Taylor Swift Not Gaining Recognition?

Country-pop princess Taylor Swift just released the music video for her great hit Fearless. The video, directed by Todd Cassety, is made up of clips from the singer's 2009 Fearless Tour. Clips of Swift performing Fearless on stage during concerts and some backstage scenes can be found in the MV.

Despite the sweet and glamorous life depicted in the MV, the 20-year-old country-pop singer seems to have received quite a lot of negative comments both on her singing and acting skills recenetly. Swift, though winning four Grammy Awards in early February, surprised the audience by turning in an off-key duet with Stevie Nicks at the awards ceremony. Scott Borchetta, CEO of Big Machine Records, defended their artist by dissing the popular television series American Idol. "This is not American Idol...This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator." This speech has clearly offended Kelly Clarkson, who won the first season of the show in 2002. Clarkson posted a blog entry on 4/2, thanking Borchetta for his "'Captain Obvious' sense of humor" and saying that "We not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the 'right' notes as well." She added that artists should not put the blame on others when they have bad performances and that things are not always going to be perfect.

Not only her singing skills are questioned, Swift's acting skills are also being criticized these days. She teamed up with Twilight hottie Taylor Lautner and starred in the new romantic comedy Valentine's Day, which came out a few days ago. Todd McCarthy from Variety comments that Swift "seems entirely undirected, as she jumps around, makes faces and jabbers on inanely." OK! Magazine also slams the young singer's acting skills, saying that Taylor "is not an actress" and calling it a "a regrettable performance". The Observer even calls Swift a "tone-deaf Flavor of the Moment" when mentioning the movie cast. Ouch. Looks like Taylor would have to work much harder to gain recognition from the public, not just from the Grammys.