Granderson's opinions on the matter are not too dissimilar to my own, so I've inserted the article below...
* Disclaimer: I will point out however that I am a tragic Kardashian follower and I think Taylor Swift is stupidly talented.
Pink, a true pop artist
By LZ Granderson, CNN Contributor
Tuesday November 20, 2012
One day, many years from now, future generations will look back at this time in our country's history and wonder what in the hell were we thinking.
The Kardashians are famous for no reason, same-sex marriage is controversial for stupid reasons, and somehow the "Twilight" franchise is a cash cow.
But our culture's biggest sin may well be the auto-tuned syrup we've allowed to dominate the pop charts. All-time chart records are handed to vacuous acts such as the Black Eyed Peas and singing awards are given to vocal lightweights such as Taylor Swift.
LZ Granderson History will show a dark time in our culture in which a million followers on Twitter became a key component to winning a Grammy.
But thank God for Pink.
That's what I was thinking as I was watching her performance during Sunday's American Music Awards. She recreated the video for her current single, "Try," a mid tempo ballad about the ups and downs of an imperfect relationship.
As soon as I read this article, I jumped straight onto YouTube to see Pink's AMA performance. I was truly flawed. Not only did she sing the song live, but she did so while engaged in a beautiful contemporary dance, which told the story of the song in perfect harmony with the lyrics. It was a masterpiece that received and deserved a standing ovation.Where there is desire
There is gonna be a flame
Where there is a flame
Someone's bound to get burned
But just because it burns
Doesn't mean you're gonna die
You've gotta get up and try try try
Singing words like that live with the right level of emotion that Pink is known for is hard enough. Doing so while in engaged in an athletic pas de deux, complete with lifts, is breathtaking. She received a standing ovation afterward, much in the same way she commanded one at the 2010 Grammys as she swung over the audience's heads on a trapeze, asking:
Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air?
Have you ever looked fear in the face and said, "I just don't care"?
It would all seem like a meat-dress wearing gimmick if she didn't have the voice and lyrics to back it up. But she does, and thus we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing her voice will be there for future generations to discover when looking back at us.
Pink won't be able to scrub our record clean singlehandedly -- there's just too much manufacturing for one person to overcome. But at least there will be evidence for my great-great grandkids to see that we weren't all "American Idol's" sheep. While Christina Aguilera has a tendency to oversing, Britney Spears can't sing, and Lauryn Hill sorta stopped singing, Pink has managed to carve a brilliant 13-year-career by being something that is incredibly rare these days -- an artist.
A complete artist.
Maybe the most underrated artist we've had on the radio in the past 20 years.
That's not to suggest she's been ignored -- Pink has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. It's just when you look at the amount of publicity given to her in comparison to say, Lady Gaga or Adele, well there is no comparison. We know she is phenomenal, but the others are considered phenomenons. Gaga and Adele are worthy of the accolades, but whenever I listen to Pink's "Dear Mr. President," "Family Portrait" or "Sober," I feel the need to atone for us not making more room for her in the pop culture paradigm.
Billboard magazine -- one of the most respected names in the music industry -- ranked the top five performances from the American Music Awards. For them, Pink's brave rendition of "Try" was second. Tops was Psy doing "Gangnam Style" with MC Hammer.
MC Hammer!?!
Yes ... we're going to have a lot to answer for someday.
I work at a music entertainment venue and week in, week out, I deal with some of the industry''s biggest and 'best' artists. I've seen more concerts than I can remember and I've witnessed the best and worst backstage antics, sound checks and dressing room demands. It is an incredibly insightful and fortunate job to have but I am constantly amazed at how an artists public persona can be so completely different to their 'when nobody is watching' attitude. Sweet little Justin Beiber was not so sweet and Christina Aguilera's ego was bigger than the venue itself.
When I first met Pink on her 2006 I'm not dead tour, I was both shocked and pleasantly surprised at how genuine and 'normal' Alicia, as they call her, really was. If I'm being honest, I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but from that moment on and still to this day, Pink has remained my favourite artist to work with and her shows are securely within my top 5 of all time.
Due to the nature of my job, I rarely buy tickets to see an artist perform and I have seen so many arena shows, that my standards are impossibly high. It's a rare few such as the likes of Sade and Michael Buble, that have impressed me enough to warrant my box office support. But, for as long as Pink is still touring and performing, I will be buying a seat to her show. She is that good!
Firstly, she sings every single song ...live! I am constantly amazed at how many "diva's" and artists lip sync or rely so heavily on backing vocalists to carry their out of breath or just average voices through a live show. It's actually a little disappointing to think that we, the public, pay thousands of dollars to hear a song taken straight off a record and paired with a little booty shaking on stage.
Secondly, there is no questioning the fact that Pink is the most daring and risque performer of my generation. Her shows are a constant melting pot of stage domination, aerial displays, dancing and sheer athleticism. In my opinion, a Pink show is the epitome of a live concert performance.
With all that being said, I believe that the accolades LZ Granderson gives Pink are not only justified but are well deserved. So, my advice- if you like Pink's songs, even just a little bit, then buy a ticket to her show the next time she's in your city and experience one of the best all round concerts I've ever seen. By the end of it, I promise the respect you have for her will double by the time you walk out the door.
She's that good.
Just in case you missed it, here is her American Music Awards performance...
And her Grammy's performance...
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