I know, I know.. men.. Taylor Swift..yada yada.. it ain’t that.
I know Taylor Swift is rich, glamorous, popular, and well-liked. But what I don’t know is why. Is it her resilience against attacks from men, like this?
Taylor Swift isn’t for me. Therefore it doesn’t matter if I think she sucks or not. It matters to who she is singing at. Always has. Her brilliance has nothing to do with making songs. It has to do with marketing. Her fans think they’re spoken to. All that matters is that they feel that. I don’t have a problem with all of that. In fact, I want to like her because of it. But when I listen to the music, I discover over and over it’s awful. It’s not that it’s not for me, it’s that it sucks.
What do the ears say? Do you listen with your ears?
Taylor has every right to make it. Folks have every right to like it. But no one has a right to tell other people to like it. It isn’t that good. The lyrics are trite, chords are stale, yet they throw 20 writers and producers on every song. Ever heard the term “polishing turds?” Lots of pop stars do this when they don’t have decent songwriters. Taylor is no exception.
With an unlimited budget you should be able to find a songwriter for your team.
Pop music today has enormous budgets. They spend bookoo bucks on marketing, recording, mixing/mastering, but they run out of money when it comes to lyrics or fresh progressions. In the indie world, we’ve known forever that the best stuff in that department is in DIY music. But the popular music world has yet to catch on.
Taylor’s music is empty. Soulless. Unoriginal. And greatly over-mixed. I would not talk to my kids as dumb as she talks to whoever is listening. Trying to glean insight from a Taylor Swift song while listening to a bunch of them in a row in my head feels like pushing the boulder up the mountain, starting at the bottom with every song.
Bad music is fine. Forcing bad music on folks by telling them it’s good is bad.
As I said, Taylor isn’t for me, so I don’t care. And I like when folks like music. But that doesn’t mean she’s good at writing songs. We don’t have evidence there. It’s fine if you like her, no judging. I like a lot of 70’s stuff that is just plain bad. But you see, I know that. I’m bothered when folks don’t know that about Taylor and say she’s a college course on writing music.
She is certainly not, but she could offer a PhD in marketing it.
Taylor Swift is actually a business. Most musicians aren’t “brand names” even though marketing says they are.
She’s a brand name, I’m guessing. Folks associate her with good qualities like a power drill or their favorite ice-chest. Leave me out of all that. I’m about ears. Taylor Swift bores my ears to tears. I may like her marketing and resilience, but I could never in good conscience call her a decent songwriter. The credits are so many pages long to her songs, I’m not even sure she writes what everyone thinks she does anyway.
My ears are sensitive to intrigue and emotion. Taylor bounces right off of them. But she has a lot to offer the other senses, guessing again.
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