Are You a Swifty?

73 here…have yet to hear more than a snippet of one of her songs…mostly a classical listener these days…

lol  NO!

My piano teacher complains that young girls want to learn her songs and that they are so unchallenging-every thing is based on seconds- that they are worthless for teaching purposes.

I do have to say that I liked Taylor's "Red" better than Adele's last album - which was totally forgettable to me. And I blame Adele's huge influence on record pressing companies that caused so many other worthy vinyl albums to come out months later than they should have.  I mean, I liked 19, 21, and 25. But 30 just seemed forced and way hyped. Underwhelmed. 

@tylermunns + 1

I think she’s pretty great. I came to that conclusion after buying a bunch of her records for my daughter and listening with her to them on my system. She can write a helluva pop song. My kid opened my ears. 

 

hilde45

4,733 posts

03-19-2024 at 05:12pm 

Too many of her songs are about what some boyfriend did in their last relationship. Not much depth, IMO.

Cue up some Joni, indeed.
 

Thanks for this info. I don’t even know what her songs are about as I can’t make it past the 5secs of the intro. Now I feel good that I bridged that gap. 

In my opinion there are better and more talented contemporaries i.e. Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish. But it’s all a matter of taste. 
 

@gjohns 

Taylor Swift did not revitalize the record industry!

what a load!

@audphile1 "But it’s all a matter of taste."

If that means that different people like different things, I agree.

If it means that there can be no ordering, better or worse, in aesthetics, I disagree. One has to agree on criteria, of course, but once those gain some agreement, then further judgments are possible. I'm not saying there would be one final, ultimate, this goes for everyone list, but I think we can make some progress. We could agree, for example, that Bill and Ted's Great Adventure is a lesser film than Apocalypse Now. Etc.

 

 

hilde45

4,735 posts

03-21-2024 at 12:12pm

@audphile1 "But it’s all a matter of taste."

If that means that different people like different things, I agree.

Didn’t think that a clarification would be required but yes.

I wish her no ill will and I will not be purchasing anything by her as I don’t care for what I have heard (not much). I do feel bad she can not be left alone by likers or haters.

It doesn’t matter what I think. 

As far as physical media goes, Taylor Swift has had a big impact on the record industry.... 

I dust everyday.

Well,  I'm NOT a Trumpy ...so,  I guess I'm a Swifty then !

Anyone that can have a career in the music industry I respect. It’s a hustle. Though I cannot connect with her music. If you do. That’s great. It’s all subjective. 

Though 2k for a good concert seat. Montreaux Jazz fest is much better dollar per dollar imo. 

 

deep_333

649 posts

03-21-2024 at 08:23pm 

Not a fan of her music....but, i hope she and her boyfriend help sway the election to the left, take it away from the rapist criminal and his pack of low IQ deadweights.
 

Low IQ is political agnostic judging by the statement above.

She’s amazingly talented. She plays piano and guitar. She writes most if not all her music and she can sing. But having said that, I listen to mostly Jazz, Classic Rock and some Classical, so I won’t be buying any of her music.

@deep_333 + 1

Though I haven’t bought any of her products. I do like her music. My niece went to one of her concerts and was out of her mind with praise about how good and interactive it was, as well as legitimately lasting 3 hours. I do sometimes listen to her music on Qobuz, seems well produced and she sure can sing and dance. If I had the chance I’d go see her in concert

One thing she does is give away a lot of money to worthwhile charities AND gave all her truck drivers a $100k bonus last year!

A sometimes overlooked aspect of the Swift phenomenon. She is becoming a powerful political influence. She is on video talking passionately about her views and stating she wants to be on the “right side of history “. Just like so many women whose power is dismissed, her followers are very impactful despite being ignored as a political force.

Don't listen to her music but ton of respect. Same things were said about Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, etc. 

And why can't she have a political opinion and share her views? Like saying an audiophile should stay in their lane and not engage civically.  By God Joni and Dylan have shared countless times.

Wow, who would have thought such a simple question would dredge up people like me.

Her songs are carefully crafted corporate based PRODUCT, and nothing more. She’s a good business woman that happens to sing a little.

She doesn’t really cater to the dudes that post on here. And that might be part of the problem.

Definitely! Saw her in Philly with friends and family and loved it. I own most of her albums on vinyl and four on CD. I have pre-ordered her latest. I love how her music helps bridge the gap between me and my Gen Z relatives and friends.

@2psyop + 1

Wasn't she a country star?  She seems to be a chameleon, whatever the producers want her to be to be a successful commodity.  I thought her outfits on the last tour; a majorette, a playboy bunny in cowboy boots from the movie "Apocalypse Now" looked silly, actually embarrassing to look at.  Her next album could be a series of crowds stomping in place to her in the majorette outfit, seeing if they could be measured on a Richter scale.  And the music award for the loudest crowd stomping category goes to Taylor Swift.  I can hear the accolades now.

Ugh, I think her music is absolutely putrid.

Here's a tip if you haven't seen it yet - watch her NPR "Little Room" concert. Very genuine and impressive 3/4 song concert by herself

@bigtwin 

I respect anyone who can achieve what she has done.  Having said that, there is nothing about her music that "speaks" to me.  

+1

I'm no Swifty but I think her music is great

Swifty used to mean fans of the Tom Swift series of books

Never heard any of her music...that I know of. Having said that, I don't dislike her, just not interested.

Oh, I thought she just a politician. Maybe that's all she is in the final analysis of her "talent."

As Paul Simon once wrote “ever generation throws their hero up the pop chart”

and Billy Joel says “ and so it goes”

All I know is she’ll never sing like Whitney or Aretha. But then again no one can!

Huge numbers  of people love her and I think that's just fine. I do not happen to be one of them. She is clearly a talented songwriter-- I have several of her records -- but what she mostly writes about -- her social life -- isn't very interesting to me. She's more entertainer than artist-- but if you want to grant her the latter then I would hope that her interests eventually goes beyond creating well-crafted songs about boyfriends, breakups, and the trials and tribulations of being rich and famous-- it just bores given the many many other female pop-artists out there that explore more interesting veins of introspection and what's going on in our times besides who you're dating. She seems pretty cool in all other regards and I wish her continued success.

@wesheadley 

You're not one of them, but you have several of her records. That's strange.

Not really, at least for me. I heard Evermore was good so I picked that up. Also 1987, and the other folky one -- Folklore. They all good, but it doesn’t really speak to me-- and I’m not really into the whole Easter Egg kind of fan thing that’s a big part of her appeal from what I’ve read. My tates do run all over the place.

You can check out my record collection here on Discogs. Don’t have everything curated yet, but this is about three quarters worth. I’ve got multiple copies of many releases. Nothings for sale, but you’ll probably see why it would be natural for me to give Taylor Swift a try. Not ruling out buying future releases from her either.

Wes's Discogs collection

Starting to see some conspiracy theorists here which is kind of sad. 
 

Anyone who says she’s talentless doesn’t understand creative talent. True that her voice isn’t the best, but she’s the most prolific songwriter of our time. 

Ms. Swift is a lovely, talented singer/songwriter that puts it all out there for her audience. I’m really trying to like her music but haven’t discovered that magical moment that fully resonate with me. I’ll keep trying.

The Swift/Kelce bond has been good for business. They have successfully leveraged their careers and images, once again reminding us that 1 + 1 CAN be greater than 2. Their individual fortunes are better for it, as well as financial benefits to the NFL and drug companies. Whether this is a good thing, or a bad thing depends on your viewpoints of the NFL and the pharmaceutical industries.

I would have thought this thread would bust into full Jerry Springer. 😁

3.5 million pieces of Vinyl definitely helps the Analogue cause.

Travis Kelce is not an average Tight End.

Any Venue in America would love to bring her untalented ass (sarcasm) to their town.

@wesheadley You say, “She is clearly a talented songwriter…but what she mostly writes about…isn’t very interesting to me.”  
So…she’s simultaneously “not very interesting,” and “clearly a talented songwriter.”  
Now THAT is interesting.

@tylermunns 

I'm able to appreciate songcraft without always being interested in what the writing is about (and I'm far from literate with Taylor's full catalog). There are many pop artists that I've sampled where I would never buy an album because I just don't like what I've heard at all-- Brittany Spears, Lizza, Kate Perry, Miley Cyrus, Beyonce' all come to mind. A lot of that stuff feels like it came more out of a corporate boardroom than an artist's or a band's imagination.

You have to try new things all the time if you're really into music IMO, or you just silo yourself into a comfortable, but eventually boring and too safe little world. I've been buying a lot of music since I was a small kid. There has always been great music being released, but at present far too much of it is just a weak hack on better stuff, really boing loops and samples based stuff, bad singing coated with equally bad excess auto-tune, lazy writing, lazy of fully absent melody, ect. That's most of today's pop/rock/hip-hop -- yet truly amazing stuff still happens-- just not as frequently as when I was a kid. I think that's pretty obvious to anyone that been listening to the musical and genre arcs of the last 60 years or so.

We live in strange and objectively sad times-- this often triggers waves of intense artistic creativity and shines some light into that darkness-- so I never give up on music despite the dullness, narcissism, and laziness of what tends to make the charts today.

I tried to listen but I can't.  Just not my thing.  But more power to her for doing what she does and the success she has achieved. 

A singer will never influence me politically. I will never make decision based on the opinions of thespians, musicians, or the talking heads in the MSM. I am a free thinker with deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills.

No I am not a swifty nor will I ever be.

@wesheadley Again, this is very interesting stuff.  
You’re describing current popular music as, “boring,” “lazy writing,” “absent of melody,”  “dull,” “narcissistic,” “lazy,” and “sounding like it came more out of a corporate boardroom than an artist’s imagination” while also saying you “you have to try new popular music all the time,” and that you’ll “never give up” on the stuff. 
 

Why?

If modern popular music is all of these very negative things, then why would you “have to” “keep trying?”  
“Have to”?  
Why?  
Where is the net gain in subjecting yourself to some cumulative 10-20 hours/year or whatever undertaking self-punishment for such little gain?
There’s waaaaaay too much good music as it is from, say, the early 18th century (as just one example of one period of music) to deeply engage with in a single lifetime, let alone the 19th century, the early 20th century, the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘90s, etc., etc., etc….

If I consider an experience to not only be so dreadfully inefficient but also so incredibly punishing (personally, not I’m merely non-plussed by 21 Savage, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Morgan Wallen, I feel almost violently assaulted by the awfulness of that music), then I would not undertake such a task.  It would yield a very disadvantageous cost-benefit ratio.  

@wesheadley Perhaps what you’re saying is, “there is great potential for personal growth in exposing oneself to stuff they typically assume to be crap, as one may surprise oneself and avoid a certain stagnation of musical awareness,” or, as Werner Herzog likes to say, “the poet must not close his eyes.”  
These things I can appreciate.

You have to try new things all the time if you're really into music IMO, or you just silo yourself into a comfortable, but eventually boring and too safe little world.
 

I stumbled upon an interesting article a few months back that may explain some of this: Why Do We Stop Exploring New Music as We Get Older? I feel like I’m guilty of this, especially with my Ed Sheeran and Justin Beiber Spotify Playlist that’s been on constant rotation for the past two years :) Some interesting parts:

A major 2013 study involving more than 250,000 participants confirmed these changing behaviours. It also showed that the significance we ascribe to music after adolescence declines, and the amount of music we listen to reduces from a high point of 20% of our waking time during adolescence, to 13% in adulthood.
 

These same researchers point to age-related changes to hearing acuity – specifically a lowering tolerance for loud and high-frequency sound – as one cause for a reduced interest in new music for some people.
 

There is consensus that people are highly likely to have their taste shaped by the music they first encounter in adolescence.
 

Adolescence shapes musical taste firstly because our brains are developed to the point where we can fully process what we’re hearing, and secondly because the heightened emotions of puberty create strong and lasting bonds of memory.

What we think of as our “taste” is simply a dopamine reaction arising from patterns our brain recognises which create the expectation of pleasure based on pleasures past. When we stop actively listening to new or unfamiliar music the link between the musical pattern and pleasure is severed.

It may take a decade or two to get there, but the result is, eventually, “young people’s music” will alienate and bring no pleasure.

I don’t necessarily believe in absolutes; I’m sure there’s quite a bit of variability between the lines above. I found it interesting nonetheless.

Give me a break.