Due to comments from FReepers who like her music, I went to YouTube and listened to a broad selection of her songs. Every one was complete and utter disposable, immediately forgettable, cliched dreck. Her political opinions have the same value as her musical output - none.
I beg to differ. 1989 is one of the greatest pop albums of all time, deserved of a place next to Thriller, Joshua Tree, Purple Rain, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Pet Sounds, Like a Virgin and the rest.
It is Taylor Swift's crowning musical achievement. There is not a bad note on the album and even the throwaways which only made the extended cut are dynamite.
LoL 🎈
From a musical taste perspective, from an artistic perspective... EVEN from a ‘feminist’ perspective! Exactly! Camille Paglia puts it best:
“Her themes are mainly complaints about boyfriends, faceless louts who blur in her mind as well as ours. Swift’s meandering, snippy songs make 16-year-old Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit ‘It’s My Party (And I’ll Cry if I Want to)’ seem like a towering masterpiece of social commentary, psychological drama and shapely concision.”
Given the professional stakes, girl squads must not slide into a cozy, cliquish retreat from romantic fiascoes or communication problems with men, whom feminist rhetoric too often rashly stereotypes as oafish pigs...Women need to study the immensely productive dynamic of male bonding in history. With their results-oriented teamwork, men largely have escaped the sexual jealousy, emotionalism and spiteful turf wars that sometimes dog women.
If women in Hollywood seek a broad audience, they must aim higher and transcend a narrow gender factionalism that thrives on grievance.
- Camille Paglia
The Hollywood Reporter