Taylor has taken the country world by storm, in a career that could have been made into movie magic itself, the Cinderella story of a girl who was discovered while singing Karaoke in a small-town restaurant.
This isn't exactly my definition of getting discovered, but I think it's close enough. The definition I have given involves a karaoke bar. If Taylor Swift was truly discovered by singing karaoke in a restaurant, I am willing to say that I have finally found a singer who made it big through karaoke.
I had a look at the Taylor Swift official website to verify this. There is a "My Life" page, but Swift does not go into how she got discovered. Next stop, Wikipedia:
At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town, but was rejected. After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention.
From this, it would appear that Swift didn't make it big with the karaoke tapes, and that she didn't make it big until she found her way to the US Open. Lemme state this: peddling karaoke tapes to record companies does not qualify for my definition of getting discovered through karaoke. (Mary J. Blige was another artist discovered after peddling karaoke demos.)
A report from CBS News from May of 2008 had this to say about the discovery of Swift:
The 18-year-old Pennsylvania native, who grew up on a Christmas tree farm, started singing at the age of 10 at karoke contests, fairs and festivals in her hometown of Reading. With the support of her family, she headed to Nashville at age 11 to pursue her dream. By age 12, she was already writing songs with local songwriters in Nashville. Back in Pennsylvania, she landed an important gig singing the National Anthem at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which got a lot of buzz.
This article says that Swift did the karaoke contest thing before she did the karaoke tape peddling thing. From this article, it would appear that she didn't get discovered until her post-karaoke contest days. (BTW I don't consider karaoke contests to fit my definition, either.)
The original article mentioned that Taylor was singing in a restaurant. Where did the restaurant thing come in?
I quote again from the CBS article:
After performing at Nashville's premier songwriters' café, The Bluebird Café, she was noticed by Scott Borchetta, who signed her onto Big Machine Records.
Cafe? Oh! Maybe that's the restaurant? The Wikipedia article on the Bluebird Cafe says that it is a nightclub, and it does not contain the word karaoke.
Based on this research, I am going to say that this rumor is false. I still have not found any credible evidence of a singer who made it big by being discovered singing in a karaoke bar.
Hey John:
ReplyDeleteI read your blog with much interest and thought my new site might be of interest to you and your readers.
http://songgig.com
Glenn
I am avid karaoke singer. I love to sing, and I believe I must be one of the better singers out there. Every bar I sing at I get people complimenting me. They tell me I should audition for American Idol/America's Got Talent/The Voice. Or they tell me I should find a talent scout and get a recording contract. Or I should consider auditioning for the lead female vocalist of a band. I don't think I'll be discovered because some major record label exec heard me singing one night at some little hole-in-the-wall bar. I admit I've dreamt of it happening that way, but that's very unlikely. I think you can get discovered, but on a much less grander scale. For example, just last week, I was singing karaoke at a bar, and the lead singer in a local band really liked my voice. He and I ended up singing a duet together at karaoke. At the end of the night, he said he would like me to sing a song with his band when they play here in a couple weeks. Definitely a step up to go from singing karaoke to singing with a band. I'm definitely going to try it. Like any career, even in music, you start small and slowly work your way to the top. You have to make it locally before you can make it nationally. The music business is very competitive. You have to have a unique voice and sound that sets you apart to make it big. Most record label execs want someone who is original, and doesn't imitate another singer. Which is why you probably won't find a major record label exec looking for prospective singers in a karaoke bar. There are alot of people out there trying to become rockstars. Only the cream of the crop make it in this business.
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