In Praise of Taylor Swift

[Oreb]

My better half and I took our 9 year old niece and a couple of her friends to Taylor Swift's concert in Sydney on the weekend. We had a couple of hours of really high quality pop music, energetically performed by a fine looking, talented, energetic star and back-ups, along with 75,000 screaming adolescent girls.

My niece, her friends and 74, 997 others sang along with every song, word for word as far as I could tell - that is when they weren't screaming. And the messages of self-esteem and pride that she gave out were ones I was really pleased Ellie and her friends heard.

I thought I'd hate the experience - I don't like crowds, loud noise ain't my thing these days and as much as we are doting uncle/aunt, we don't have kids of our own and find them a fairly mysterious species. But the energy and spirit were infectious, due in no small part to the really positive vibe Taylor put out.

And you know my advice to prog fans who despise such things. Yep - shake it off.

[bob_32_116]

There is music I love. there is music I despise. For me, Taylor Swift is neither one nor the other.

[Gerhard]

I took my daughter to one of her concerts about 4-5 years ago and had a similar experience - I rather enjoyed it. I wore a Yes t-shirt and got a few sympathetic glances and comments from fellow parents, but the show ended up being quite entertaining. I still often proudly wear my Speak Now tour t-shirt to prog events.

[Birdy]

My better half and I took our 9 year old niece and a couple of her friends to Taylor Swift's concert in Sydney on the weekend. We had a couple of hours of really high quality pop music, energetically performed by a fine looking, talented, energetic star and back-ups, along with 75,000 screaming adolescent girls.

My niece, her friends and 74, 997 others sang along with every song, word for word as far as I could tell - that is when they weren't screaming. And the messages of self-esteem and pride that she gave out were ones I was really pleased Ellie and her friends heard.

I thought I'd hate the experience - I don't like crowds, loud noise ain't my thing these days and as much as we are doting uncle/aunt, we don't have kids of our own and find them a fairly mysterious species. But the energy and spirit were infectious, due in no small part to the really positive vibe Taylor put out.

And you know my advice to prog fans who despise such things. Yep - shake it off.

About 6-7 years ago I had almost the exact reaction to you. My buddy and I took our two daughters who were then 12 or 13 and I was expecting to hate it but I thought she was great, I was really impressed.

[Scott Bails]

Absolutely flat-out awful, and everything that is bad about music, IMO.

Vapid, schlocky and insipid.

I give her credit for a generally positive message, and she seems to be great with her fans and is rather charitable, but as completely untalented as they come.

[nosebone]

Absolutely flat-out awful, and everything that is bad about music, IMO.

Vapid, schlocky and insipid.

I give her credit for a generally positive message, and she seems to be great with her fans and is rather charitable, but as completely untalented as they come.

Did you see her live?

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Yes, I've found several of the apparent "soulless pre-fab artists" to be quite different live. For example, I will accept nobody's opinion about Lady Gaga unless they've seen her live (at least on video). She's an amazing, dynamic performer.

Haven't seen Swift live, but like a couple of her songs and wouldn't be averse to giving her a chance.

[rcarlberg]

Absolutely flat-out awful, and everything that is bad about music, IMO.

Vapid, schlocky and insipid.

I give her credit for a generally positive message, and she seems to be great with her fans and is rather charitable, but as completely untalented as they come.

What little I know about Taylor Swift, you're dead wrong.

As usual.

[Scott Bails]

Did you see her live?

I've seen her on several TV awards shows, where, to her credit, she wasn't lip-syncing. Can't sing in key to save her life.

What little I know about Taylor Swift, you're dead wrong.

As usual.

Well, fuck you, too!

[Facelift]

The Ryan Adams cover of her 1989 album that just came out is pretty good. Almost all of the songs are better than the originals, IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcJ_...outMAUDvD4_wxX

[ronmac]

Talentless? I think that's a bit too harsh. She is not an amazing talent, as far as singing and songwriting go. I will give her credit for noticing the marginal difference (at best) between today's pop country and mainstream pop. She has shown that she (or her publicists) can take advantage of media obsession and turn it into sensation. She has demonstrated (unwittingly, perhaps?) the ease of which one can penetrate today's pop market with material that is decent. Let's face it, the bar is very low these days.

She's not very unlike Madonna 30 years ago, when she took marginal talent and turned it into marketing genius.

[Supersonic Scientist]

Absolutely flat-out awful, and everything that is bad about music, IMO.

Vapid, schlocky and insipid.

I give her credit for a generally positive message, and she seems to be great with her fans and is rather charitable, but as completely untalented as they come.

Are we talking about the same Taylor Swift???

Vapid, Schlocky, insipid???....not to the ears and experiences of 10-13 year old girls. (as a comparison: at age 10, I was knee-deep in the Monkees. I evolved musically, so shall the tween girls) And as you mentioned, T.S's positive message in a world of amoral crap is a Godsend to this Grandfather of a 14 year old Grand daughter. I'll take TS over the over-sex-hyped Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato shit-heads who IN-FACT CANNOT sing worth a shit!!!

[Scott Bails]

Are we talking about the same Taylor Swift???

Vapid, Schlocky, insipid???....not to the ears and experiences of 10-13 year old girls. (as a comparison: at age 10, I was knee-deep in the Monkees. I evolved musically, so shall the tween girls) And as you mentioned, T.S's positive message in a world of amoral crap is a Godsend to this Grandfather of a 14 year old Grand daughter. I'll take TS over the over-sex-hyped Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato shit-heads who IN-FACT CANNOT sing worth a shit!!!

But...you're using the same demographic that elevates the likes of Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato to say that Swift is different? She's the same - just isn't as sexualized (which I give her and her handlers credit for).

[Adm.Kirk]

Taylor is OK. I've heard worse and better. For me, out of the younger artists I'll go with Paramore. My daughter hooked me on them and I've seen them live as well. Great little band.

Bill

[No Pride]

Taylor Swift's dad is a Merrill Lynch vice-president. When her parents learned that their daughter wanted to be a singing star, they did everything they could to buy stardom for her, from singing lessons to researching everything they could about the record industry to moving to Nashville to buying shares of her first record label. Without their tremendous support, nobody would have heard of her. I heard a live tape of her before they started auto-tuning her and it was pretty awful. She's the poster child for today's manufactured superstar.

Personally, I can't stand her tunes, but who cares? Certainly not the zillions of teenage girls who idolize her. And if she's sending them positive messages, I applaud her for that, if nothing else.

[Casey]

I have 2 daughters. My youngest, 11.5 years, is an avid fan. When her songs come on the radio I don't run to change the channel, as opposed to Led Zeppelin...

[nosebone]

Personally, I can't stand her tunes, but who cares? Certainly not the zillions of teenage girls who idolize her. And if she's sending them positive messages, I applaud her for that, if nothing else.

Ditto

[Obscured]

A few years ago at MSG; Taylor informs the crowd that in chorus the only song she liked was "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor. She then finds out from her mother that she was named after James Taylor.

[zravkapt]

Ariana Grande...who IN-FACT CANNOT sing worth a shit!!!

Seriously? Can you sing better than her? If we're talking vocals, I wouldn't lump her in with the likes of Swift and Katy Perry.

[No Pride]

If we're talking vocals, I wouldn't lump her in with the likes of Swift and Katy Perry.

Agreed. I never heard of Ariana Grande before I saw her on Jimmy Fallon. They were doing vocal impressions for each other and her Whitney Houston and Christina Aquilera were spot on. I still haven't heard any of her tunes, but she proved to me in a matter of seconds that she can sing!

[Gruno]

She has demonstrated (unwittingly, perhaps?) the ease of which one can penetrate today's pop market with material that is decent. Let's face it, the bar is very low these days.

Ease? If it were so easy, there would be many, many more hit makers out there.

[Gerhard]

Absolutely flat-out awful, etc, etc, etc (the usual)

I almost ended my post with, "queuing Scott Bails in 3... 2... 1..." I knew you wouldn't let another opportunity to bash Taylor Swift go by.

[mozo-pg]

Agreed. I never heard of Ariana Grande before I saw her on Jimmy Fallon. They were doing vocal impressions for each other and her Whitney Houston and Christina Aquilera were spot on. I still haven't heard any of her tunes, but she proved to me in a matter of seconds that she can sing!

I saw that episode. She did an amazing job!

[Oreb]

T.S's positive message in a world of amoral crap is a Godsend to this Grandfather of a 14 year old Grand daughter. I'll take TS over the over-sex-hyped Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato shit-heads who IN-FACT CANNOT sing worth a shit!!!

Yep, that goes for this Uncle as well.

She's the poster child for today's manufactured superstar.

Seriously, I can't think of a "superstar" who hasn't been in some sense manufactured. It goes with the territory. Come to think of it, the great majority of the 70s prog stars revered here were also the objects of image manipulation by the large companies they were signed to. There never has been and never will be a Real Person in the public sphere.

[SteveSly]

Taylor is OK. I've heard worse and better. For me, out of the younger artists I'll go with Paramore. My daughter hooked me on them and I've seen them live as well. Great little band.

Bill

Paramore are indeed a great little band.