As I've seen more than my fair share of bands perform live on TV, mainly SNL but some of those stupid awards shows, I'm pretty sure there's some theorem out there that states that the less rocking the artist in question is, the more "rocking" members of the backup band will try to be. Take Taylor Swift's band on SNL-- Swift is a 20 year old sorta country artist who sings either peppy Avril Lavigne like pop songs or the occasional countrified ballad. There is no real rock involved in any of this and I'm pretty sure that's as it's supposed to be since I don't think Taylor's main motivation in life is to be a rock star. So naturally the guitarist in the band had some sort of Adam Lambert fauxhawk type hair, dressed in black, and wore guyliner. The bassist also wore black and spent the entire performance hopping around on his bass like he's Flea. I'm actually surprised he didn't pump his fist in the air a few times (which he might have done and missed).

The same would be true of Kelly Clarkson's backup band or Katy Perry's backup band or the backup band of anyone who appeared on "American Idol" and any other number of middling pop acts with a "rock edge" all of whom have the same type of "rockers" in their backup band. They all come with guys who dress up in black, have expensive haircuts, and treat songs "Since U Been Gone" like Pete Townshend would treat "Baba O'Riley."

I don't know why this is true as it's pretty silly and kinda out of place. Is it because say Taylor Swift's manager think she needs some more "edge" so hires "edgy" looking guitar players? Is it because they know the music is pretty tame and are overcompensating? Is it because they idolized Kurt Cobain and wanted to play in punk rock/art rock bands and make themselves look like fools as a physical manifestation of how they feel about themselves? Or, they could just think Taylor Swift rocks?

Or not.