Music Taylor Swift

That would make a modicum of sense if she wasn't absolutely massive beyond the US.

Your “Wow” was in response to my comment on her popularity in America, specifically. Where her anodyne charms will appeal to a much broader fanbase than someone who is more sexual, or less WASPy.

And, if we’re honest, all of the above certainly doesn’t do any harm to her appeal outside the US.
 
Yeah the Caf in general. White, straight, middle aged man energy across the board. :)
Why do people resort to insulting/or talking about people based on demographics when they say things they don't like? I've seen this middle aged thing being mentioned several times now and it's lame af. Everyone can have their opinion.
 
Why do people resort to insulting/or talking about people based on demographics when they say things they don't like? I've seen this middle aged thing being mentioned several times now and it's lame af. Everyone can have their opinion.

Not to mention that the posters most likely to play the age card are surely in their thirties by now, so would be perceived as middle aged by anyone who is actually young. Not that you’ll find many actual youngsters posting on this website.
 
As a casual Taylor Swift observer, I will give this a shot.

1. Her music is not actually bad - some of it is quite good. The generic stuff is well-crafted and catchy pop music, and some of the newer stuff is at least decent. She's not some sort of generational musician, but she's also not making awful music. If you think that, you are not really trying to understand her popularity.
2. She's been very good at engaging with her fans, and maintaining a perception of being approachable, normal and down-to-earth. This has been enhanced by a strong social media game. She doesn't give off the diva vibe, and many of these fans can imagine her as being kind of a friend (I'm not saying this is true for Samid, necessarily).
3. She grown with her fans from a young age. The fifteen year old girls that listened to her earliest pop music are now 30-somethings listening to her folk/alternative stuff, so she has managed to stay relevant for almost two decades.
4. There has been this mutually beneficial relationship between her and the tabloid media - especially around her dating life. She writes a song with some implications about a breakup or whatever, and she gets tons of attention for it. Then she writes a song about the attention. Endless coverage.
5. She has delved into a few social activism topics that play well with her fanbase and gain her even more attention. And when Fox News runs a story about her being a CIA asset, because of her voting initiative it only underscores how massive she is.

Fair enough. Basically she's an average musician and a very talented social media expert (Not saying that as a dig to her, it's actually a compliment).
 
Fair enough. Basically she's an average musician and a very talented social media expert (Not saying that as a dig to her, it's actually a compliment).

She's clearly quite clever in many ways. The stuff she's got going on with re-recording her music to take on the record labels is also quite unique.
 
Why do people resort to insulting/or talking about people based on demographics when they say things they don't like? I've seen this middle aged thing being mentioned several times now and it's lame af. Everyone can have their opinion.
More a general theme rather than a direct criticism of people not liking her - people not liking her (or stuff in general) is cool and doesn't fundamentally matter. Some of the takes about her as an artist are, however, a bit ridiculous.
 
Phew, what a blessing coming to this thread! I just saw "middle-aged man", and wondered if I could still be classed as that. To my absolute relief I am still middle-aged. In fact, I'm at the younger end of it! I feel like I could take on the world now. Thanks Taylor Swift
 
Why do people resort to insulting/or talking about people based on demographics when they say things they don't like? I've seen this middle aged thing being mentioned several times now and it's lame af. Everyone can have their opinion.

People can have their opinions, but there’s definitely a lot of presenting opinion as fact on the last page. Trying to claim she won’t be talked about in twenty years time because they think her music is shit. In twenty years time, her fans will be middle aged and saying how the current stars don’t compete with Taylor Swift.
 
By the way, I think the reason she’s successful is that her songs seem quite honest, resonate with lots of people and her whole persona is quite positive and seems authentic. Which in itself is quite rare in the music business, especially the more successful parts. It’s just fun to be a fan of hers.
That’s about it, I think. No great myth there.
 
Wild. Lopez made a couple of popular albums at best. This thread has a lot of ‘middle aged man’ energy and you’ll probably find that guys were saying the same thing about most of the artists you mentioned.

I will also add the pretty obvious fact that music is so much more accessible now. How many of you listen to mainstream radio stations vs what people had no choice but to up till the 90s, however I guarantee if you listened to Taylor swifts most popular songs you’d know them all.

You do realise Rihanna and Lady Gaga that I mentioned in my post are similar age as Taylor Swift? :lol:

Why are some of you acting like she just appeared on the scene like she is 16 ffs?

Also J Lo having just couple of good albums(I am not sure I know any of them tbf except few commercial songs), how many good albums Taylor Swift has? 20?


Why do people resort to insulting/or talking about people based on demographics when they say things they don't like? I've seen this middle aged thing being mentioned several times now and it's lame af. Everyone can have their opinion.

It's mostly same people who go around forum and use insults when they lack any arguments, so insulting/calling out other posters is the easiest form of making yourself look better than others.
 
People can have their opinions, but there’s definitely a lot of presenting opinion as fact on the last page. Trying to claim she won’t be talked about in twenty years time because they think her music is shit. In twenty years time, her fans will be middle aged and saying how the current stars don’t compete with Taylor Swift.
A lot of her fans are already close to middle aged. She has been around for 15 years. Most people I know who are their big fans are in their early 30s. So hardly very young. Someone already said in here a lot of her fans are in their 40s too. She s not some teen idol and feck the "old" people who have an opinion of her.
 
You do realise Rihanna and Lady Gaga that I mentioned in my post are similar age as Taylor Swift? :lol:

Why are some of you acting like she just appeared on the scene like she is 16 ffs?

Also J Lo having just couple of good albums(I am not sure I know any of them tbf except few commercial songs), how many good albums Taylor Swift has? 20?




It's mostly same people who go around forum and use insults when they lack any arguments, so insulting/calling out other posters is the easiest form of making yourself look better than others.
I really think you strongly overestimate the fame of J-Lo and Lady Gaga compared to Taylor Swift. As far as I’m concerned, they never even came close to draw as many people to their concerts. Britney Spears however is a fair comparison. Not sure about Beyoncé outside the US. But from my experience she isn’t and never was as popular in Germany at least. Think her fame outside the US is a bit exaggerated. Rihanna comes closer I believe. Not sure about that, though. But J-Lo and Lady Gaga are no comparison.
 
I think people are (probably disingenuously) taking the "middle aged man energy" point literally, which it's not meant to be (or that's not how I understood it).
 
Chaotic neutral: I don't know the name of a single Taylor Swift song nor would I be able to hum a single tune.

As far as mainstream pop music from the 2010s go, surely Rihanna and Bruno Mars are better artists? At least I can remember some of their songs. I think their music will age better too.
 
Chaotic neutral: I don't know the name of a single Taylor Swift song nor would I be able to hum a single tune.

As far as mainstream pop music from the 2010s go, surely Rihanna and Bruno Mars are better artists? At least I can remember some of their songs. I think their music will age better too.

If you don't know a single one of her songs, how can you comment on the quality relative to Rihanna and Bruno Mars? The only thing you could go by would be factors like their album sales and awards.
 
While I've no doubt she is huge and still will be for a few more years at least. Is she really going to have the legacy Madonna still has in 40 odd years time?

I would tolerate her a lot more if i didn't have to look at her every two minutes during a nfl hand too.
 
If you don't know a single one of her songs, how can you comment on the quality relative to Rihanna and Bruno Mars?

I have heard plenty of her songs hundreds of times combined. They just don't stick.

It's not that her music is offensive to my ears or anything like that. She's just aggressively vanilla and forgettable to me for some reason.
 
Btw, here's two balkan examples:

1. There's popular artist at the moment here in Balkans, and she is breaking all kind of records. She put out new album something like a year ago, and she hinted a big Balkanic tour roughly 8-9 months ago, starting with Belgrade arena(Serbia) in the summer, Sarajevo(Bosnia) and Zagreb arenas in the winter. She was selling tickets for months for these concerts, and once she sold her full first arena and did marketing that there is no tickets left, she sold:
- Belgrade - another 2 arenas sold for two days!
- Zagreb - another 4 Zagreb arenas, tickets were sold in just few days, 5 arenas in total! (First ever performer to do that, and half of Croatia has no idea who she is)
- Sarajevo - another two arenas in just few days, 3 in total (first performer ever)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Od_Istoka_Do_Zapada_Tour

I would say the average fan age is similar to Taylor Swift, and she is also similar age, and she is actually quite decent artist, but nowhere near most popular, most quality of all times here or anything like that. But she is selling her concerts like crazy at the moment, and doesn't look like stopping.

2. Example - Dino Merlin; one of the most popular pop artists of all times in this region, I would say easily top3 Yugoslavia artist of all times, he is brutal quality, writes his song, his concerts are excellent, etc. In the period 2000s to 2020s he would have big concerts now and then, I would say every 3-5 years big concert in one of bigger cities here, and that's when he was at the top and still making good albums. He never stopped performing, but last year he started his tour again, and boom:
- 4 Zagreb arenas
- 4 Belgrade arenas
- 2 Skopje arenas
- 2 Zurich arenas

All in the space of 20 days.

When he was at his best there was nowhere near that much interest, and this is not some goodbye tour by any means, since he will be performing in years to come.


Filling concerts these days is not the greatest argument of being most popular of all times. I am sure there are other examples on global level stars too.
 
I really think you strongly overestimate the fame of J-Lo and Lady Gaga compared to Taylor Swift. As far as I’m concerned, they never even came close to draw as many people to their concerts. Britney Spears however is a fair comparison. Not sure about Beyoncé outside the US. But from my experience she isn’t and never was as popular in Germany at least. Think her fame outside the US is a bit exaggerated. Rihanna comes closer I believe. Not sure about that, though. But J-Lo and Lady Gaga are no comparison.

I could be, but I remember Lady Gaga music videos being ridiculously popular on TV ten years ago, I don't think I have seen Taylor Swift in total as much I have seen Lady Gaga in space of just few months.

Regarding JLo, she is more popular as persona than as an artist to be fair, first thing I remember was "Lets get loud", rhe fact that I heard about it in Bosnia when I didn't even have internet back then was ridiculous :lol: . For example I have listened at least 10-15 Taylor Swift songs, and I actually enjoy many of them, but I don't think I know the name of any of them except Shake it off. Btw:

In 2000, Lopez and then-boyfriend Sean Combs attended the Grammy Awards, with Lopez wearing a plunging green Versace silk chiffon dress.[70] The dress generated worldwide attention and became the most popular search query in Google's history,[71] leading to the creation of Google Images.[72] L
 
You do realise Rihanna and Lady Gaga that I mentioned in my post are similar age as Taylor Swift? :lol:
That’s why I highlighted Lopez specifically in the reply? Rihanna and Beyoncé are definitely comparable to Swift.
 
That’s why I highlighted Lopez specifically in the reply? Rihanna and Beyoncé are definitely comparable to Swift.

So you used middle age comment but totally ignored that I mentioned other artists that are same age as Taylor Swift? How can you think that when I used Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna in the same example, you couldn't realise I was just naming who I thought were most popular pop stars of all times?
 
Filling concerts these days is not the greatest argument of being most popular of all times. I am sure there are other examples on global level stars too.
Are there that many? I'm aware of some K-Pop artists that do massively well, you have the example of Elton John, there's others that will always do well. But it's just impossible to quite minimize what her Eras tour has done, considering...
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour breaks record as highest-grossing music tour ever. Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is officially the highest-grossing music tour ever, becoming the first to surpass $1 billion dollars in revenue.
I imagine a part of that is due to the cost of tickets in the US (but she's not the only artist doing world tours with very high US prices) but it's the highest grossing ever. You can't dismiss it as something that "just happens".
While I've no doubt she is huge and still will be for a few more years at least. Is she really going to have the legacy Madonna still has in 40 odd years time?
Hard to say really. I remember my mother saying in the 90s the Spice Girls would disappear into obscurity, and they still have some fame 30 years later. I'd argue Swift has a larger body of work than the Spice Girls ever did. It also depends on the rest of her career.

Madonna is also somewhat of an outlier in that I personally believe that her legacy is somewhat bigger than what her career might have warranted, notably because of her cultural impact and her importance in the queer community. Though you could say that about anyone with a massive cultural legacy, it usually goes beyond just their production.
 
So you used middle age comment but totally ignored that I mentioned other artists that are same age as Taylor Swift? How can you think that when I used Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna in the same example, you couldn't realise I was just naming who I thought were most popular pop stars of all times?
I said the thread has a lot of middle aged men vibes. I wasn’t talking about your post specifically. It would have been clearer if I’d started a new paragraph in fairness.

As someone who is getting close to middle aged, I find it pretty funny that people have taken that literally. Same people probably use the ‘old man yelling at clouds’ saying all the time.
 
Are there that many? I'm aware of some K-Pop artists that do massively well, you have the example of Elton John, there's others that will always do well. But it's just impossible to quite minimize what her Eras tour has done, considering...

I am not minimizing, I am aware she has massive following at the moment, I just believe it's just the marketing that is making it that popular more than anything, she knows how to sell out her concerts, I don't think the number of people at the concert are reflection of her popularity, but rather modern culture. If it wasn't the case, she would set these records long time ago when she made her most popular songs. She is one of the most famous pop artists of all times, I cannot argue against it.

Btw, Madonna:
With over 600,000 tickets sold in a single day,[130][131] The Celebration Tour became one of the world's fastest-selling concert tours with The New York Times describing it as "one of the year's big-ticket events".[25] On June 30, Billboard reported approximately 1.2 million tickets have been sold.[132] However, some media reports stated there were available tickets remaining, mainly after she postponed the tour due to illness and by resellers.[133][25][134] Regarded as one of the most anticipated tours of 2023 by Pitchfork,[135] the then upcoming tour was called by Eric Frankenberg from Billboard as a "global victory lap". He also said it "further cementing her legacy as the Queen of Pop".[131] On October 24, 2023, Rolling Stone's John Lonsdale commented the tour is "already proving to become one of the most popular shows of both this and next year".[134]

Beyonce:
The Renaissance World Tour was the ninth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé. Her highest-grossing tour to date, it was announced on February 1, 2023, in support of her seventh studio album, Renaissance (2022)

U2:
U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere is an ongoing concert residency by the Irish rock band U2 at the Sphere in Paradise, Nevada, in the Las Vegas Valley. Scheduled to consist of 40 concerts from 29 September 2023 to 2 March 2024, the engagement is inaugurating the Sphere with performances focused on the group's 1991 album Achtung Baby


Everyone is grossing biggest money ever, the difference is that she is just the most popular at the moment. I don't think that makes her GOAT or anything like that.

(Sorry for Wikipedia, I am lazy to find other links).
 
I said the thread has a lot of middle aged men vibes. I wasn’t talking about your post specifically. It would have been clearer if I’d started a new paragraph in fairness.

As someone who is getting close to middle aged, I find it pretty funny that people have taken that literally. Same people probably use the ‘old man yelling at clouds’ saying all the time.

I am not insulted by the way, I am fecking 32, but just find it lazy way of discussing things.
 
I am not minimizing, I am aware she has massive following at the moment, I just believe it's just the marketing that is making it that popular more than anything, she knows how to sell out her concerts, I don't think the number of people at the concert are reflection of her popularity, but rather modern culture. If it wasn't the case, she would set these records long time ago when she made her most popular songs. She is one of the most famous pop artists of all times, I cannot argue against it.

Btw, Madonna:
With over 600,000 tickets sold in a single day,[130][131] The Celebration Tour became one of the world's fastest-selling concert tours with The New York Times describing it as "one of the year's big-ticket events".[25] On June 30, Billboard reported approximately 1.2 million tickets have been sold.[132] However, some media reports stated there were available tickets remaining, mainly after she postponed the tour due to illness and by resellers.[133][25][134] Regarded as one of the most anticipated tours of 2023 by Pitchfork,[135] the then upcoming tour was called by Eric Frankenberg from Billboard as a "global victory lap". He also said it "further cementing her legacy as the Queen of Pop".[131] On October 24, 2023, Rolling Stone's John Lonsdale commented the tour is "already proving to become one of the most popular shows of both this and next year".[134]

Beyonce:
The Renaissance World Tour was the ninth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé. Her highest-grossing tour to date, it was announced on February 1, 2023, in support of her seventh studio album, Renaissance (2022)

U2:
U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere is an ongoing concert residency by the Irish rock band U2 at the Sphere in Paradise, Nevada, in the Las Vegas Valley. Scheduled to consist of 40 concerts from 29 September 2023 to 2 March 2024, the engagement is inaugurating the Sphere with performances focused on the group's 1991 album Achtung Baby


Everyone is grossing biggest money ever, the difference is that she is just the most popular at the moment. I don't think that makes her GOAT or anything like that.

(Sorry for Wikipedia, I am lazy to find other links).
I'm not arguing she is the "goat", nor do I think anyone else is in here, it seems like it's a bit of a strawman. I think there's a Grand Canyon between arguing she's the goat and saying she has no talent, has no memorable songs, will have no legacy, etc.

Her fame, her career, her body of work until now is being massively minimized.

Also, from a pure quantifiable perspective, a song everyone would agree is quite relevant in the 21st century, Seven Nation Army, has 1.5bn listens on Spotify. Swift's highest ranking song on there is Blank Space with 1.6bn - despite being released 11 years later, but with Spotify gaining popularity later than the White Stripes songs, I guess it kinda levels the playing field. She's massively relevant. Maybe not on here, maybe not with the overarching demographic of the Caf (and yes, that is genuinely a point to take into consideration), but the world is quite a bit bigger.
 
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I'm not arguing she is the "goat", nor do I think anyone else is in here, it seems like it's a bit of a strawman. I think there's a Grand Canyon between arguing she's the goat and saying she has no talent, has no memorable songs, will have no legacy, etc.

Her fame, her career, her body of work until now is being massively minimized.

Also, from a pure quantifiable perspective, a song everyone would agree is quite relevant in the 20th century, Seven Nation Army, has 1.5bn listens on Spotify. Swift's highest ranking song on there is Blank Space with 1.6bn - despite being released 11 years later, but with Spotify gaining popularity later than the White Stripes songs, I guess it kinda levels the playing field. She's massively relevant. Maybe not on here, maybe not with the overarching demographic of the Caf (and yes, that is genuinely a point to take into consideration), but the world is quite a bit bigger.

It's a weird argument for people to play her down, she's huge and has been for years, she's the most streamed female act on Spotify, she's google's most searched song writer of all time, she was meant to headline the Covid cancelled Glastonbury in 2020, she was asked again in 2022 but turned it down and now she has the highest grossing tour ever. She's been feted for reshaping country music in the 21st century as well as pop, her lyrics have even been compared to Shakespeare by British academics! The list of her achievements and cultural impact is endless.

My youngest daughter (12) loves her as does my sister (45) so she crosses the generations (both going to see her in Cardiff) whereas I'm classic caf, 50, white, middle aged with size 10 feet and think she's a bit meh.
 
It's a weird argument for people to play her down, she's huge and has been for years, she's the most streamed female act on Spotify, she's google's most searched song writer of all time, she was meant to headline the Covid cancelled Glastonbury in 2020, she was asked again in 2022 but turned it down and now she has the highest grossing tour ever. She's been feted for reshaping country music in the 21st century as well as pop, her lyrics have even been compared to Shakespeare by British academics! The list of her achievements and cultural impact is endless.

My youngest daughter (12) loves her as does my sister (45) so she crosses the generations (both going to see her in Cardiff) whereas I'm classic caf, 50, white, middle aged with size 10 feet and think she's a bit meh.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
 


I just showed this to my daughter, thinking she'd find it funny. She just looked at me witheringly and said she's seen it a hundred times and it's the sort of thing only boomers laugh at.
 
I just showed this to my daughter, thinking she'd find it funny. She just looked at me witheringly and said she's seen it a hundred times and it's the sort of thing only boomers laugh at.

To be fair the clip is 10 years old. That is 70 Gen Z years!
 

British scholar Jonathan Bate dubbed Swift a "real poet", favorably comparing her to literary figures such as William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, William Wordsworth, Charlotte Brontë and Emily Dickinson and wrote that she has a "literary sensibility" that other pop stars lack.

Not saying I agree, but look him up, he's no dodgy part time lecturer, he's a proper expert!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Bate
 
someone was claiming she was the goat on the last page to be fair
Is it Samid and his weird obsession with her? That's alright.
Not saying I agree, but look him up, he's no dodgy part time lecturer, he's a proper expert!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Bate
Comparisons to other famous writers (fyi Shakespeare is considered by some scholars to be a poor writer, relatively - so it's all very relative) is just gonna lead to a trench war, but yes she's a great songwriter. It's also fine for some in here to say they don't like her and haven't delved into her stuff - that's perfectly respectable. Laughing away her talent when you haven't actually given her stuff the time of day just reeks of ignorance and is a bit of a shame.
 
I just showed this to my daughter, thinking she'd find it funny. She just looked at me witheringly and said she's seen it a hundred times and it's the sort of thing only boomers laugh at.

Show her the one with Nic Cage or LeClerc or the paper towel dispenser. One of them are bound to work!
 
Not saying I agree, but look him up, he's no dodgy part time lecturer, he's a proper expert!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Bate
tenor.gif
 
Is it Samid and his weird obsession with her? That's alright.

Comparisons to other famous writers (fyi Shakespeare is considered by some scholars to be a poor writer, relatively - so it's all very relative) is just gonna lead to a trench war, but yes she's a great songwriter. It's also fine for some in here to say they don't like her and haven't delved into her stuff - that's perfectly respectable. Laughing away her talent when you haven't actually given her stuff the time of day just reeks of ignorance and is a bit of a shame.
She may be a great songwriter (I definitely don't think so but I understand it's highly subjective and I don't feel qualified to judge her music), but she's not a good lyricist by any stretch of the imagination. That type of outrageously OTT praise is going to create some pushback, which is probably the intention anyway, so it's fine I guess.