#swiftrot

[yourgoldennotebook]

@taylortruther broke my brain a little with hoax analysis, and it got me thinking of how sweet nothing reminds me a lot of lavender haze in that both of those songs, in retrospect, reframe drastic switches in originally stated plans/intentions and romanticise it.

taylor’s always sung about a desire for marriage: from mary’s song (debut), “take me back to the time when we walked down the aisle / our whole town came and our mamas cried / you said, ‘i do,’ and i did too” to love story (fearless), “he knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring, and said / ‘marry me, juliet, you’ll never have to be alone, i love you and that’s all i really know / i talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress / it’s a love story, baby, just say ‘yes’” to speak now the whole damn song to starlight (red), “we could get married, have ten kids and teach ’em how to dream” to how you get the girl (1989), “i want you for worse or for better” to lover’s (title song) bridge’s mimicry of wedding vows to paper rings’ thesis to it’s nice to have a friend (lover), “church bells ring, carry me home / rice on the ground, looks like snow”. only to drop midnights with lavender haze as the first single, the start to the album; an album that bargains a LOT with her discography (and herself). and that doesn’t make lavender haze a lie, necessarily... but it does make it an immensely thought-provoking narrative to switch to.

sweet nothing’s not that different! it was all over fearless (2008) from that initial, youthful romanticism of fearless (title song), “you know i wanna ask you to dance right there / in the middle of the parking lot”, to the spectacular dramatism of love story’s entire genesis/lyric-story, to the cheeky flamboyance of hey stephen and you belong with me. she’s known that she wants fireworks & grand gestures. actions & proof! she missed “screamin’ and fightin’ and kissin’ in the rain” and being “so in love that you act insane”. she herself loves in huge ways, and to cite examples for that would be to quote most of her discography. and she cares about the showing up – that’s why she wrote the moment i knew (red). and that narrative started to morph a little when she met joe; she said as much in miss americana, “i was falling in love with someone who had a wonderfully normal, balanced life. we decided together we wanted our relationship to be private. i was happy. but i wasn’t happy in the way i was trained to be happy. it was happiness without anyone else’s input.” their new beginnings weren’t secret to her, they were sacred. and then she sang, “we still worship this love / even if it’s a false god” and called their love “faithless” in hoax. she took over the role of being the fire to keep his brittle heart warm. she took ownership of being “the liquor in [their] cocktails”. she took the dreaminess & fated-soulmateism of invisible strong (folklore) and made it mastermind (midnights) — which everyone joked about at that time, but now hurts to think about.

there is a pipeline from “all that you ever wanted from me was... nothing” to “and i’m fadin’, thinkin’ 'do something, babe, risk something, babe, say something / 'lose something, babe, risk something / choose something, babe, i got nothing' / 'to believe, unless you’re choosing me” that makes my tummy hurt. how long could they be a sad song? (hoax. the sad song is hoax.)

[tsmerch]

People have started reporting Taylor’s store to the federal business bureau for false advertisement.

I understand where they’re coming from but I doubt it will do anything. Taylor’s team has been doing this a while and pry the loopholes around stuff like this

Honestly some people out there just love reporting them. I agree the methodology wasn't great, but it's not uncommon for companies to do this. Also I assume you mean the Better Business Bureau bc there isn't a federal one, and the BBB doesn't really have any power. It's not like they can shut down companies, they just give ratings and consumers can decide whether or not to let that influence their purchasing.

[yourgoldennotebook]

thinking of the "and if i get burned, at least we were electrified" → "hand on the throttle, thought i'd caught lightning in a bottle... oh! but it's gone again" pipeline

[yourgoldennotebook]

thinking hard about the pipeline from "i'm a soldier who's returning half her weight" to "i vowed not to fight anymore if we survived the great war" to "fighting in only your army, frontlines don't you ignore me"

[yourgoldennotebook]

thinking about how taylor sang "life was never worse but never better" for wonderland and it actually encapsulates all of 1989 hauntingly

[yourgoldennotebook]

mirrorball & lavender haze are girlfriends btw. if you even care!

[yourgoldennotebook]

i feel like we don't talk enough about how pretty taylor's vocals across ttpd are. so breathy but elevated, there's a transcendent aspect to it that very much speaks to how her vocals just continue to improve with age.

[yourgoldennotebook]

she’s so young and that photoshoot is trying to push her into an older “sexy” country music vibe that did not mesh it was uncomfortable i agree

yes! there's something so... lolita-lens about it, it makes me feel a little queasy

[yourgoldennotebook]

see, i knew i'd learn things when going down this rabbit hole, but i had no idea one of those things i would learn would be: taylor's first manager was also britney spears' manager.

[yourgoldennotebook]

this is only tangentially related to your question, but for me taylor and john mulaney share so many similarities both in their career trajectories and public personas. both from relatively affluent families that allowed them to pursue their childhood ambitions and achieve success at a relatively young age. both were shackled with this quote unquote "wholesome" image that was never a full reflection of them (reviews of his standup right up until the rehab news broke called him some version of "a comedian you could take home to your parents" even as he repeatedly talked about his past drug use) and then when that image shattered, they had to basically reconstruct their entire way of living. combined with them breaking up with their long-term significant others (who have been immortalized in their work) and entering new public relationships that have their fans claiming they betrayed them... there's definitely some major differences obviously (not just in the difference between a musician and a stand-up comedian, but also taylor's work just reflects more on the dichotomy of being a Woman in the Industry and how that influences public perception and introspection) but to attempt to answer your question i think the reason they both have thrived despite this is because at the end of the day they are writers at their core, and incredible ones at that, who despite their success have never stopped working on their craft and whose work even in all their specificity has managed to deeply connect with people. honestly read mulaney's most recent interview with gq, i feel like it helps better explain what i'm talking about lol

tangentially related or not, this is fucking fascinating to me, because i've never thought about those parallels and I totally see what you mean.

^ this especially caught my eye

i also think you're onto something with the mention of specificity and how that somehow manages to connect with people — as opposed to, for example, alienating them. it's a very unique skill that isn't easy to pull off, especially when one has Lore as extensive as taylor does at this point, this far into the ceaseless trajectory of her career.

[yourgoldennotebook]

it's my first time playing mastermind and i got lover AND 1989 right WOO HOO