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 🥰

@AngeloMysterioso I have only proved your point if I have only listened to the top half a dozen Joni songs an none of Taylor's. Which I am happy to confirm is not the case.

@Fetchthevet so wrong!! listen to evermore and folklore and come back and say that!!

And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue? / Just between us, did the love affair maim you, too?
(“All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” from Red (Taylor’s Version)
There'll be happiness after you, but there was happiness because of you. Both of these things can be true." (Happiness)
Take the words for what they are: a dwindling, mercurial high; a drug that only worked the first few hundred times." (Illicit Affairs)
https://www.insider.com/taylor-swift-artist-of-the-decade-2010s-2019-12

you need radio 6 music! Good mix of older and new stuff but actually for grown ups.

both radio 1 and 2 are awful.

@HomeatRoseCottage of course YANBU to say TS is once in a generation songwriter. YWBU however if you want everyone to agree with you

See, none of those examples really stand out to me as anything exceptional.

If anything, they read like a teenage girl trying to be overly descriptive in a poetry or creative writing exercise for school.

You’ve proved my point because it wasn’t enough for you to just say you’re not into her. You had to throw in she’s no Joni as well. Why?

It's true that every acts has written one of two cheesy songs, but for the great acts ("generational") its not the norm for them....I dare say it is for Mrs Swift...

You’d be wrong.

I think she is just incredible, and just to help with the statistics etc, I'm in my 50s.

@HomeatRoseCottage I can't wait to cross that first bridge with her at Wembley in June!.... am pretty sure that any day now, Alexa is going to tell me that no, she cannot play Taylor Swift again! lol

Um, because I think Joni is a lot better as a songwriter? Note this does not mean I hate TS. She just leaves me cold. TBF I'd be hard pushed to name someone else of the same generation that isn't true of.

The list of people who aren’t Joni Mitchell is quite long. Do you go on every thread discussing every musician to point out that they are in fact not Joni Mitchell?!

I'm not Joni Mitchell for a start.

I don't think I have either - not knowingly anyway

The irony of all the criticism of shake it off is that the song is actually very clever. It's her shaking off the way she was portrayed in the media - slut shaming, blonde bimbo etc. I remember at the time (before I was a big fan) thinking "this girl doesn't care what you think, she knows her own worth".

A few have mentioned Amy Winehouse. Yes, she was incredibly talented, she was also very troubled. Taylor is, to me (and millions of others), just as talented but has proven how strong she is too. No she hasn't battled drug addictions (good for her), but she hasn't had it easy either despite what people think.

Taylor was cancelled in 2016. This was due to a culmination of criticism and oversaturation in the media (she's overexposed atm too probably, but I don't think it will harm her this time) and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian trying to ruin her career. They told lies about her and recorded a phonecall with Kanye and Taylor, choosing only to release clips of the parts that suited them. The full recording was leaked in 2020 (probably by Kris Jenner) and Taylor was proven to have been telling the truth the whole time.

She was hardly seen at all for a year from sept 2016. She met her ex (of 6 years) around then and kinda hid away with him. But she came back with the aptly named album reputation in 2017, Look what you made me do was a response to the whole thing. I love that song but I get why others don't. The video is incredible though. Anyway, she fought back. She always fights for things she thinks are right, stands up for herself. Her row with Spotify, sexual assault case, reclaiming her masters.

So many female artists these days are overly sexualised also, whether it's lyrics, dance moves or clothing. Even Taylor's songs about sex aren't vulgar, more sensual. And she definitely keeps things a bit classier than most (without being prudish). I just think she's a fantastic role model for all females.

What?

Greatest Living Poet?

Oh, come on!

I think she is very good and really talented, almost annoyingly so.

But to be my "artist of the generation" she would have to be more that just amongst the best of her generation. She would have to be stand out, head and shoulders above the rest. Although I think she is definitely up there with the best, or maybe even the best, she isn't really hugely better than the rest of the other artists of her generation like Ed Sheeran.

So it's a no for me. Sorry Taylor. You're still great though.

No. He writes the music

And is very, very clear that Berni Taupin is credited with the lyrics. (Except in a few songs that he has been commissioned to write)

Doesn't everyone know that Bernie Taupin is his main lyricist?

Does she sing about anything other than boys?

Kate Bush, compare and contrast:

From Vogue Magazine - Kate Bush has tackled sensitive and taboo subjects long before it had become fashionable to do so; “Kashka From Baghdad” is a song about a gay male couple; “Breathing” explores the results of nuclear fallout. Her lyrics are often literate and reference a wide array of subject matter, some of which is relatively obscure, such as Wilhelm Reich in “Cloudbusting”, or G.I. Gurdjieff in “Them Heavy People”.

YADNBU op. She is amazing. People who judge her are usually the ones who have barely listened to her. evermore is a MASTERPIECE. As is 1989. I listen to all sorts of music all the time and am obsessive about it, and I am 50 so not young, and I still think she is the best songwriter for years and years.

What do you mean by 'modern'?

21st century?

Because there were lots of women in the 20th that would knock TS out of the park

Mercury can get away with that as he's very witty. Likewise John Lennon with "I am the walrus".

And I don't think anyone on here is really shitting on her (well most anyway). I think Swift is bloody good and those who are going to see her next year will have a great time. That Romeo and Juliet inspired song she wrote as a teen, that's talent. OP called her "generational", that's the issue here. At this point in time that seems a massive exaggeration. She's certainly among the best today, problem is in the era of ultra packaged acts of today the standard is low. The Cheshire baker for example, Cowell's product Harry Styles, him receiving plaudits/awards previously reserved for top musicians. The internet/reality tv era has watered down quality. Cowell for one killed the Christmas number one race. And then there's K pop acts made up of pre packaged squads. Creativity has declined immensely as the charts now are swamped with products.

Not to mention money making...

I literally know Shake it off. Otherwise? Its a total blank!

So no. Is the answer.

Does she sing about anything other than boys?

No. Every song she’s ever written - ten albums’ worth, over a nearly 20 year career - has been about boys.

🙄

What's with the 'Cheshire baker' thing? I'm assuming that this was his job before X Factor? Nobody talks about 'Waitress Lady Gaga' or 'Cleaner Miley Cyrus' or 'Cinema usher Elvis Presley'.

It's like you think it's some kind of put down, when it's really not. How very peculiar!