Roots, Toots n' Hoots Blog

Man up, Blake

Jeffrey Remz  |  February 25, 2012

Blake Shelton stood tall in concert Thursday in Worcester, Mass. except for one very brief moment even though he couldn't quite pronounce the name of the second largest city in Massachusetts (it's "Woo-stuh" although Shelton did come close. He extended the first syllable a tad too long to be legit).

During a short solo acoustic stint on a catwalk, Shelton challenged his thousands of fans to respond to the song he was about to play (Nobody But Me) or else he would change course, even threatening to play a Justin Bieber song. Them were fighting words to Shelton's fans.

The Bieber name was met with boos.

There's little doubt that Shelton, of course, was joking - he has a keen, sometimes sharp, sense of humor. So, I didn't take it seriously at all. (Fortunately, the fans clearly knew the song, so no worries on singing Baby).

But Shelton's comments nonetheless are part of the concept of going after easy targets or going negative.

Earlier this week, I wrote about a teaser video from Carrie Underwood about her (then) forthcoming single Good Girl, which has since been released. My comments generated some negative sentiment for sure with people saying I didn't get the joke (I still don't think it was funny at all) or was a Carrie hater (I'm not). But what also came out was negativity against Taylor Swift.

I'm not going to wade deep into the depth of the complaints because that's besides the point.

These folks weren't writing me in a public forum. These were emails sent in response to my blog, but, like Shelton, the negativity was unfortunate.

Like Shelton, they were trying to elevate Underwood by going negative against someone else. Let Carrie Underwood and Blake Shelton stand on their own two feet, which they can. It's real easy to knock someone else at his or her expense to elevate yourself, but it strikes me as unnecessary, uncalled for and on the cheap side.

Swift, Bieber and others before them may not be everybody's cup of tea, but going after them to get an easy "boo" and support from the fans...Blake, man up.

BTW Blake, if you're reading, I still thoroughly enjoyed the show from the music to the funny patter. And Biebs, don't take it too hard. You should be able to recover no problem, or maybe threaten Shelton with a game of one-on-one and show him who's king of the hard-court.