Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore

'Cleveland!' is so 'ME!'-coded. How did she not learn her lesson?
 
"He already took me to Cleveland!"

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Cleveland is indeed excruciating. It's the only one I've listened to, and I'm certainly not inclined to bother with the rest now.
 
Not that my instagram feed is the consensus of the GP but it’s littered with viral posts mocking her/the new songs as shit /recycled and juvenile, along with the bad critical reviews. Hopefully it will motivate her to give us something good next time.
 
Dark Carnival said:
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I'm no longer interested in Taylor Swift discourse (a 40 year old woman still going on about haterz, come on now)

But I am obsessed with these dribbling twits

If we had admins at the moment, I'd be demanding we replace the Taylor Swift Forum with the Bonny & Emily Forum
 
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I still haven't listened to a thing, but isn't it indicative of the power that she has that the desire to backlash her is generating all these column inches?

LOADS of people throw out reissues with sub-standard tracks and no one bats an eyelid. This is being reviewed like it's a whole new project and she's getting this much stick says a LOT.
 
Sheena said:
I still haven't listened to a thing, but isn't it indicative of the power that she has that the desire to backlash her is generating all these column inches?

LOADS of people throw out reissues with sub-standard tracks and no one bats an eyelid. This is being reviewed like it's a whole new project and she's getting this much stick says a LOT.
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She is rolling it out with the fanfare of a lead single off a whole new album, is the difference I think. With the VMA premiere, star studded video, numerous variants etc. so I don’t think the response is off scale. It just would’ve gone better as a surprise “extra” without the fanfare. The backlash might end up working to her favor anyway for the next project as you or someone else pointed out
 
I personally think she should have held these songs back, took a break and then put them on a new album altogether.
 
I think she just hold back, forever.

A reminder: it was ALWAYS a CULT, she was ALWAYS absolutely TERRIBLE.
 
The charts are basically a comedy special at this point. First, Mariah gets stripped of her record by DAMNED Ella Langley, and now, because apparently no chart controversy is complete without her, Taylor Swift enters the chat.
I know Katy’s star power isn’t exactly lighting up the sky these days, but what the actual fuck is this?



 
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she is evil and wicked on an unprecedented scale!!! maybe her next scammery will be another collab with her old pal Ed Sheeran!!!
 
I'm less concerned about her breaking records and more concerned about that AI-sounding, beige piece of shit she dares to call a song reaching #1 simply because it's credited as Taylor Swift.
 
Not gonna lie, having actually been to the Eras Tour (and actually having fun) just makes the whole downfall top-tier entertainment.
It’s wild how fast she went full villain, managed to make herself totally toxic, and turned killing the vibe into an absolute art form.
 
I think all four new songs could have been on previous albums.

Patient Zero - The Tortured Poets Department
Cleveland - Lover
Pink Clouding - 1989
Babylon - Speak Now
 
Mark R 3 said:
And does anyone know if Taylor plans to put these songs on a CD reissuing the album?
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As if she would pass up the chance.

I think she probably has another album or re-recording up her sleeve by the end of the year.

We’ll probably due a Taylor Xmas album. I wouldn’t be surprised if she desperately wants to write a “All I Want For Christmas” killer that can be number 1 every Christmas.
 
Pipo said:
Not gonna lie, having actually been to the Eras Tour (and actually having fun) just makes the whole downfall top-tier entertainment.
It’s wild how fast she went full villain, managed to make herself totally toxic, and turned killing the vibe into an absolute art form.
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Has she though? Isn’t it just the standard backlash we’ve seen before time and time again when anyone famous gets too big and the media wants to bring them down a peg?

Disclaimer - I’m not defending her and I do think there is a serious case of overexposure on her part but the reaction in general feels a bit hyperbolic
 
Pipo said:
The charts are basically a comedy special at this point. First, Mariah gets stripped of her record by DAMNED Ella Langley, and now, because apparently no chart controversy is complete without her, Taylor Swift enters the chat.
I know Katy’s star power isn’t exactly lighting up the sky these days, but what the actual fuck is this?



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Even this sort of thing doesn’t phase me
I’m sure Beatles and Elvis fans were agog about the charts when the likes of Madonna and Mariah were breaking records.

It’s just a little bit of history repeating..
 
Suedehead said:
Has she though? Isn’t it just the standard backlash we’ve seen before time and time again when anyone famous gets too big and the media wants to bring them down a peg?

Disclaimer - I’m not defending her and I do think there is a serious case of overexposure on her part but the reaction in general feels a bit hyperbolic
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I don't even really think it's the media this time though; it's real people. She literally invited a fascist who owns an ICE detention facility to her grotesque-display-of-wealth wedding. She hasn't uttered a single word about ICE, lynchings of black people in her own country, acute cost of living crisis, Gaza, or anything else of importance. She's an actual billionaire now. There are NO good billionaires. Then she writes petulant, 'teen style', arrogant songs about people not liking her. I really think she's bringing so much of this on herself. I think she's lost in a bubble of extreme wealth and privilege. People are starting to want their "faves" to stand for something. It's about time.
 
supermassive said:
As if she would pass up the chance.

I think she probably has another album or re-recording up her sleeve by the end of the year.

We’ll probably due a Taylor Xmas album. I wouldn’t be surprised if she desperately wants to write a “All I Want For Christmas” killer that can be number 1 every Christmas.
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I'm always surprised that Christmas Tree Farm didn't do better, but it was released early on in her career. If it was released now it would be more successful IMO. Actually I'm not sure about that. I'm just surprised it doesn't do better chart wise each christmas.
 
FannyFaudrey said:
I don't even really think it's the media this time though; it's real people. She literally invited a fascist who owns an ICE detention facility to her grotesque-display-of-wealth wedding. She hasn't uttered a single word about ICE, lynchings of black people in her own country, acute cost of living crisis, Gaza, or anything else of importance. She's an actual billionaire now. There are NO good billionaires. Then she writes petulant, 'teen style', arrogant songs about people not liking her. I really think she's bringing so much of this on herself. I think she's lost in a bubble of extreme wealth and privilege. People are starting to want their "faves" to stand for something. It's about time.
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It's a shift I've seen before, in the 1980's. As Reagan and Thatcher wrecked their damage, there was a demand for people to state their position - even where it was implicit in lyrics and outlooks, lines were drawn and engagement demanded. The curious result was that, come the late 80s, pop ended up being at its most meaningless in 15 years - the truth was that more people wanted escapism; they didn't want explicitly political songs. In the US, R.E.M. found a certain balance but their best songs were always the interpersonal and they had their biggest sales with 2 albums that, between them, had one explicitly political song.

Where Swift was previously seen as explicitly generous, her billionaire status is outright poison to many - where most billionaires can shrug this off because they don't need to be popular (just successful), someone in the pop culture sphere has a much harder job of squaring that with an audience. We've seen the impact on her work - TLOAS had nothing new to tell us and I haven't even bothered with these new songs.

It was absolutely time for a backlash and it was inevitable but she has tripped over every step during its course.
 
Not to defend her at all because I do agree with what everyone is saying, but it’s also the worst possible time for anyone to even try and be political. Either way, you’re pissing off half your fanbase, in a time when people are willing to cancel you for not saying something, never mind saying something wrong. It’s also not even as simple as picking a side, because the moment you try and be slightly agnostic about it, you piss off both sides and end up cancelled. Nobody wants anyone to be on the fence anymore, about anything. So it’s easier to be quiet about it.

I think social media has given rise to a new wave of materialism and superficiality and I think so far this has protected the likes of Swift - many of her fans are probably blind to the things she’s apathetic about. Much like Sheeran, she’s mastered the art of bland neutrality - in life, in politics, in her music. She’s a walking algorithm.

Not that she’s entirely immune of course - we’ve seen this with Sheeran. But so far she’s done played her cards very well. As someone has said, there’ll always be backlash when you’re that big, but she’s managed to retain the majority of her fanbase this long which is quite an achievement.
 
funky said:
Nobody wants anyone to be on the fence anymore, about anything. So it’s easier to be quiet about it.
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but if you're being quiet then you are on the fence?

I don't generally think Taylor or most artists need to be super political, but there's something bad taste about her right now. it's more the desire to snatch every chart record without delivering on quality that bothers me.

for the politics it's more that she has spoken out in the past, before she entered this super imperial era. I think it's reasonable for people to wonder where she stands now. hopefully she sees what happened to Sheeran and is ready to take a stance on something if the need arises. she's too savvy to trip up in that way.
 
Now that she has control of her masters, she also has control of the data as to where her streaming is, where her peak sales are, where her audience is. Now, she already had access to everything from Lover forwards but her peak albums are still Fearless, Red and 1989 (and, I think, Midnights). There's a fighting chance she's discovered exactly how MAGA her fanbase is and has elected to stop making political statements.

The main problem is simply solved - stop writing soppy love songs and do more of those fabulous character studies that made up Folklore.
 
Jark said:
I don't generally think Taylor or most artists need to be super political, but there's something bad taste about her right now. it's more the desire to snatch every chart record without delivering on quality that bothers me.
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It's a bit too similar to sticking your name on an existing monument to someone else rather than earning your own monuments...
 
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