Jim,

First of all, you are wrong. Sorry but you are. There are billions spent on people better looking, marketed the same way, the exact same thing. You are wrong because that is the nature of the business and you can only force people or in your case fool them for so long. Those are fads and don't take over the top spot of the business. Name one that had no talent and was a charade in any tangible way for any length of time. There are many overnight successes, one hit wonders. They don't have impact on the entire culture, the business and change the paramaters.

You are looking at things through such an unbelievably narrow lens it is no wonder you can't see the forest for the trees. But I will tell you what she did and why I admire her. You can think I am a fool and that is your right. But i have been around the block too just like you have and think I have a pretty decent perspective on it because I deal in it every day.

Over the past 10-15 years we in Nashville have been inundated by younger singers. The 12-20 year olds paraded in here routinely all trying to be the next American Idols. And thanks to that show one vapid nothing singer has appeared. The same in rap in hip hop in every other genre, mediocrity always rises and seems to dictate the market.

I listen to songs and writers for a living. It is all day every day. And to hear anyone do anything that is the least bit different is almost impossible. When it comes to younger artists, they come off in two ways. Either sophomoric, sam I am, or age inappropriate. A 16 year old girl sounding like a slut, ala Britany Spears.

When I first met Taylor and started hearing about her I was as skeptical as you. I had to be convinced. I was by one song. "Our Song." Where she took a subject we have heard a billion times before, "our song, playing on the radio,dancing to our song when we got married, blah,blah blah. She did it differently that personified our song as "noises that teen agers go throug, a slamming door, talking low on the phone so your mother don't know.." It was instinctive fresh writing that no one else had done.

She expanded the market format from 18-45 and hooked every girl her age, AND their mothers AND their grandmothers, who thought "That is my life, or the lives of my daughters or grandaughters." She hooked them in with melodies and stories that were more in line of their lives.

The rest of her songs are like that. They take the listeners and her fans to places they have been but never looked at in that way. She shows, not tells and makes it responsive to not only the people who are her fans but people who are not a fan of that particular genre. Her presence in shows, the culture, fashion, etc. is everywhere. And while I agree marketing has a great deal to do with that, you have to start off with a product someone wants to buy. They want to buy it in a technological world that has become free for almost everyone else.

And it is her. Not her co-writers, managers, producers, publishers, because I have spoken to many in quiet conversations that would tell me if that was the case.

As far as her voice goes Jim, you and I both know that the human voice continues to change and adapt until you are around 21 years old. It is why the 12 year old Michael Jackson and the 30 year old Micheal Jackson have many differences. And if you were a 20 year old kid performing with your idol (Stevie Nicks) you would be a little nervous too.

So do I think she hung the moon? No? Do I think she is the best singer? Writer? Entertainer? No. But what I think she is a very talented writer/artist who focuses what she has done, has been able to work with technology that works against most of us and does exactly what I teach other people to do, say what you mean and get as many people as you can liking you more than they dislike you. And do as much of it as you can in a mostly positive way.

She is not a public meltdown Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan, she is not a train wreck, she is a pretty decent kid. And she is doing well. I may not love everything that she does but frankly she impresses me because she does what I see almost no one else doing, making very quality music that connects with her fans.

And you are not a fan of hers. That is fine. I just don't know why you constantly have to do that same whine that doesn't do anything for anyone. You are not her target audience. So what she does has absoultely nothing on your life. Would be nice if you could admit that everyone who likes something isn't an idiot.

MAB