Cats 2019 is a reminder that while she might be a superstar lyricist steeped in Americana, Taylor Swift is not practiced in Broadway form and is easily outpaced in writing for musicals by the creators of South Park or Family Guy

argumate:

has there really been no successful new Christmas song for 25 years though? that does seem significant…

This was off her released-in-Target Christmas album, in case you ever need to explain 2007 to people

::Remembers the Ryan Adams 1989 and that the (Taylor’s Version)s are not the first Tayswift whole-album covers::

Taylor Swift absolutely strategizing how not to get dragged into Tennessee abortion politics rn

Agh, realized that as really a lyricist who performs her own work, one of Taylor Swift’s better precedents is Billy Joel

I guess I don’t begrudge anyone else starting to really appreciate Taylor Swift around the Red (Taylor’s Version) release, but it is a little irritating when they act like they were hip to it all along but evince such a rudimentary understanding, all “Look out! She’s [a reasonably good insight into her mentality circa the original Red even, but ignoring how all her albums since then have been about moving away from that]!”

I, of course, am waiting for someone to finally notice and mention that in time with easing off from songs about crazy, obsessive, standing-in-the-rain, sneaking-to-your-ex’s-house-at-night love she’s been writing songs about living with BPD

mrspider-deactivated20221213:

tired of science and love being poised as opposites or science being painted as cold/unfeeling there is literally nothing more loving than wanting to understand something

kontextmaschine:

Listening again to Taylor Swift’s Red, picked up something I hadn’t - “memorize” used in two different songs

In Stay Stay Stay,

you took the time to memorize me
my fears my hopes and dreams
I just like hanging out with you
all the time

and then in Red,

memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song

and I thought on it and realize this downright sapiosexual knowledge-as-intimacy theme is pretty important in Tayswift, it’s the load-bearing element of YBWM

I’m the one who makes you laugh
when you know you’re ‘bout to cry
I know your favorite songs
and you tell me bout your dreams
think I know where you belong
think I know it’s with me
can’t you see I’m the one who understands you
been here all along so why can’t you see
you belong with me

it’s even important in negative (which is how interrogators tease personality from pretense) in Red,

forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met

thinking about that, and also remembering when her transparent brand strategy was accessibility and fans chosen to meet her would gush about her casually referencing something they mentioned on their tumblr long ago, and it’s like

AWW, she really IS just like us, in that her real output is multilayered invocations of accreted culture but she charms incidental humans by studying up on whatever incidental shit they happen to be and mirroring it back at them

I just want to know you better
know you better
know you better now
I just want to know you
know you
know you

So Red (Taylor’s Version) sounds terrible over iPhone speakers in a way the original Red still does not at all

Thinking about how Butch Vig mixed Nevermind for car stereos, wondering if this is a conscious call (who listens to an iPhone without earbuds or Beats or Bluetooth speakers today?) or what happens when you make an album without a label’s producers and sound engineers behind you

kontextmaschine:

Not sure what I feel about “Taylor Swift is the key artist of my generation” becoming a mainstream take all of a sudden

Honestly it’s irritating to have so many people start to confidently proclaim such wrong takes on her, around the Taylor’s Version Red release people who never gave any previous signs of caring are like “oh, look out, she’s [what would have been a reasonably insightful take on her mentality circa the original release of Red that every album since has been about her journey away from]”

As someone who since lockdown started released a quirky narrative gaiden, a disjointed collection of outtakes, and a series of albums covering her earlier, famous albums, Taylor Swift is actually in a pretty weird creative period right now

Not sure what I feel about “Taylor Swift is the key artist of my generation” becoming a mainstream take all of a sudden

Occasional reminder that Taylor Swift didn’t actually go to high school and knew exactly what she was going to be at fifteen

Taylor Swift fans are getting caught up in the Virginia gubernatorial race

Weeks before Virginia’s gubernatorial election, the campaign for Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe is reaching out to an unexpected constituency: Taylor Swift fans.

On Tuesday, the McAulliffe campaign launched a series of Facebook, Instagram, and Google search ads highlighting his opponent Glenn Youngkin’s role in the controversial purchase of Taylor Swift’s master recordings in 2019. The buyout of Swift’s masters has been a point of bitter contention for the singer and her fans and could be an unexpected liability in the upcoming race.

…yeah, sure

realizing that “Come in With the Rain” does not at all sound like anything Taylor Swift ever wrote, except the incredibly lazy guitar riffs

It’s not, but I’ll at least give it publicity on my blog

She is very deliberately running “a visibly thirtysomething woman” as her new look, you can tell when she debuted it her makeup people took a bit to get the right level of emphasis on her neck tendons and the wrinkles around her lips and eyes

Empress, the one who by charisma and appeal to national narrative and myth could hold the successor kingdoms together

The Taylor Swift BPD arc of Jump Then Fall-[the entirety of Red]-Blank Space-mirrorball-Afterglow is one of the most optimistic things to come out of the 2010s

Jump Then Fall feels different in light of the Blank Space/Mirrorball BPD stuff