I used to love Taylor Swift. She grew in popularity mostly during the 2010s, & in the early to mid 2010s was when I listened to her all the time. She had a general, ambient tone that was pretty & easy to listen to, paired with a nice voice & decent aesthetics. Most people could relate to her, & i was closeted at the time so I could “ironically” listen to her while fulfilling some need for femininity at the time.
Her generalized lyrics make it easy to project people’s own insecurities onto them & relate, especially with the deterioration of community in the US & elsewhere. A lot of people in the US coalesce around single artists & join their communities for support & friendship, & Taylor Swift fostered a parasocial relationship like that with her fans.
Taylor Swift is a pretty
prototypical American white woman. She never really breaks the mold of the prototype, so she’s generally accepted among all sects of the population.
My problem with her is that as I grew, her lyrics didn’t seem to grow at all. She’s still writing for that lost teenage girl, even though she’s 35. She is less relevant culturally, imo, than she’s ever been. She gets more & more criticism with every album release because it’s not original (this new one’s cover is very much an attempt to be like Sabrina Carpenter). She’s lost & hasn’t been able to find any sort of new niche.
I used to love Taylor Swift. She grew in popularity mostly during the 2010s, & in the early to mid 2010s was when I listened to her all the time. She had a general, ambient tone that was pretty & easy to listen to, paired with a nice voice & decent aesthetics. Most people could relate to her, & i was closeted at the time so I could “ironically” listen to her while fulfilling some need for femininity at the time.
Her generalized lyrics make it easy to project people’s own insecurities onto them & relate, especially with the deterioration of community in the US & elsewhere. A lot of people in the US coalesce around single artists & join their communities for support & friendship, & Taylor Swift fostered a parasocial relationship like that with her fans.
Taylor Swift is a pretty prototypical American white woman. She never really breaks the mold of the prototype, so she’s generally accepted among all sects of the population.
My problem with her is that as I grew, her lyrics didn’t seem to grow at all. She’s still writing for that lost teenage girl, even though she’s 35. She is less relevant culturally, imo, than she’s ever been. She gets more & more criticism with every album release because it’s not original (this new one’s cover is very much an attempt to be like Sabrina Carpenter). She’s lost & hasn’t been able to find any sort of new niche.