I think I hate Taylor Swift

[stevejamsecono]

It's fine to hate Taylor Swift. I have yet to hear anything she's done that doesn't seem to speak to a very narrow stylistic and emotional world view that I personally find shallow and boring. She reads like a very successful PR campaign that just happens to have music involved.

A few stray thoughts:

First:
As part of my life here in Brooklyn I host trivia as a side gig. Once a month I host a raucous Taylor Swift trivia. We shuffle out topics on other nights constantly, but Taylor Swift Trivia is continually there and packed regardless of the fact that the same-ish people show up and the questions rarely change. Since I'm often in my headphones listening solely to music of my own choosing I have not often encountered Taylor Swift's music in the wider world on purpose and thus everything I have heard of hers or learned about her has been, as my friend Cait loves to put it, 'against my will' at these events.

I think what I find striking is how utterly ravenous these people are for completely disinteresting information about one of their favorite artists. You'd think given how massive she is, that there'd be some cool facts about how the records were made or her origin story or something along those lines. There isn't. The majority of the nerdery is around stuff you'd find in a middle school student's LiveJournal -- who they date, how many cats they have, what their lucky number is (13 in case she hasn't said it enough times), etc. It's a snore. Considering the parasocial relationship that Taylor has with her fans it certainly doesn't speak well to what these people (largely adult women) have in their own inner lives.

Second:
Poptimism was a nice idea but like most nice ideas it's gotten ruined by it leaving the critical circles it was originally intended for. A well-meaning attempt to widen the narrative of artistic value away from just rock stuff to be more inclusive of the contributions of female, POC, and queer people making music not focused on the electric guitar is now used to defend stuff like this. I don't think Taylor Swift is a great outcome for that intent.

There's amazing music being made everywhere right now and I think most people can do better. If 90s-revivalism is still on the rise I wouldn't mind that healthy skepticism towards anything being too commercial that was around at that time to similarly make a comeback.

[DeathJag]

Yes, billionaires are a crime against humanity and nature. In a fair and regulated economy, they wouldn't exist. They cannot be expected to understand anything that normal people go through, no matter their roots.

[Telliot]

I’m not exactly sure what the point of this thread is and we’re already getting complaints about it so I’m gonna go ahead and close it before things go bad.