Reply to Taylor Swift album Tortured Poets Department leaked early?

Forum Index » Entertainment and Pop Culture

Reply to "Taylor Swift album Tortured Poets Department leaked early?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think most of her fans haven’t really read much poetry or heard many other singers (outside of pop). So to them she is the most talented. So many are convinced her success is driven solely by pure talent and she is the most successful because she is the most talented. That view really just shows a very small world of music and art. Which for children is fine - but adults should be aware that there is a much bigger and talented world out there.

She is also in a phase of everything she touches turns to good right now. I could take any lyrics or song written by anyone…and if her fans thought she wrote it - they would be the most amazing lyrics ever written by the most talented musician ever. [/quote]

+1, this nails it. She's a great pop musician. She is not Emily Dickinson and Beethoven rolled into one. It's enough that she is a success at what she actually is, we don't have to pretend she's the second coming.[/quote]

Interesting how far back you had to go to come up with a genius. [b]Why would young people today read much or care about poetry? [/b]Have you seen how watered down their required HS reading is? Schools don't care to teach classics anymore. What current literary genius should any of them listen to? [/quote]

I'm the PP and here are 5 modern poets off the top of my head that I think young people today would benefit from reading: Mary Oliver (dead but still so relevant), Maggie Smith, Morgan Parker, Ilya Kaminsky, Ada Limón. This is scratching the surface, get a book on 20th century poetry, there is so much greatness out there.

For musicians, I'd be expansive. All the pop/rock great (including Swift) but also Sondheim, Gershwin, Bernstein. The jazz greats -- Mingus, Davis, Monk, and also the stylists like Holliday, Porter, Fitzgerald. Contemporary singer/songwriters like Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, Rufus Wainwright. But also look back a bit. Stevie Nicks, Lucinda Williams, George Clinton, Tom Waits. You could go on and on and on and on.

Taylor Swift is talented. Taylor Swift is talented. Taylor Swift is talented. She is not everything, there are so many other people to listen to and read and investigate and internalize. If you seriously cannot name a single contemporary writer or musician who you think is as talented, interesting, and worth reading/listening to as Taylor Swift, you are an idiot and your opinion is to be disregarded.[/quote]

Nobody is going to listen to their grandparents, great-grandparents music. This is all very old man shaking fist at the clouds.[/quote]

If you don't realize that some of the people listed above are contemporaries of Taylor Swift, and many others are just one generation behind (and therefore directly informing the culture and art that Taylor is working in), then I beg of you, try reading something OTHER than Taylor Swift liner notes.[/quote]

I don't even listen to TS but my daughter does. But I also don't listen to shitty jazz music and some of the other questionable choices you listed. To each their own but young people want their own music. There's nothing stopping them from listening to these dusty choices but they don't. Each generation wants their own music. And perhaps modern poetry doesn't speak to them either. For whatever reason, Taylor does. Maybe it's just not for you to understand. [/quote]

I'm the PP who listed the poets and musicians I think young people today would be interested in. While I think calling Miles Davis "shitty jazz music" kind of shows you to have no taste, I would also point out that I listed Morgan Parker (a 36 year old poet/essayist/novelist who has written at least 5 poems about Beyoncé, among many others) and Courtney Barnett (a 36 year old Australian singer-songwriter who has songs about social media, isolation in the modern age, heartbreak and relationships). I also mentioned Ada Limón and Maggie Smith, both poets in their 40s who are incredibly accessible while also being critically acclaimed -- check out Limón's The Raincoat and Smith's Good Bones for amazing contemporary poems that are clever, evocative, and come with a gut punch. I could also add in Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, Boy Genius and its members as individual artists, though I am betting Swift fans are more familiar with those.

I'm not mentioning these people to say "Taylor Swift sucks." I'm mentioning them in response to people who act like Swift is the only contemporary artist worth listening to. I actually think fans of Swift's music would like all of the aforementioned writers and musicians because they have a lot in common (emotionally raw writing that engages with inventive and clever verse). The point is that when people act like NO ONE is doing what Swift is doing right now (false) or that she is the best modern American poet (also false) it simply demonstrates a lack of knowledge.

By the way, I'm only a few years older than Swift and while I listen to tons of contemporary music (including Swift) I also listen to classical music, "shitty jazz", classic rock, all the original singer-songwriters, freaking klezmer music, whatever strikes my fancy. And I know plenty of young people who do the same. The whole point of being young is to be open to anything, not to go all in on one artist who oh-it-just-so-happens is the most commercially successful musician of the decade. Young people listen to Swift and Nirvana and the Beatles and whatever else crosses their path, and they listen with fresh ears and a different outlook and in so doing, they make what is old new again. I feel sorry for people who don't understand this.[/quote]

I like this post and wonder if I know you in real life. Nice to see talented poets mentioned.

I feel the same way about people’s limited views when they make those statements about Taylor.

[/quote]

But she is out of touch, TS fans listen to all kinds of music.... they go to emo concerts, country concerts and study/studied English/philosophy/stem in college. They are not a monolith.

I'm all about learning about new writers/poets and musicians but if you think swifties have TS on repeat and don't read, study, and listen to other music your insane. [/quote]

Her fans are not a monolith. The pub had to hire security because it was mobbed by her fan base because the name of the pub was mentioned in a song. There are also many on here who think Taylor is elevated above the rest - which shows they do not read or study or listen to other music. Sure there are fans for whom Taylor isn't an obsession and isn't anything special and is just one of many artists on their playlist and blends in with the rest - but there haven't been many of those on this thread. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics