Swift and Lautner two hottest names in the noösphere

It’s a marketing director’s dream come true.

Taylor Swift swept the American Music Awards on November 22, kicking Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Eminem and Kings of Leon to the curb in no uncertain fashion. She garnered Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female (apparently the voters weren’t fazed by her “country” roots), Favorite Country Female, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, and Favorite Country Music Album. There’s also talk everywhere about the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year’s run-in with an Idaho sports bar’s alleged use of her tracks in an infringing manner and a pending lawsuit.

Enter Taylor Lautner, one of the stars of the blockbuster Twilight Saga: New Moon. As he revealed in his current publicity tour, he’s dealing with two thousand crazed Brazilian fans in an episode described by Conan O’Brien as "It's like a zombie movie, only it's beautiful girls.” We should all have such problems.

And coy as they’ve both been on the subject, that the two are dating has been an open secret for some time now. Kudos to both of them for resisting what’s sure to have been a ton of pressure by their respective marketing apparatchiks to play that angle up, all the way to marketing heaven.

Of course, when you see things like this, you have to wonder if they’re putting up that much of a fight.

Carrie’s latest hits all the right notes

It was a high-profile week for the American Idol diva Carrie Underwood, as she held the top album and top single on the Billboard country charts (her eleventh such distinction), and co-hosted the Country Music Association Awards show November 11, where she passed the scepter of Entertainer of the Year to Taylor Swift.

That may be all she’s giving up for the moment, as a flurry of activity for the Grand Ole Opry inductee has her appearing at a multitude of engagements following the chart-topping release of her new album, Play On, and the sizzling first single “Country Casanova.”

Perhaps the most touching of those appearances will be her stint on Thanksgiving night, at CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute, where she’ll serenade CNN’s select group of heroes at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, appearing alongside such luminaries as Nicole Kidman, and Pierce Brosnan.

The most groundbreaking appearance may not be on television at all, but on the internet. In a first-time-ever event last Saturday, you caould see Underwood perform from the Grand Ole Opry in a streaming music event broadcast on MySpace.com’s music page, with Martina McBride, Rodney Atkins, Jake Owen and more. It was quite a step into the modern world of technology for the Opry, and their choice of talent to highlight the event is telling. Underwood currently holds the fourth most-downloaded album, according to Billboard, so that may be part of the reason why she was tapped.

That’s behind an appearance on Late Night With Conan O’Brien on Monday, The Ellen Degeneres Show Wednesday, Jimmie Kimmel Live on Thursday, and a spotlight as a featured performer at the 2009 American Music Awards on November 22. She’ll also have her “Invitation Only: Carrie Underwood” debut on Country Music Television December 1, and FOX will present “Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special” on December 7.

Michael Jackson concert flick reviews are in

Reviews are pouring in for the new Michael Jackson film This Is It, currently a hit at the box office, and for the most part, they are positive.

The Baltimore Sun’s Michael Phillips laments that that, although the film is a bittersweet celebration of the late King of Pop, the film “has no interest in telling the full story of anything,” and wonders how much of the film can be believed, though he finds it “pretty compelling.”

Pop music critic Ann Powers at the LA Times said in her review that, although described as a documentary, the film blurs “the line between fantasy and reality,” and she admits that on at least one level, the movie hurts. “If Jackson had been able to perform as he frequently does during these scenes, he would have accomplished the comeback for which he was so hungry,” Powers wrote.

Among industry organs, Andrew Barker writes in Variety that the glimpses into Jackson’s creative process are “both the film’s greatest strength and its most troubling element,” and braces himself for what he sees as the likely deluge of upcoming Jackson post-mortem merchandising, stating that “…one can’t help but worry that, rather than a bittersweet farewell, the film will merely serve as the opening salvo to a flood of posthumous releases and merchandising that will make Tupac Shakur’s estate seem a paragon of restraint.”

The estimable Time magazine brought forth a behind-the-scenes look at the marketing for the behind-the-scenes movie, with contributor Bryan Alexander outlining how Sony plans to recoup the $60 million it spent acquiring the rights to the original footage that director Kenny Ortega (director of High School Musical and the planned This Is It London tour) then transformed into the feature film. With Sony’s move to initially limit the film to a two-week run, they’ve manufactured a scarcity for what the economists call “an experienced good” (you really did have to be there), then pushed hard for advance ticket sales with “the same thrust and hype that live-concert sales get,” the article notes.

The Time review itself, from Richard Corliss, found the movie as odd as the entertainer himself, a concert film with no concert, and a backstage musical that takes place almost entirely onstage. “The art is in what we're privileged to watch: a perfectionist who quietly pushes himself to prove he's still got it,” Corliss wrote.

And perhaps that’s the best legacy that such a unique soul as Michael can hope for.

Rodney Crowell running on Sex and Gasoline

“After all this time / You’re always on my mind,” Rodney Crowell sang on the 1989 Grammy winner for Best Country Song. The same might be said by his fans, who have seen the singer/songwriter’s career evolve from a top-charting artist to a serious and reflective tunesmith, whose records turn a mirror on the world as he sees it, and casts that image back in the form of engaging and pensive songs.

A casual country fan will remember Crowell as the erstwhile husband of Rosanne Cash, and songwriter who’s seminal Diamonds and Dirt produced five consecutive number-one hits during a 17-month spate in the late 1980’s, including “After All This Time,” “It’s Such a Small World,” I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried,” “She’s Crazy For Leaving,” and “Above and Beyond.”

Crowell’s latest, the intense Sex and Gasoline, features his mature voice, with haunting overtones of late-era Bob Dylan, set against a backdrop of jangling guitars and sparse, hollow percussion. The empty mix brings Crowell’s lyrics and vocals to the forefront, where they richly belong.

“Nineteen candles adorn your cake
Life’s simple pleasures is the chance you take.
Here’s the skinny – indulge the urge
Sometime later you can binge and purge.
Oh come on now girl, we both know what I mean
This mean old world runs on sex and gasoline.”