And I think you might enjoy it…
It’s not for me to discuss sexism to any great depth in this type of article. I do want to introduce you to the music of Taylor Swift and hopefully demonstrate it’s not superficial disposable pop. There’s a craft and a depth that her critics ignore. This is mostly the angry internet: those furious (mostly) men who don’t like anyone but themselves having anything, who rage against films and tv programmes reflecting a diverse society. To these men I say, get over it. The world has changed. And we want more Taylor Swifts and less pale stale males. And it’s not an either/or situation anyway. I can enjoy this, and throw on the Rolling Stones or Van Halen or Led Zeppelin or Queen with the same amount of pleasure and joy.
I’m delighted she has success. She is obviously extremely talented and smart, and seems to be a thoroughly decent human. I’ve sampled her music several times and there’s nothing there for me. Production is uber slick and I found her songs bland. But I find that of many worthy artists (see also Joni Mitchell).
Couldn’t have written the article better myself.
It wasn’t. Was it?
Lodestone by day, Jazz Mandolinist by night
Is that what you call it?
Smoke and mirrors, mirrors and smoke
I don’t know many of her songs. Um, Shake it Off and that one where she rides a horse around a stately home, but today, to help educate me after I felt completely out of my depth at the office karaoke party last week (What is this ‘Party in The USA’ song? It must be well known as everyone else in the room is singing along), my boss put ‘AntiHero’ on our ‘Jukebox Tuesday’ morning team chat. (I chose Lovecats).
I thought it was fine. Clever self knowing lyrics and video, and serviceable tune. She’s no Maggie Rogers, but who is? At least she’s got a more appealing singing voice than Michael Stipe, who’s ‘best band out of America’ first album was playing on my laptop speakers today. He can whine, can’t he?
Preaching to the converted here, Dave – I’m a long-time Swiftie and was serving in the trenches back when all the haters were indeed hate hate hating. I do feel that she’s so ubiquitous at the moment that there will be another backlash at some point.
Musically, I’d rather she focused on working with Aaron Dessner more than her regular go-to guy Jack Antonoff; I think the quieter stuff suits her voice and her lyrical storytelling much more than the shiny upbeat bops ( which, don’t get me wrong, I still love – it’s all relative). I also think she’s well equipped to strike out and surprise us with a full-on rock album, elements of which she touched on with Red. Who knows, she might do this to appeal to all the NFL jocks she’s currently managing magnificently to annoy.
What about baby blue whales?
Perhaps “earth” was intended as in “land” as opposed to water. The lack of punctuation rather lends itself to such ambiguity.
Or perhaps baby blue whales are a bit smaller.
5,000 to 6,000 pounds.
On land wouldn’t make sense in the context though.
Of course it would. “Baby elephants are the biggest babies on land except for the people mad at Taylor Swift for being excited at a football game, whereas baby blue whales are the biggest babies in the ocean.”
See?
OK if you add that.
With or without the added bit it still makes grammatical and contextual sense to interpret “earth” as “land”.
Now either you apologise, sincerely and unreservedly, or I’m flouncing.
But you always say “biggest babies on earth” when referring to cry babies, not on land.
If you flounce then we may never reach 2,000 your actions have consequences.
Apology accepted.
Have you seen Jack Antonoff?
You seem very interested in the caption. I only posted it because of the picture.
Look at its little face!
Not dissimilar to the the face of a tardigrade when viewed under a microscope. Or Lodey after three sherries.
As I said – adorable.
Cuter or adorabler?
Yes, more cuteness please, that’ll get rid of old sandwich-face and we can carry on chuntering in our bus queue in peace.
I myself am weapons-grade cuteness.
Stones: uglees.
Van Halen: foreigners.
Zep: a bloke with long hair who sings in a gurly voice.
Queen; a gay and a book reader.
Your list’s already too diverse for me, Dave..
Not my list. I don’t know much about Ms Swift apart from her forum dividing skills. Will investigate further on the back of this.
That’s a bit rich, Dave, to say ‘I don’t know much about Ms Swift’, given that you state that the piece you’ve linked to is a ‘great article’, and that you ‘love what I’ve heard so far’.
You’ve invited comment from those of us who frequent this place, but found the time to also state that this place is ‘a forum full of the men you describe who talk bollocks about prog mostly.’.
If you’re going to comment at the foot of a hagiography by slagging off The Afterword’s contingent, you might have taken the time to disguise yourself in one or other of those platforms, to avoid looking a bit silly.
FWIW I personally find Swift’s music to be predictable, repetitive and ultimately unexciting. It’s not for me, but then neither are about a million other artists’ works. So what?
It’s ironic that the Toppermost page hosting that article is framed by a display of the spines of a healthy record collection containing around fifty terrific albums from fifty terrific artists, all of which demonstrate a far wider musical spectrum of style than the artist in question, including a couple of prog gems.
If you keep mustard in the fridge, you’re not using it fast enough; make it fresh and use it immediately.
“a healthy record collection”…. ewwwww
You forgot that one of the Stones is Keith who is one of the living dead, whom I suppose are one of those other so-called minorities we have to be nice about in these so-called woke so-called times.
On this website, Taylor Swift would appear to have almost zero forum dividing skills.
She sounds a fabulous individual – generous, anti-Trump, pro-BLM, presumably aghast at the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Some people will go on to listen to some of her music, others won’t. I’m more animated about whether mustard should be put in the fridge.
Yes, along with mayonnaise. But not necessary for red or indeed brown sauce.
Who are you, and what have you done with deramdaze
His kids have hacked his password.
Nothing to say about the Dodgers…?
Isn’t she going out with one of them thereby ruining sport for guys?
Is she really going out with him?
Pretty difficult to ruin NFL, I would have thought.
“I went to see Taylor Swift and a football game broke out” etc
Applause! (Moose’s Dodgers joke)
Not sure she has made too many political statements, it used to be thought that she was conservative.
And she is apparently singlehandedly ruining the planet with her private jet use. Next trip probably flying back from her gig in Japan to Vegas for the Superbowl (some sort of sporting occasion apparently)
On Wikipedia she sounds woker than I thought it was possible to be.
A very, very good thing, obviously.
Just to clarify, though, as I sense some disbelievers, I have never heard one note of her work… but if she pisses off middle America, it’s a win-win from me.
I checked, she does seem decent, maybe limit some of that private jet use though.
I have heard probably 10-15 songs by her, I found them to be fine, but somewhat unremarkable. Her voice is not as strong as I assumed it would be. Had tickets to see her live once, but didn’t go as my daughter wasn’t particularly interested which surprised me, I had bought the tickets as a surprise for her.
I am middle America, and she pisses of neither my wife nor I.
WTF is Middle America in your mind, anyway?
I’ve just been reading Christopher Hitchens who was righteously scathing about the use of the expression “the Arab street” – reductive and patronising to the point of being racialist.
I suppose saying “middle-” anywhere is equally so. Unless it’s Middle Earth, yo.
I’m horrified at the causal adoration for this woman. Forget the music. She’s a Pentagon asset, controlled by Sleepy Joe Biden, who with other members of the lizard illuminati is engaged in a momumental election interference psyop. Biden plans to use her to get her fan base to vote for him and to ensure this happens he’s rigged the NFL so that boyfriend Travis Kelce (I’d say he’s a tight end but I don’t want Moose to have an involuntary embolism) and the Kansas City Chiefs win the Superbowl again.
https://truthsocial.com/@CitizenFreePress/posts/111840145292131970
(warning – video contains Roseanne Barr)
Travis Kelce is Joe Biden’s boyfriend? This explains so much – finally, all the pieces are falling into place…
This is revelatory.
I didn’t know that more than one person used Truth Social
Can I reiterate once again, as one with connections to that bit of America – there are days Defence/Intelligence struggle to tie their own shoe laces.
They’re not capable of that.
There’s something about that journalistic phrase “(mostly) men”, a variation of the more common “he (and it is usually a he)” which annoys me. The self-congratulating tone, of, hey, I’m not like the other guys.
Possibly it is sincere, but it reminds me of an observation by Steve Coogan’s alter ego, Paul Calf, with his shiny suit, rolled up jacket sleeves and bleached hair “Of course I’m a feminist. You have to be these days if you want to get your end away.”.
Every time I criticise male sexism I see myself as a knight in shining armour on a fine Arab charger.
Did I mention I’m also incredibly loyal?
Did you check your emissions recently?
Check em? I’m sittin in em etc
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.
You’re laughing, but Ted shot all those dildoes himself.
I must admit I find this a tad unsettling.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c25qpjjpxq9o
I think Damo Suzuki is the dog’s bollocks.
Where’s his life-size cake then?
We can all relax, she made it
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68269413
Her emissions were about 1,185 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.
Someone yesterday said something like, “How must it feel to be Travis Kelce, knowing that three years from now the biggest selling album of all time will be all about calling you an idiot”