It’s amazing to me that people have not figured out that Taylor Swift is a production. Her life is a production. Her relationships are a production. Her breakups are a production. It’s all crafted as a reality show for dummy fans. She is in her mid thirties and still singing about boys she doesn’t like. Her image as the eternally immature 18 y/o
I don't think of TS as a woman, emotionally or intellectually. I think of her as a teen. She has no formal education, little experience in real life, and no experience with masculine men (until Travis Kelce came along). I wonder what she is going to do when she is 40.
The TS and Kelce relationship is much like the Hollywood PR romance star relationships in the 30s and 40s. Nothing more than than PR stunts to sucker in the fans. Last year the NFL went all out bringing in Taylor, Mama Kelce and even his brother once his team was elimated whenever the Chiefs played. It will be interesting to see what happens this season if the Chiefs struggle or heaven forbid Travis suffers a season ending injury and isn't in the limelight.
Here’s the antithesis to Taylor Swift (some 50 yrs removed but so far ahead of his time). There may never be another like the Muffin Man. We miss you FZ.
I’m a casual Taylor Swift fan (we do exist!) and thought this album was too long. It just keeps on whining at me about how terrible this billionaire’s life is and I’m just not buying it. Make better decisions, Sweety.
There's the rub. At some point she needs to take ownership in her part in all of these supposedly bad boyfriends. Its the old "If you run into jerks all day, the jerk is probably you."
She can't be a strong empowered woman and also have no agency in her relationships. She had some part in their failure, whether who she picks or staying with them...or very likely, she had some toxic aspects herself and has not yet matured enough to see her part in all of it.
she has taken ownership, it's all an act to appeal to young girls. She's playing a part, this isn't about herself. She's giving people what they want to hear to feel "empowered" themselves. "Men bad, Taylor good."
I agree. My kids love her so I listen. But I felt like she tried too hard to be edgy and hip in a Noah Kahan or Zach Bryan way. at the end of the day she’s still a billionaire with bubble gum lyrics. Own it girlfriend, it works for you! Your pain isn’t believable anymore.
Taylor Swift is an interesting artist and a hugely tragic figure. Her art has mostly centered on being an unreliable narrator of the story of her life, an endless stream of self portraits which are simultaneously emotionally accurate and factually dubious. I think she resonates so much with young women precisely because of this emotional accuracy: her fans see themselves in the situations that she describes in her songs.
And this is good art. She's a very talented musician, who has been at the top of industry for twenty years now, dominating several eras of pop music. Not many have had that longevity. (Although I think the quality of her work took a bit hit when she moved from being a nominally-Country artist to being explicitly Pop). She very effectively paints her inner landscape for us, which is the objective of most art. And I find that the lack of self-awareness in her songs adds to their authenticity. This really is how she feels. And as unreliable as her narration is, she reveals much more to us than she realizes.
On one level I find her persona annoying. She celebrates the excitement that the bad boys bring her, but then hurls insults at them when they move on. And disparages as boring the men who seem to have tried to be nice to her. She whines about her supposed misfortunes while taking no accountability for her poor choices. And of course she's mean and almost psychotically vindictive.
But I also have trouble condemning her, as I watch the tragedy of her life unfold. She was a talented and beautiful young woman, who should have been able to have it all, but will likely end up with nothing, apart from mountains of cash to mock her emptiness. She's always been obsessed with the fantasy of love, whether it be the fairy-tale or the bad-boy variety, without ever caring to explore what actual love is.
I think her parents are largely responsible for this, as it seems to me that they stole her childhood from her. So many ask how she can still be acting like a seventeen year old when she's in her mid thirties. It's because she never was a seventeen year old. And she's never had a real life, or real friends. It's all been the superficial adoration of stardom and chasing after celebrity playboys. If her father really wanted what was best for her, he would not have moved the family to Nashville for her when she was still a child and bought her a record company. Instead, he would have kept her in her small town and let her have a normal childhood and adolescence. That would have allowed her to grow up and build relationships. And let her musical talent mature organically rather than hiring industry professionals to teach her how to write.
I really hope that some day she does grow up and settle down quietly with a good man and make babies. But that seems increasingly unlikely. And that's tragic.
Mmm… tragedy is too strong a word. Tragedy is being born a girl in Afghanistan and never going to school and being married off to a pedophile rapist by 12 to bear children and spend your life in servitude.
Taylor actively wanted to be mega famous. Well here you go - lay in the bed you made
It's always a tragedy when someone's life is destroyed. That there are larger tragedies out there doesn't negate that. Like it's a tragedy that so many women end up alone and childless because they believed the message that they were to eschew marriage and family in favor of professional careers, because there was always time to do that later, only to discover that no, they actually have a pretty short window of fertility. These were their own bad choices, and yes, they have to live with the consequences. But the outcomes are still tragic. The most impactful tragedies generally involve the "victim"'s own choices.
Surely you accept the premise that there is a spectrum of tragic. Girl in Afghanistan with zero choices would be at one end, and Taylor’s breakups and billionaire touring childless megastar state is so far on the other side of that spectrum that it make anyone with shame blush at comparing the two. Taylor’s life is hardly destroyed. And why are “the most impactful tragedies” the ones that involve someone’s own choices? I would think things that happen to children, animals, the infirm, the elderly, and those that DON’T involve someone’s own choices, would be more tragic. You’ve found a strange hill to die on.
True about different magnitude of tragedies but I don't think it's unfair to notice her tragedy. Tragedy is a significant factor in most people's lives, anybody I know has had their share.
And choices? Anybody here who hasn't made a few bad ones?
Your comment exactly expresses my own thoughts, down to the last detail, but I could not have expressed them so well. I would add only this: what is TS going to do when she is 40, uneducated, unfamiliar with real life, no longer beautiful, no longer worshiped by her teen fan base, and single? Will she become the female version of Elvis?
I think will's comment wasn't to imply that she won't be beautiful in the larger sense but that she will be past her prime, and Hollywood is vicious with that. If you are rich you can pass for your 20's in your 30's. After 40 that becomes increasinly difficult without moving into the uncanny valley of excessive plastic surgery. I am 50 and still consider myself beautiful but I would be kidding myself if I didn't admit I am a shadow of what I was in my 20's. Fortunately I married a wonderful man before growing old who will continue grow old and ugly with me, and my kids don't care what I look like, so I'll be ok. It's tough to be single and alone while aging, although at least she is unlikely to be in financial distress.
Wow, good critique. I'm not a fan but I respect her work ethic and some of her lyrics are stupendously good.
Disappointed by the explicit sexuality in her performances (though tame by today's standards). Why not aim higher and let your act rest solely on your talent?
Wow, to be so self absorbed and petty at that age. I guess when you’re super rich you don’t need to ever grow up.
I don’t parse the lyrics or even hear them under the repetitive thumping beats in TS’s post-1989 dance pop output, and I find the acoustic albums decidedly mediocre.
She’s just not that good a writer or singer for the words or vocal to stand up against a sparse musical accompaniment. In other words, she’s no Bob Dylan or Neil Young.
Her ‘John Mayer phase’ must have been interesting. They are like mirrors of one another is ways; he’s slept with anyone who’d have him apparently and rather liked being Peter Pan. That said, recently he apparently commented that he’d like to settle down now that he’s middle-aged. Maybe he and Taylor ought to reconnect?
Agree, it’s a great song and message. The new ones, I don’t hear a message other than a 34 year old woman whining about mean boyfriends. The best is “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can just to be where I was if I was a man.” Um…you’re the most successful singer there is.
I kind of feel like most songwriters say everything they have to say before their 20s are over. They still explore new musical territory and loyal fans stick with them, I know I stick with my faves, but maybe Taylor already put her good insights to paper.
Maybe. For the first time I ever intentionally played her I listened to 4 or 5 songs from "Tortured Poets". One was quite good and the rest competent but the whole shtick became repetitive after a while.
I agree regarding the standard trajectory of even really good songwriters, a few years of genius creativity and the remainder just recycling that material. Why, don't know. I think Dylan pressed on for quite a while, Joni Mitchell too. I think a musician ought to strive to visit new territory at times, stunned if that is going to succeed for them and some not.
Not sure how one can verify the difference between a really good friend and a casual friend, but Swift made a public appearance at an ANERA fundraiser - and ANERA makes no pretenses about its support for the rapes and murders of thousands of Israeli citizens.
That's who she chose to stand with. It's not exactly a controversial statement. That's what she decided to do, with complete knowledge as to what the event was funding.
She has not, as far as I know, expressed any verbal support for Hamas, but she also has not expressed any unhappiness about, or written any songs for, the October 7 victims.
I can't imagine spending any part of my life giving a fuck about Taylor Swift... But I am going to assume she's a Democrat and therefore a complete fucking shithead.
I thought this review would be all treacly and fan grlll a la people mag. Pleasantly surprised it’s not. Hope Kelce enjoys the ride because with this chick, it won’t last.
There’s something pathetic about a 34 year old writing and singing these lyrics. It’s like she permanently emotionally stunted as a 17 yr old girl. It’s just sad.
As a country fan, I got on the bus in 2007. Most of the albums I’ve had on release day. I love all kinds of music and I’m also a musician. I’ve gotten plenty of crap for listening to her over the years, but good music is good music. However, ever since Reputation, it’s been about image over music. She’s a master at marketing herself and making everyone think she is your best friend. I’ve always found a few good song on these latter albums, but I can’t help but think they are a marketing exercise where music is the last thought. Lyrically, I’m out of sympathy. 34 is way too old to figure that being an adult is hard and doesn’t always go your way, and no one owes you anything. As always, I can’t figure out why anyone would date her! Why would you want an entire album to dump on you in two years from now? I’ve know many folks personally that have been chewed up and spit out by the entertainment industry. I hope she realizes it’s using her as much as she is using it before it kills her, spiritually, if nothing else.
Have you noticed that in every relationship she has with a male, Ms. Swift hangs on her male partner like a barnacle on the hull of a ship, followed by a breakup, followed by her trashing him?
I wouldn't touch her with a barge pole. I cannot imagine an intelligent conversation, a spirit of compromise, or any other attribute connected to maturity, issuing from her.
2007 was also my T. Swift introduction. I saw her in concert in June 2007 opening for Brad Paisley. I wasn’t a fan then, and I’m not now, but I have always respected her for writing her own music. Just not my cup of tea.
It's not much of a revelation that Taylor Swift is frivolous and immature. What I'd like to understand better is why that is so appealing to millions of mostly young females?
Because a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. A lot of nonsense is obnoxious. But there’s a big difference between enjoying a T Swift song and living your life in a frivolous manner.
This review is way harsh, Tai. Though musically she may benefit from collaborations with new producers, lyrically speaking, she's still the same Taylor we've always known. Also, assuming she spent the "best years of her 20s" with Joe is a stretch considering she met him when she was 28-29, so that's not even really her 20s. This is not her strongest album but the girl needed to get things off her chest, and for the most part, it resonates.
Taylor Swift is a pop-star media fad. There's been pop media fads all the way back to the 1920s, it's just that they're now algorithmically much more in your face. It's all relatively harmless though....at least in comparison to various other more civilisation-destroying groupthink fads that can be nameless (because FreeP readers will be punch-drunk on them anyway). The tragedy of it is that some truly brilliant music has been made in Rock's 60+ year history.....even if only a tiny proportion of the 60 million total back catalogue. " For most people all this is a big thing in their lives in their teens and twenties; from then on interest wanes. Those for whom this phase ran its course at anytime in the 60’s to 90’s tend to think of themselves as having been around for the best of it. If the thee billion plus hits on Spotify’s most streamed songs is the measure, you could argue that it is now bigger than ever. But nobody seriously believes that any of them will go down in history as great ones. So what will? What songs will endure when all rock’s ephemera evaporates into the mist of time?......" https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/imagine-theres-no-muzak
No shee-ite Graham, the 60's and 70's produced some outstanding music. Not to stint other decades. Plenty good music being produced today too in my present favorite genres (bluegrass, folk, celtic).
TS is the pop equivalent of when TV shows used to cast full grown adults as teenagers. If a 34 year old man were singing teen level lyrics we’d cry “creep”. In TS’s case it’s pathetic. Parading away in a requisite onesie, the pop tart equivalent of the bikini requirement of women’s beach volleyball, does not “girl power” make. In 20 years or so, she’ll be victim of the plastic surgery botchery that plagues pop stars past in their Hollywood Boulevard death grip on youth. Any parent signing off on this “role model” needs their head checked and if you’re a dad, you need to register with the authorities.
I couldn't sing a TS song, but I'm blown away by her reach. My 70 yo next door neighbor loves her, and my other neighbor's 2 and 4 yo daughters dance and sing every lyric! What is going on here? Amazing.
I disagree so hard with the Tortured Haters Department. I am a Rep diehard and I think TTPD is a return to form. The fact that it's SO much more controversial to the comparatively boring Midnights shows that it's going to age so well, even if not beloved right now.
Also, The Alchemy is a happy song. Not just High School.
It’s amazing to me that people have not figured out that Taylor Swift is a production. Her life is a production. Her relationships are a production. Her breakups are a production. It’s all crafted as a reality show for dummy fans. She is in her mid thirties and still singing about boys she doesn’t like. Her image as the eternally immature 18 y/o
IS the product.
I don't think of TS as a woman, emotionally or intellectually. I think of her as a teen. She has no formal education, little experience in real life, and no experience with masculine men (until Travis Kelce came along). I wonder what she is going to do when she is 40.
The TS and Kelce relationship is much like the Hollywood PR romance star relationships in the 30s and 40s. Nothing more than than PR stunts to sucker in the fans. Last year the NFL went all out bringing in Taylor, Mama Kelce and even his brother once his team was elimated whenever the Chiefs played. It will be interesting to see what happens this season if the Chiefs struggle or heaven forbid Travis suffers a season ending injury and isn't in the limelight.
It could be just maybe they're madly in love.
Here’s the antithesis to Taylor Swift (some 50 yrs removed but so far ahead of his time). There may never be another like the Muffin Man. We miss you FZ.
https://youtu.be/_UY38FDY35o?si=KBkmviAI_5dR2ZrR
https://youtu.be/r7fyyhhuE7c?si=lmSfEQHq2EC7c-AV
I’m a casual Taylor Swift fan (we do exist!) and thought this album was too long. It just keeps on whining at me about how terrible this billionaire’s life is and I’m just not buying it. Make better decisions, Sweety.
There's the rub. At some point she needs to take ownership in her part in all of these supposedly bad boyfriends. Its the old "If you run into jerks all day, the jerk is probably you."
She can't be a strong empowered woman and also have no agency in her relationships. She had some part in their failure, whether who she picks or staying with them...or very likely, she had some toxic aspects herself and has not yet matured enough to see her part in all of it.
she has taken ownership, it's all an act to appeal to young girls. She's playing a part, this isn't about herself. She's giving people what they want to hear to feel "empowered" themselves. "Men bad, Taylor good."
If true, that makes her immoral, opportunistic and nauseating.
not really, it's called being an artist and a capitalist.
I agree. My kids love her so I listen. But I felt like she tried too hard to be edgy and hip in a Noah Kahan or Zach Bryan way. at the end of the day she’s still a billionaire with bubble gum lyrics. Own it girlfriend, it works for you! Your pain isn’t believable anymore.
It is (pain) to young girls, which is the target audience.
There were just so. many. words.
Taylor Swift is an interesting artist and a hugely tragic figure. Her art has mostly centered on being an unreliable narrator of the story of her life, an endless stream of self portraits which are simultaneously emotionally accurate and factually dubious. I think she resonates so much with young women precisely because of this emotional accuracy: her fans see themselves in the situations that she describes in her songs.
And this is good art. She's a very talented musician, who has been at the top of industry for twenty years now, dominating several eras of pop music. Not many have had that longevity. (Although I think the quality of her work took a bit hit when she moved from being a nominally-Country artist to being explicitly Pop). She very effectively paints her inner landscape for us, which is the objective of most art. And I find that the lack of self-awareness in her songs adds to their authenticity. This really is how she feels. And as unreliable as her narration is, she reveals much more to us than she realizes.
On one level I find her persona annoying. She celebrates the excitement that the bad boys bring her, but then hurls insults at them when they move on. And disparages as boring the men who seem to have tried to be nice to her. She whines about her supposed misfortunes while taking no accountability for her poor choices. And of course she's mean and almost psychotically vindictive.
But I also have trouble condemning her, as I watch the tragedy of her life unfold. She was a talented and beautiful young woman, who should have been able to have it all, but will likely end up with nothing, apart from mountains of cash to mock her emptiness. She's always been obsessed with the fantasy of love, whether it be the fairy-tale or the bad-boy variety, without ever caring to explore what actual love is.
I think her parents are largely responsible for this, as it seems to me that they stole her childhood from her. So many ask how she can still be acting like a seventeen year old when she's in her mid thirties. It's because she never was a seventeen year old. And she's never had a real life, or real friends. It's all been the superficial adoration of stardom and chasing after celebrity playboys. If her father really wanted what was best for her, he would not have moved the family to Nashville for her when she was still a child and bought her a record company. Instead, he would have kept her in her small town and let her have a normal childhood and adolescence. That would have allowed her to grow up and build relationships. And let her musical talent mature organically rather than hiring industry professionals to teach her how to write.
I really hope that some day she does grow up and settle down quietly with a good man and make babies. But that seems increasingly unlikely. And that's tragic.
Mmm… tragedy is too strong a word. Tragedy is being born a girl in Afghanistan and never going to school and being married off to a pedophile rapist by 12 to bear children and spend your life in servitude.
Taylor actively wanted to be mega famous. Well here you go - lay in the bed you made
Very well said
It's always a tragedy when someone's life is destroyed. That there are larger tragedies out there doesn't negate that. Like it's a tragedy that so many women end up alone and childless because they believed the message that they were to eschew marriage and family in favor of professional careers, because there was always time to do that later, only to discover that no, they actually have a pretty short window of fertility. These were their own bad choices, and yes, they have to live with the consequences. But the outcomes are still tragic. The most impactful tragedies generally involve the "victim"'s own choices.
Surely you accept the premise that there is a spectrum of tragic. Girl in Afghanistan with zero choices would be at one end, and Taylor’s breakups and billionaire touring childless megastar state is so far on the other side of that spectrum that it make anyone with shame blush at comparing the two. Taylor’s life is hardly destroyed. And why are “the most impactful tragedies” the ones that involve someone’s own choices? I would think things that happen to children, animals, the infirm, the elderly, and those that DON’T involve someone’s own choices, would be more tragic. You’ve found a strange hill to die on.
True about different magnitude of tragedies but I don't think it's unfair to notice her tragedy. Tragedy is a significant factor in most people's lives, anybody I know has had their share.
And choices? Anybody here who hasn't made a few bad ones?
I think Benjamin’s comment directly above yours is more persuasive. She’s a production.
Your comment exactly expresses my own thoughts, down to the last detail, but I could not have expressed them so well. I would add only this: what is TS going to do when she is 40, uneducated, unfamiliar with real life, no longer beautiful, no longer worshiped by her teen fan base, and single? Will she become the female version of Elvis?
She will transition into a beloved Dolly Parton figure. She’ll be ok. I don’t think she’ll cry herself to death on her mega yacht.
this is an insult to National treasure Dolly!! At 5' tall, she is head and shoulders above what Taylor Swift could only dream of being!
Be beautiful for a couple more decades if takes care of herself. Sitting on a billion dollars. If lucky, grow and mature as an artist.
I think will's comment wasn't to imply that she won't be beautiful in the larger sense but that she will be past her prime, and Hollywood is vicious with that. If you are rich you can pass for your 20's in your 30's. After 40 that becomes increasinly difficult without moving into the uncanny valley of excessive plastic surgery. I am 50 and still consider myself beautiful but I would be kidding myself if I didn't admit I am a shadow of what I was in my 20's. Fortunately I married a wonderful man before growing old who will continue grow old and ugly with me, and my kids don't care what I look like, so I'll be ok. It's tough to be single and alone while aging, although at least she is unlikely to be in financial distress.
Wow, good critique. I'm not a fan but I respect her work ethic and some of her lyrics are stupendously good.
Disappointed by the explicit sexuality in her performances (though tame by today's standards). Why not aim higher and let your act rest solely on your talent?
Wow, to be so self absorbed and petty at that age. I guess when you’re super rich you don’t need to ever grow up.
I don’t parse the lyrics or even hear them under the repetitive thumping beats in TS’s post-1989 dance pop output, and I find the acoustic albums decidedly mediocre.
She’s just not that good a writer or singer for the words or vocal to stand up against a sparse musical accompaniment. In other words, she’s no Bob Dylan or Neil Young.
Her ‘John Mayer phase’ must have been interesting. They are like mirrors of one another is ways; he’s slept with anyone who’d have him apparently and rather liked being Peter Pan. That said, recently he apparently commented that he’d like to settle down now that he’s middle-aged. Maybe he and Taylor ought to reconnect?
I don’t know, she wrote that song “Dear John” and every woman between 15 and 35 thinks he’s Satan 😂
One of her better numbers, too. Taylor has a point in the song.
Mayer's a good musician, maybe working on being a good man as we all are. Wish him well.
Agree, it’s a great song and message. The new ones, I don’t hear a message other than a 34 year old woman whining about mean boyfriends. The best is “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can just to be where I was if I was a man.” Um…you’re the most successful singer there is.
I kind of feel like most songwriters say everything they have to say before their 20s are over. They still explore new musical territory and loyal fans stick with them, I know I stick with my faves, but maybe Taylor already put her good insights to paper.
Maybe. For the first time I ever intentionally played her I listened to 4 or 5 songs from "Tortured Poets". One was quite good and the rest competent but the whole shtick became repetitive after a while.
I agree regarding the standard trajectory of even really good songwriters, a few years of genius creativity and the remainder just recycling that material. Why, don't know. I think Dylan pressed on for quite a while, Joni Mitchell too. I think a musician ought to strive to visit new territory at times, stunned if that is going to succeed for them and some not.
People change 🤷🏼♀️ Maybe Maher's found God 😇
But I think Taylor’s lost Him 😂
Taylor Swift is proof that most of America's youth could not possibly pass the Turing Test.
Anyway, she stands with those who want to rid the world of Jews, so screw her (and not in a way that would have her writing a song about it).
Uhhh, she's really good friends with the HAIM sisters, so I highly doubt your sweeping statement is true.
Not sure how one can verify the difference between a really good friend and a casual friend, but Swift made a public appearance at an ANERA fundraiser - and ANERA makes no pretenses about its support for the rapes and murders of thousands of Israeli citizens.
That's who she chose to stand with. It's not exactly a controversial statement. That's what she decided to do, with complete knowledge as to what the event was funding.
She has not, as far as I know, expressed any verbal support for Hamas, but she also has not expressed any unhappiness about, or written any songs for, the October 7 victims.
Didn't date any of them.
I can't imagine spending any part of my life giving a fuck about Taylor Swift... But I am going to assume she's a Democrat and therefore a complete fucking shithead.
You're gonna HATE IT when she becomes president someday.
The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that marks the ballot!
lol - not gonna happen.
Elegantly put.
I thought this review would be all treacly and fan grlll a la people mag. Pleasantly surprised it’s not. Hope Kelce enjoys the ride because with this chick, it won’t last.
There’s something pathetic about a 34 year old writing and singing these lyrics. It’s like she permanently emotionally stunted as a 17 yr old girl. It’s just sad.
How did you make your first $Billion?
As a country fan, I got on the bus in 2007. Most of the albums I’ve had on release day. I love all kinds of music and I’m also a musician. I’ve gotten plenty of crap for listening to her over the years, but good music is good music. However, ever since Reputation, it’s been about image over music. She’s a master at marketing herself and making everyone think she is your best friend. I’ve always found a few good song on these latter albums, but I can’t help but think they are a marketing exercise where music is the last thought. Lyrically, I’m out of sympathy. 34 is way too old to figure that being an adult is hard and doesn’t always go your way, and no one owes you anything. As always, I can’t figure out why anyone would date her! Why would you want an entire album to dump on you in two years from now? I’ve know many folks personally that have been chewed up and spit out by the entertainment industry. I hope she realizes it’s using her as much as she is using it before it kills her, spiritually, if nothing else.
Have you noticed that in every relationship she has with a male, Ms. Swift hangs on her male partner like a barnacle on the hull of a ship, followed by a breakup, followed by her trashing him?
I wouldn't touch her with a barge pole. I cannot imagine an intelligent conversation, a spirit of compromise, or any other attribute connected to maturity, issuing from her.
2007 was also my T. Swift introduction. I saw her in concert in June 2007 opening for Brad Paisley. I wasn’t a fan then, and I’m not now, but I have always respected her for writing her own music. Just not my cup of tea.
It's not much of a revelation that Taylor Swift is frivolous and immature. What I'd like to understand better is why that is so appealing to millions of mostly young females?
Because a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. A lot of nonsense is obnoxious. But there’s a big difference between enjoying a T Swift song and living your life in a frivolous manner.
Have to give a like to that quote...even if I don't know the original source...it will also be a Willy Wonka quote to me :)
Because the mostly young females are frivolous and immature.
This review is way harsh, Tai. Though musically she may benefit from collaborations with new producers, lyrically speaking, she's still the same Taylor we've always known. Also, assuming she spent the "best years of her 20s" with Joe is a stretch considering she met him when she was 28-29, so that's not even really her 20s. This is not her strongest album but the girl needed to get things off her chest, and for the most part, it resonates.
Shout out for the excellent Clueless reference 😂
Taylor Swift is a pop-star media fad. There's been pop media fads all the way back to the 1920s, it's just that they're now algorithmically much more in your face. It's all relatively harmless though....at least in comparison to various other more civilisation-destroying groupthink fads that can be nameless (because FreeP readers will be punch-drunk on them anyway). The tragedy of it is that some truly brilliant music has been made in Rock's 60+ year history.....even if only a tiny proportion of the 60 million total back catalogue. " For most people all this is a big thing in their lives in their teens and twenties; from then on interest wanes. Those for whom this phase ran its course at anytime in the 60’s to 90’s tend to think of themselves as having been around for the best of it. If the thee billion plus hits on Spotify’s most streamed songs is the measure, you could argue that it is now bigger than ever. But nobody seriously believes that any of them will go down in history as great ones. So what will? What songs will endure when all rock’s ephemera evaporates into the mist of time?......" https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/imagine-theres-no-muzak
No shee-ite Graham, the 60's and 70's produced some outstanding music. Not to stint other decades. Plenty good music being produced today too in my present favorite genres (bluegrass, folk, celtic).
TS is the pop equivalent of when TV shows used to cast full grown adults as teenagers. If a 34 year old man were singing teen level lyrics we’d cry “creep”. In TS’s case it’s pathetic. Parading away in a requisite onesie, the pop tart equivalent of the bikini requirement of women’s beach volleyball, does not “girl power” make. In 20 years or so, she’ll be victim of the plastic surgery botchery that plagues pop stars past in their Hollywood Boulevard death grip on youth. Any parent signing off on this “role model” needs their head checked and if you’re a dad, you need to register with the authorities.
I couldn't sing a TS song, but I'm blown away by her reach. My 70 yo next door neighbor loves her, and my other neighbor's 2 and 4 yo daughters dance and sing every lyric! What is going on here? Amazing.
Social contagion
I'm hoping her time is passing. Her early music was fun and melodic pop. I think her genius has been more about marketing than music.
You couldn't be more wrong. Are the Rolling Stones more about marketing than music?
Substance without marrketing can survive. Marketing without substance dies quickly.
I disagree so hard with the Tortured Haters Department. I am a Rep diehard and I think TTPD is a return to form. The fact that it's SO much more controversial to the comparatively boring Midnights shows that it's going to age so well, even if not beloved right now.
Also, The Alchemy is a happy song. Not just High School.