The Lesson of Taylor Swift’s Success: “Choose a Lane.”
Right now, Taylor Swift is more powerful than Barack Obama. She’s more popular than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton combined. She’s got stronger grassroots than Ben Carson and Bernie Sanders, and a release of one of her videos would upstage even a new Star Wards movie trailer. And how has she done it?
“Choose a lane.”
We already knew when Taylor Swift delivered her latest record 1989 to the headquarters of Big Machine Records, they initially tried to persuade Swift to put a few country songs on the record to keep her career alive on the country radio format. But Taylor Swift refused.
“When she first turned in the record, she says the head of her label, Scott Borchetta, told her, ‘This is extraordinary it’s the best album you’ve ever done. Can you just give me three country songs?'” is how Rolling Stone portrayed the interchange between Swift and the Big Machine CEO. “‘Love you, mean it,’ is how Swift characterizes her response. ‘But this is how it’s going to be.'”
However a new feature recently posted in GQ goes much farther in describing the conflict between Swift and Big Machine. This wasn’t a simple exchange between Swift and Borchetta. There was an outright intervention going on, with numerous high-level executives doing what they could to assuage Swift into not going pop 100%.
“Even calling this record 1989 was a risk,” Swift says in the GQ feature. “I had so many intense conversations where my label really tried to step in. I could tell they’d all gotten together and decided, ‘We gotta talk some sense into her. She’s had an established, astronomically successful career in country music. To shake that up would be the biggest mistake she ever makes,’ . . . I’d go into the label office, and they were like, ‘Can we talk about putting a fiddle and a steel-guitar solo on ‘Shake It Off’ to service country radio?’”
But Taylor Swift refused. Why?
“I’d read a review of [2012’s] Red that said it wasn’t sonically cohesive. So that was what I wanted on 1989: an umbrella that would go over all of these songs, so that they all belonged on the same album.”
Huh. I wonder whose review said that.
“I was trying to make the most honest record I could possibly make,” Swift continues. “And they were kind of asking me to be a little disingenuous about it: ‘Let’s capitalize on both markets.’ No, let’s not. Let’s choose a lane.”
Also in a new video from The Grammy’s, Swift said there was “like a dozen sit-downs” with Big Machine.
So much wisdom to be gained here from the biggest music artist in the world. First, we get some good insight into the aggressiveness of Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Records to attempt to pressure their artists into following the label’s designated path instead of their own, even when it’s an artist with the celebrity power and track record of Taylor Swift. Just as Swift might be pressured to stay country, others may be pressured to go pop or rock or EDM with some of their music. And this is from a label known for extending more creative freedom to their roster than most on Music Row.
But once again, Taylor Swift illustrates the importance of genre. So many artists, so many labels and fans will tell you genre is irrelevant in this day and age. It wasn’t irrelevant to Taylor Swift. To hear her talk, choosing a genre and sticking to it, and making sure it was the genre that best represented her music was the ultimate key to the success of 1989. And if she had listened to her label, it might have never happened on such a grand scale.
Of course, “success” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good, even though Swift’s high-profile stance against Apple Music and now this silly Ryan Adam’s cover album of 1989 has made throngs of Taylor Swift apologists and outright fans of otherwise intelligent music listeners who should know better. In the same recent Grammy feature, Taylor Swift admitted that when her album Red did not win Best Album in 2014, “I remember not going to after-parties, I went home and I cried a little bit, and I got In-N-Out Burger and ate a lot.”
Taylor Swift’s 2010 album Speak Now won the Grammy for Best Album in 2010, and her song “Mean” won two Grammy Awards. But since the inclusion of Swedish producer Max Martin into her production staff and songwriting process, Swift has been locked out of the Grammy Awards, at least so far. The resounding commercial success of 1989 may give Grammy voters not other choice but to award it Best Album this upcoming season, but now possibly Swift is understanding that money is not all that music is about. She won her Grammy Awards when it was her songs, and her music. Max Martin has brought her grand commercial success, but at the expense of her critical praise.
Taylor Swift has ascended to the top spot in all of music not because she has avoided missteps. It’s because she has learned from mistakes, and been honest with her fans. Not lying about the style and genre of her music not only brought her the greatest success of her career, but some of the greatest success we’ve ever seen in music. Meanwhile many current mainstream country artists bend over backwards to tell you how their music is country when we all know it isn’t, and how the reliance on genre distinctions is outmoded. But the success of Taylor Swift should impart a big lesson to the performers of today:
“Choose a lane.”
October 20, 2015 @ 10:07 am
Good for her for sticking to her guns, but it’s probably a lot easier to stand your ground when you’ve got the kind of leverage she has at this point. But it’s great she’s setting an example on this and some other important issues.
October 20, 2015 @ 11:16 am
What is Borchetta’s definition of “country?” What’s the difference between Taylor’s pop songs and Sam Hunt’s “country” songs? How can he ask Taylor to put 3 “country” songs (whatever that means) on album, yet Sam Hunt has yet to even sing one? I’m kinda confused.
October 20, 2015 @ 11:32 am
Different labels. Sam Hunt has nothing to do with Borchetta
October 20, 2015 @ 11:36 am
Sam Hunt isn’t a Big Machine artist.
October 20, 2015 @ 5:42 pm
If you’re looking for a specific example, Taylor Swift has 3 and a half albums full of songs Scott Borchetta found marketable to the country genre.
October 20, 2015 @ 12:08 pm
Taylor Swift is NOT a lot of things. She is NOT very talented, she is NOT a great musician, BUT she is also NOT an idiot and she is NOT fake.
Such a shame that there’s so much stupid fake music made by stupid fake celebrities that just being real is enough to make someone a superstar…
October 21, 2015 @ 10:47 am
The only thing I take issue with is the not talented part. She is one of the top songwriters and her songs are good, no great. They are personal, they have dynamics, they tell a story. She’s a young girl singing songs that relate to other young girls. Just because she doesn’t look like your typical songwriter (a disheveled hipster with a beard or something) doesn’t mean she isn’t one. No, she isn’t a proficient musician but watch her acoustic performances from back when she was 16 and sitting in a radio station somewhere. With her 4 chords she manages to get all the breaks, all the dynamics. She’s actually better than half of the singer/songwriters on acoustic guitar.
October 21, 2015 @ 4:07 pm
“One of the top songwriters”
Hmm…
“I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I’m living” -Claude-Michele Schoenberg
“There’s nothing short of dying, half as lonesome as the sound of a sleepy city sidewalk” -Kristofferson
“Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood, his memories in a trunk, passed this way an hour ago, with his friend a jealous monk” -Dylan
“Three little swigs from a bottle of gin, the big bad heartache can’t get in, I lifted it up to my chinny-chin-chin and took three little swigs from a bottle of gin”-Hank Thompson
“Loving him was red” -Taylor Swift
Okay kids one of these is not like the others!
Taylor Swift is a lot better than Dallas Davidson, or Chase Rice, or Cam, but that’s like saying a broken lamp is better than a pile of elephant feces.
October 21, 2015 @ 4:44 pm
Just because she is a girl and sings songs from a young girls perspective doesn’t diminish her talent. I find it funny that your examples are all druggy metaphors as if that makes them better or more talented or something.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:09 pm
druggy metaphors? Wow… that first example is from a famous musical, and has nothing to do with drugs (unless you count tuberculosis as a drug)
You kind of missed the point. Several of these examples are poetic and profound, others are witty, and some are very abstract. (that first example was sung by a woman)
My outlook on Taylor Swift is that she is a young person, with very little life experience, writing about said very little experience. She is also a moderately talented singer/songwriter, who is successful largely because her competition (Bryan, Shelton Farr, FGL) is inept, stumbling and stupid. She’d never last in an industry dominated by Isbell, Colm Wilkinson, and Diana Krall.
She’s extremely intelligent, and she has a great deal of personal integrity. But she’s not exceptionally talented. Especially when compared to someone like Dolly, who plays nine instruments, sings on pitch, and writes far better songs.
“Birds sing for everyone but me, for me it rains.”
“Raven dove, behold he cometh in the clouds and every eye shall see him.”
“The word if, just two tiny letters, says so much for something so small.”
October 21, 2015 @ 10:23 pm
The point is you won’t give Taylor credit because she is a young girl with a upper middle class upbringing. When you say “very little life experience”, what you really mean is that she has very little of the same life experiences as you. That’s a huge difference. Also, only a non-musician is impressed with a statement like “plays nine instruments”.
October 22, 2015 @ 8:34 am
As a matter of fact I play fifteen (strings and percussion.) I respect that in Dolly because I know better than a non-musician how much practice it takes to be good on that many.
October 22, 2015 @ 10:31 am
ROTF. Like I said, only non-musicians are impressed with a statement like that. Also, only non-musicians make statements like that. Did you make sure to count each tom and cymbal?
October 22, 2015 @ 10:54 am
haha. Clever. I can’t imagine you’ll be very popular on this site by claiming that Taylor Swift is even half as talented as Dolly. Did you forget to read the article that demonstrated Swift’s extremely narrow vocal range?
October 22, 2015 @ 11:39 am
He may not be very popular here, but everyone and their opinions are welcome here.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:03 pm
Well, I originally became a fan of Taylor’s because of the imagery and the emotions that her lyrics convey, but if you are looking for great one-liners (or two-liners), there are plenty of them as well:
“So it’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna go down in flames. You can tell me when it’s over, if the high was worth the pain” (a rare great lyric from “1989”)
“Midnight, come and pick me up, no headlights. Long drive, could end in burning flames or paradise” (another great line from “1989”)
“Long handwritten note deep in your pocket, words how little they mean when you’re a little too late. I stood right by the tracks, your face in a locket. Good girls, hopeful they’ll be and long they will wait”
“You call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.”
“Long were the nights when my days once revolved around you, counting the footsteps praying the floor won’t fall through”
“You paint me a blue sky then go back and turn it to rain, and I lived in your chess game but you changed the rules every day” (same song as the previous quote)
“Because the last time you saw me is still burned in the back of your mind, you gave me roses and I left them there to die”
“You can plan for a change in weather and time, but I never planned on you changing your mind”
“Do you remember we were sitting there by the water…You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter”
“Left yourself in your warpath, lost your balance on a tightrope, lost your mind trying to get it back”
“The playful conversation starts, counter all your quick remarks”
“Talk to yourself, talk to the tears, talk to the man who put you here, don’t wait for the sky to clear”
“This is a big world, that was a small town, there in my rearview mirror disappearing now”
“You put up walls and paint them all a shade of gray, and I stood there loving you and wished them all away”
“I guess it’s true that love was all you wanted, cause you’re giving it away like it’s extra change. Hoping it would end up in his pocket, but he leaves you out like a penny in the rain”
“September saw a month of tears and thanking God that you weren’t here, to see me like that. But in a box beneath my bed is a letter than you never read, from three summers back”
October 21, 2015 @ 5:17 pm
She’s not a bad writer, BUT her best work is yet to come. She’s a twenty something with no life experience. After a few decades of real experience (if she ever has any, considering she’s a superstar now with no real world life to experience) I expect her to write things FAR better than 1989.
Again, it’s not like she’s going to write a universally acclaimed West End Musical or a gem like “You Win Again” anytime soon.
And, honestly, as poetic as those quotes are (and they are VERY poetic) they’re just kind of flowery, the way Albus Dumbledore spoke or Brian Jacques wrote. There’s a lot of “empty word space.”
October 21, 2015 @ 6:45 pm
In and of themselves, those lines do not mean anything, but it is the placement of them in the context of her narrative-based lyrics that makes them truly meaningful.
And of course I expect her to write better than “1989”, which features the worst writing of any of her albums. The question is whether she can again match the quality of “Speak Now” in the near future.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:02 pm
I think she’s got a lot of wasted possibility. She obviously has the same seed of inspiration that Dylan, Haggard and Howard had. BUT those guys had real life struggles and experiences to feed that inspiration. I just don’t think Taylor Swift is connected enough with the real world to make use of that seed of inspiration. She was a well-to-do kid who got a record deal early and sidestepped a lot of “the real world” in the process.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:32 pm
Tell me again about all the real life experiences Bob Dylan had? He was a spoiled brat who got a deal at a very young age and has done nothing in the so-called “real world”. What jobs did he have? What hard times did he have to over come? His entire career has been built around convincing people he’s some prophet or something. This is coming from someone who knows as much about Dylan as anybody.
October 22, 2015 @ 8:38 am
Dylan is an extremely bizarre character, who probably should be compared so Sturgill Simpson or Thelonious Monk, and not Taylor Swift.
Keep in mind Dylan gave us “Blowing in the Wind.” a song that has been covered by Dolly Parton, the Kingston Trio, Eddy Arnold, Ted Hawkins, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, and literally hundreds of other artists. I think that speaks for itself.
Tell me again how Taylor Swift did something like that?
October 22, 2015 @ 10:32 am
You mean “No more auction block for me”? Bob Dylan “borrowed” that song and many others to help his career along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rE-Ljcw8ro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bob_Dylan_songs_based_on_earlier_tunes
October 22, 2015 @ 10:40 am
Oh and to answer your last sentence. Ryan Adams just did an entire album cover and her songs have helped launch a zillion youtube stars who cover her material in new and interesting ways. Of course you can’t compare someone who’s only been out a few years to someone who has been around since 1962. Of course more people have recorded his work.
October 22, 2015 @ 10:57 am
Bob Dylan borrowed a lot of songs. But the idea that the Ryan Adams cover somehow demonstrated that Taylor is a better writer than Dylan is laughable. Ryan Adams is one guy, one very strange guy. The list of people covering Dylan is multiple hundreds, covering multiple songs and not just one album.
The Ryan Adams thing is less a lesson about Taylor Swift and more a lesson about Ryan Adams.
If Axl Rose were to do a complete cover of “Dark Side of the Moon” would that make Pink Floyd worthy of the level of praise you keep heaping on Taylor Swift?
October 22, 2015 @ 1:08 pm
I’m still waiting to here Dylan’s life experiences. That was the basis of your argument. Dylan is nothing like Stirgall Simpson. Simpson is in his late 30’s if I remember correctly and has presumably lived a somewhat normal life for most of it. Dylan has been acting like a arrogant rock star since his teen years. But since Dylan LOOKS like what you want a prolific songwriter to look like you give him a pass.
October 23, 2015 @ 4:52 am
I read in a Country Music Magazine, in an article about Nudie Cohen, talking about Dylan’s “sloppy” look being the result of years of manufacturing. I’m well aware of the falsities of Dylan’s image. This is just about the music. And I think his is better.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:43 pm
I appreciate your opinion, but she gets the praise she does from so many in her industry because she is not just very talented, but also smart and savvy.
October 23, 2015 @ 4:39 am
Not talented? You just removed yourself from any logical debate on this board IMO.
I don’t like her music particularly but not talented? That’s a joke.
October 25, 2015 @ 5:53 pm
She’s not a “great” musician, although compared to Jason Aldean she’s as good as Elvis. She’s not the best writer, although she’s a lot better than most of her peers. She’s also not a great singer: she has narrow range and questionable intonation. I have a lot of respect for her integrity and personality, and compared to her peers she’s a class act, but by the usually high standards of Country Music’s women she isn’t particularly remarkable.
October 26, 2015 @ 3:57 am
Ok I don’t necessarily disagree with that but you said she’s not talented. A juggler is talented. If your the top selling and touring artist, selling out stadiums, your talented.
The bad singer part is old fiddle. As she called out in ‘Mean’, she’s heard enough of that, but obviously there are enough people who enjoy her abilities.
October 20, 2015 @ 12:52 pm
Please forward this to Zac Brown. I don’t care if they do all sorts of genres, but let each project have its own EP or album instead of mixing and matching all sorts of stuff.
October 20, 2015 @ 7:23 pm
What sucks about Zac is wasting a very talented band on crap.
October 20, 2015 @ 10:35 pm
As I have said before, Zac Brown is about 1 album cycle behind Taylor Swift. His current album is analogous to Taylor’s “Red”, with most of the songs being amorphous in terms of genre, and a few being purely pop (such as “Beautiful Drug”). Just like Taylor released her first pop song, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, to country radio and saw it flop, Zac Brown has just gone through the same experience with “Beautiful Drug”.
Once again, I predict that Zac’s next album will be purely pop. The key hindrance to that, though, might be that he does not have anywhere near the fame in the pop world that Taylor had even prior to “1989”. She had been enjoying a string of pop hits for 6 years leading up to her full-blown pop album, whereas Zac has, until now, never even promoted his songs to pop radio.
October 20, 2015 @ 11:16 pm
Interesting theory.
October 21, 2015 @ 4:41 am
Sorry but I really really don’t see that happening. You even mentioned the reason why- ZBB has no footprint in pop at all. They’ve got one (unproven single) and no where near the popularity swift has. They’re a long way from a purely pop album.
October 20, 2015 @ 2:34 pm
very interesting point Trigger. So that fucking Borchetta douchebag actually thinks that three country songs can make a blatant pop album country? Thank you Taylor Swift for having the balls to stick to your guns and ignore that absolute fuckhead! I got terrified trying to imagine how Shake it Off would sound with a fiddle and steel guitar solo.
What really sets me off is all those Jason Aldean and Thomas Rhett fans justifying their putrid idols by saying “at least they’re more country than Taylor Swift”. Fuck, no! Hell Swift’s old songs like Picture to Burn or Our Song sound way more country than anything Aldean released to radio since The Truth in 2010. And I’d add that at least Taylor Swift used to record enjoyable easy listening music. I’m not really a fan of hers, but I enjoy stuff like Back to December, Mine and Sparks Fly coming on the radio. that’s not country, but it’s at least decent music! unlike that disgusting Burning it Down or Dirt Road Anthem stuff. Unlike Bottoms Up. Unlike Ready Set Roll. Unlike Let me See Ya Girl. Unlike Make Me Wanna. I’m so tired of these Bro country assholes that Borchetta is throwing down our throats. I’d love to see them move in the mainstream pop scene,but they know they suck and that they won’t last a single day out there. so what? “yeah let’s poisoning and pollute country radio! gimme a truck, a naked girl and a beer and throw some electronic stuff in the mix, this is how we get a huge hit on country radio”.
October 20, 2015 @ 3:02 pm
1989 didn’t really succeed the expense of her critical praise since it’s her most critically acclaimed to date.
October 20, 2015 @ 5:08 pm
She can’t sing and her writing is mediocre but much easier to listen to than whatever shit is on the radio, even her full out pop songs.
To say she is more powerful than Obama, ha! If she posts something on twitter, she can get a few million teenage girls to do it but Obama could basically end humanity.
October 20, 2015 @ 10:40 pm
Well, there is one similarity between her and Obama. Just like Obama betrayed the economically populist base of his party without paying any significant political price, Taylor Swift betrayed her long-time country-leaning fan base without paying any price in popularity or sales.
For the record, that’s just my opinion. I certainly don’t want to start a political debate again…
October 20, 2015 @ 6:44 pm
I’m going to go out on an INSANLY SMALL limb here and say bet her album would have done the same thing success wise whether it had a few country cuts or not. To me her “choosing a lane” is irrelevant because in my opinion it had no bearing on the success of the album.
October 20, 2015 @ 7:08 pm
Perhaps. I’m not going on my own judgement on that. I’m going off of Taylor Swift’s. According to Taylor, it was a key ingredient to the success of ‘1989.’ I tend to agree that it was a factor, though.
October 20, 2015 @ 7:07 pm
I’m NOT gonna go out on a limb when I say that I believe TS could have released an album of herself snoring , brushing her teeth , washing her socks, making toast or sneezing and she’d have sold it to her legions of followers at this point . As someone mentioned above , once you’ve lucked out with a couple of tracks that stick with a demographic, you get some leverage , some ‘ pull ‘ and appear ‘powerful ‘ . You can even make a few bad decisions that won’t sink you financially and WILL appeal to enough of your fan base ( 14 year olds ) to keep you afloat until the next thing clicks . At this point in the TS saga ,right or wrong she can do no wrong , short of intentionally running over someone’s puppy .C’mon , folks . This is NOT a talented artist . This is a pop product who couldn’t carry a tune at gunpoint but looks , acts , dresses and plays the part well . She’s very pretty , very attractive , and has the attention of a lot of boys because of that . And THAT is the person most young girls WANT to be . Certainly she’s a role model in that respect …….but in no way is it because of her ‘ artistry ‘ , for goodness sakes . Its because of her marketability and her success as that product . Its easy to ‘ choose a lane’ when you can afford to and really have nothing significant to lose . Its much harder , riskier and braver to do it when you’re driving against the flow and its a matter of career life or death. ( Isbell , Sturgell , Ortega ..)
October 20, 2015 @ 9:58 pm
“This is NOT a talented artist . This is a pop product who couldn”™t carry a tune at gunpoint but looks , acts , dresses and plays the part well . She”™s very pretty , very attractive , and has the attention of a lot of boys because of that .”
Honestly, this statement reveals a deep lack of knowledge. Firstly, the overwhelming majority of her fans have always been female. In fact, she has one of the most heavily female fan bases of any major artist. Until recently, many boys did not even know that she existed. Secondly, she has always solely written or co-written all of her songs, and in fact she began her career as a professional songwriter at the age of just 14. Thirdly, regardless of her current album, her previous albums all epitomized high-quality pop/country with deep, relatable lyrics. This is evident from all of the critical praise that she received as well as all of the major awards she won, including Grammy Album of the Year, Grammy Best Country Song (twice), the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, in addition to her bevy of country awards. It is also evident from the testimonials of her [pre-“1989”] fans who could quote her lyrics on a dime and never missed the opportunity to discuss how her songs gave them emotional comfort. I can’t think of a single major country or pop artist in the last 5 years whose lyrics have had as much impact as hers.
“You can even make a few bad decisions that won”™t sink you financially and WILL appeal to enough of your fan base ( 14 year olds ) to keep you afloat until the next thing clicks”
The idea that her fans average 14 years of age is laughably outdated. That might have been close to the truth circa 2008, but her fans now are much older. One of the reasons for this shift has been that her fans have aged with her. They have not moved onto the “next thing” because she formed such a deep personal bond with them through the lyrics in her previous albums that they are willing to stick with her even if she dabbles in pop (for the record, I have been far less forgiving of her than the bulk of her fans).
On a broader level, though, I just do not understand why you still harbor so much anger toward Taylor Swift. The last 4 years in country music have amply demonstrated that she is the least of the problems in the genre.
October 20, 2015 @ 11:08 pm
” She”™s very pretty , very attractive , and has the attention of a lot of boys ( as in boyfriends , apparently ) because of that . AND THAT IS THE PERSON MOST YOUNG GIRLS WANT TO BE (PRETTY , FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL , DESIRABLE BY YOUNG MEN , A POP STAR )
“You can even make a few bad decisions that won”™t sink you financially and WILL appeal to enough of your fan base ( 14 year olds ) to keep you afloat until the next thing clicks” YES THEY’VE AGED WITH TS …BUT THEY WERE 14 -ISH WHEN THEY GOT ON BOARD THE TS TRAIN .
I MEAN THAT SHE CAN AFFORD TO MAKE A MISTAKE CUZ THE FANS WHO WOULD BuY HER USED KLEENEX WOULD BY ANYTHING SHE RELEASES – GOOD OR BAD- AND HAPPILY WAIT UNTIL HER NEXT THING ‘ CLICKS ‘
This is a pop product top to bottom ….Pepsi Cola , McDonald’s burgers ….whatever . She was marketed properly from the get-go and continues to be marketed aggressively and , yes, successfully as that product. She is not an ‘artist’ ….not a singer or a dancer or a good writer or a good guitar/banjo/piano player . There are thousands of far more talented young women ( and men ) looking for careers who are not in the position to ‘ make it happen’ the way TS’ family did and they are far more capable musically , lyrically and vocally . THIS is what makes me sad . I think TS is a lovely woman….and yes ….probably a good role model . But she is just not talented in the way so many REAL artists are . She is just a hyped product that people like to buy into in order to feel they are a part of something ‘hip’ . And that’s fine too ….that’s a natural youthful need . But TS is no Kacey Musgraves or Lindi Ortega or Katy Perry , much less an Alison Kraus or a Brandy Clark or any number of more deserving women artists still struggling to find a career .
October 20, 2015 @ 11:19 pm
Maybe she is not as great as the others on your list (except for Katy Perry; what is that about?), and I am sure that there are plenty of unheralded yet talented struggling artists, but why single her out? Going by sales, durability of fan base, and critical reviews, she is clearly the best of any MAJOR artist in either country or pop. Aren’t there bigger fish to fry?
October 21, 2015 @ 11:11 am
If she is the best mainstream music has to offer… I’m just kind of disappointed that for her age her lyrics are so high school gossip diary pages. And to so completely make music of the moment like a trendwhore… That’s why I agree she a product and not an artist first. She is a savvy business woman like Madonna, or Martha Stewart, or those shite headphone Beats by Dre not the best product out there but the best marketing money can buy and a brand name that sells.
“Haters”… LOL! Bad Blood was sooooo stupid… I know she is appealing to a certain age demographic and has managed to rope in other demos by accident but come on women, “Haters” that is like 2008 back when haters made people famous.
Also I have always said, “Just because haters gonna hate, doesn’t mean that they are wrong.”
October 20, 2015 @ 11:34 pm
Another thing: “greatness” in songwriting is highly subjective. It is important to remember that Taylor Swift started out on a small new label that only became as powerful as it is today due to her output. The key to her success was that her lyrics emotionally connected with a large audience, augmented by the fact that in her early career she put a tremendous amount of work into personally reaching out to potential fans through Myspace.
Sadly, the emerging talent in country music faces a major hurdle in that the current party environment of country radio will likely prevent any emotionally deep songs from breaking through. Nonetheless, no matter how great their technical songwriting ability, the question that they must answer is the same that Taylor had to answer a decade ago: can their songs strike an emotional chord with a broad range of listeners?
October 21, 2015 @ 12:17 am
We agree , as always , to disagree when it comes to the issue of talent and TS , Eric . Ultimately my point is that she is a Product with a capital P . The fact that young girls are touched by her lyrics is neither her nor there. I see 4 year olds excited by ” THE WHEELS ON THE BUS ” and ” IF YOU’RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT CLAP YOUR HANDS ” but no one would argue that these are examples of great songwriting or musical artistry on any level ( albeit ,I’d lay odds those particular ditties will outlast the TS ‘ catalogue ‘) . BTW …check out some of Katy Perry’s lyrics . The woman can write and her melodies are inventive , dynamic and as fresh as they come and , at the risk of rocking the boat yet again , KP has a voice .
October 21, 2015 @ 1:06 am
I’m sure that you, as a songwriting teacher, understand the difference between an anthem and an actual story-based song (the type of song which, up until this point, dominated Taylor Swift’s catalog).
As for Katy Perry, can you name a single Katy Perry song that comes close to the melodic beauty of Taylor’s country songs, and I am having a hard time finding any that even matches her current single “Wildest Dreams”. The bulk of Katy Perry’s songs are musically flat, with some of the only exceptions that I have heard being “Hot and Cold”, “The One That Got Away”, and “Last Friday Night”.
Also, the fact that you find Katy’s lyrics and vocal style superior to Taylor’s shows exactly why musical taste is subjective…
October 21, 2015 @ 10:00 am
I would say that Taylor Swift’s “Story” songs tell stories that are relatable to younger people, people who had money, and nice things, and are not relatable to older folks who struggled with poverty/loneliness. Taylor Swift came from money, although maybe not as much money as some of her critics think. She wrote songs, that told stories, even though the stories they told were not particularly epic or tragic, they were just stories of day-to-day life in a teenager’s world. As she grew up into a twenty something, the stories evolved.
Taylor Swift could never write a story like “Les Miserables” with universal humanity and the moral grays that define justice and law. Taylor Swift could never write an album about a bygone way of life like Hag’s “Love Affair With Trains.”
also, I would say that Taylor Swift is a pretty one dimensional writer. Her breakup songs generally follow the same “I’m not the problem, you are” formula. It’s not that she’s bad, she’s not even a one-trick pony.
I bet when she’s finished growing up and releasing albums as a forty-odd adult we’ll see some really great output in terms of emotional songwriting.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:11 pm
Fuzzy, I think that Taylor Swift’s appeal transcends class lines. Unlike Lana Del Rey or some other pop singers, her lyrics generally do not depict a luxurious lifestyle. Of course, she does not broach economic topics in her songs either, primarily because:
1) She is naturally controversy-averse, and besides who knows what her own viewpoints are on those matters.
2) As you mentioned, she came from an affluent background and is now one of the world’s wealthiest singers, and depicting a working-class lifestyle or promoting working-class interests, even if she so desired, would open her up to charges of hypocrisy and inauthenticity.
On the topic of her future output, I am very interested to see what type of album she releases next year. Hopefully it will represent a return to songwriting depth, if not a rekindling of the soft and highly melodic style of her old music.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:26 pm
As I left in another comment, I expect her future output to be among her best, as she grows up.
I’m not hugely fascinated by Lana Del Rey’s work, honestly.
On the class lines thing: I think that “musical honesty” appeals to all people. Everything is so fake, so dumb, so bland now, that someone like Taylor Swift (even though she isn’t particularly exceptional) stands out, the same way Hank Williams appealed to all classes of people. Hank Williams was the only artists during his era who could count folks such as Tony Bennett and Charlie Parker as fans, largely because his music was honest, open, and real. (And let’s face it, he was not a great singer)
October 21, 2015 @ 7:48 pm
I’ll never understand the appeal of Katy Perry.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:22 am
Katy Perry’s songs are largely co-written as well and is a product too. And what voice she has is drowned i n over-production and auto-tune. But I will say this she is a master of image though she doesn’t change it up like Madonna used to from album to album. And I appreciate that she chooses not to over sing and belt everything as if to prove she has a voice or you know to go down as the next Whitney. Here songs are real earwroms but they all sound so similar and in the moment. She doesn’t experiment or stray AT ALL from her bread and butter and for me that makes her boring. Also her albums don’t feel like proper album but like the kind of album released in the late 50s (a vehicle for 3-4 hit singles with the rest being filler). I am wanting for somebody to pave the way to the next sound pop if that is even possible. I’ve been reading all the yammering over dubstep being a “new” thing and I’m thinking I heard this sound back in the 90s during my techno/house music days.
Personally my favorite top 40 song this year was “Shut and Dance” by Walk The Moon took me back to that anthemic 80s sound I grew up with. Probably a 1 hit wonder but of the best type so gloriously fun and upbeat.
October 21, 2015 @ 11:29 am
Of course I should be honest here and admit I’m TOTALLY jaded. I’ve heard so much music over my life that Katy Perry and Taylor Swift could never match my standards. Especially when you’ve listened to the 50s girl groups, Carole King, Laura Nyro, Cyndi Lauper, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris… etc. Sometimes I think it’s not even fair for me to review a new mainstream release at this point in my life.
October 21, 2015 @ 5:20 pm
I am glad that you like “Shut Up and Dance”. I deeply dislike that song, especially since it has invaded the adult contemporary stations that I listen to regularly. As a start, the whiny voice is an instant turn-off. The song tries to rekindle an 80s sound, but it falls flat on the most important aspect of good 80s music: the melody.
This brings me to one of the biggest problems in music today: where are the great vocalists? Can anybody reach the heights that Whitney Houston scaled in her heyday? I want a song that can physically give me chills, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96aAx0kxVSA
October 26, 2015 @ 12:00 pm
Yeah there are no real great vocalists out there. I thought Adelle might save us but she hasn’t been doing much Florence and the Machine is decent but still covered up in too much production for my tastes. Same goes for P!nk and I find the whole middle finger attitude in her songs tiring. Arianne Grande was supposedly the second coming of Mariah and totally bombed for me. Part of the problem is technology and part of the problem is NOBODY has been trained in phrasing… ugh. They may hit a note and hold it but there’s no voice if you get what I mean like in the poetry or artistic sense of having one’s own voice/style. So they all seem lifeless and dull for the most part. Mehgan Tranoir is catchy and her vocal are nice but again no real voice and no distinct phrasing like Laura Nyro or Carole King.
“Saving All My Love For You” is my favorite Whitney creation hands down. But in terms of her pop/dance songs I always LOVED “I’m Your Baby Tonight” best.
October 20, 2015 @ 7:44 pm
Yes, Taylor Swift is Smart to” chose a lane”. I just think her fans would have followed any lane she was going in. Not surprised about Big Machine trying to get their way,after all it has worked this far for Taylor Swift.
OT: did anyone notice Luke Bryan is on the Billboard hot 100 chart
with his single Strip it down at #30. Only a matter of time for the
“God Father” of Bro-Country to “Chose a Lane”. I do think he
is headed in that direction. The push back is getting harder on
Bro -Country.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:54 pm
Slowed-down sex jam trend, according to Grady Smith.
October 20, 2015 @ 10:06 pm
As much as I admire her belief in sonic coherence, I do not agree with the agree with the idea that an entire chunk of her fans should be left high and dry for a whole album cycle (which, for her, is 2 long years). Obviously the suggestion to countrify “Shake It Off” by just adding fiddle and steel guitar was idiotic. On the other hand, I like the idea of putting songs from different genres on a single album. That way, everybody gets something that he/she likes and nobody is left feeling betrayed or musically starved.
October 21, 2015 @ 2:45 am
This is the thought process that made Zac Brown say “If people like our older stuff, there’s at least eight or nine songs on there ”” a full record worth of songs ”” that they can listen to. I hope people think of it that way rather than, “This whole album isn’t country, I’m giving it one star.” You can de-select the songs that you don’t want to have on the record…”. This is a terrible thought process.
Incidentally, Pitchfork’s review of the Ryan Adams 1989 gives a huge kicking to the concept of the monogenre, spending almost the entire review explaining why electro-pop is not country before scoring it 4/10. Just another reason you should know what you’re trying to do before you do it.
Pitchfork review at http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21101-1989/
October 21, 2015 @ 9:35 am
You don’t like 1989 ?
i think it’s great , and so different from her other albums , besides , there are a lot of songs that you can enjoy that are close to her country songwriting like Blank Space , Style , Out of the woods , Wildest dreams , This Love , I know Places , Clean , You are in Love and New Romantics
October 21, 2015 @ 5:36 pm
For one, I absolutely loathe most of the music on “1989”. One of the main reasons why I originally became a fan of Taylor Swift was that I wanted an alternative to the modern pop sound, and I am sure that was the case with a vast number of her original fans. She has sadly left those fans high and dry now for an entire album cycle.
Secondly, the lyrics in “1989” simply do not convey the imagery or the emotions that her previous albums did, and furthermore there a number of lapses into lazy and stereotypically immature lines that she would have never allowed in her older songs. “Shake It Off” and especially “Bad Blood” represent the worst type of immature writing that her critics have accused her of. “Blank Space”, while featuring a fantastic chorus, falls flat in the verses with lines like these:
“I can show you incredible THINGS”
“You’re the king baby I’m your queen”
“I can make the bad boys good for a weekend”
“Oh no, screaming, crying, perfect storms”
“Like oh my God, who is she, I get drunk with jealousy!”
Conversely, “Style”, while featuring great verses with solid emotions and imagery, falls flat in the chorus:
“You got that James Dean daydream look in your eyes, and I got that red lip classic thing that you like”
“Wildest Dreams” is definitely my favorite song from the album so far. Even there, though, I find some lyrical lapses, such as the immature line “He’s so tall and handsome as hell”, as well as repeating the “Nothing lasts forever” phrase in places where it does not belong.
October 22, 2015 @ 10:30 am
Mmmm NO
I can show you incredible things is not a stand alone line , so it’s very unfair to write it alone and ignore ” magic madness Haven sin ”
You’re the king baby i’m your Queen is classic taylor , ” you’ll be the prince and i’ll be the princess” , ” i had the time of my life fighting dragons with you ” , ” i could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me ” = medieval taylor , which if you were a true fan , you would understand what i mean
I can make the bad GUYS ( not boys) good for a weekend is what every tabloid magazine write about her
find out what you want = be that girl for a month = screaming crying perfect storms = switch to the guys prospective ” Oh my god who is she ”
Shake it off is meant as a joke , i feel sorry for people who think it’s meant to be serious or think that she was really trying to rap in the Bridge .
Bad blood is the worst song on the album and i will never forgive her for giving it that amazing mv
Style is perfect
October 21, 2015 @ 10:05 am
I would argue with you Eric. If you were to look at some of the most iconic albums, successful albums, they’re all sonically and musically coherent.
“American Idiot”
“Straight Outta Compton”
“Kind of Blue” were all albums that fit together and didn’t just leapfrog from one idea to another.
If we compared these albums to “Jekyll and Hyde” it’s an incoherent soup of different thought processes. So is “Kill the Lights” or “Turn Your Love Light On.”
October 21, 2015 @ 6:24 am
Nice analysis, thanks.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:10 am
What a rebel against the system. Taylor Swift can do no wrong.
We ought to just depose our republic and crown her Queen Taylor. She can lead us spineless peasants.
October 21, 2015 @ 12:51 pm
While I see the point and get the argument, what about a band like the Rolling Stones? Look at exile on Main Street or Some Girls. Both contained wonderful country songs,as well as blues, gospel and (with Some Girls) punk and disco influenced material. In fact, all their albums in the seventies and eighties were melting pots of styles. They are still great “rock and roll” albums though. Maybe rock supports this approach more than country, as maybe country is more pure traditionally whereas rock was always a melting pot that was born out of and then assimilated other genres. …but with that all said, I do thank the stones for not being afraid to experiment with various genres within a release. I get that this article supports the concept of throwing Sam hunt out of country music, which I agree is a noble goal, but the idea may be a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water when it comes to creativity of artists.
October 21, 2015 @ 1:11 pm
The difference is when Taylor Swift was calling her pop music country it was disingenuous. And this is not just what I’m saying, this is what Taylor Swift is saying now. I don’t think there’s many who would make the same claim about The Rolling Stones.
There’s nothing wrong about an artist dabbling in different genres. But like anything in life, if you want to be the best at it, it’s probably best to stick to one thing. It’s also best to call that what it is instead of what you might think is expedient at the moment.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:59 pm
I thought the more fascinating part of the GQ article was her comment on self-awareness.
October 21, 2015 @ 10:48 pm
Admittedly, I have been a die-hard Swift fan for 7 years. My problem with some of the above comments is the way her fans are portrayed- mindless idiots who cannot think for themselves and follow her like zombies.
She was the artist that got me into country, being from the UK I never really knew about it. Taylor opened up a new world for me and for that I am eternally grateful.
When she announced that 1989 would be a fully pop album, (embarrassingly, perhaps) I cried. And then I cried even harder when I heard Shake It Off. In all honesty, however, I was expecting this shift. Red had pop songs, but at least they were driven by acoustic guitar. But it also had some lovely slow country songs.
The thing with 1989 is that when I listened to it for the first time, I made sure I listened to it as a pop album- and to embrace that. Now, I think 1989 is a fantastic pop album. With the exception of Shake It Off and Bad Blood, it has great lyrics. Not as good as her previous albums, but at this point, I’m just glad she is sticking to her guns. And I respect her immensely for that.
Also, why are country fans still complaining about her? She made the switch, openly, she is being honest now. Leave her alone, man. You got what you wanted.
October 22, 2015 @ 9:07 am
Recent pictures of her are quite disturbing. She is skanking it up in a way that is to be expected from a person who has taken the low road to hip hop perdition. This is two thumbs up for the stylists and wardrobe people however, as it proves that any ordinary, awkward Plain Jane can be made to look like a stripper…
October 23, 2015 @ 4:34 am
I’ve always given Taylor a lot of credit and to do otherwise is short sighted in my opinion. The bottom line is one might not like it, but it’s hers. To start out as young as she did, writing her own material, to now flipping off the fake country mainstream is mind blowing. I say cheers to her.
December 16, 2018 @ 3:40 pm
At 62 I love Taylor Swifts music. I like all genre and love the sou d of TS.
Does anyone really think you could sell the slide guitar to 12 through 17 year olds?
And it’s not just the kids. Its us parents and grandparents that love the TS candor and honesty.
Are her suitors that daft knowing her songwriting style to date her and NOT expect a song about it?
Get real. Treat her with love, respect, honesty and hope for the best. Even a little amazement and reverence.