re: Someone younger than me: Explain the infatuation with Taylor Swift?

She does make me appreciate the fact I grew up in an era when the female pop and rock vocalists were Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Karen Carpenter, Olivia Newton-John, Ann Wilson, etc.

Hell, as much as she is an insufferable twat, Barbra Streisand was as talented a singer as has ever been on stage and she was still producing mega-hits when I was a kid.

In this age of autotune and widespread lip-synch performances, it's hard to tell who is actually talented.