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Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum Win Big At CMA Awards
The CMA Awards often reward music’s biggest and brightest stars. The underground heroes of the genre tend to go quietly into the night unnoticed (Justin Townes Earle, where art thou?), but who ever said these award shows had to be high concept? Rather, the CMAs offer a chance for the biggest names in country music to be recognized as, yes, the biggest names in country. And the names of the winners at last night’s ceremony don’t get much bigger in the land of 10-gallon hats.... read more
Found in: Music, NewsVariations on a Meme: Six Kanye West Pics to Make You Giggle
Oh, Internet. You just give and give. You turn a fake controversy into something people really care about—in fact, you make people care so much that they use your wily technological ways to create a website like this, where they can post occasionally hilarious responses to the Kanye West/Taylor Swift imbroglio. Then we can scroll through this website and pick our favorite images for a blog post. Everybody wins! ... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the DayKanye-Gate Continues: The Taylor Swift/Kanye West Mash-Up has Arrived
No one could have accurately predicted how the Kanye West/Taylor Swift kerfuffle would be received in this soundbyte-driven media economy. After West's cognac-fueled rant at Sunday night's VMAs, there's been an exploding cottage industry of "Imma let you finish, but..." and "BEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME" memes, blogs and blog-memes.... read more
Found in: Culture, NewsWhy Taylor Swift (and You) Shouldn't be Upset that Kanye Upstaged Her at the VMAs
A scant few minutes into last night's MTV Video Music Awards, a Hennessy-sauced Yeezy stormed the stage and kicked down Taylor Swift's sandcastle: "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'm going to let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time." Drama ensued: various B and C-list musicians feigned disgust at the breach of decorum, and West was promptly ejected from the show and ran home to compose a half-sincere apology on his blog (which he later removed).... read more
Found in: Culture, NewsBest Music of 2009 (So Far): Kate Kiefer, Associate Editor
To celebrate the half-way point of 2009, this week Paste staffers are counting down their favorite albums and songs of the year (so far). Check out all of our lists here, and share your own favorites in the comments. You might notice that Passion Pit’s Manners isn’t on my list, and that’s because I don’t like Passion Pit very much. (Apparently I’m in the minority.) I didn’t include Wild Light’s “California On My Mind” either, but that’s only because Josh plays it so many times a day that I feel like it’s his own personal song. As for the music I did include…if... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the DaySix Great Taylor Swift Songs
Nineteen-year-old Taylor Swift gets written off as nothing more than a teenaged cutie, but behind that pretty face is a talented musician. Plus, she writes her own songs, which is more than most country-pop stars twice her age can say. Here are six of my favorites:... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the DayBamaJam Music and Arts Festival returns for year two
On June 4-6 this year, you can hear Taylor Swift, Kid Rock, Los Lonely Boys, and Drive By Truckers all in one place, and it ain't Nashville. It's BamaJam, a country-flavored festival in Enterprise, Ala.... read more
Found in: Music, News2009 Grammy Awards Live Blog
As we said in our Grammy Predictions, we have a love/hate relationship with the Grammys. But hey, we love music, so we're watching to see what happens. Could be a big year for Lil Wayne (did you see his interview with "Miss" Katie Couric?). Could be a controversial night if Coldplay's alleged Joe Satriani rip-off grabs some hardware ("Viva La Vida" by Coldplay and Satriani's "If I Could Fly"). But plenty of great artists are nominated (M.I.A., Allison Krauss/Robert Plant, Radiohead, Gnarls Barkley, Daft Punk, Brazilian Girls....we could go on), so as always, it'll be worth watching, especially for the... read more
Found in: Blogs, Ctrl-VStaff Picks - Kate Kiefer (associate editor)
I just read Austin’s favorites and noticed that our lists don’t even have one record in common. Which means that he has bad taste, and also that he hasn’t heard Fearless. In no meaningful order:... read more
Found in: Blogs, Ctrl-V
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
