This week in music - 1st Feb 2010

Last week saw the music industry’s biggest event of the year – the Grammy awards. Big winners were Beyonce and Taylor Swift. Despite a very shaky vocal performance during the awards itself, 20 year old Swift’s seemingly unstoppable rise was later solidified by winning the ultimate Grammy-accolade, ‘Album of the year’ for “Fearless”. The internet has since been rife with backlash, with claims that someone whose live performances are often described as inconsistent should not then trump artists such as Beyonce and Lady Gaga, who both delivered fantastic performances on the night. However, I think we are forgetting something that Taylor herself pointed out in her acceptance speech – that her record label allowed her to write every song on her album. This is something of a rarity, not forgetting that these songs were written by a girl in her late teens. The Grammy’s, in my opinion, were recognizing Swift’s song writing ability which is way beyond her years – and she sure can pen a hit. With her album sales topping 10 million, I think the bloggers need to pipe down – these figures speak for themselves. Shouldn’t they be more concerned that the biggest selling female artist in the US at the moment is Ke$ha, who not only shouts her way through her album, but somehow justifies including a chorus to an upcoming single with lyrics, “D-I-N-O-S-A You are a dinosaur, O-L-D M-A-N Your just an old man, Hitting on me what? You need a cat scan”. I mean, come on people. And she can’t even spell dinosaur.

My tip of the week this week is... Avery Storm. Those of you who are RnB and hip-hop fans would probably recognize Avery’s,well frankly, amazing voice, which has featured on many other artists’ tracks, including hits from Rick Ross, Nelly, and most notably, “Nasty Girl”, the Notorious B.I.G. all-star tribute. Over the past 5 years or so, Avery has repeatedly leaked mixtapes on the internet, which as far as I’m concerned, were full of hit singles, but somehow did not get the recognition they deserved. Currently signed to Nelly’s label Derrty Ent, and working with a who’s who of the best in the business, 2010 may finally be the year that the world gets to hear more of Avery Storm.

Avery Storm - the next big thing?