Taylor Swift

[cabbagekid]

I used to really dislike Taylor, in the same way I disklike Beyonce, for absolutely no reason at all. I liked some of their songs and have them on my playlists, but as people, they just annoyed me.

I think it was a few years ago where Taylor became a tiny bit less annoying to me, I think it was when she posted something about voting in Tennessee. At that point, I saw her as someone more than a singer who wrote about her failed relationships.

Obviously, last year, I posted about how much I enjoyed her album Folklore, even though some of the songs were depressing. Then she goes and let's her meaningful song "Only the Young" be used in a Voting Campaign, the first time she ever let any of her music be used in a political ad.

Today, I saw this on Twitter and for someone who was in the spotlight since she was 15, she's turned out well. Thoughtful and caring (as has Beyonce).

[Auroranorth]

Yeah, given that she became famous quite young, and has lived her life in the spotlight to a large extent, she's managed to do OK. No arrests, no drugs, no real scandals.

[askye]

Yeah, given that she became famous quite young, and has lived her life in the spotlight to a large extent, she's managed to do OK. No arrests, no drugs, no real scandals.

I give Taylor credit for that as well. I think her upbringing has a lot to do with it. Taylor comes from an upper-middle class family (I believe her dad worked at Merrill Lynch,) and they placed a big emphasis on education. And even though she started young and was eventually home schooled, Taylor took her studies seriously and apparently graduated with a 4.0, which is pretty incredible. Taylor's parents were also adamant that she finish high school, and they did not want her to get a GED.

It's quite a contrast from someone like, say, Britney Spears, where she was the primary breadwinner in her family at a young age. From what I've read, her mom (Lynne) also also sent her to a far-right fundamentalist Christian school where the focus was on rote memorization and religion, as opposed to developing critical thinking skills.

I remember reading an interview with Britney's former tutor on the Mickey Mouse Club. Britney was in the 7th or 8th grade while doing that show, and he was surprised that she had never been asked to write an essay before. The kids at Britney's school would read books and bubble in answers on worksheets. When Taylor was that age, I'm sure she would have already written several 5 paragraph essays about the books she read.

[Spinderella]

Mar 28, 2021 19:57:11 GMT -4 askye said:

Yeah, given that she became famous quite young, and has lived her life in the spotlight to a large extent, she's managed to do OK. No arrests, no drugs, no real scandals.

I give Taylor credit for that as well. I think her upbringing has a lot to do with it. Taylor comes from an upper-middle class family (I believe her dad worked at Merrill Lynch,) and they placed a big emphasis on education. And even though she started young and was eventually home schooled, Taylor took her studies seriously and apparently graduated with a 4.0, which is pretty incredible. Taylor's parents were also adamant that she finish high school, and they did not want her to get a GED.

It's quite a contrast from someone like, say, Britney Spears, where she was the primary breadwinner in her family at a young age. From what I've read, her mom (Lynne) also also sent her to a far-right fundamentalist Christian school where the focus was on rote memorization and religion, as opposed to developing critical thinking skills.

I remember reading an interview with Britney's former tutor on the Mickey Mouse Club. Britney was in the 7th or 8th grade while doing that show, and he was surprised that she had never been asked to write an essay before. The kids at Britney's school would read books and bubble in answers on worksheets. When Taylor was that age, I'm sure she would have already written several 5 paragraph essays about the books she read.

And it shows in her songwriting. She had to be more youthful and pop-sounding when she first came out, but as she matured and was able to have a lot more control...her albums show that growth and intelligence. Some may not love her music, but I do think that some of her lyrics can be extremely insightful and creative.

[magazinewhore]

Anyone paying attention to her release of her version of Red and the newly released film? She was very good on SNL this weekend. She's by no means an underdog, but I do appreciate the fact that she seems to be evolving as she gets older.

I can't help but wonder how Jake G. feels right now. He's gotta be like, it was a decade ago!

[ahah]

To me, the whole re-release seems like a step backward in evolving. She's relishing in the publicity of playing the victim for a break up from ten years ago, and convincing her fans that the way to show loyalty to her is to re-buy music they already did ... so she can fight against the record industry she portrays herself as being a victim. If she was showing growth and maturity using her voice for things like speaking up about voting, she's falling back into behaving like a swooning adolescent.

[Ladybug]

I thought the short film was a really good illustration of how emotional abuse happens in relationships. She's never called out JG by name, but I bet a lot of women could related to the power imbalance and gaslighting portrayed in that video.

By the way, Jake Gyllenhaal's current girlfriend is 25 and she was 22 when they started dating. Jake is 40.

[eveschmeve]

Nov 17, 2021 14:22:29 GMT -4 ahah said:

To me, the whole re-release seems like a step backward in evolving. She's relishing in the publicity of playing the victim for a break up from ten years ago, and convincing her fans that the way to show loyalty to her is to re-buy music they already did ... so she can fight against the record industry she portrays herself as being a victim. If she was showing growth and maturity using her voice for things like speaking up about voting, she's falling back into behaving like a swooning adolescent.

She doesn’t own the music that she herself wrote. Every time one of her old songs get played anywhere someone else gets paid for it. Re-recording her old songs gives her agency and control over her own creative works. I don’t think it’s at all about playing the victim or not showing growth. She’s recording songs she wrote when she was much younger, yes. She obviously was in a totally different place back then and I think it’s great she’s embracing it all and not hiding from who she was. If she just sat there and allowed her music to be purchased away from her without doing anything, how would that show leadership or maturity? She didn’t take it lying down and has turned it into a success story. I think that’s incredibly rare in the music industry, especially for women, and even more admirable because she started off in that industry as a child.

[ahah]

Nov 17, 2021 17:20:41 GMT -4 eveschmeve said:

Nov 17, 2021 14:22:29 GMT -4 ahah said:

To me, the whole re-release seems like a step backward in evolving. She's relishing in the publicity of playing the victim for a break up from ten years ago, and convincing her fans that the way to show loyalty to her is to re-buy music they already did ... so she can fight against the record industry she portrays herself as being a victim. If she was showing growth and maturity using her voice for things like speaking up about voting, she's falling back into behaving like a swooning adolescent.

She doesn’t own the music that she herself wrote. Every time one of her old songs get played anywhere someone else gets paid for it. Re-recording her old songs gives her agency and control over her own creative works. I don’t think it’s at all about playing the victim or not showing growth. She’s recording songs she wrote when she was much younger, yes. She obviously was in a totally different place back then and I think it’s great she’s embracing it all and not hiding from who she was. If she just sat there and allowed her music to be purchased away from her without doing anything, how would that show leadership or maturity? She didn’t take it lying down and has turned it into a success story. I think that’s incredibly rare in the music industry, especially for women, and even more admirable because she started off in that industry as a child.

She's not alone in the issue of owning her music. Most artists who contend with it take ownership once they get it and hold on to it for all future recordings. I don't like the way that Taylor markets it all with a victim mentality. She comes across to me like a child who is poking and poking at another kid, the other kid turns around and hits her, and she tries to portray herself as a hero for fighting back after being hit.

[eveschmeve]

She’s not the only artist, nope. But she’s one of the only ones with enough money, influence, and power to stand up for herself, and hopefully she paves the way for others. I also don’t see how she poked and poked someone over this. She wanted to buy her own music, she offered to buy her own music, and wasn’t allowed to. She signed a contract when she was a child, single handedly built a record label through her own success, and then wasn’t allowed to buy the rights to the songs she wrote. Who hit who?