AIBU to say Taylor Swift is a once in a generation songwriter?

[HomeatRoseCottage]

I’ve had 1989 TV on all day and she’s just magic 🥰

Just interested, which songs do you consider idiotic?

I'm guessing you don't like country or folk either? Or ballads?

i mean fair dos, but "Idiotic" is quite an accusation for songs like hers. I guess I think of "idiotic" as Mr Blobby or something.

You're right I worded that badly. I think it's fair to say though that a significant number do come along with their kids (and like it too).

Exactly this - I don’t care if people aren’t fans but it’s frustrating to see the same old misogyny wheeled out - that her fans are children or emotionally immature, that she’s purely the product of good PR, that she doesn’t write her own songs because she isn’t the sole songwriting credit (somehow when men have co-writers it’s all good but when women have co-writers they obviously didn’t actually do anything themselves…), that she’s not pretty enough or that she’s only popular because she’s pretty…

To the posters who say ‘meh, not for me’ I think absolutely fair enough, it’s just an opinion and everyone is welcome to their own. But the posters being so revolting misogynistic deserve called out for it.

My DD15 got up at 4.50am to listen as soon as it was out 😂 and we’ve had it on repeat all day. I agree with you OP.

I'm 47, got up with a hangover and forgot it was out till I looked at Twitter.

multi generational stuff 😂

edit - no I'm not proud of the hangover nor that I forgot that it came out today 😂

It's a no from me.

I challenge you to go listen to Ronan, and the story behind how it was written, and still say that.

Aren't a lot of her songs co-written?

Grown adults clearly do like her. I am 42. My husband is 47 and mainly listens to Jazz, Soul, Blues and Funk loves her. I was initially shocked by this, considering his usual music tastes. She has a lot of different music and can't be judged alone by her singles.

I first realised how talented she is when folklore was released.

It depends what you class as relevant I suppose. Lots of people of a certain demographic will know Ironic at the very least, but for the wider population which seems to be the criteria posters are setting for longevity, she's not relevant at all. She's an amazing artist though and I personally love her music, I think having anyone knowing your songs 40 years on is impressive, there will absolutely be people, even if not wider society (whatever that actually means), who know her music in 40 years.

@23Oct her voice is literally like nails down the blackboard for me. don't want to torture myself. and I shouldn't have to research a song to feel the complexity. truly developed music touches your soul without explanation... just like one laughs at a good joke without explanation.

Well I'd argue Ronan would do that for you, be abuse it's make you care enough to find out who the little boy who died was.

What do you know about her subject matter to make you describe it as ‘teen angst’. This might have been somewhat true of her first couple of albums (written when she was, in fact, a teenager), but now?

What about Marjorie, which is about realising too late what you lose when a beloved grandparent dies and you only have memories left? Or Epiphany, which linked the trauma suffered by healthcare workers fighting on the frontlines in the pandemic to the experiences of soldiers fighting in WW2?

Or illicit affairs, which is about the ways in which infidelity compromises the beauty of a great love through deceit?

How about no body no crime, which is clever, witty and about getting away with murdering your best friend’s husband?

you absolutely don’t have to like Taylor swift or any of these songs but there’s something so sneering about writing her body of work off as mere teen angst that is only popular with teens when it’s blatantly not true

But there is no single piece of music that touches everyone’s soul. Just like there is no joke that everyone finds funny.

I think some people just seem to enjoy slating anything or anyone that is popular tbh.

Lana del Rey writes an album with Jack Antonoff (Norman Fucking Rockwell) = critics all saying Lana is America’s greatest songwriter. Taylor Swift writes an album with Jack Antonoff (Midnights) = people saying Taylor doesn’t write her songs and her collaborators do all the work. I don’t get it.

I also don’t get people saying things like she only writes about teenage angst, strumming her guitar, etc. She’s released eight more albums since Fearless, things have moved on.

And saying she’s a nepo baby and only did well because she has mega rich parents. Are people confusing her with Miles Cyrus or something?

therealcookiemonster what sort of music do you enjoy?

the teen angst thing is bizarre. Remember the Verve singing "love is noise, love is pain, love is these blues that I'm singing again"...? Bet no one called that teen angst.

OP re Illicit Affairs, I haven't had one, but that hit me hard in the cinema with the seeing colours you can't see with anyone else thing.

Hasn't she won lots of Grammys? Maybe they give them out in cereal boxes these days.

Er….

How convenient that you can just choose to decide he isnt

And… I love Taylor Swift- massively talented.

Her parents have nothing to do with the music industry- how is she a ‘nepo baby’?

Ironic is still played on the radio.

Alanis just feels alot more real, authentic.

That album of hers was a cultural monster. I really cant see Taylor coming close to it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_in_the_United_Kingdom

@EmmaEmerald pretty much anything except pop.... I love classical music, and rock, some metal, edm, a lot of world music especially sufi spiritual music.

we are all allowed our opinions. if others want to like Taylor swift, that's their business. but those of us that dislike it are also entitled to. incidentally I don't think mr blobby is idiotic at all, there is something really darkly humorous about him... but that's just my take on it.

Oh del ray is an immense fraud. Completely packaged following her first offering.

Taylor Swift is Mozart in comparison to her.

My 15 yo loves her.

I really like Taylor as a human being, as a role model, as a self-made person, I think she seems genuine and kind-hearted.

I don't think she makes music with me in mind but I don't find any of her music objectionable.

I really love the1. Really love it. Don't think I feel that way about any of her other songs, but that one. Yes.

Of course
but I'm curious why you think her songs are "idiotic"?

pp mentioned Grammys - some lovely youtube clips of acoustic show at the Grammy Museum if you're interested.

why do people think this means she isn’t the talent behind them? She writes almost all the lyrics and melodies. She has co-writers who help develop those lyrics and melodies into fully formed songs. Just like Adele co-wrote Hello, Ed Sheeran co-wrote Shivers, Alanis Morisette co-wrote shivers, Christine McVie co-wrote Little Lies, and Eric Clapton co-wrote Tears in Heaven. It doesn’t compromise the skill and integrity of the artist to bring other talent in to the process of producing the song.