Posted on 04/20/2024 12:53:24 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
A new album by Taylor Swift is not merely the release of a new collection of songs. It is a major pop-cultural event, given the widespread consensus that Swift is the world’s biggest pop star...
...What’s lacking from Swift, however, is very little hint of proportionality. There is almost no evidence leading a listener to believe that Swift understands that this romantic heartbreak and loss of which she sings is mostly ordinary, everyday stuff, and not a matter of earthshaking proportions. Try as she might, this is no Blood on the Tracks. (Coincidentally, Swift is the same age, 34, that Bob Dylan was when that landmark album...)
...Swift – a billionaire artist riding as high in worldwide popularity as just about anyone since the Beatles or Elvis Presley before them – portrays herself throughout as a victim, often incorporating religious imagery to heighten the emotional stakes.
“How can I be guilty as sin?” she sings... “What if I roll the stone away? They’re gonna crucify me anyway.” Ouch! In “Down Bad,” she asks an ex-lover to “Tell me I was the chosen one.” And in the song “Clara Bow,” in which the silent film star serves as a stand-in for the pop singer, Swift sings, “You’re the new god we’re worshipping….
To her credit, Swift tempers these grandiose delusions with occasional notes of humility and humor. On the title track, she declares, “I laughed in your face and said, ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas. I’m not Patti Smith. This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel. We’re modern idiots.” And in perhaps my favorite line on the album, Swift unleashes her inner grouchy old man in “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” when she sings, “I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn.”
Now there’s a sentiment to which I can relate.
(Excerpt) Read more at forward.com ...
Gotta tell you that SOB didn't want to go even with coffee. Excruciating like listening to Taylor go on about her ex-boyfriends. One and done and have yet to hear art. I just don't get it.
But I've never been a "walk-behinder" as Dusty Rhodes used to put it. We have a modern culture so stupid as to avidly seek "influencers" for leadership into whatever stupid crap those hucksters are espousing, totally confirming P.T. Barnum was right about a sucker born every minute.
Kim K used to be married to Kanye West...
Kanye wrote some song...He uses "bitch" to refer to Swift...
Swift claimed that she never stated that it was OK for Kanye to use that term about her...
Kim came up with a recording of a phone call in which Swift states that it is OK to use "bitch" to describe her in the song...
Actually Kim doctored the phone call to make Swift look bad...
That is why Taylor Swift and Kim K do not have a good relationship...
She writes music that has meaning to *her* audience. Just because *her* audience isn’t the same people as the idiot author of this story belongs to doesn’t mean it’s any less valid than what Dylan or Joni wrote. Just another kind of twit that gives ‘Boomer’ a bad name.
She’s the biggest entertainer on the planet, her fans love her, and she writes music that gives voice and validity to what *HER* audience feels and lives.
Just some quasi-ignorant old fart who has probably never even had an album go gold or platinum or filled a stadium.
Critics suck.
It kind of makes sense if you think about the resurgence of vinyl. I ‘drop’ a LP on the turntable (albeit very very gently). It’s gone on now to mean ‘release’. Of course how many people say they are going to ‘dial’ a number still....
I thought this was a fairer critic than most - giving credit to objective talent where its due even though he is not in the fanbase?
I thought this was a fairer critic than most - giving credit to objective talent where its due even though he is not in the fanbase? And to add to that: at a time where so many voices are silenced and viewpoints cancelled, why is Swift’s material (both live and recorded) rising to the top? Is the large Swift following a sign or a healthy culture overall with — promoting high aspirations, healthy ways of facing the complexities of life in today’s world, or one that’s problematic with declining tastes and character. Clearly she sings songs designed to be more than just mere escape.
She also happens to be one of the few white faces you see in pop music these days.
Not as bad as some.
People should just enjoy the artists they enjoy and shut the hell up about music they don’t like, period.
There are LOTS of bands, movies, and events that I could not care less about, even thinking (privately) that the people into them must have ingested lead as children, stuff people love that I can’t even process as ‘music’ or ‘art’, but I believe only a uncouth dolt deserving of ridicule says or writes about such naming names. I’m no fan of ‘rap’ music (I think they left the ‘C’ off of it), but until I have as many gold records as Snoop Dog, I’ll keep my criticisms to myself.
If someone enjoys it, it’s good music; if someone doesn’t they should STFU unless and until they have a similar level of success... critics are the most useless humans short of ‘Community Organizers’.
Fregards.
Freegards to your attempt at silencing free speech? No. And I am a Los Angeles native by the way, surrounded from birth by industry people. There is often a sheeple effect to entertainment (and politics etc..) where the masses just go along with supporting something without even giving it much thought and naysayers are punished. Critics help us to be reflective on what we may he mindlessly consuming without thought to the consequences.
I remember attending certain churches where certain things just didn’t sit well with me and feeling guilt over taking issue — until I finally felt validated by bloggers and others who were at that point mere congregants and critics, not in positions of power — who ultimately were vindicated years, sometimes decades upon someone’s ministry falling apart due to ethical issues etc…
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