tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post5012089594943440323..comments2024-03-24T03:19:39.745-04:00Comments on Just About Write: In Defense of Taylor SwiftUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-39537268188078847662014-04-22T17:09:46.686-04:002014-04-22T17:09:46.686-04:00I love Taylor Swift! Thank you for being so patien...I love Taylor Swift! Thank you for being so patient as to type out arguments in defense of our queen!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-48973214889227735022014-02-10T19:14:17.311-05:002014-02-10T19:14:17.311-05:00Geez all this behind-the-scenes stuff about Taylor...Geez all this behind-the-scenes stuff about Taylor Swift is making me want to cry. I tend to stay out of celebrities personal lives and that ends up extending to avoiding interviews with them because I either get embarrassed by the questions or I get nervous about seeing the celeb outside of the context I'm used to (I'm so weird! LOL). Your write-up is great! I absolutely adore the writing she does in her lyrics, and I've actually been including more concrete details to show instead of tell in my own writing now because of Taylor's songs. I'm just in awe of her and respect her talents so much. So I'm thrilled that not only do you love her too (which I already knew), but that you took the time to write out this defense of her. So so happy to see it! Thank you, Jenn! :D<br /><br />And now I'm off to see if this Grammy performance is on YouTube, because I just about cried to "All too Well" on the drive home from work. I can only imagine what a live performance of the song is going to do to me. XDamtrak12http://amtrak12.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-49254218127394216432014-02-10T19:08:33.304-05:002014-02-10T19:08:33.304-05:00Okay I understand what you're saying, but I ha...Okay I understand what you're saying, but I have to argue that Taylor isn't doing any of that because it makes her more marketable. Actually hidden messages and specific references makes you LESS marketable to the mass public (see: Community or Fringe). I would bet Taylor Swift never went out purposely trying to write hit songs because those songs would be false and would've flopped in the long run. She's still around writing hit albums, so clearly her work is sustainable. Her aim can’t be to market herself. Not directly. She wants to write hit songs, that’s true. That's why she's always striving to improve. It's why she studies music and language so intensely and why she's always experimenting with new ways to write songs. If she just wanted to be a marketable success, she would've stuck to writing basic, cute country songs like she did when she was fifteen. Instead she dared to let her lyrics grow up with her. She dared to cross genres, and still continually mixes genres of songs on her albums. That's also not considered a marketable move in any media industry. Producers, publishers, and marketing departments want clearly defined labels to advertise, and yet she still blurs the lines, no effs given.<br /><br />So why does Taylor do this if she isn't trying to market herself? Well, you nailed it on the head, she's asking for people to understand her. Every hidden message, every line that's written very specifically rather than in a glossed over, generic way is her way of putting herself out there hoping for a connection. Taylor Swift is a writer first and foremost. She just also understands music so she writes songs rather than books. Writers are inherently selfish (oh yes) because they believe they have stories inside them worth telling to other people. But not only that, they believe they have stories about themselves that are worth telling people. They don't just want to share stories, they want to share themselves. In fact, they believe they need to share themselves with other people. They believe other people need to hear their stories. They write because it's a compulsion, and they write honestly because it's the only kind of writing worth anything to them. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see Dan Harmon who transparently broadcasts this need in every interview he does.)<br /><br />This is the kind of writer Taylor Swift is. Admittedly, I am judging that solely by her writing progress as demonstrated by her albums. I have watched no interviews with her, seen very little quotes from her, never seen a concert, and I don't even know what those hidden messages in her liner notes are (Red was the first physical album I bought. The others are MP3 albums). But I own each of her albums and have listened to them all obsessively and Red is far and away the best compilation she has ever done, and I have to agree with Jenn up there that "All too Well" is her current masterpiece. The specificity that you dislike in it was written to be honest. And it's the honesty that makes her universal and will make her timeless. Generic lyrics and stories don't stand up. They only survive as fads. Depth and heart and honesty last.<br /><br />So it's fine that you don't like Taylor Swift's lyrics. But don't mistake them as marketing ploys or money-making schemes. That's not what they are at all. They're her way of reaching out to people in the hopes that they'll understand her because she needs to be understood. That people enjoy the songs enough to make them Top 40 hits is a bonus. Success fuels her, yes. The dream of success is what pushed her to share her songs so publicly. But it’s her obsessive need to be understood that's the real factor behind her writing. That's what truly drives her. Is it any less grating than believing it's all for a marketing ploy? Maybe not. Like I said, writers are selfish, and sometimes that's grating. But at least it's not a lie or a front. It's simply the truth, it's who she is.amtrak12http://amtrak12.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-30911110686639725592014-02-10T12:04:12.187-05:002014-02-10T12:04:12.187-05:00Thank you for your well-thought and honest comment...Thank you for your well-thought and honest comment to the article. First of all, thank you for reading and putting your thoughts so succinctly into words. I've never actually thought of your remark -- the oddly specific way that she writes and integrates details that aren't universal could, in fact, alienate people from her as an artist. It's an intriguing concept to think about: do you broaden your lyrics in order to be more relevant to everyone instead of specific to you ("I wore a dress, you wore a dark grey t-shirt" for example)? I think it's definitely something everyone struggles with. And I understand the notion that yes, her songs are more like pages from a diary sometimes than anything else. I've actually never thought about this being a potential reason people are turned off to her as an artist (those specific metaphors and images that aren't relatable to anyone besides her) so you've given me food for thought. But if that is the case, is it just not as noticeable in every other artist? (i.e. Macklemore just released a single called "White Walls" which is a very specific song about the first car he purchased when he came into money.)<br /><br />I definitely think you're right and I think the argument is probably more along these lines: people don't notice those oddly specific metaphors or images when they're in pop-techno-dance-ish songs. They recognize them a lot more, it seems, in a break-up or love song. It's food for thought and something really interesting.<br /><br />Thanks so much for your comment and for reading!Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11696902354009598893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6678481478994191244.post-63513012336995632002014-02-09T21:57:19.254-05:002014-02-09T21:57:19.254-05:00First off, great article and great defense.
I am ...First off, great article and great defense.<br /><br />I am someone who fluctuates between loving Taylor Swift and rolling my eyes at her. I can't help it. For the longest time, I couldn't pinpoint why it was this way, because there are some songs that I hear from her that automatically put me in a better mood (Love Story) and then there are some songs that automatically irritate me (Innocent). <br /><br />And while I was reading your article I got a better feeling about why Taylor Swift is so hard to pinpoint for me. You're right; she's not a bad person, I don't think-- she doesn't get entangled in scandal as so many other celebrities easily do.<br /><br />I think this is the problem that is causing all the symptoms: writing about breakups is great. Taylor Swift is a brilliant songwriter (so casually cruel in the name of being honest, etc). But I think my problem--and it's not necessarily something Taylor Swift should or could even fix--is that, while it's easy to identify with songs like "You Belong With Me," it's much harder to identify with a song like "Dear John," and... I think it bothers me that she gets so specific with her songs, because it removes the audience from the song and makes it hard for the audience to connect to the song. "You keep my old scarf from the very first week, 'cause it reminds you of innocence and smells like me" is a line that always irked me. It's great that Taylor Swift expresses herself so rawly in her music, but... oh, I wish there was a better way to say this--but it feels selfish or opportunistic to write her songs so specifically about her life. She is asking for the audience to analyze and understand who it is she's talking about. She's the one that, in her lyric books, hides messages so people can know which ex she is talking about. While other celebrities get their fame by really stupid things, Taylor pounces on the opportunity to make her music all about her, because she knows that SHE is marketable and will make more money this way.<br /><br />Is it fair for me to make this assessment, or to insinuate that Taylor should make her music more open to her audience? Maybe not, but it is my opinion on what has been bothering me about Taylor Swift for so long. She makes her relationships feel like a marketing machine, not a personal experience.<br /><br />I hope this came across the right way. It probably didn't. But I wanted to comment because I've been wondering about the mystery of Taylor Swift and why I am so back-and-forth on her and your article helped identify what exactly it was that got to me. I'll always be in the back-and-forth with Taylor but at least I know why, right?Annnoreply@blogger.com