Listening to albums is too much of a chore

[koganbot]

Quote of the day, from skyecaptain:

Why on earth won't someone who wants to talk about Taylor Swift's "image" please listen to her album fucking ONCE before they write things about her? PLEASE.

Have only read some of the essays, but of the ones I read Chuck's was the only one I understood.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all counts. But none of this gets wrong what those artists do quite as profoundly -- I don't think she makes much of a claim for GaGa (or Rihanna's) music (she's right at least that the Rihanna album is "dark" and there isn't a standout single, sure), but with Taylor the whole picture is ass-backwards. With the others it just feels like contextual speculation that may be misguided (or even factually wrong), but with Taylor it's a wholesale misrepresentation of what she does at the most basic comprehension level -- she's not just interpreting Taylor questionably, she's not taking the effort to even try.

[koganbot]

From the essay:

Actual schoolgirl innocence was bliss for Taylor Swift, the red-state sweetheart made all the more innocent by Kanye West's interrupting-cow bit at the MTV Video Music Awards

Straight from the school of Mad Men's Peggy Olson, Swift commands attention through virtuosity, not sexuality, her teen rebellion cloaked in giddy couplets.

Putting aside whether or not I agree with what Clover Hope is trying to say, what is she trying to say? These sentences seem to be written in code. "Bliss" possibly means "Taylor made a lot of money without knowing what she was doing" (though why Hope doesn't think Taylor knows what she's doing isn't explained). The experiences recounted in Taylor's songs about her schoolgirl days - like her getting tormented in junior high and her best friend getting her heart crushed as a freshman - sure don't seem like bliss, and as Dave suggests they may be something Hope never bothered to find out about by, e.g., listening to the songs.

"Commands attention through virtuosity not sexuality" possibly means "Taylor's singing and songwriting is at a virtuoso level but she doesn't wear blatantly revealing costumes" - though I'd say Taylor's sexiness comes through powerfully, the dresses not remotely suppressing her figure or her breasts. Not to mention that sex is an actual big issue in some of her songs. And not to deride her singing and songwriting, but it's not as if her looking so good and dressing so appealingly don't also command attention. And if she didn't look so appealing she might not have gotten the attention, no matter how much she deserved to.