To not get the Taylor swift hype?

[StopBeingASquare]

I have my hard hat on.
Probably going to get my arse handed to me on a plate.

I really don't get all this fuss about Taylor swift, I just find her utterly boring. All this fuss about midnight / album / preorders / codes to then try and attempt to get tickets in Scotland when you live on the cliffs of lands end. Threads and threads about it and people planning their outfits when the gig is a year away, I thought gig attire was jeans and a tour T shirt?! From various YouTube videos I've seen of her singing live I have to say I wasn't impressed at all. Mediocre voice, dodging high notes. I'm obviously a minority here as there's people willing to sell a kidney to just get a code to be in with a chance of getting a ticket.

I saw Pink in Hyde park a few weeks ago where she was singing live, doing incredible acts, dancing, acrobats etc and it was incredible. I'm not trying to compare, but I just find Taylor so average!

Can anyone tell me why there's all of this hype. I'm fully aware my username is rather fitting.

(I'll get my coat..)

People seem surprised that there are some posters who don’t know any TS songs. I genuinely know one (Shake it off) and that’s it! Plus the only bit of that song that I know is the chorus - I couldn’t tell you how the rest goes. I’m spectacularly out of touch 😳

She's massively overrated and sold herself out. She was a country singer originally wasn't she? Harry Styles is, also massively overrated. At least TS arguably has some talent, Styles has none. You could pay me to see either of them but bizarrely both are v popular.

I’m not a fan. The only song I can name is Shake it Off.

But nobody is paying anyone to see her. Or forcing anyone to listen to her music.

There’s enough music out there for everyone. What does it matter if tastes differ?

We all like things other people think are awful / pointless / bad…. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t like her music. But I don’t like Beyoncé’s music either (or her arse-wobbling/twerking) - hard hat firmly on.

She's a wonderful performer, lyricist and singer.

You can’t say you don’t like her music if you haven’t actually listened to it. Listen to the albums evermore and folklore then come back and give an opinion. They are bloody brilliant. Even if you don’t like them if you call songs of that quality “pointless and bad” well then it’s your taste I’m judging. Maybe you like Metallica or Steps or something.

Of course you can! If you know a certain something isn't to your taste you can certainly say you don't like it.

If someone doesn't like seafood, can they not say they don't like prawns as they haven't tried them?

(I forgot I did this thread, I remember how many TS fans I angered now )

I have listened to some of her bits though. I do like her new song cruel summer!

Are you quite well?! So you think you can have a valid opinion on something you have t actually listened to? A book you haven’t read? A film you haven’t seen? Very weird.

It's interesting that people who haven't heard of much of her stuff have heard of Shake it Off- 1989 was her first pop album and she's spoken about releasing songs she knows will help her career ie get airplay; shake it off being the main one so seems it worked! I don't think it's weird people haven't heard much of her stuff really, plenty of popular artists I haven't either.

Sneering at things that are popular is always a thing isn't it? The more popular people are the more people love to dismiss it.
See also Coldplay.

I, a Taylor Swift Fan, have some thoughts on this.

In terms of why TS is having such a powerful moment right now, I think there are a few factors:

1. She has released four very popular and successful albums since her last tour (Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Midnights). These albums were popular with long-standing fans, and also gained her new fans. There is therefore a very large group of people who haven't had the opportunity to see her live before or for a long time.

2. Personal narrative. Even accounting for social media trends and celebrity narratives, TS has been the subject of a huge amount of public discussion, and a lot of it has followed this very compelling idea of a redemptive narrative arc. In 2016 there was the Kanye / Kim Kardashian scandal. At the time, that was hugely damaging to Taylor - it appeared that she had lied about not giving Kanye her blessing in respect of lyrics about her, it fed into a narrative that had began to build around her as someone who weaponised white femininity, it reinforced the perception of those who didn't like her that she was fake, manipulative etc. There was a HUGE backlash against her on social media, the kind of thing not even child molesters are subject to. It subsequently transpired that the 'evidence' shared by Kim and Kanye was doctored and she hadn't actually heard or approved the lyric she subsequently complained about. That, combined with Kanye's downfall into right-wing, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist was a very redemptive process for Taylor and rehabilitated her image in a way that people found compelling to watch.

3. At the same time as the above, she broke her years-long silence on subjects such as politics and equal rights and openly came out in support of gay marriage and women's equality. There was her own court case about the man who groped her and then sued her for defamation when she told his boss (resulting in him being fired). Although clearly a very traumatising and distressing experience for her, it helped feed into the reversal of her previously negative public image.

4. Also related to this narrative arc is the subject of her master records. She was denied the opportunity to purchase these, and instead they were sold to a man who had long bullied her. Under new management she has re-recorded her masters. Fans have really bought into the importance and power of her reclaiming her work like this (as well as enjoying new-to-us 'vault' songs included on those albums).

5. Other things have factored into the popularity of the current tour - the fact that it's the first tour since tiktok exploded, meaning people have unprecedented access to clips of it etc. Tiktok has also allowed the sharing and dissemination of 'tour traditions' (like exchanging friendship bracelets, call-and-response chants etc) which have built up the hype. Then there is the fact that it covers most of her 'eras' so appeals to old and new fans from her long career, and the fact that it's just a great spectacle with high production value.

All of these and more are reasons why her cultural capital is currently huge. She is and always has been an expert in marketing - she can read the public mood and meet expectations brilliantly. She is a master of reinvention.

Further comment - I think it's very interesting how many people are dismissive of her despite how impressive she is. I theorise that it's because, for one of the most successful artists of all time, she has comparatively few brilliant singles. The lead singles from her albums are rarely her best work. Of course some people just want to tear down a successful woman for the sake of it, but for a thoughtful poster like the OP, I can see how you could miss out on the best of her if you're not a fan or interested in her music.

Singles like Shake it Off and Blank Space are fun bops and I enjoy them, but Taylor Swift is a once-in-a-generation songwriter and you wouldn't necessarily know it from her singles. Someone upthread said you could never claim she was a Freddie Mercury and if all you've heard is Shake it Off you might well think that. But what about How's one to know? / I'd meet you where the spirit meets the bones / In a faith-forgotten land / In from the snow / Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow / Tarnished, but so grand

Or her song about the pandemic - Only 20 minutes to sleep / But you dream of some epiphany / Just one single glimpse of relief / To make some sense of what you've seen

Or Past the blood and bruise / Past the curses and cries / Beyond the terror in the nightfall / Haunted by the look in my eyes / That would've loved you for a lifetime / Leave it all behind and there is happiness

Or this, about her grandmother, which always gives me a lump in my throat -

The autumn chill that wakes me up
You loved the amber skies so much
Long limbs and frozen swims
You'd always go past where our feet could touch
And I complained the whole way there
The car ride back and up the stairs
I should've asked you questions
I should've asked you how to be
Asked you to write it down for me
Should've kept every grocery store receipt
'Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me
Watched as you signed your name "Marjorie"
All your closets of backlogged dreams
And how you left them all to me

There genuinely aren't many songwriters consistently putting out the kind of profound lyricism Taylor Swift consistently achieves. I agree she's not the most powerful or impressive singer (though I think her voice is excellent and lovely) but as a story teller she's near unmatched and, in my opinion, deserves to be recognised as on a par with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Adele etc.

I think her success is impressive. I find the scale and devotion of her fandom impressive. I’m also impressed by how prolific she is.

I just find her music a bit…magnolia. And I have given some of her albums a proper listen.

'Marjorie' is my all time favourite TS song. Amazing lyrics and what a tribute to her grandmother.

I got sucked in by my teens but I listen to those songs at my desk so much and my god in my opinion they are far from magnolia. Currently obsessed with exile - “you’re not my homeland anymore”

Marjorie is definitely a favourite, although my top ten is forever in flux! I also adore August, You're on Your Own Kid, Death by A Thousand Cuts, Ivy, Maroon, The Last Great American Dynasty (and the list goes on and on and on...!)

Exile is amazing, and I love the pairing of her voice with Bon Iver, absolutely haunting

Everyone has different taste though don't they, nowt wrong with finding them magnolia (I like that descriptor!). For me it's those who don't just say I personally don't like her but who will go to great lengths to say how rubbish she is and how she had it all handed to her on a plate (not saying anyone on this thread).

Absolutely.

Gets my back up generally when people criticise harshly things they know nothing about! Applies to anything- ie my neighbour strongly criticising my teens school despite never having had a child there or attended any open evening!

I missed this thread the first time round, but I'm so with you OP! Have to turn over every time her songs are on! I don't get it, but neither to I get Adele or Beyonce, I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than listen to them!

She is a dreadful role model.

This comment couldn't have said it better -

Unhinged take

Do people have to be role models in order for you to enjoy their music? I don't know why people are so obsessed about her past boyfriends, most women date in their late teens and twenties; most of her songs aren't even about exes anymore and her last relationship was 6 years long. The media write about her anyway and some of the judgement she has recieved in the past has been absolutely savage- is it an issue if she plays the game and uses them as much as they use her? Again, I'm not sure why she receives more criticism than others.

That’s a really weird comment you’ve lifted tbh...

I mean, firstly why is anyone expecting a single woman in her thirties to be a role model to anyone, nevermind a 9 year old?

But also - screwed and used for musical fodder? I’d be interested to know who they’re listening to that isn’t writing any songs about relationships?