Recently in an article, I gave Taylor Swift a fairly harsh critique. I feel I should embellish. The main reason I am quite critical of her more recent work is because I used to think she was the next big thing. Her music was unique and a refreshing change to the rest of the music industry. However, with her two latest songs, there is a sense that she has conformed to the expectations of the music industry. In all honesty, I thought she was better than that.
However, maybe my perception of her has been tainted by what I have been shown. Scratching beneath the surface, there is more to her. Below, I look at three reasons that could show us why we, or more likely, just me, have come to the conclusion that she is no longer the original country singer that was so successful, when she released her first album.
3 – HER MUSIC VIDEOS
Music videos are important when creating an image of a singer. It is our visual connection with the artist and can sub-consciously change how we view that person. It seems shallow, yes, but at the same time, I imagine a lot of time and effort goes into the production of a music video (Guy Ritchie launched his career through them), so in some ways, it is a fair assessment. Speaking of assessments, Taylor Swift’s music videos are going to be held back a year.
We are instantly introduced to Taylor Swift, wearing multi-coloured pyjamas and hipster glasses: how she thinks teenage girls dress when they go to bed. Judging from how long this song stayed in the charts, she has managed to convince teenage girls they dress like that too. Then she celebrates breaking up by throwing a party in her bedroom with several middle-aged men dressed as bears (that’s too weird to even comment on!) One of them – the one to her immediate right – has the kind of grin and douchey face that makes you want to experiment with your dark, serial killer thoughts. The whole scenario makes you wonder if she actually wants to be taken seriously as a musician.
Ah, the old house party without a trace of alcohol scene. Classic!
The whole music video basically runs with this premise. By the time it has ended, most people probably thoroughly hate her. Personally, I am amazed that I had to endure that: I didn’t realise research was such a horrible task. However, jokes aside, I used to like Taylor Swift like I said, so I turned back to her old album and one of my favourite songs of that year, Love Story.
The message is obvious. She starts off a girl at college and she locks eyes with a boy. Her mind jumps to medieval times, suggesting that she wants to feel like a princess and be swept off her feet by a handsome prince. That is the whole point of the song and it is conveyed well. She has some great set-pieces and the whole fairy tale theme is handled with skill. And most importantly, not once, is a weirdo in a bear costume, following her with paedo face.
2 – HER TRENDING SONGS
My girlfriend bought her album the other day, much to my horror. I was forced to listen to it, as it was either that, or retreat to the cold kitchen. And you know what: there are some great songs on there. I strongly suggest checking out her duet with the incredible Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol. She also performs alongside with Ed Sheeran and has several solo tracks that remind me of the old Taylor Swift I liked so much.
So why did she go with putting the most annoying songs, both so outside of her unique selling point, into the charts? The album fillers are the kind of songs that I wouldn’t have heard if my girlfriend hadn’t bought the album. Basically she would have sold herself short. While asking myself why, I decided that the easiest way to answer this would be let this argument run into my third and final point…
Seriously guys! What the hell is on my head?!
1 – HER AUDIENCE
I may hate Taylor Swift, but sadly, I am not the vast majority of the consumers she is trying to appease. I am in the broke student demographic, the kind of person who cannot go out and spend too much money on albums and singles I like. Nor is the working parents or the struggling businessman. In fact, there is really only one demographic that has all the free time and spare money to use on buying music. And that demographic are teenagers.
Young teenagers to be specific. And seeing as the music industry tries to appease the group that is spending the most money on their singles, we are going to get a majority of artists performing songs that those young teenagers want to hear. For the rest of us, it is a losing battle. Therefore Taylor Swift is bringing out songs that thirteen year old girls want to hear: how stupid boys are. It’s just upsetting, because we have lost an unique country singer in the process.
However, as a parting point, I want to point out that ‘Fearless’, the old album that I liked managed to sell 8,681,753 copies worldwide, whereas her current album ‘Red’ has only sold 3,800,000 so far (bearing in mind that Red is still in stores). So maybe Taylor Swift’s appeal to teenage girls hasn’t worked out so well and for her next album, she might try and go back to her roots. Sadly, I fear the memes have already taken hold and it is too late to salvage this once great singer.
And seriously, I cannot express how much I hate this guy!
Oracle of Film 