She’s not an icon! She’s a marketing phenomenon thanks to her family. Same for the Kardashians. Also, people felt sympathy for her after Kanye grabbed the mike from her years ago. Talk about 6 degrees! LOL! And didn’t Damon Albarn talk smack about her and get scolded? Shit.
Who cares if she can or not? I remember the 15 year old standing on stage with a six string and a cowboy hat barely heard above the crowd.
I wish that I knew her publicist even if she got screwed by her first crew. And, those of us baby boomers just don't.get.it and we really can't afford her tickets anyway
Agree that for a lot of people the singing doesn’t matter. You might say the same about Springsteen: The shared experience matters more than the singing, and I’m not faulting that. I’m more concerned about critics who are ignoring the signing and why they do it. Some seem not even to be trying to evaluate it.
No, can’t sing really. Except maybe country sometimes? Don’t know if it’s that she’s off key, tone deaf or out of range. One time I was at a Taco Bell and I was like, who is this singing? Their voice is awful! My husband told me it was Taylor Swift! Really? People like her? Not sure. But I do know that she comes from a very affluent and powerful family of finance experts and they know how to handle her money and marketing. It’s all about investments, good production, and mostly the Swift machine. It’s not really about being a real artist anymore.
A troubling things is that even some critics don't seem to recognize when an artist is tone deaf or singing off key or out of tune. There are too few left who are willing and able to hold artists accountable for their vocal missteps. If they aren't, they may focus on things like stagecraft or production values that, as you say, are the products of a machine.
It's just impossible to compare artists of different cultural, political, technological eras. How big would the Beatles have been with the socials? You can't even speculate. Well, I mean you can, but there's no leveling factors you can tweak to get to anything close to an everything-else-being-equal basis.
But I will say one comparison that is, or will be over time, applicable is songwriting as measured in covers, samples, and other less countable aspects of influence.
I'm asking out of curious ignorance, but I assume TS has a lot of songwriting credits ... has anybody of note covered her songs?
I disagree with most of your ‘commenters’. Let me remind all that Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen publicly admit their vocal instrument ( As Springsteen refers to his voice ) are limited. Aretha Franklin was a vocalist. Tony Bennett was so good that Sinatra told the world that Bennett had the best voice. Elvis became, as Sam Phillips said, “a white boy with the Negro sound’ then Phillips ( of Sun Records) would be a millionaire. And he was.
My point is all of these artists were not just successful; they were and are iconic. They are entertainers in numerous genre, and they are all significantly influential in our culture.
To criticize Ms Swift is a combination of envy, pettiness, and arrogance. I am not saying you, Janice, are making this point. You are reporting what some other wannabes claim.
My goodness. Swift has mastered banjo. Guitar, piano and songwriting. She has taken on critical issues that need attention and been both generous and humble. She is a woman to be admired and emulated, not for her voice or her business savvy, but for the goodness that radiates from her soul.
At a time when America faces villains of enormous power who are dedicated to their selfish interests and cruel acts of aggression, the very last person to be critical of is Taylor Swift.
Thank you! Just to clarify: I wasn't trying to fault Swift but the critics who aren't doing what I see are part of their job: to evaluate all aspects of an artist's work.
Your Springsteen parallel is especially apt. I'm not wild about his voice--it's a little too monochromatic for me--but I'd love to see one of his shows, just for the overall experience.
OMG — you have not seen the Boss!! Janice, then you have not seen “the ass-kicking, show stopping, thunder rattling, viagra taking, booty shakin, E STREET BAND!
Bless you, Kent. I'm still recovering from my move and lucky I didn't identify Kelce as a Class B high school football coach in Piscataway, New Jersey. You deserve one of those homemade Pop-Tarts Swift bakes for him. Fixed the wayward apostrophe immediately.
Swift is talented but I think some of her success can be explained by the lack of churn in mainstream culture, the lack of greater new cultural trends, sonic innovations etc. Past pop titans really had to be on the defensive after a while. Elvis washes out and comes back in '68. Sinatra gets replaced by rock 'n roll and needs to find a way to be cool again. Madonna and Michael Jackson reign for a while but even they have to find a way to stay current as the culture shifts. We've had real stagnation at the top, for a variety of reasons. The Swift-style dance pop is still, well, a thing. Compare that to the dramatic shifts from rock to disco to new wave to hip hop to everything else we saw in the 20th century. And no, she doesn't sing all that well.
Thanks for mentioning that stagnation at the top. It's a real problem in more arts than music, including movies. I'm not sure how or when we'll move beyond it.
The loss of so many arts critics with regular, paid beats doesn't help: When brilliant new talents arrive in art or music or dance, who's still there to champion them? I wonder if the scant attention to Swift's singing doesn't result, in part, from the lack of trained music critics who are even qualified to evaluate a singer's range, timbre, and more. Some may focus in reviewing concerts on things like staging or crowd size because they simply lack the skill to recognize when an artist sings flat or has poor breath control.
She’s not an icon! She’s a marketing phenomenon thanks to her family. Same for the Kardashians. Also, people felt sympathy for her after Kanye grabbed the mike from her years ago. Talk about 6 degrees! LOL! And didn’t Damon Albarn talk smack about her and get scolded? Shit.
Who cares if she can or not? I remember the 15 year old standing on stage with a six string and a cowboy hat barely heard above the crowd.
I wish that I knew her publicist even if she got screwed by her first crew. And, those of us baby boomers just don't.get.it and we really can't afford her tickets anyway
Agree that for a lot of people the singing doesn’t matter. You might say the same about Springsteen: The shared experience matters more than the singing, and I’m not faulting that. I’m more concerned about critics who are ignoring the signing and why they do it. Some seem not even to be trying to evaluate it.
No, can’t sing really. Except maybe country sometimes? Don’t know if it’s that she’s off key, tone deaf or out of range. One time I was at a Taco Bell and I was like, who is this singing? Their voice is awful! My husband told me it was Taylor Swift! Really? People like her? Not sure. But I do know that she comes from a very affluent and powerful family of finance experts and they know how to handle her money and marketing. It’s all about investments, good production, and mostly the Swift machine. It’s not really about being a real artist anymore.
A troubling things is that even some critics don't seem to recognize when an artist is tone deaf or singing off key or out of tune. There are too few left who are willing and able to hold artists accountable for their vocal missteps. If they aren't, they may focus on things like stagecraft or production values that, as you say, are the products of a machine.
It's just impossible to compare artists of different cultural, political, technological eras. How big would the Beatles have been with the socials? You can't even speculate. Well, I mean you can, but there's no leveling factors you can tweak to get to anything close to an everything-else-being-equal basis.
But I will say one comparison that is, or will be over time, applicable is songwriting as measured in covers, samples, and other less countable aspects of influence.
I'm asking out of curious ignorance, but I assume TS has a lot of songwriting credits ... has anybody of note covered her songs?
The truth most women harbor: "Swift presents as a nice girl, but her lyrics are often not so. They are vengeful and angry. "
Nice post 🙏
Thank you! So many women do present as nice girls but are angry underneath, and that may be part of Swift's appeal.
I disagree with most of your ‘commenters’. Let me remind all that Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen publicly admit their vocal instrument ( As Springsteen refers to his voice ) are limited. Aretha Franklin was a vocalist. Tony Bennett was so good that Sinatra told the world that Bennett had the best voice. Elvis became, as Sam Phillips said, “a white boy with the Negro sound’ then Phillips ( of Sun Records) would be a millionaire. And he was.
My point is all of these artists were not just successful; they were and are iconic. They are entertainers in numerous genre, and they are all significantly influential in our culture.
To criticize Ms Swift is a combination of envy, pettiness, and arrogance. I am not saying you, Janice, are making this point. You are reporting what some other wannabes claim.
My goodness. Swift has mastered banjo. Guitar, piano and songwriting. She has taken on critical issues that need attention and been both generous and humble. She is a woman to be admired and emulated, not for her voice or her business savvy, but for the goodness that radiates from her soul.
At a time when America faces villains of enormous power who are dedicated to their selfish interests and cruel acts of aggression, the very last person to be critical of is Taylor Swift.
Let that sink in. Folks.
I really mean it. Janice, “with all due respect.”
Robert Pacilio
Www.robertpacilio.com
Thank you! Just to clarify: I wasn't trying to fault Swift but the critics who aren't doing what I see are part of their job: to evaluate all aspects of an artist's work.
Your Springsteen parallel is especially apt. I'm not wild about his voice--it's a little too monochromatic for me--but I'd love to see one of his shows, just for the overall experience.
OMG — you have not seen the Boss!! Janice, then you have not seen “the ass-kicking, show stopping, thunder rattling, viagra taking, booty shakin, E STREET BAND!
For shame.
Kansas City Chiefs.
Bless you, Kent. I'm still recovering from my move and lucky I didn't identify Kelce as a Class B high school football coach in Piscataway, New Jersey. You deserve one of those homemade Pop-Tarts Swift bakes for him. Fixed the wayward apostrophe immediately.
Once an editor, always an editor.
FYI - She (the machine) stalks her fans online (lurks) for marketing research.
Swift is talented but I think some of her success can be explained by the lack of churn in mainstream culture, the lack of greater new cultural trends, sonic innovations etc. Past pop titans really had to be on the defensive after a while. Elvis washes out and comes back in '68. Sinatra gets replaced by rock 'n roll and needs to find a way to be cool again. Madonna and Michael Jackson reign for a while but even they have to find a way to stay current as the culture shifts. We've had real stagnation at the top, for a variety of reasons. The Swift-style dance pop is still, well, a thing. Compare that to the dramatic shifts from rock to disco to new wave to hip hop to everything else we saw in the 20th century. And no, she doesn't sing all that well.
Thanks for mentioning that stagnation at the top. It's a real problem in more arts than music, including movies. I'm not sure how or when we'll move beyond it.
The loss of so many arts critics with regular, paid beats doesn't help: When brilliant new talents arrive in art or music or dance, who's still there to champion them? I wonder if the scant attention to Swift's singing doesn't result, in part, from the lack of trained music critics who are even qualified to evaluate a singer's range, timbre, and more. Some may focus in reviewing concerts on things like staging or crowd size because they simply lack the skill to recognize when an artist sings flat or has poor breath control.