#whereas Taylor definitely knows how to market herself and how to change her brand incrementally without having to get more vulnerable | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thedreadvampy · 1 year ago

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I GENUINELY wish I understood the appeal of Taylor Swift I really really do. many of my friends do. but it's just. I don't think a single one of her songs has ever landed above 'ok' or 'nostalgically cheesy' for me and every time I think that I feel so incredibly like I'm trying to be snobby but I'm not? it's not about not liking pop or not liking the cool thing I love pop I love cheese I just also like music that has some...I guess energy and danceability or specific and meaningful rage and I have found nothing to hook into in anything she's made. Antihero nearly works for me. Blank Space works conceptually but not in practise. but other than that the last thing she made that did anything for me even as a throwaway pop song was. god it actually might be We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together or 22 which at least are catchy but I can't say ever made it to my playlists.

I want to get it, I genuinely do. I have listened to most of her releases at least once because I keep thinking if I try hard enough something will open up for me but nah however hard I try it's just extremely mid. like yes that certainly is music. I can immediately recognise it as Taylor Swift, it's not like it's utterly generic, but it absolutely just registers to me as background music. I want so much to understand what it is about her that makes her the biggest person in music for like 15 years now.

(I could say the same about Beyoncé who if anything lands worse for me. Break My Soul owns, but other than that I have landed everything I've heard of hers since like 2008 firmly in the Do Not Relisten pile it just lands like a ton of loose sand for me. and this is not mentioning the actual crime against music that was Jolene bc I don't think that worked for most people tbf. and again it's not that I don't like pop or r&b or rap cause that's like. between those genres about a third of the music I listen to. but her work is just so unengaging to me personally and I don't know why and I wish I got it)

#red said #~oh you just don't like things that are popular~ i LIKE liking things that are popular!#i like lizzo! i love lil nas x! i think billie eilish is amazing! i think I'm too old for olivia rodrigo but i get the appeal!#i think with taylor and possibly also beyonce though there's like a level of calculated pose that makes their music feel like work #like it doesn't. to me. feel like it connects because it feels like a product put together as a marketing persona #and not in a fun way like Katy Perry used to but like. Taylor Swift's music is extremely thought through. even the missteps.#and musically it feels really uninteresting and emotionally it feels like the IDEA of emotional relatability not any kind of insight #it's very middle of the road to me. even when it's taking risks it's not taking risks.#and tbf if i was gonna guess at why she's as popular as she is I'd say it's that. it's sustainable and marketable and well planned.#like Montero was a fucking phenomenal album because it was incredibly honest and creative. but tbh has Lil Nas X had the same impact since?#no not really bc he put EVERYTHING into that album and now tbh he's putting out new music that's fine but not earthshattering #whereas Taylor definitely knows how to market herself and how to change her brand incrementally without having to get more vulnerable #but like. her whole thing is kind of as a confessional singer songwriter vibe. which needs vulnerability and messiness #and to me it always sounds very very managed and very defensive and that is. flat.

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