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Finally….the big Taylor Swift thread

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As Airswift1 departs these shores after a month of concerts it seems a good time to take stock of what’s happened over the past twelve months. Though there’s been some comment action, this corner of the musical internet, along with probably The Wire and Folk Roots, are about the only bits not to gorge themselves on a non-step diet of Swift entrees, nibbles and desserts. So consider this an extended intro to the Eras Tour Thread. A few starting points for you all:

It might be that we’ve got nothing to say about this phenomenon. The Guardian recently ran a piece about Ronaldo being now too famous to play football. I think much the same might be said about Taylor Swift and music. But the difference of opinion that myself and @locust expressed over her latest album (more on TTPS below) might suggest that there are thoughts waiting to surface among the massive.

I did not apply for tickets to the Eras tour but my best friend, a fifty something sociology lecturer did. He went to Edinburgh with his early twenties daughter having dropped the best part of £250 on tickets, plus travel and accommodation on top. He enjoyed himself but made two points: as a fifty something he was an observer rather than a participant. Those teens and twenty-somethings knew every word of every song, and every cue for relevance or emphasis thrown out from the stage. Secondly, amazing spectacle though it was, it felt like a musical as much as a gig. Each number choreographed and staged and with its place in the narrative. Interesting that Dave Grohl, also trundling his show round our fair arenas this summer, has gone public with a comment about ‘real gigs’ vs the staged spectacle. I take no sides here.

While on a trip to relatives in London this weekend we were on the M40 behind a Citroen Berlingo whose rear window sported a cut-out of La Swift (going to run out of names here) along with cut-out letters saying ‘Eras Tour Getaway Car (Taylor’s Version). She is inescapable online and on the motorways of Britain, let alone the Travelodges of major cities.

It has been widely reported she’s the first billionaire to achieve this solely through music. I’m interested in how famous this makes her. More famous than Elvis was in 1958? More famous than The Beatles in 1965? Not only was she urging young people to vote over here, she is so influential in the US that the Republicans have been pressuring her to not declare a preference, as this could alter the election. Harold Wilson wanted to be seen with The Beatles, but did he really think they would sway an election for or against him?

There’s no question that The Eras Tour has taken whatever she had in common with the rest of music business – after being bigger than Spotify, bigger than Scooter Braun etc. – and ground it into the dust. She’s up there on her own now. The wikipedia page ‘Impact of the Eras tour’ – a brilliant read – has the following sub-sections. This is a page JUST on its impact, the Tour itself has another massive wikipedia page all of its own. I give you:

Demand and geopolitics
Singapore’s exclusivity in SE Asia
Price regulation in America and Europe
Economy and commerce
Local business
Civil transport
Theory and principle (!)
Mass media
Fanaticism
Tailgating
Merchandise
Fashion
Seismic Activity
Music Chart
Cinemas
Honours
Critical Analysis
Feminist perspectives
Year End Retrospectives

This seems to have more in common with the operation of a multi-national, a small country, or a major socio-political event than a live music tour. The entry for the Foo Fighters tour, as we’re going there, has dates and personnel. Finally, who else is up for three-hour shows, has an almost messianic relationship with the audience, sells out arenas in 20 secs, generates price controversies, has fans pouring over every line of lyrics……Taylor and Bruce. Just saying.

What about the music? I absolutely bought the left-turn that was Folklore and Evermore, two fabulously strong albums that I’m hoping brought sad dads The National a whole bundle of new fans. I can’t really admit to knowing Midnights intimately, which seemed to be a consolidation record after this great leap forward. The current album, all 32 tracks, is perhaps the point at which her sound has solidified into what a ‘Taylor Swift album’ sounds like. Big choruses, a predominately mid-tempo beat, and a fairly constant musical palette of keyboards and guitars. Occasionally as on Fortnight there’s a synthesised bass line. Really, I contend, it’s nothing musically to write home about despite being insanely catchy and immediate (Florida, Black Dog, Fortnight). The old trick of a stripped back verse and bringing the band in for the chorus is evident several times (Florida). There’s the feel of dance rhythms on the quicker numbers without tipping into EDM.

More than any other artist since Bob Dylan for me her genius – and there must be something there surely – lies in her lyrics and phrasing. Her actual singing voice – come at me – is not a patch on Lana’s (the Stones to her Beatles) though clearly more than competent. In the age of radical transparency she’s turned her lyrics into a twenty-year diary, and her relationship with her fans is as much reader as listener. Did she really go to The Black Dog pub with her then-London boyfriend? What matters is that she delivers it as access to her life. And her phrasing – the way she places the word, the vowels and the consonants across the bar, is just extra-ordinary. It’s a package: the lyrics, the way she delivers them in such a specific and particular way (for example the phrases ‘terrible danger’ in ‘the Albatross’ or ‘ruining my life’ and ‘only a fortnight’ in Fortnight) that gives us the feeling that she is unpacking her life in front of us right here and now. It’s clearly a confidence trick, but what a trick. In this her origins in country with its emphasis on storytelling in lyrics and personal confession is perhaps more of a constant presence than the synths and drum patterns might lead us to think.

If Spotify at a catalogue level dissolved the distinction between current and past music, then Swift has done it at an artist level. She’s gone back and rerecorded her albums: a process that until now I associated with dodgy vinyl or CD albums from acts like the Stylistics or Heatwave (‘featuring one singer from The Stylistics;) on labels like mfp or tring and sold at service stations. These have created an endlessly updating dialogue between her past and present that (I gather) also plays out onstage. As others have commented she’s a heritage act and a contemporary act at the same time.

It’s music for the social media age: endless analysable, endlessly available , endlessly self-reflective and coming at you in a torrent – there are 403 songs on the Taylor complete playlist, almost double that of the hardly Kate Bush-like Beatles.

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Comments

  2. I’ve probably underplayed the role of Swifties in all this. From friendship bracelets (my son now has a July 4 one made by his girlfriend for swapping at the Swift gig she went to) to their role in inflation to fanfic (including Harry Potter crossovers!) it’s an entire female subculture of its own.

  3. Extremely well written piece on the phenomenon that is Taylor Swift. Watching the Eras Video was simply astonishing so I can only assume being there live is even more so. I know this is the Modern World and comparisons with the likes of Elvis or The Beatles as regards global popularity are difficult to make but , like her or not, it really does seem there has been nothing like her in the history of popular music.
    For me 1989, Evermore and Folklore are as good as pop gets but there is much in her back catalogue I struggle with. Her latest is just too bloody long. But let’s face it – my musical opinion , never highly rated round here, is completely and totally irrelevant. Long may she reign.

  4. I view TS like I view Canto- or K-pop. Very professional, slick, catchy entertainment, with more or less depth, depending. Harmless, and meaningful to some. Clearly provides others with joy. no 1 daughter thinks she’s good. I took no 1 daughter to see Prince and Steely Dan, but she now likes TS. Should I say these acts were better? I don’t think so. Even if I think it. Maybe you need a living, working performer who is out there, and Dad’s favourites are not necessary juniors. I don’t think there is anything wrong with entertainment, and Rammstein are as much a staged entertainment as TS. I think any gig in a stadium is, or struggles to work, so Dave Grohl is just playing the hoary ‘authenticity’ card. But I have no need to work through TS’s music when there is so much music to hear, old and new. Sometimes we need to let people have their things. I don’t think TS is Joni Mitchell, but maybe she will be very good if you like that sort of thing.

  5. She’s not that big a deal in Thailand, but then no Western acts are. I’ve never listened to a song of hers all the way through. What little I’ve heard doesn’t hook me. Not terrible, just not interesting. She’s just another billionaire with a product I’m not buying, like Musk or Zuckerberg or Bezos.

  6. It is an interesting phenomenon to be aware of but not be part of. On a musical level I shunned the idea, being not the intended demographic: I know nothing about k.pop or “new meaning” r’n’b either. But my step daughter, 31, said I should at least offer my opinion, and played me Folklore. I liked it enough to buy it, which isn’t that much a high bar, but, faint praise aside, I found it as good as some of Lana Del Rey’s output, that seeming the immediate comparator. And, as an admirer of much that Aaron Dessner adds his touch too, the National and the Michael Stipe tracks that might one day make an album, I like that he is in the picture. That may just be my music snob allowing me my justification, that point not lost on me. Have listened to it much since then? No, but that is the nature of my listening: if I want some old I retreat to my old, the music from my teens to thirties. (But I seldom listen to old.) Do I need to hear more of her? Probably not. The same step dter agrees with @moseleymoles about the length of the new one. Folklore can sit happily alongside the Lanas, and the 4 I have of hers are enough, I feel. Would I see her live? Nope, but that’s true of anyone who only plays stadia and enormodomes.
    Nowt more to add. Swift? She’s actually quite good.

  7. Dave Grohl & real gigs??? What did he make of David Bowie in the seventies, Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament, Michael Jackson, Prince & Madonna, right up to Kylie & Beyonce? These kind of shows have an air of magnificence about them and the musicianship and showmanship is no less bang on.

    I guess he prefers Bruce, a concert I found myself glancing at my watch after an hour. (Haven’t seen The Foo Fighters.)

  9. Closest cultural phenomenon comparison I can think of is Harry Potter. They started off as children’s books then suddenly for a period in the late 90s early 00s it was *everywhere*. Huge cross over success, a cultural space all its own. No longer children’s books, just ‘Harry Potter’. TS started as a pop (or country) singer for a mostly female teenage audience and now she’s *everywhere*, no competition. Obviously the phenomenon enhanced this time round by the Internet and social media.

    My children saw her in Madrid a couple of weeks ago and it seems to have been life changingly good. They both think that the new album is a bit meh though. They prefer the new Billie Eilish and Girl in Red. I’ve heard stuff from across her career and found it pleasant but wasn’t inspired enough to investigate further. So I’m as unqualified to comment on her quality or otherwise as I am many artists. Fascinating to watch the phenomenon though.

    Dave Grohls comments were a bit silly.

    • I remember coming back from a holiday in Cornwall about twenty years ago and everyone, and I mean ‘everyone’, on the train seemed to be reading the latest Harry Potter book that had obviously been published the previous Friday or something.

      Not, however, in the same ball park as once sharing a carriage with a bunch of Manchester United fans c. 2002… ‘The Stepford Wives’ x 10 that was. Seriously weird.

      Taylor Swift? I really like her, and the more sad middle-aged men like the Nirvana fella criticize, the more I do. Paul McCartney likes her… that’ll do me… higher up – much, much higher up – the food chain than Nirvana.

  10. I don’t know Taylor Swift’s songs well enough to comment on their merits and equally hold nothing against her for being popular or voicing strong views. It is fascinating to see the adulation with which she is regarded – but a mistake to say that this proves she has genius. Just as Beatlemania was a phenomenon, a focal point around which a generation breaking free from parental constraints coalesced, so Swiftmania is a phenomenon. But perhaps in this case it is a generation coming together and searching for certainty and stability in the face of constantly shifting societal norms and what can be perceived as an ailing planet. As Neil in the Young Ones would say: “Heavy”. Indeed.

    • If TS appealed to every old fart who populated this board, there would be something seriously wrong with her.

      When I took one of our cats into the vets for his annual shots this morning, his daughter
      (the vet’s not the cat’s) was there and proudly told me that she was off to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium with her sister and mum to see TS on Sunday.

      She’s about eight years old and thrilled to bits as it’ll be her first concert.

  11. I’m 62, so freely admit I’m not part of the age demographic that Taylor Swift is aiming at. I have nothing against her per se, but must admit to being a bit bemused by the phenomenon that she has become. I’m also not familiar with much of her music but do recall Mocut or Unjo falling over themselves with superlatives about a couple of her albums a year or two ago – Evermore and Folklore IIRC. I gave them a listen but was distinctly underwhelmed by both the music and the lyrics. Ryan Adams made a decent fist of her 1989 album, which I still listen to now and again, but that’s the extent of my exposure really.

    She started out as a country singer but then morphed into someone that children and teenage girls adore and look up to, and seemingly still do, and she appears quite happy with that. She seems to make many people happy, which is great – I’ve always been a fan of ABBA, whom I’m aware many on here haven’t got a good word for. The same could be said of them, so I guess it takes all sorts. Live and let live, I suppose.

    • Same. I’ve put the hours in and listened to several of her albums, some more than once, but the only song of hers I can hum (or even name) is Shake it Off, and that’s because of the Kate Rusby cover. She seems to be a good thing and I’m glad she’s there for others to enjoy but her music, while making a pleasant enough noise, just can’t gain any traction with me though I’ve given it every chance.

        • It did feel like a bit of a chore, even when I gave up ‘trying’ and gave Tay Tay another go later. And again, at least twice. Her success doesn’t irk me like Ed Sheeran’s does (and I’m well aware that that’s my problem), but after several attempts I have to conclude that I’m unlikely ever to enjoy her music.

  12. I have recently discovered her LP “Reputation” which I shelved at the time, due to Reasons. I put it on while in the kitchen recently – I think it was a lentil dahl, thanks for asking – and I now think it’s aces.

    Just think: Tay Tay hooking up with Max Martin and co. to deliver some an LP of EDM bangers. And it’s got Ed Sheeran guesting on it! What more could you need?

    Out of all her records I listen to this one most now. That is all.

  15. I think most people here present will be aware of my views on ‘mother’ 😉. I posted at the very beginning of this gargantuan tour about how she will come to be regarded as ‘one of the greats’ in terms of critical respect and popular acclaim, and that her live shows can be compared to those of Springsteen in facilitating a sense of both intimacy and communal fellowship with a massive audience. The following fifteen months have fulfilled and transcended those expectations exponentially, to the extent that as the OP has suggested, she has gone far beyond music and become a cultural, er, lodestone.
    This is both satisfying and problematic. Satisfying in the sense of seeing someone who is indeed a gifted songwriter and performer lay it all out with incredible consistency night after night, week after week, month after month – particularly with all the offstage drama that is her life playing out in wide-screen. And this is where it has become somewhat problematic for me as the tour has progressed. She has said many times that fans shouldn’t analyse every lyric as being autobiographical, but she has been leaning in so much on her personal narrative either onstage, in the marketing campaign for TTPD, and her peripheral decision-making that it has become increasingly difficult for a fan not to become embroiled in the parasocial aspects of it all. For me, the highly performative conflation of these elements, culminating in the absolute cringe-fest of Travis Kelce actually becoming a part of the show at Wembley last Sunday, has served to diminish her artistry, however slightly.
    Like others have suggested, folklore and evermore are, to date, her definitive statements as a serious artist. Personally, I have a lot of time for Speak Now and Red as outstanding albums, and I have an increased appreciation for Reputation after seeing her performance of that era in Edinburgh; it hits hard and deep, reflecting her complex emotions at the most vulnerable time of her career.
    I also found the live interpretations of the TTPD songs absolutely thrilling, which has encouraged me to revisit the sprawling, unwieldy, and messy (in every sense) album with a whole lot more enthusiasm after being initially underwhelmed. (See also: the Billie Eilish album – ok, but not the revelation we were led to believe).

    To summarise: I remain a committed Swiftie and have the friendship bracelets and stars around my scars to prove it. I’ve said before that she’s a force of nature. Not the best singer or dancer, but she is well aware of this; yet her voice serves her songs so well and really connects with me in ways that other ‘superior’ singers could never do (hi, Adele). She doesn’t pretend to be a serious dancer – she’s a self-confessed ‘clumsy dork’ – but again, her movements and poses serve the performance without impacting on the singing (and yes, she does sing live).
    At the moment, she’s on top of the world, and mostly it’s great to feel a part of and witness to the phenomenon. Yet I do think she needs to plan on having a looooong rest, step back and have a reset on how she wants to direct and develop the rest of her career.
    I agree that she is no Joni Mitchell – who else is or has ever been? But equally, I don’t think Joni Mitchell could ever do what Taylor Swift does all too well.

  17. What it boils down to is disposable artists and their disposable fans, locked into keeping the share price of great big corporations up. At the Taylor Swift level, this is a very lucrative industry indeed.

    As a by-product, some skilled musicians, PR people and technicians get to earn their highly-unstable living and stadium venue security peeps, cleaners etc. get by (just).

    The fans may be very invested indeed in their idols but can choose to abandon them completely if a “better” one happens along, and why not? That is the nature of the pop phenomenon. You stop being popular, stop entertaining and amusing your punters, you get dropped.

    In these days of abundant talent, something more than that is now necessary to hit the bigtime. Whatever, Taylor Swift has got it and seems to be using it more wisely than some others.
    Good luck to her.

    • I don’t see how you can consider Taylor to be a ‘disposable artist. She’s been at this for nigh-on 20 years. She’s released 11 studio albums, also releasing re-recordings of 4 of them along with a copious amount of additional ‘vault’ tracks. That’s a substantial catalogue from someone who is nowhere near the end of her career. Sure, she won’t be at this level of prominence forever, and there are signs that even the most faithful of the fandom might have reached saturation point; but she is perceptive enough to be acutely aware of the vagaries of even her own popularity, having fretted about her longevity in the Miss Americana documentary, and expressing the same anxieties eloquently in songs such as Nothing New, Castles Crumbling and the more recent song from TTPD, Clara Bow.

  18. “Just a reminder: at the peak of their fame male artists have floated 32ft-high golden statues of themselves down the Thames (Michael Jackson), bitten the heads off bats (Ozzy Osbourne) and had sex with underage girls (too many to mention). There is a deep irony that, without scandal or dirt on Swift, with no calamity or collapse, just a $1 billion tour that has left women and girls in five continents ecstatic and bootless at midnight, the only thing left to beat Swift with is her success.”

  19. One measure of her success is that her and Paul McCartney are the two new music billionaires (and the only one’s to make it just with music). So you can either be a Beatle and one half of Lennon/McCartney and then Paul McCartney for 50+ years. Or you can be Taylor Swift for 15 years or so. That’s quite impressive.

  20. I’m not going to pretend that I understand the devotion she seems to command, and I’ll admit that I find a lot of her songs very derivative. That’s not to say that they are not well crafted, just that her craft is redolent of so many artists who preceded her. So I’m not invested. I don’t own a single album of hers and don’t expect I ever will. But having said all of that I can admire her pop songwriting skills and her facility with lyrics for girls.

    Here’s a litle NPR session where she sets out a lot of self-aware commentary. Either it’s honest or it’s so deeply manipulative it’s scary. Some of both, most likely.

  21. I went to the Eras tour show in Cardiff, and it was one of the best concert experiences of my life. Probably don’t need to go into the show too much at this stage, but everyone who told you it was amazing was right. The stadium having a closed roof really helped as well, made the most of the lighting and wristbands. If I had a tiny moan I’d say that some of the storytelling via the dancers was a little bit over earnest and gauche but a) that is a big part of Taylor’s appeal anyway and b) what an absolute grinch I would have to be to complain about that in the face of a three and a half hour spectacular and 70,000 rabid fans. Seriously if you’re going take your earplugs, the screaming between songs was off the charts. Anyway there was enormous pleasure to be had watching my daughter scream, cry, laugh and bellow every single word. An absolutely joyful spectacle from start to finish. Top night out.

    As a PS to illustrate the scale of the operation, Team Taylor had also booked out Cardiff Arena, which is a 7k capacity venue in its own right, just to sell merch. It’s all very different from watching Split Dogs at the Exchange.

    • Although I had a fab experience in the daylight at Edinburgh, I was pretty envious of the Cardiff audience because of the closed-roof factor; the lighting onstage and across the stadium looked so much more effective and magical.

  23. Really enjoyed both the OP and Black Celebration’s comment. Hard to say it any fairer than that, particularly re: Swift’s strength as a lyricist.

    Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks any more; she’s won. Escape velocity achieved.

    What’s going to be interesting is when she allows herself to exhale a little, if that day ever comes. She reminds me of Madonna in a lot of ways (and I mean that as a massive compliment), but I don’t think she’s anywhere near as daring as Madonna was. Perhaps that will come later.

    In the mean-time, I agree that the latest album wasn’t her best work. It’s OK though, because we have Brat.

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