,” which the country maverick wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and James Otto.
Johnson demurely thanked the CMA voters, saying, “I never thought you guys would let me come to things like this.”
As much as industry attention had been focused on the entertainer category because of Swift's presence as a teen female upstart contending with a bunch of male veterans, it's nearly as big an upset that Lady Antebellum swept past Rascal Flatts, one of country's biggest sellers of the last decade, in the vocal group contest.
The Eagles might have dwarfed all comers in the category in terms of concert ticket revenue, but Nashville looks at the Los Angeles boomer rock group as, well, a Los Angeles boomer rock group. Lady A's win signaled the country establishment's readiness this year to look to country's future more than its proven quantities.
The CMA bypassed long-serving veterans including George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban in making Swift the youngest recipient of its top honor, entertainer of the year, an award meant for the musician who exhibits the most impressive all-around performance during the preceding year.
By that criteria, it was hard to argue with their choice: The 19-year-old has sold more than 10 million albums in the three years since she released her debut, making her the biggest thing in country and pop music.
“All I could think about was the fact that all my life the entertainer of the year award was always such an unattainable thing, such an unattainable dream, then there I was walking up to the stage,” Swift said after the ceremony. “It took awhile to sink in. It's so overwhelming I'm stuttering.”
Swift won all four categories in which she was nominated, taking home trophies for album of the year, female vocalist and music video.
“Thank you for saying that you like my diary,” Swift told voters, and by extension, fans, when she collected the best album prize for 2008's “Fearless.”
In an era of declining music sales, the CMA voters chose to reward Swift despite her youth and, this year anyway, abandoning the axiom that the country establishment is slow to embrace the new.
The Nashville-based CMA characteristically has been more tradition-minded than the West Coast-based Academy of Country Music and certainly more so than the Grammy Awards-bestowing Recording Academy. Yet in addition to Swift's perfect batting average, the organization picked Darius Rucker, the former leader of rock group Hootie & the Blowfish who struck platinum with his countrified solo album “Learn to Live,” as best new artist.
Freshman trio Lady Antebellum upstaged Rascal Flatts in being named group of the year, and duo Sugarland beat out long-reigning twosome Brooks & Dunn, who recently announced that they will retire following a 2010 tour.
That left just two awards for singer, songwriter and guitarist Paisley, who had come into the show with a field-leading seven nominations. He won for male vocalist and musical event, an award he shared with Keith Urban for their duet “Start a Band.”
New blood also reigned in the single and song of the year categories, with awards to Lady Antebellum for the single “I Run to You” and Jamey Johnson for his “In Color,” which the country maverick wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and James Otto.
Johnson demurely thanked the CMA voters, saying, “I never thought you guys would let me come to things like this.”
As much as industry attention had been focused on the entertainer category because of Swift's presence as a teen female upstart contending with a bunch of male veterans, it's nearly as big an upset that Lady Antebellum swept past Rascal Flatts, one of country's biggest sellers of the last decade, in the vocal group contest.
The Eagles might have dwarfed all comers in the category in terms of concert ticket revenue, but Nashville looks at the Los Angeles boomer rock group as, well, a Los Angeles boomer rock group. Lady A's win signaled the country establishment's readiness this year to look to country's future more than its proven quantities.
In 1958, Johnny Cash released the song “Ballad of a Teenage Queen,” the story of a pretty small-town girl who won Hollywood fame but gave it all up for the boy next door. In 2009 -- on Wednesday night, actually, in Nashville, at the annual Country Music Association Awards ceremony -- Taylor Swift updated and obliterated that story line.
The 19-year-old songwriter and universe-shifting star won in four categories, beating out mainstays such as Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban to claim country music for youth, femininity and pop. She also performed two numbers and was the subject of much running humor throughout the program, which found its spark whenever one of country's current batch of New Non-Traditionalists took the stage.
Swift started things out with a version of “Forever and Always” that was glitzy and high-concept -- and off-tune, a consistent characteristic of Swift's live outings that gave the lie to her one undeserved triumph, for best female vocalist. The prize should have gone to Carrie Underwood, country's most powerful young singer and the evening's co-host with Brad Paisley.
Struggling for her notes but not showing any concern about it, Swift made a flurry of arena-rock moves, shaking her long, gold tresses as if she were Robert Plant and sliding down a shiny pole in what seemed like a defiant nod toward her friend Miley Cyrus, who took guff for similar gyrations on this year's Teen Choice Awards. By the end of this production number, she owned the night. And she kept on owning it, right down to her tearful acceptance of the Entertainer of the Year prize, which she shared with her touring band and her fans, “and the shirts you made yourselves.”
In a flash, it seemed, country had transformed from the mellow ol' boys club of Chesney and Urban to a girls' army led by Swift and her sign-waving devotees, who sang along in a (clearly staged, but still effective) campfire version of her coming-of-age ballad, “Fifteen.” But Swift isn't forging country's new future alone.
Beyond Swift's presence and performances, which thoroughly dominated the night, others found ways to throw off the spark of change. Darius Rucker, who'd already broken down doors as a black soft-rock star with Hootie & the Blowfish in the mid-1990s, took a supremely sloppy, crowd-hugging run through his hit “Alright,” then gave the most ecstatic speech of the night as best new artist -- he's the first African-American to win in that category.
The impeccable Paisley played a sparkly blue guitar and sang his ode to tech-inspired liberalism, “Welcome to the Future.” Underwood apparently borrowed a cut-away gown and some dance moves from Katy Perry for a version of “Cowboy Casanova” that reminded us this quintessential country bombshell is a genre-buster too. And both Reba McEntire and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland delivered gorgeous vocal performances that stood as a welcome and a challenge to Swift: a welcome for her emotionality and feminine insight, and a challenge for her to find a singing voice that can take her into adulthood.
At the spectrum's other end, the rough-hewn neo-classicist Jamey Johnson (who, unfortunately, was saddled with Kid Rock as a duet partner) and the luminescent country rocker Miranda Lambert showed, with steady performances of great songs, that traditions don't have to be smashed into new shapes -- they can be tenderly modified as well.
Paisley exemplifies that approach; Underwood, reading from the night's script, noted that her co-host “honors our past and points the way to our future at the same time.” The country music establishment is clearly hoping that change will come on these careful terms. Honoring an outsider like Song of the Year winner Johnson, who isn't slick like Chesney and Urban but at least isn't a teenager or a former alternative-rock star, was one way of lighting that more comfortable path.
This is Nashville, though, where elders are honored and customs are preserved. As always, George Strait performed and was cheered, the camera dwelled on ladies swooning at Urban (including his wife Nicole Kidman, of course), and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, standing for married bliss, held hands as they walked onstage to give Swift her final award.
The kid's big win might be just one step in her important rise, but for her, it was also a seal of parental approval. Beaming toward her dad, seated in the audience, Swift said through tears, “I will never forget this moment because in this moment, everything I ever wanted has just happened to me.”
The teenage queen had arrived at her homecoming, and without even meaning to do it, started a whole new game.
Powers is a Times pop music critic.
The 19-year-old songwriter and universe-shifting star won in four categories, beating out mainstays such as Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban to claim country music for youth, femininity and pop. She also performed two numbers and was the subject of much running humor throughout the program, which found its spark whenever one of country's current batch of New Non-Traditionalists took the stage.
Swift started things out with a version of “Forever and Always” that was glitzy and high-concept -- and off-tune, a consistent characteristic of Swift's live outings that gave the lie to her one undeserved triumph, for best female vocalist. The prize should have gone to Carrie Underwood, country's most powerful young singer and the evening's co-host with Brad Paisley.
Struggling for her notes but not showing any concern about it, Swift made a flurry of arena-rock moves, shaking her long, gold tresses as if she were Robert Plant and sliding down a shiny pole in what seemed like a defiant nod toward her friend Miley Cyrus, who took guff for similar gyrations on this year's Teen Choice Awards. By the end of this production number, she owned the night. And she kept on owning it, right down to her tearful acceptance of the Entertainer of the Year prize, which she shared with her touring band and her fans, “and the shirts you made yourselves.”
In a flash, it seemed, country had transformed from the mellow ol' boys club of Chesney and Urban to a girls' army led by Swift and her sign-waving devotees, who sang along in a (clearly staged, but still effective) campfire version of her coming-of-age ballad, “Fifteen.” But Swift isn't forging country's new future alone.
Beyond Swift's presence and performances, which thoroughly dominated the night, others found ways to throw off the spark of change. Darius Rucker, who'd already broken down doors as a black soft-rock star with Hootie & the Blowfish in the mid-1990s, took a supremely sloppy, crowd-hugging run through his hit “Alright,” then gave the most ecstatic speech of the night as best new artist -- he's the first African-American to win in that category.
The impeccable Paisley played a sparkly blue guitar and sang his ode to tech-inspired liberalism, “Welcome to the Future.” Underwood apparently borrowed a cut-away gown and some dance moves from Katy Perry for a version of “Cowboy Casanova” that reminded us this quintessential country bombshell is a genre-buster too. And both Reba McEntire and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland delivered gorgeous vocal performances that stood as a welcome and a challenge to Swift: a welcome for her emotionality and feminine insight, and a challenge for her to find a singing voice that can take her into adulthood.
At the spectrum's other end, the rough-hewn neo-classicist Jamey Johnson (who, unfortunately, was saddled with Kid Rock as a duet partner) and the luminescent country rocker Miranda Lambert showed, with steady performances of great songs, that traditions don't have to be smashed into new shapes -- they can be tenderly modified as well.
Paisley exemplifies that approach; Underwood, reading from the night's script, noted that her co-host “honors our past and points the way to our future at the same time.” The country music establishment is clearly hoping that change will come on these careful terms. Honoring an outsider like Song of the Year winner Johnson, who isn't slick like Chesney and Urban but at least isn't a teenager or a former alternative-rock star, was one way of lighting that more comfortable path.
This is Nashville, though, where elders are honored and customs are preserved. As always, George Strait performed and was cheered, the camera dwelled on ladies swooning at Urban (including his wife Nicole Kidman, of course), and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, standing for married bliss, held hands as they walked onstage to give Swift her final award.
The kid's big win might be just one step in her important rise, but for her, it was also a seal of parental approval. Beaming toward her dad, seated in the audience, Swift said through tears, “I will never forget this moment because in this moment, everything I ever wanted has just happened to me.”
The teenage queen had arrived at her homecoming, and without even meaning to do it, started a whole new game.
Powers is a Times pop music critic.
