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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 20:18:45 GMT -5
Lets create a dialogue and discuss Queen Taylor from every possible angle. We all have our own opinions so i urge we discuss in a mature, respectful and tactful manner. No trolling will be tolerated by me. Are we a leader in music discussions or immature stan war s**t people or nah we cant discuss music topics?
My Thoughts/Regarding Taylor Swift
Im not going to go hard on her but to be honest she isn't my cup of tea and usually I can get over it and respect her hustle but when she is one of the biggest acts out today then we must discuss, why? I need someone to point out what exactly does this woman do well? she isnt a good singer, she cant perform, she doesn't make good music (this is subjective ofcourse) and above all the one quality people wanna highlight is her songwriting, really? She writes as well as a teenage drag queen, all whiny, all drama and bunch of bulls**t! I guess people find her songs to be catchy or something ....basically i find them to be nursery rhymes but whatever like even Pitbull has catchy songs no? She in my opinion is one of the most boring pop stars, she has a incredibly grating nasal tone that is off putting and her songs only should sound good to 10-12 year old girls. I was able to tolerate her up until the "Red" album and in particular that biggest pile of s**t ever recorded, her lead single. I'm also not the one who usually says that celebrities should set an example for her fans but I kinda find it disgusting the way she carries herself like some fragile bitch who has to go from man to man and then record a song about how she was about to die because she isnt with some guy who dated her for 1 day and only wanted to f**k her and she turned all clingy like. It's not always the man's fault . You use them for attention and headlines discard them and cheat or move on to next. That's not feminism that's fuckery. You donate and then brag in relation to charity . Do we need a press release? You always come for other women like Katy Perry. You and your girl squad reek of high school bullying and cliques. What feminism or example is that to your young fans who are getting bullied themselves or to the bully basically saying it's okay. Come on be a strong woman and set the kids of the future on the right path honey.
Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own attributes.
• An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges
• Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships
• A lack of psychological awareness (see insight in psychology and psychiatry, egosyntonic)
• Difficulty with empathy
• Problems distinguishing the self from others (see narcissism and boundaries)
• Hypersensitivity to any insults or imagined insults (see criticism and narcissists, narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury)
• Vulnerability to shame rather than guilt
• Haughty body language
• Flattery towards people who admire and affirm them (narcissistic supply)
• Detesting those who do not admire them (narcissistic abuse)
• Using other people without considering the cost of doing so
• Pretending to be more important than they actually are
• Bragging (subtly but persistently) and exaggerating their achievements
• Claiming to be an "expert" at many things
• Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people
• Denial of remorse and gratitude
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Post by maine on Jul 13, 2016 20:25:20 GMT -5
I hate her.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 20:36:33 GMT -5
To be honest, I do like her modern music better than her old music. In my opinion, while she still has a few decent songs from the past, most of it is always the same boring break-up song. It feels like there is no substance to these songs, other than to appease 12-year-old girls that think they can relate to this topic. No, I am not saying that those are her only fans. Now, her 2012 music already grew on me, especially since I used to HATE I Knew You Were Trouble. Now, her 1989 album has plenty of good hits, but I am not sure about the Grammy win. So yeah, Swift is a mixed bag for me.
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Post by lyhom on Jul 13, 2016 20:46:35 GMT -5
honestly I'm not a fan of her voice or most of her music but at the end of the day I have to respect someone who's making more money than I could ever make in my life so
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Post by 🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾 on Jul 13, 2016 20:49:13 GMT -5
I will be banned/permabanned if I say what I really think of her so I won't.
But I will say this. I sometimes wonder about why she is so unlucky in the love department because maybe she is the problem and not all the guys.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 21:13:14 GMT -5
Why did you change the font lmfao I really don't care about Taylor, but it's like a positive indifference if that makes sense. I'm just really not sure I understand why people have such strong opinions on her/celebrities not named Britney Spears in general, but that's an American culture thing and not this topic. Anyway, I think this should be moved to YOP for exposure!!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 21:37:42 GMT -5
I love Taylor's (pop) music and will not apologize for it. {no one should have this much to say about Taylor Swift but here I am with all this shit to say about Taylor Swift}
Songwriting/related talent: I think she has a knack for straightforward storytelling; I don't go in with expectations of a massive vocabulary like Mariah or an inimitable way with words and metaphors like Prince, so I rarely walk away from a Taylor song disappointed. It's easy to forget now because she doesn't seem to whip one out as much since going pop, but Taylor does know how to play guitar, and I think that plays a large part in her ability to construct a good pop song. Live - honestly, she puts on the same kind of show that Katy does in a way - a heavy reliance on a big production spectacle and flashy outfits to carry her through spotty vocals and only the most basic choreography (if that, and most of which will be handled by the backup dancers that Katy supposedly 'stole'). The only difference between the two is that Katy is fully aware that she's almost a prop in her own show, and she embraces it. Taylor takes herself too seriously to have such a tongue-in-cheek manner. So that leaves one with little choice but to judge her seriously, instead of accepting her for the light fluff that she is.
Maturity or lack thereof: I also never really got behind the whole 'her music is for teenage girls' thing in part because, well, her first three albums were recorded and released while she was a teenage girl. So what else could you expect from that? As she has gotten older I feel that her music has progressed with her age and audience. Now as a Mariah fan I know it's hard to make that adjustment down, but Mariah's writing was beyond her years for such a young starlet; she's very much the exception. The majority of people in their early to mid-20s often vacillate between self-awareness and outright foolishness, so with that in mind, Taylor's music is right on the money. No shade just tea.
Her dating life: this is the trickiest point for me, because my own feminist compass is hardcore against slut-shaming anyone. There's so much else that one could legitimately criticize Taylor for without reducing her to who she's attached herself to. But one of the things that leads to such criticism is the perception that she uses her dating life as a tool to further her music career by giving her something to write about; she breadcrumbs her lyrics so that fans can figure out who she is talking about; then she plays victim when she is talked about for serial dating. I mentioned in Katy's thread earlier that Calvin needs to realize that he was nothing more than a pawn in Taylor's game of pop star domination, and that's the part that makes Taylor problematic. Using people isn't a nice thing to do no matter how you try to spin it, and understandably some people get that vibe from her. If that is where I thought the bulk of her criticism was coming from I wouldn't say a thing against it because it's a valid assessment, but more often than not it feels like people are judging her for the dating itself and not the motivation behind it, so I sort of have to defend her by default.
Taylor herself: Hmm. It's not that I like her necessarily (she seems a bit too guarded and lacking in humor for me) but for some reason I genuinely do find her a bit fascinating. So much is put into building up Taylor the Everywoman that the totality of the effort ironically ends up turning on itself. How can one be an 'everywoman' when you refuse to even be seen leaving the gym in your gym clothes? Often you can only imagine what is going on behind the scenes but occasionally there is a slip-up and you get to see the gears turning. I do believe she is genuine about the causes she speaks up for (feminism, artist rights WRT streaming) but she's in an awkward position of having spent almost half her life in an industry bubble and being super rich. So her ability to really connect with others is somewhat limited because she doesn't know what reality is for most people, or even most of the other artists in the same industry she is in. This is why her expressed views on feminism tend to feel more academic than practical.
Narcissism: I have to admit lol'ing at you posting this definition because I was rethinking the lyrics to TIWYCF in light of all the fuss going on today, and it occurred to me: this bitch wrote a song about herself. She couldn't even be bothered to come up with a new song that she penned for someone else; she handed off a 1989 melody that she hadn't put to use and the entire theme of the song is 'you can't take your eyes off me, can you? I'm so stunning.' SMH.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 21:41:36 GMT -5
I will be banned/permabanned if I say what I really think of her so I won't. But I will say this. I sometimes wonder about why she is so unlucky in the love department because maybe she is the problem and not all the guys. She's probably not the one doing the bearding. This should be at least somewhat obvious IMO, but hat do I know.
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Post by Mr. Thonk Eyes on Jul 13, 2016 21:54:36 GMT -5
I'll just keep it short: Musically, she is great and I am generally a fan of most of her music and I think her voice is better than others give her credit for. In terms of her as a person, well, I can't say I dislike her or like her to be honest, but let's just say she's... an interesting one to say the least.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 22:00:50 GMT -5
Can someone also fill me up to speed with the drama between her and Calving.
Loving the discussion and tone so far.
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Post by 🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾 on Jul 13, 2016 22:13:57 GMT -5
Can someone also fill me up to speed with the drama between her and Calving. She didn't know how to handle his sexy body and downgraded to a potato and she is mad as hell.
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Post by Au$tin on Jul 13, 2016 22:15:24 GMT -5
I've always been a fan of her music, even more so lately with 1989 smashing records on my personal chart. I don't really see that changing unless she takes a weird Style change. (Frankly, with my dislike of nearly all Calvin Harris music, I'm happy for the silver lining of her leaving him. Much smaller chance of her going towards his sound.)
Personality wise, I've always gone back and forth. One moment she seems like a petty bitch, the next she's a total sweetheart. As a fan, I've learned to pretty much ignore whatever she does nowadays.
Business wise, I think staying away from Spotify is questionable. Great for album sales, but bad for long term marketing. The constant copyright issues are also very strange, but I get it. She's raking in more dough than all of us here combined, so something's working.
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Post by Au$tin on Jul 13, 2016 22:17:31 GMT -5
Can someone also fill me up to speed with the drama between her and Calving. She didn't know how to handle his sexy body and downgraded to a potato and she is mad as hell. It's my understanding as well that she asked to not be named for TIWYCF, and Calvin turned it around and said there's no chance in hell that he'd work with her and now she's pissed. And then Katy Perry tweeted a Hillary Clinton gif or something? It all feels so high school drama.
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Post by Mr. Thonk Eyes on Jul 13, 2016 22:19:43 GMT -5
I've always been a fan of her music, even more so lately with 1989 smashing records on my personal chart. I don't really see that changing unless she takes a weird Style change. (Frankly, with my dislike of nearly all Calvin Harris music, I'm happy for the silver lining of her leaving him. Much smaller chance of her going towards his sound.) Personality wise, I've always gone back and forth. One moment she seems like a petty bitch, the next she's a total sweetheart. As a fan, I've learned to pretty much ignore whatever she does nowadays. Business wise, I think staying away from Spotify is questionable. Great for album sales, but bad for long term marketing. The constant copyright issues are also very strange, but I get it. She's raking in more dough than all of us here combined, so something's working. I've never been a fan of "This Is What You Came For" so I too am glad she doesn't seem to be moving in that sound anymore. As for Spotify, although holding out from the service so far has mostly been a successful move for Taylor, I think sooner or later it's going to backfire on her if streaming keeps growing and growing over the years (which I think it will).
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 22:24:00 GMT -5
I love Taylor's (pop) music and will not apologize for it. {no one should have this much to say about Taylor Swift but here I am with all this s**t to say about Taylor Swift}
Songwriting/related talent: I think she has a knack for straightforward storytelling; I don't go in with expectations of a massive vocabulary like Mariah or an inimitable way with words and metaphors like Prince, so I rarely walk away from a Taylor song disappointed. It's easy to forget now because she doesn't seem to whip one out as much since going pop, but Taylor does know how to play guitar, and I think that plays a large part in her ability to construct a good pop song. Live - honestly, she puts on the same kind of show that Katy does in a way - a heavy reliance on a big production spectacle and flashy outfits to carry her through spotty vocals and only the most basic choreography (if that, and most of which will be handled by the backup dancers that Katy supposedly 'stole'). The only difference between the two is that Katy is fully aware that she's almost a prop in her own show, and she embraces it. Taylor takes herself too seriously to have such a tongue-in-cheek manner. So that leaves one with little choice but to judge her seriously, instead of accepting her for the light fluff that she is.
Maturity or lack thereof: I also never really got behind the whole 'her music is for teenage girls' thing in part because, well, her first three albums were recorded and released while she was a teenage girl. So what else could you expect from that? As she has gotten older I feel that her music has progressed with her age and audience. Now as a Mariah fan I know it's hard to make that adjustment down, but Mariah's writing was beyond her years for such a young starlet; she's very much the exception. The majority of people in their early to mid-20s often vacillate between self-awareness and outright foolishness, so with that in mind, Taylor's music is right on the money. No shade just tea.
Her dating life: this is the trickiest point for me, because my own feminist compass is hardcore against slut-shaming anyone. There's so much else that one could legitimately criticize Taylor for without reducing her to who she's attached herself to. But one of the things that leads to such criticism is the perception that she uses her dating life as a tool to further her music career by giving her something to write about; she breadcrumbs her lyrics so that fans can figure out who she is talking about; then she plays victim when she is talked about for serial dating. I mentioned in Katy's thread earlier that Calvin needs to realize that he was nothing more than a pawn in Taylor's game of pop star domination, and that's the part that makes Taylor problematic. Using people isn't a nice thing to do no matter how you try to spin it, and understandably some people get that vibe from her. If that is where I thought the bulk of her criticism was coming from I wouldn't say a thing against it because it's a valid assessment, but more often than not it feels like people are judging her for the dating itself and not the motivation behind it, so I sort of have to defend her by default.
Taylor herself: Hmm. It's not that I like her necessarily (she seems a bit too guarded and lacking in humor for me) but for some reason I genuinely do find her a bit fascinating. So much is put into building up Taylor the Everywoman that the totality of the effort ironically ends up turning on itself. How can one be an 'everywoman' when you refuse to even be seen leaving the gym in your gym clothes? Often you can only imagine what is going on behind the scenes but occasionally there is a slip-up and you get to see the gears turning. I do believe she is genuine about the causes she speaks up for (feminism, artist rights WRT streaming) but she's in an awkward position of having spent almost half her life in an industry bubble and being super rich. So her ability to really connect with others is somewhat limited because she doesn't know what reality is for most people, or even most of the other artists in the same industry she is in. This is why her expressed views on feminism tend to feel more academic than practical.
Narcissism: I have to admit lol'ing at you posting this definition because I was rethinking the lyrics to TIWYCF in light of all the fuss going on today, and it occurred to me: this bitch wrote a song about herself. She couldn't even be bothered to come up with a new song that she penned for someone else; she handed off a 1989 melody that she hadn't put to use and the entire theme of the song is 'you can't take your eyes off me, can you? I'm so stunning.' SMH. Slut shaming is the last thing I would do. Others do it far better than I. Besides I like sluts. Hoes. Strippers. Women being a boss dating around. Hell that's me or was me! What I don't like about her relationships is they are so cold. Calculated and used in conjunction of plastering herself all over gossip magazines and hot topics. Like I firmly believes she put that new guy in that I love ts tank and called the paparazzi her damn self. Mind you I also believe some of these dudes are using her to get on the come up they damn self. I just think from feminist angle. Relationship and charity angle and music she doesn't always have to come across as so calculated and cold. Nothing about the woman feels authentic. I need her to sit down or develop a soul.
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Post by Rose "Payola" Nylund on Jul 13, 2016 22:29:06 GMT -5
I didn't care for her music in the beginning because it was too juvenile/junior high for my taste - but of course, she was living it to some degree. I don't think she's a particularly amazing songwriter but when it comes to capturing the basic thoughts and feelings of a regular girl, she does do that well and I do respect that. My favourite music from her is the 1989 era because it was good pop. I generally don't pay attention to her lyrics too much anyway.
I do think people are too hard on her when it comes to her love life and who she dates. While she does draw attention to it herself anyway through her songs, and that causes all association with her to be directly related to who she's dating or dated, but it annoys me that she's seen as a bad person for serial dating, as if that's a bad thing. Whether or not the people she's romantically linked with are legit romantic relationships and not just friends or fwb, it doesn't matter. Disco's comment above wondering why she's unlucky in love struck me as odd too. Why are we all so unlucky in love? She's like 25 or something. She's had, 10? bfs? Is that a lot? I don't know. I've had my fair share of longer term relationships and a few shorter term ones. Am I unlucky in love just because I haven't married any of them? Who's to say she's the one unlucky? Why aren't any of her partners seen as being unlucky? How many relationships have each of her partners had? I'm sure she's not as innocent as her people would like us to believe, and I'm sure she has her devilish side, but I think there's a lot of hypocrisy surrounding how people talk about her.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 22:33:12 GMT -5
Can someone on staff kindly move this YOP . Kunt is right it's not in the best place. Kurt jhomes87 libra Thanks dears love ya
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 22:51:14 GMT -5
Maybe this while debate is based on me just being older and hopeful wiser. I dunno. I grew up in a time when a musician was a leader in something to be at the top. We had the singers who blew you away and shocked you either lungs and throat. We had the entertainers who danced and wowed you with their hips and feet . We also had Madonna but at least she fit in the entertainer bracket for those easily shocked and awed. Hunty I saw things as a teen meeting men of the Internet and suckling D in their car at 3am and I was like 16 so I don't get shocked easy over lovely boobs.
My point is she isn't a leader in her voice or tone. In quality of song. In lyrics or entertainment. Her shows are boring . Her performances are boring. She isn't even a game changer ala people who make you think . SHE BRINGS NOTHING TO THE TABLE BUT GIMMICKS AND PROPAGANDA. How dare anyone tell me I'm out of line in questioning why she is heralded as a superstar or queen of the decade. I think this is why people are annoyed by her dating life being used a tool or headlines created as a way to make her more interesting. I think we demand some answers and I hope I'm missing something g here. Enlighten me!
I like debates. I like to be proven wrong. I like to learn about what I may not know about.
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Post by Libra on Jul 13, 2016 23:00:34 GMT -5
Can someone on staff kindly move this YOP . Kunt is right it's not in the best place. Kurt jhomes87 libra Thanks dears love ya First off my tag is not my display name TYVM. Second I actually was starting to ask whether it should be moved or not already - this is a perfect excuse to speed up the process. :) Third (to everyone): Tread carefully and remember an important line in the OP. :)
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Post by Fat Ass Kelly Price on Jul 13, 2016 23:12:28 GMT -5
I don't like her. She's only good for "Back to December" and "Love Story" every once in a while. Otherwise, I don't touch it. I could say more, but it would be unladylike of me.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 23:14:55 GMT -5
I've never been a big fan and she is very overrated She comes off as really fake to me tbh I honestly liked Speak Now as her best album Faved Songs: Red, Style, Out Of the Woods, Better Than Revenge, Mean, & You Belong With Me
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2016 23:38:13 GMT -5
Can someone also fill me up to speed with the drama between her and Calving. Loving the discussion and tone so far. Calvin and Taylor wrote This Is What You Came For together - Taylor did the lyrics and sang a bit of the background vocals, while Calvin did the all the rest. Taylor used a Swedish alias in the songwriting credits - some sources claim that it was because Taylor knew if her name was attached to the track it would take attention away from Calvin - but there is some conflict about this and other sources say she was kind of mad that Calvin was going around saying that they didn't work on the song/weren't planning to work toegether. If she truly wanted it to be a secret she didn't have to be credited at all. But of course, she couldn't get her dividends that way? Gotta have a name in there somewhere. Regardless, news of her being a co-writer on the song had leaked a bit before the song was released. Then Calvin broke up with Taylor, and at first they announced it as an amicable parting but five minutes later Taylor was on the beach with Tom Hiddleston and Calvin started spazzing out, making tweets and deleting them, telling fans that he never really knew what was going on in the relationship while it was happening and that Taylor was always in control of everything, etc. etc. Meanwhile some fans isolated Taylor's vocals from TIWYCF, and TMZ reported on it a bit too. Finally Taylor's rep confirmed that she did in fact co-write the song, which before I knew about the isolated vocals and TMZ, I thought was out of the blue for Taylor's rep to be confirming something no one was asking about. But whatevs, it apparently was Taylor getting fed up with Calvin shitting on her every five minutes. Calvin then snapped at this and made several tweets, the most memorable of which being the one where he said "I know you're off tour and need someone new to bury like Katy, but I won't be that guy." He went on to (probably sarcastically) praised Taylor's talent and tell her that instead of spending her time ripping on her ex-boyfriend that she should enjoy the good life with her new bf because she's earned it. Katy then posted a shady Hillary Clinton gif and retweeted her "Time. The ultimate truth teller." tweet from last year when Taylor got a few of her hairs plucked out by some deranged barbs. tl;dr Calvin's butthurt is too real real, Taylor is in Australia picking out her next three boyfriends and already has her media minions on deck to paint her as victim (again), and Katy is getting free press just for being in the vicinity.
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Post by Juanca on Jul 14, 2016 0:44:09 GMT -5
Wow!! That was an excellent summary!!! Thanks I'll add my comments later as it's getting pretty late However I can share that my first thoughts when I heard about Taylor's credit for TIWYCF were: and?? Such a fuss for some of the most basic AF lyrics I've heard this year?! Smh
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Post by Sambalada on Jul 14, 2016 1:21:11 GMT -5
She is quite the bitch, I used to defend her from some of my friends who said bad things of her, saying she's delusional or any else.
Lately I realized that she doesn't really have a nice personality. What Calvin said a while ago pretty much explains everything.
But musically she's one gold pocket for the industry and I was kinda bummed that she decides to go on vacancy.
Still, she's a bitch.
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Post by 🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾 on Jul 14, 2016 1:28:34 GMT -5
it doesn't matter. Disco's comment above wondering why she's unlucky in love struck me as odd too. Why are we all so unlucky in love? She's like 25 or something. She's had, 10? bfs? Is that a lot? I don't know. I've had my fair share of longer term relationships and a few shorter term ones. Am I unlucky in love just because I haven't married any of them? Who's to say she's the one unlucky? Why aren't any of her partners seen as being unlucky? How many relationships have each of her partners had? I think she should take a moment to focus on herself. While it is wonderful to share one's life with someone else, you sometimes need to be alone to just be and deal with life.
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Post by #LisaRinna on Jul 14, 2016 5:11:08 GMT -5
She's way too petty and self-absorbed.
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Post by Future Captain on Jul 14, 2016 9:54:49 GMT -5
Musically, I honestly love her. As long ad she churns out 1989/Speak Now quality albums, I will be satisfied.
Live performance: Ummh. I won't pass on it if someone want to pay for it, but I'm not rushing to see her live.
She's petty as fuck though, and I just hope that she would take some time for herself and actually stay in the low.
Regarding her her whole feminism shtick, it have white feminism written all over it in bold, bright, capital letters.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2016 12:22:01 GMT -5
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Post by Active Aggressive on Jul 14, 2016 13:45:46 GMT -5
My thoughts on Taylor:
Outside of her singles prior to Speak Now, I dismissed her as pretty much talentless and ugly. Then, I saw her live performances on major TV shows, which reinforced my thoughts. Unfortunately, as much as I loved Speak Now, I was waiting for her to deliver an album without filler. Red gave me that and 1989 really delivered. Her live performances still reek of amateurism, vocally and performance-wise. Unless she takes vocal lessons, I will most likely never pay money to see her live. Even on record, she can be shrill and grating, but her melodies and songwriting (particularly on 1989) keep me coming back. For the record, I still think her best song is Ronan, the song she co-wrote for the 4 year old boy who died of cancer. That song has actually brought me to tears. Nothing else she has released has come close. Her most affecting songs have been Last Kiss, This Love, and You Are In Love. Her upbeat songs are fun and easy to sing along to.
As a person, I respect her hustle and drive. She clearly is in full possession of those traits and they have carried her thus far and will undoubtedly propel her and her brand even further. Points for the glamorous makeover as well. Bye bye drowned lab rat look and hello, Victoria Secret model! But, beneath that altruistic façade, is a steely, flinty gaze that she can barely even hide anymore. Once she dropped the "Aw shucks! Y'all like me!" act, the true Taylor emerged: megalomanical, shrewd, and manipulative. As @antigonerising has mentioned, I'm not even sure anymore that she is serving as a professional beard to the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor Lautner (who is barely even closeted at this point, although, with an upcoming role in Scream Queens, he may have to inch back in...no more spirit fingers!), Joe Jonas, and Harry Styles. I firmly believe that Calvin Harris was the first hetero guy she dated and she may now be regretting that decision, based on the flameout that is currently taking place. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she and Karlie Kloss are in a relationship. How easy it is to hide behind her #squad of attractive glamazons, who, to me, basically function as a well-structured shield. All the signs are there, but the TayBots are so protective of their fragile Queen, who is so unlucky in love and victim of guys who just can't commit when she probably couldn't care less if they could commit to a manicure, let alone her. It would not surprise me in the least if one day, she gives an interview where she "swears off all men for cats and #Squadtime."
At the end of the day, she knows exactly what she is doing, but is playing a very dangerous game when people who are giving less and less of a f**k (see: Katy Perry, with her coy allusions and subtweets and Calvin Harris) are going to keep pushing and pushing until that crack in her carefully constructed veneer keeps widening. She needs to focus on the music to really keep them off her trail but she can't seem to help herself so we'll see. In the meantime, keep releasing albums like Red and 1989 and I will keep listening/supporting.
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Post by 43dudleyvillas on Jul 14, 2016 15:55:10 GMT -5
Ah, @spiritanimal, how you speak for me. For me, Taylor Swift is the #1 example of "just because it happened to you, doesn't make it worthy of a song." This is not to say that her feelings are worth less than anyone else's. It's more a reaction to a climate that I believe overrewards "personal"/confessional/diaristic songwriting. Personally, I'm only interested in that sort of thing if I think the person is interesting in the first place. And given the fact that the only two things I've found interesting about Taylor throughout her career (how she reads and reacts to the market and what appears to be her overweening desire for public affirmation) are not things she writes about (I suppose "Blank Space" is an exception, but it didn't go far enough for me), I am generally inclined to take a hard pass on her music. That's not to say that I don't like a song of hers here and there. "All Too Well" is just wonderful and is delivered with a sincerity that overwhelms any side-eyeing I might be inclined to do over the idea that it was written about a two or three-month fauxmance. It is a prime example to me of how critical a role Liz Rose has played as Taylor's songwriting editor -- I think Taylor is fine lyricist, but my main takeaway from 1989 is how inefficient its lyrics are and how the little descriptive snapshots it did have didn't have nearly enough weight and tension to match their melodies and live up to the album's sweeping and catchy choruses. Liz Rose would have tightened up those lyrics a lot, helping them to have more punch. "Enchanted" is also as charming a "fairy tale" as Taylor's written, believable, sweet and winning. I also respect Taylor's agency in her career. That she mustered a team of industry defenders via the strategy of treating them well and as her personal friends is impressive -- honestly, it's a good thing to treat people well and not to act like an entitled brat. I do think this resulted in her work escaping the critical scrutiny it deserves, but still, I think that Taylor absolutely deserves to be the massive pop star that she is. So I could not have been happier when Taylor finally made her break with country music official. I found her "country" music to be not very -- granted, that issue has gotten even more pervasive now -- but when she started out, her affected twang made her sound artificial, and it was obvious from the beginning that she took much more enthusiastically to Avril Lavigne-style yelling/chanting. As someone who values good live singing and who is a voice-first listener, Taylor was obviously never going to a go-to for me, at least not outside of her breathier, acoustic numbers where she could at least muster a pretty vocal tone. But her huge live pitch problems, often on songs too big for her voice to handle, were definitely a turn-off. In any event, to the extent that she had any Nashville influence in her music, it was in developing a narrative element to her songwriting, but that's not a genre-specific trait. So I always found Taylor's presence in country to be disingenuous and not a great fit. That Scott Borchetta and Big Machine Label Group had to engage in massive chart tomfoolery to manufacture Mediabase-only airplay #1s for her was both annoying and revealing (this was before country labels and radio made it a habit to get into bed with each other to create a revolving door of #1s). And I still haven't forgiven Taylor for "Love Story"'s absolutely ridiculous misuse of "scarlet letter," in the line, "You were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter." Anyway, my feeling when Taylor finally announced that 1989 was a full-on pop album was that it was as much an acknowledgment that her fanbase really wasn't much for country radio or country music as it was a rebranding move and strategy to conquer the world. I never believed that it was a risk, and 1989's massive success is a testament to what happens when an artist sets up shop in an environment that fits. Taylor is where she belongs, musically and from a marketing and personality standpoint. On personality, I just can't with Taylor's victim complex. Songs like "Mean," which equated her experience of being harshly assessed for what was a genuinely awful Grammy 2010 performance with the experience of bullying, and "Ours," which includes the line, "People throw rocks at things that shine," reveal a real unwillingness to tolerate even reasonable criticism. And Taylor latching onto accusations of "sexism" when people roll their eyes at her blind-item songs about famous exes does a spectacular job of missing or at least deflecting from the point, which is that she has, ever since her "Joe Jonas dumped me over the phone" reveal on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, coyly but openly courted speculation about her famous exes while disingenuously claiming to the media that she will not feed into the gossip mill by naming names. In other words, the eye-rolling is because she tries to have it both ways -- lay claim to the integrity of someone who is above tabloid machinations when the reality is she eagerly feeds that whole circuit for purposes of self-marketing. That her team has routinely leaked stories to the tabloid press is another part of why people like me roll our eyes. That Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars aren't getting similar scrutiny for who their songs are about is the by-product of how they present their songs and themselves, not the fact that they are male. And, of course, there's the issue of how many of these relationships were authentic in the first place. I think that some of them were authentic to Taylor, at least, but certainly not all. And I would respect Taylor more if she copped to being a fabulist in her songs. I don't enjoy authenticity as a marketing construct in any circumstance, and Taylor's claim to it wore thin long, long ago. I agree whole-heartedly with @spiritanimal and Future Captain's descriptions of Taylor's "feminism." While I respect and appreciate that Taylor is a powerful, self-directed businesswoman (and in that regard, absolutely do consider her important in having advanced the cause of female equality), I think that she has tried to wave the feminist banner in order to deflect criticism for her past and sometimes current behavior. Amidst all her post-feminist awakening moralization about how unfortunate it is that women are pitted against each other, she has never once admitted her very specific failing on that point on "Better Than Revenge," when she tried to slut-shame Camille Belle, or how her efforts (in music) to position herself as an underdog have often meant pitting herself against a woman (whom she inevitably stereotypes). Her "squads" give Taylor the appearance of ornamental feminism. And then there is, of course, the whole Katy Perry/"Bad Blood"/blind item saga (which Katy appropriately called out in that ungrammatical mess of a VMA-related tweet last year). It all gives the impression that Taylor thinks that it's only okay to bad-mouth someone if she is the one doing it. So I think there is a long overdue correction to how Taylor is treated by the media, critics and in pop culture. Not a full-on backlash that involves running her out of town or off her perch atop the pop world, or a sudden sea change where Taylor's songwriting is dismissed as teenage fluff -- Taylor is too savvy and her core fanbase too loyal at this point to be that vulnerable to any single feud. But I think that it's past time for Taylor to be seen for what she is, a reasonably but not extraordinarily-skilled songwriter with a major case of narcissism and thin-skinnedness, and a wily and forward-thinking businesswoman with a wildly uneven sense of self-awareness, a nearly unprecedented willingness to stage her life and persona as public performance art, and an often petty and vindictive nature that thrives fully next to her long track record of charity involvement. In other words, someone who is fair game for reasonable criticism. I've been amazed by how long Taylor has managed to avoid that. But now that Taylor has settled in as a pop and pop culture fixture, fully settled into a world where she can no longer expect to 100% control the framing of the drama of which she is inevitably part, her next chapter is going to involve the mainstreaming of Swift skepticism, I think. I hope that Taylor copes with it better than she has criticism in the past. (Apologies to the TL;DR crowd. I almost never talk about Taylor, so this is everything I've thought about her over the years in one post.)
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