Who the heck is Taylor Swift?
Just the biggest thing in music. The biggest celebrity. The person with the most fans. The person who breaks records in music downloads and ticket sales.
The person who caused Congressional hearings on how Ticketmaster failed to plan for the deluge of sales. The person who caused Apple Music to start paying royalties for downloads. The person who caused Spotify to change its policies.
The person who endorsed Biden and Harris in 2020. The person who urged people to register to vote and 66,000 people did the next day. The person who supports abortion rights and LGBTQ rights and is upfront about it.
The person whose boyfriends become celebrities when she dates them, and then bigger celebrities when they break up and she sings about them. Taylor Swift writes songs about heartbreak and disappointment.
She started as a country singer, with a debut album recorded when she was 15.
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| 2006 |
She evolved into pop. She still sings about heartbreak and disappointment.
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| 2023 |
I realized my priorities and interests are unusual. Too much politics; not enough popular culture. Heck, I knew who Doug Burgum* is -- what he looks like, what he says -- but I wouldn't have recognized a photo of Taylor Swift until this morning, when I looked her up.
Here is a link to a song from her first album, about a boy with a pickup truck, and recent hit song, Anti-Hero, where she sings that her "depression works the graveyard shift" and "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me."
* Doug Burgum is the governor of North Dakota and a Republican candidate for president.
20 comments:
Sorry Peter, she is 33 years old and to be president you have to be 35. Funny that a 33 yr old can not be president, but a 83 year old can.
That’s an interesting headline about Taylor Swift being able to beat Trump in the 2024 election. I don’t doubt it, since politics seems to have degenerated into a “reality” show in search of ratings rather than solutions.
In Donald Trump we have an ugly celebrity who delights in making others miserable and bringing out the worst in people. Taylor Swift is an attractive celebrity who puts on a better show and makes people feel good. The problem is that she won’t be 35 in 2024, which is one of the few qualifications required for the presidency. Maybe Joe could get her to sing at his rallies.
Thanks for hate speech against older people...Not.
No doubt you think that you are clever and funny. Age discrimination is against the law. It has real life consequences. You need to educate yourself, if that is possible, Jerk.
If she were asked, I'm sure she would open some rallies for the Biden/Harris ticket, and increase the size of the crowd by orders of magnitude. If they didn't all leave when she finished.
I hate to say it, but you are remarkably out of touch if you just figured out who Taylor Swift is. How can someone write intelligently about the USA without knowing at least something about the culture, recent music, young people and social trends? Have you heard of Beyoncé? Don't you at least listen to NPR?
Artists have social, cultural, economic and political relevance. They don't exist in a vacuum.
By the way, The Golden Bachelor is a new hit reality show. It is about a 70ish widower looking for love. Ageist readers won't appreciate it, but others might. The show is part of The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise on ABC. Google for more information.
Speaking as an OG Grateful Deadhead, I was surprised about six months ago when I listened to her music out of idle curiosity, and found that I actually liked it.
Taylor Swift is an awesome musical talent, but proposing her as president strikes a very wrong note, and would only lead to treble.
The good news is that Taylor Swift and Beyoncé both consider themselves feminists. Rock On Ladies!
I realize I was out of touch with the culture. I know the music of the 1960s and early 1970s though. I am attempting to join the 21st Century now that we are 23 years into it.
Peter Sage
Music seems to be biological. As you pass through puberty, your music sensors snap open, and what you’re hearing becomes your music . And then, about 20 years later, those sensors snap shut, and you tend to dislike the music that comes afterwards.
My music was late 1950s thru late 1970s; I absolutely can’t stand rap/hip-hop. It sounds like noise to me, which is what my parents used to say about rock.
Age discrimination? Too bad the airlines practice it. They should start an airline that allows pilots to fly till they die. Then whiners like Anonymous would be able to proudly display their anti-agism.
There's certainly no shame in being unfamiliar with the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise. It's sad that some people have nothing better to do.
I don't get it. You didn't know about Taylor Swift until this morning, or you just didn't know what she looks like? You published an article about Olivia Rodrigo a year or so ago, so we know you have pop culture chops. How about Dua Lipa?
I have never heard of Dua Lipa. Period.
I have heard of Taylor Swift because of the Ticketmaster hearings and her affect on the business of artists being paid. I had never heard her sing until this morning.
I knew Olivia Rodrigo for two reasons. A year or so ago a 17 year old senior in high school told me she loved Olivia Rodrigo, so I googled and found her hit song Drivers License. Her songs are about teenage girl insecurity. I listened to other songs to see what my informant liked about Rodrigo. The lyrics are easy to decipher and comprehend within the music, which made them accessible to me. I suspect I don’t hear as well as I did 60 years ago and lots of lyrics are a muddle to me in fully orchestrated songs. Rodrigo sings in a narrow tone range, and she enunciates.
I don’t follow sports much, either. Nor rap music. Nor reality TV. Nor NASCAR.
But I can whip out allusions to lines in English literature, to Greek mythology. To American politics, to economic history, and to the songs from 1962 to 1975. People know different stuff.
Peter Sage
America's Nobel Prize-winning poet, Bob Dylan, wrote one of the first rap songs: Subterranean Homesick Blues.
Kudos, Peter for not following Sports, Rap "music", NASCAR and especially for ignoring so-called Reality TV shows.
Of the above, Hip Hop or Rap is perhaps the least culturally degrading Venue, the rest are mind-numbing time vacuums.
Bob Dylan declined to accept the Nobel Prize, and I decline to accept what rap turned into after Dylan’s song, starting with “They’re Coming To Take Me Away“.
Airlines have copilots.
Joe Biden has Kamala Harris, who will make a great POTUS.
If she surrounded herself with educated and talented people, just like President Biden has done, she'd be great.
A little factcheck:
Bob Dylan did not reject the Nobel prize, he just didn't attend the ceremony.
That’s a rejection of a sort right there.
It's pretty silly to argue about something that's a matter of public record:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/02/bob-dylan-finally-accepts-nobel-prize-in-literature-at-private-ceremony-in-stockholm
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