Last night at the American Music Awards, Taylor Swift cleaned up shop taking home the awards for Favorite Female Country Artist, Favorite Country Album and Artist of the Year. And in typical T-Swift fashion, she was shocked. Honestly, I’m shocked…that Adele didn’t win out. But I’m not totally surprised that Taylor won. Everyone loves her. It got us thinking about why. Obviously homegirl can write songs that tug at your heartstrings, and she’s a great entertainer. But she’s not 13 anymore.

She’s 21, resonating with teens and girls in college. I’m 21, and my friends and I (and a majority of college women) are definitely guilty of belting out some Swifty songs whether it’s at the bar or in the car. I can rhyme too, maybe I should be a songwriter. Her music continues to top charts, snag awards, and break records. Why?

I’ll tell you. Taylor is one of the first female artists to be honest. While she doesn’t always say which guy her song is about (“Dear John,” anyone?), she’s always upfront in her lyrics. She rips these dudes to shreds. We love songs that we can get angry to after a breakup or after the friend-with-benefits doesn’t want benefits anymore. And we love eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s while listening to “Back To December.” For college women, we connect to her music because of our personal experiences. We also relate to her idealized love songs, like “Love Story,” because even though we sit here and say it’s so stupid, we really want someone to come sweep us off our feet. We listen because we’ve been there.

The young fans identify with Taylor’s still-thirteen-at-heart personality. That age is so tough, and there are constant feelings of rejection and loneliness. Taylor’s songs delve into the heartbreak young women feel and outright say what they can’t express in their own words. And while many of us look at Taylor and think she’s overrated and wonder “Does she own any more sequin dresses?!”, the truth is simple — these girls look up to her. While I don’t think they should grow up thinking it’s okay to date every guy and write a song about it, she does have her stuff together. They see a successful woman that went through the same issues they deal with on a daily basis, and they want to be like that. They see positivity where there might not otherwise be any.

It’s not that we’re not jealous of her, although I really would love the dress she wore last night.

In the early decade, America was swarmed with teen pop (and R&B) stars. After all the greats had grown up and moved on to better things, we were left starless. Destiny’s Child had become Destiny’s Woman. Brittany Spears had gone from a teen cutie to a sexy bombshell that you had to convince your parent was still making albums with no parental advisory. Backstreet Boys turned to Backstreet Men. N’Sync turned to…Justin.

And then – voila!- there was Aaron Carter, Lil Bow Wow, B2K, Lil Romeo, 3LW, Ciara, Jo-Jo, Jesse McCartney, and yes, even our occasional Disney Actors “ternt sangas” (as T-Pain would say). But where were the breakthrough stars?

Then, we met Chris Brown and Rihanna.

Where do I begin? Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty met us fresh out of high school with island sounds and a pretty face. America hadn’t seen anything this hot since Beyonce went solo. She was sexy, had a cute bohemian accent and best of all, she was young. I won’t say she had a voice like Whitney, but with her island themed club bangers and heartbreaking lyrics, she appealed to the industry and slowly but surely became a household name. Finally, after the release and re-release of her third and most sought after album of 2007 “Good Girl Gone Bad,” we knew she was just getting started. She became the face of Def Jam, Covergirl and the tabloids all in one year. Where did she hang out? What was she wearing? Who was she dating? In 2008, we found out.

Chris Brown. A singing, dancing phenomenon who was thought by some to be “the second coming” of the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. His first album featured the traditional heartbreak and high school love affairs that we all loved, but there was something more. He was a pretty boy; girls LOVED him, old and young. We wanted to know where he’d come from with such fluid moves and a voice that could make us melt. He was a hybrid star; the LeBron of the music world. He managed to dance his way to two double platinum albums, countless sold-out concerts and even made a few movies.

So when we figured out that RiRi and Chris were together, we were nothing but excited. Sure they weren’t some hip-hop billionaires like Beyonce and Jay-Z, but they were young and cute and you just wanted to see them succeed.

And then everything changed. One night we were watching the Grammy’s and the next thing we knew Rihanna’s face was plastered all over TMZ with captions like “Chris beats RIhanna to a pulp,” and “Couple believed to be Rihanna and Chris Brown have domestic dispute gone bad.”

I’m not here to go into details of the fight. I don’t care what sort of extreme nagging Rihanna did, whether Chris was texting another girl, or if Rihanna gave Chris an STD (as this was all speculated at some point). I don’t even care if Rihanna hit him first. Chris Brown, a 250lb, 6’3”, 5^th degree belt had no right to strike Rihanna.

But this isn’t about him hitting her. He said he was sorry. He said it on TV, he said it online, he said it on the radio with songs like Crawl and Changed Man. He apologized to his fans, to his family and, most of all, to Rihanna. He let Larry King rake him over the coals. Both were seen together at Diddy’s house just days after the incident, yet, even after all of this, the media continued to berate only Brown. Both artists had scheduled tour dates thy had to rearrange, both had new albums they’d been working on, both had fans that suffered.

So why does it seem like our culture can’t see through the publicity stunt that Rihanna used to sell her albums?  She told Diane Swayer, “If I didn’t have little girls looking up to me, I’d have stayed with him.” Uh, really? She can say that, but we can’t let Chris Brown perform on GMA?

Lest we forget that a few weeks ago, when asked what she wanted for Thanksgiving, Rihanna said “Food and Sex.” Her new album seems to be following along the lines of Disturbia, with songs like Russian Roulette that have dark lyrics about death, love and sex. In another interview she said that her next boyfriend “better be well endowed, because size matters.”

Am I the only one who heard that? Are we missing something here?

Lately, it seems like we’re punishing the wrong person. Chris went to court, admitted to his wrong-doings, was fined, charged, and shunned. He wasn’t even allowed to go to Michael Jackson’s Memorial to pay tribute to the man who singlehandedly influenced his entire career. Don’t get me wrong – he should’ve been punished, but when will it be over?

All I’m suggesting is that when Whoopi Goldberg said the media – specifically GMA – was being unfair to Chris Brown when choosing not to give him a concert during their holiday concert series, I agreed. He did his time, he made his amends. Let’s move on.

And while we’re at it, why not let Adam Lambert swing by? Crotch snorkeling can’t be worse than anything else we’ve seen on TV. Especially at the American Music Awards.

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HOWEVA! I was slightly disappointed with the quality of these live performances. Take the Pussycat Dolls, for example. Yea, they’re hot and they had polls and some seriously sexy dance moves…but somewhere in the beginning of “When I Grow Up” Nicole Scherzinger’s voice did something funky and she sounded like a little boy goin’ through puberty. You know, like the Jonas Brothers, who were also unimpressive.

And, yes, I’m a huge Annie Lennox fan — how can you not rock out to “Walking on Broken Glass”? — and she totally deserved the Award of Merit. But something about her live performance of “Why” last night just didn’t hit the spot. (I’ll tell you who did tho… Justin Timberlake when he introduced her! Sweet Jesus.)

Despite those misses, though, there were some seriously memorable performances last night. So here are (in my opinion and in no particular order) the Top 5:

1. Christina Aguilera – Even though I’m pretty sure she lip-synced part of “Genie In a Bottle,” homegirl can sing! And more than that, she can put on an amazing show! Her medley of her greatest hits brought me back to middle school…loved it!

2. New Kids on the Block – Talk about flashback…these guys are still hot! I don’t care what you say! Little Joey is still adorable, Donnie is still a badass (with a nice ass), Jordan is still sexy…and no one remembers the other two…who were also awesome! OH OH OOOOH OH!!

3) Beyonce- Ah, Beyonce, only you could pull off wearing a leotard at the AMAs and look sexy. Normally, I find Beyonce’s voice whiney and annoying, but last night she really rocked it with her latest single, “Single Ladies”! And that girl can move…

4) Sarah McLachlan and Pink- Unlikely duo, yes. Bad duet, no. Despite the fact that they performed “Angel” which I now permanently associate with battered animals, the girls sounded amazing! They sound just as good live as they do on their records, and that’s saying a lot these days.

5) Alicia Keys- I absolutely adore Alica Keys! She closed the show with “Superwoman” and brought out Queen Latifah (where the hell has she been?) who gave a shout out to our new pres, and some opera singer no one knows (to show her appreciation for all kinds of music, I’m guessing?) Whatever the reason, it was great and Miss Keys sounded phenom!

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