Reply to Is Taylor Swift a Genius?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Taylor has written the same song over and over again. [/quote]

Which song? The one about people dying of cancer? The one about Romantic poets? The one about being screwed over by the guy who purchased your catalog? The one about the women who went before her and carved their own path?

I don't care whether people like Taylor, I certainly don't expect them to find each of her songs a precious gem, but I am really sick of people who heard one or two songs ten years ago and have decided they get to write off all of her songs as being the same.

Katy Perry < Taylor Swift < Phoebe Bridgers[/quote]

It's the breakup songs. So many breakup songs. And yes, musically and lyrically, they are incredibly repetitive.

Like Taylor has Red, Dear John, Holy Ground, Last Kiss, Back to December, Picture to Burn, Getaway Car, All to Well, Clean, Breath, White Horse, Sad Beautiful Tragic, The Last Time... these are all the same song. There are others too! This is not even all of them. People keep saying she's prolific but a HUGE percentage of her catalog is just the same song over and over.

And it's too bad because she has the capacity to write truly great, original, interesting songs on the same themes. We Are Never Getting Back Together is a true ear worm that has and will stand the test of time. Anti-Hero is a great, hilarious, memorable song.

But yes, when people say "she writes the same song over and over again" they are not talking about the songs that stick out. They are talking about the many, many songs she's written that are basically the same sad sack diary entries on the same subject she's been singing about since she was 15 years old.

She is also repetitive about other themes. In addition to her sad sack break up songs, she likes to write a lot of songs that are about being resilient against critics/haters/ex-friends. Some of these are good songs! But she's written that song a lot and it's also a major theme in her public person and for some of us, it gets tired.

I think Taylor is very talented. I also think she is a bit stunted as a person and lacking in some diverse human experiences that would give her writing and her music more depth and variety and interest. As someone a little older than her who enjoys a lot of her music but finds myself getting bored and outgrowing her, I think this is what holds her back. She got famous really young and has lived a very narrow life since then. I don't know if she has the experience and emotional range to tackle other subjects. Her music really is very, very repetitive, and even when she's writing about technically different experiences (a break up versus losing a friend versus watching someone you love get sick), somehow her music makes it sound vaguely like the same experience.

I think she needs to step back a bit, start editing herself much more aggressively (release an album every 5 years, not every other year) and maybe even take a break and just go live so she has something to write about other than her latest break up. Just go do something other than date and tour and hang out with her cats.[/quote]

You say they’re the same song both musically and lyrically but the songs you just listed have lyrical rather than musical commonality. Which is interesting. I find female artists are often reduced to their lyrical content. [/quote]

No, those songs also sound really similar. And yes, also have similar lyrics. There might be some nuance/evolution (Clean is a bit of an evolution, but only a bit). If you listened to all those songs back to back you'd get really bored. Or at least, many of us would. Whereas some of the other artists people have referenced on here as geniuses, I don't feel that way about. There is more variety in their subject matter, style, musicality, lyrics, etc., over the course of 15 years or so, to keep me interested. With Swift I'm like "I get it, your relationship didn't work out and you feel melancholy about it." For almost two decades.

If Taylor Swit were a DCUM poster, people would be telling her to please stop posting about it, find a new hobby, and move on.[/quote]

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