#31: am I peeved at taylor swift? or maybe its the way the world treats her...
nonetheless I never thought i would say these words
hi hi hi sisters ♡
this past week feels like it simultaneously flew bye yet also dragged on endlessly. tomorrow I have an endoscopy scheduled and i’m kinda nervous. I hope to get some answers as to why I feel nauseous all the time and why I throw up more than anyone I know; if not then I dont know what I will do continuing forward.
hope you all dont hate me after reading my opinions on the new taylor swift album (I dont actually think you will at all, but still)
if you havent watched it already, I actually really do recommend the music video for fortnight. it reminds me of poor things in some ways, and I really love post malone in this song. I thought it was a great way to start the album and I was excited to see that this was the song that got a music video.
movies: I watched bridget jones’s diary with my friend hillary! it was cute and cheesy, i’m still so surprised that renee zellweger was nominated for best actress- truly because rom-coms are not normally nominated for any oscars. one afternoon I watched real women have curves, it is from 2002 and stars america ferrera. I really really liked it! its pretty short and just looks at the life of this recent high school grad and her relationship with her family, particularly her mother. its similar to lady bird in those themes, but I personally think it was ahead of its time, highly recommend. its on MAX for free. bjørn and I watched best in show together, it is a film he grew up with but it was the first time I had ever seen it. honestly it was so cute and cheesy. full of dogs and celebrities and laughs
broadway: my roommates and I saw the new musical Suffs this week. it is about the suffragist movement in the united states. we all went in with either semi-low or just low expectations. we knew we would like it because of the subject material but we all really liked it. I LOVED it. honestly I thought the production was much more impressive than I could have imagined, the songs were really beautiful, the story was obviously incredibly moving- found myself crying quite a bit, and the whole cast is women and something about that is so beautiful to witness. highly recommend to anyone who is wanting to see a new broadway show! I will be seeing it again at some point, I hope its on broadway for awhile. I can’t wait for the cast recording to come out, because there are some songs I want to listen to over and over. alyssa and I also saw the broadway play, Mary Jane, this week. it stars Rachel McAdams, which is the main reason we went. I LOVE Rachel McAdams so much. this love for her has grown in probably the past 5 years or so, but it is so strong. I think she is truly so charming. I want to be hugged by her.
podcasts: we are going to get into the taylor swift chat early by starting off with this podcast rec. I listened to the pop apologists podcast this morning where they dive into some (not all) of their thoughts on the album, and honestly I agree with a lot of what they had to say.
music: the tortured poets department
in my mind: I have been reading just about every article (okay not actually because that would be impossible) I could about TTPD album, i’m here to serve as an investigative journalist 🫡 that being said, here are some of my favs:
this london sunday times article points out how taylor has changed through her albums, and that is beautiful
the meaning behind some of the songs are shared in this variety article
do I agree with the new york times?!?
probably the harshest article is one from the atlantic
my favorite article, this album review from the rolling stones
bonus- this article about ina garten trying to get taylor swift concert tickets. I dont know the best words to articulate this feeling, but its really cool and connecting seeing how taylor swift is an equalizer of people when it comes to appreciating her as an artist. and by this I mean I like seeing how chefs and celebrities like ina garten or ryan gosling are also swifties just like my friends, sister, and I
length warning, this section is going to be long because I am going to RAMBLE
I have an aunt who is 6 years older than me and she also loves taylor swift. whenever a new album comes out we exchange some texts and thoughts and for the past couple of albums i have noticed that she has been more critical of taylor swift than my friends and I - until this album. I find myself now at the same critical level as my aunt, and i’m trying to figure out how that has come to be. maybe that comes with getting older? (im not saying that being critical comes with growing up, but I think its important to recognize that as we get older our world view and perspective changes and shifts and this forges a way for us to be more critical to the music and media we consume)
I want to start off by saying that I love taylor swift; I think anyone who knows me knows that. that being said, in the past 6 months, taylor swift has started to bug me as a person and its been hard to separate my feelings towards her from my feelings towards this album. I love her music; her albums have been the soundtrack of my life. she is my comfort artist, the artist I listen to when I need to be pumped up, when I want to cry, when I need background music - taylor has been there my entire life. but right now, with everything going on in this world and based on her public actions, she is not the person I wish she was and that is hard to say. but I guess the statement “don’t meet your heroes” continues to ring true. however, i don’t think that is completely her fault, I also blame the world and how everyone treats her. I would say that she is the most famous living person on the planet right now, and that is not an easy title for one individual person to deal with.
however, when some of her songs are so hyper specific to that feeling, it becomes easy to scrutinize her lyrics and songs. who’s afraid of little old me, while I love that song and I enjoy it because of lyrics that I find relatable to myself, part of me scratches my chin and says “wait a minute taylor, take a step back. you are a billionaire tycoon, a lot of people are afraid of you. you are in control of the music industry.” her albums will always be nominated for grammys, even when they may not deserving. its sad to see people who also put their heart and soul into the music they produce, but are not as big and famous as taylor swift, not be recognized for what they are worth. not that I want taylor to stop making music, but I almost wish there was a way that she could release all the music in the world that made her happy, but the people who are in charge of the grammys would recognize that there are more people also worthy of being nominated beyond taylor swift.
i’m sorry, but its hard to have sympathy when I know that it is pretty much impossible for someone to be an ethical billionaire. especially when first and foremost she works with capitalism to her benefit, which rich person doesnt? I think its damaging to the environment to release multiple limited-editions of her vinyls because this creates a scarcity mindset and people feel the need to collect each special edition vinyl or cd (and now that her album is a double album, everyone who pre-ordered her vinyl has to order a new one to have all the extra songs…)
billie eilish brings this issue to light in her recent interview with billboard on how she is doing everything she can to make her carbon footprint more sustainable within her career
and because some of her songs are hyper specific, I found some lyrics to be clunky and awkward, especially when you read them on their own without the music (you know how to ball, I know Aristotle… touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto or the lyric about the 1830s without the racists…) im the first to admit that I cannot write a song if it was forced upon me, so i’m not saying that I could do better, but I know that she can and has.
lastly, I think this was a lot of music to come out at once, it feels almost impossible to digest it all. its hard to keep track of the different songs and the lyrics and sonically how it all sounds. it feels overwhelming and intimidating. i wish some songs were cut and that maybe a tight 20 songs were released instead of a full double album. the songs written and produced specifically with aaron dessner are the ones that I think I will gravitate towards once I know them better. I’ve seen a lot of discourse on how her time with jack antonoff should be up, I don’t 100% agree, but I do hope she continues to work with aaron dessner, becuase aaron + taylor = ♡♡♡. I also hope that taylor continues to write songs that are more fictional and relatable to the general audience. I think this could help with less scrutiny towards taylor and less hate towards the people she writes her songs about (i’m not about to defend kim kardashian, but also I don’t think thanK you aIMee needed to be released; leave north west out of it!!)
woof, that seems like a lot of hate towards taylor swift. that being said, the second bjorn started to criticize the repetitiveness of her songs- he’s also a taylor fan so he’s not saying that all her music sounds the same, i found myself at his throat defending her. I don’t think i realized how complex my feelings were towards her until her album came out and i found myself not that excited. the magic of taylor swift was starting to wear off. it felt like i had seen the man behind the curtain pretending to be the great wizard of oz. and maybe that was on me. i (and society as a whole) shouldn’t put celebrities and these entities on a pedestal. while I do think its okay to criticize people with platforms for not using their platforms to promote good, whether that be promoting a ceasefire or fighting for climate change, i also think its important to take a step back and realize that they too are just humans and need to be treated as such. I really am excited to have new music. I will always look forward to new songs and albums that are fed to us by taylor swift. she gives way more than she needs to. she truly is an incredibly talented musician, singer, and songwriter and I feel quite blessed to live during the height of her career. the eras tour was the experience of a lifetime. when I look at my hair in the mirror and see that it is kinda similar to taylor’s when it is natural, I feel a sense of pride swell up in me. hell, i have a taylor swift lyric tattooed on me.
I love taylor swift. I just didnt love this album (maybe I will over time). and either way thats okay.
pinterest: summer in a picture; a good reminder; I am loving the outfit collages on pinterest, i want to make my own
instagram: these crack me up; love her ♡; this color combo is everything to me
as i’m typing this up I can overhear one of my classmates talking quite loudly on the phone about her thoughts on the taylor swift album. it has received a lot more mixed feelings than I was honestly expecting, from myself included. i’m endlessly curious to see how whats in our future for taylor swift music.
xoxo,
your big sis, kaitlynn
