If it was about the music no one would be famous.Originally Posted by Dom Heffner
If it was about the music no one would be famous.
To paraphrase what many have said about Jay Bruce...
She's only 20.
He music is mostly teeny bobber pop because she wrote them when she was a teenager. Her last album was many steps more mature than her first. We'll see if she keep maturing or stays in the pop world.
Of all the teen acts, she is far and away the most mature and the most talented. But it really it harsh to judge her against a mostly adult music world.
I'm a musician, my wife is a musician and both of my parents are musicians. I've been around the music business my entire life. Folks just have to let comments and public opinion roll off like they are covered in teflon. If they don't, they'll be eaten alive emotionally and crippled artistically. I'm no fan of Taylor Swift or her chosen genre but she has found here niche; good for her. All art is subjective and what I find appealing you might find appalling; that is the way it works and I'm glad I can live in a world that has such a wide array of musical choices.
Good post.
My editorial comment: I've noticed that when a popular genre's sales and popularity is primarily driven by women, it usually gets the critical thumbs-down. Since most music writers and reviewers and obsessive consumers are men, the male perspective dominates what gets deemed as talent and what's dismissed as schlock.
This just in: Girls are different.
My wife, who has an engineering degree and loves baseball and sci-fi and doesn't have a princess cell in her body, loves Twilight. I can't fathom it, much less explain it. Nor do I get Taylor Swift, but apparently millions of somethingteen girls can relate to everything she writes in a way few other artists have been able to manage, and those girls buy lots of music.
On the flip side, some of my favorite music is inexplicable without a guy's mindset behind it. To the typical girl, it just sounds like testosterone-fueled drivel.
No, they're not like us. And thank goodness for that.
Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice
There are worse country-pop offenders than Taylor Swift out there. I don't care for her music, but it isn't phony, like so much of the "dirt road" country is.
btw, I heard a WV country group called The Davisson Brothers perform Saturday night who put on a good show and displayed real talent.
It is on the whole probable that we continually dream, but that consciousness makes such a noise that we do not hear it. Carl Jung.
Well, I'm late to this thread but I wanted to add my .02.
Taylor Swift isn't my favorite, but my girlfriend and her little sisters all love her, so I've heard quite a bit of her stuff. There are FAR bigger problems in the music industry than Taylor Swift. And anyone in the pop industry who writes their own songs and forgoes the evils of Auto-Tune deserves a lot of credit.
On the other hand, I've never heard a single Black Crowes song that didn't make me want to gouge my ears out. They're terrible. Sounds like Chris Robinson is a little bit green over Taylor's success. He also looks like the guy who tried to wash my windshield the other day in Cincinnati.
Phil Castellini puts the FUN in Trust Fund.
I just listened to a recent Prine show. He sounded terrible. I think he had a recent bout with throat cancer, so that may be why. As bad as he sounded, he is still Prine, and it was great.
I've been to dinner at Jimmy Buffet's house, and I've eaten it at a homeless shelter. And there's great joy and harrowing terror to be found in both places.
-Todd Snider
I agree.
THIS IS COUNTRY:
THIS IS NOT COUNTRY:
Yet George Strait has been one of Taylor Swifts biggest supporters in the country community.
...the 2-2 to Woodsen and here it comes...and it is swung on and missed! And Tom Browning has pitched a perfect game! Twenty-seven outs in a row, and he is being mobbed by his teammates, just to the thirdbase side of the mound.
In the 60's Billy Sherrill was receiving much flack for putting strings and orchestration to such country legends as George, Tammy, Jim Reeves, Conway and others. The backlash against this was Outlaw Country and the exodus to Texas for some of Nashville biggest stars and songwriters.
The it ain't country argument has been going on for quite some time and some think that just because Garth had a hat on and roped the wind that he was "country" others... not so much.
...still trying to process my mental picture of The Operator gouging his ears out...
It makes sense to me that Strait supports Taylor Swift. She is real, and she's pretty positive. I may end up having to change my mind about her music, although it'll be a while before she shows up on my ipod.
Tonight I took my sister to the doctor and listened to top 40 radio for a while.
Besides being shocked to find a song on my ipod being played (Animal by Neon Trees), I heard what was booked as a John Mayer/Taylor Swift duet. Most of what she sang could barely be heard, although she had a couple of words she sang by yourself. Most of you likely know the song, but tonight was the first time I heard it. It wasn't bad. It struck me that the kinds of associations she's developing will likely lead to a long, likely substantial, career.
I'm starting to feel pretty positive about her.
It is on the whole probable that we continually dream, but that consciousness makes such a noise that we do not hear it. Carl Jung.
She reminds me of Jewel, who stole everyone's hearts, but had trouble growing with her fans because she wasn't the interesting 17 year old anymore. Pretty soon she was doing some really crappy pop and wisely stepped away.
I really see no evidence that she, or really literally any other new artist, will have a long fruitful career. You can never know when the ride will end; and sadly the large majority do. Overall, I tend to respect the artists that churn out records once a year. At least they're working hard and staying sharp.
2015 Rotation: Under Construction
Except Jewel can actually sing...
I've heard Swift sing quite well. I've heard her sound as out of tune as can be, but I've heard her sing really well, too.
Yet I've never heard her soynd as bas as I've heard Bob Dylan, Neil Young or Willie Nelson.
Willie is a top 5 favorite of mine and I'll never spend a dime to see him live ever again.
Willie has passed the age that alive show does him justice, it's played out most of the time, medleys same stuff in the same slot..etc. Even 10 years ago it was great, now... meh.
I've heard Dylan shows were I wasn't sure what he was singing, others I could hear every word he's famous for messing with his arrangements and having a bad live voice.
Personally I don't give a rats behind about the voice live, it's a different world than the studio, I just want good songs and all that crap.
Which of course is all subjective.
This debate reminds me of one I used to have with an awesome guitar player I used to work with in Cincinnati.
He played live all around town, was as good as one could be at his level, and he worshipped Jimi Hendrix and would put down a lot of pop music that I liked.
One of his favorite targets was Bob Seger. It wasn't real music because it was so simple- just 3 chords, he would say.
For me, that argument assumes music must be difficult to be considered good or real.
Just not true. Seger's music may not be complex, but a song like "Night Moves" captures what it sets out to do like few other pop songs. If it's a simple song, that's a huge compliment to Seger because it feels much bigger than that. And truthfully, while I can recognize the musical complexity of Hendrix, I'd listen to Seger everyday if I had the choice of the two.
I'm not a huge Richard Marx fan, but he wrote "Right Here Waiting"
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