Well, I guess it had to be done. With Ms Swift making all the headlines as her Eras tour arrived in the UK last week and my daughters both there for the first Wembley night, who else could I realistically be listening to this week?
But where to start?
Taylor Swift is a phenomenon. We haven’t see anything like her in the pop world since the likes of Madonna, Elvis Presley and The Beatles. And in many ways Taylor has eclipsed them all, breaking records almost on a daily basis, impacting the local economy wherever she goes and even generating seismic activity (equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake) at one venue.
The Eras tour has been underway since March 2023; with 106 dates under her belt (at the time of posting) with each set lasting more than three hours, we’re looking at well over 300 hours of action – so far. There are still another 46 dates to go before the tour comes to and end in Vancouver in December.
I haven’t seen her live but I watched the film of the Eras tour and I was blown away by what I saw. Taylor Swift is an astonishingly vibrant and energetic performer; a consumate professional. No shortcuts; no half-measures; every moment of every show is meticulously planned and perfectly delivered.
Before this week, I’d never actively chosen to listen to Taylor’s music. I knew a few songs but not many of them particularly well. Initially, to be honest, I found the music difficult to love. I found it all a bit simplistic, repetitive and unimaginative. Nursery rhymes. Three or four chords repeated, verse and chorus merging into one another. Song after song…
But I also knew that with Taylor Swift it’s all about the lyrics; the music is a vessel to tell the stories. And the stories, the vignettes, the brutally honest tales of past loves and lovers, the candid revelations of her experiences with men in positions of power, are magnificent; it’s a breathtaking example of songwriting (well, of lyric writing) at its very best.
And the more I listened, the more I began to appreciate the music as well. It IS simple, it IS repetitive but there’s a warmth to it and if you want to get the messages across that Taylor Swift is trying to get across, it helps if it’s accessible. The fewer barriers in the way the better.
So, am I Swifty now? I think I probably am!
Enjoy…
The 'Spill 
Nothing wrong with Taylor Swift. ‘Shake It Off’ was my go-to for a long time in moments of frustration. I can’t say I listen to her a lot but I think she’s admirable and I enjoy her music.
Thanks for delving in there, TB. The adulation for this woman is quite phenomenal and it would be nice to understand why, other than because she delivers an incredibly professional product to an audience she obviously understands very well.
These clips tell me she can craft an appealing tune and arrange it well. I looked at the full lyrics of some of them and she can also craft an interesting narrative.
But… I’m not her target audience and I’m not that interested in her love life, so these songs rather drift by without making much of an impact.
A massive pop culuture phenomenon for sure , and yet I’m not sure that I’d actually recognise one of her songs. Would that be true if I was a similar age when Beatles , Elvis or Madonna were at their peak? It’s hard to know really. I’ve never been a Madonna fan but I’m pretty familiar with the bulk of her hits , certainly everything from the 80s, but then I was a teenager at the time who was interested in pop. Would my dad have recognised a single song by Madonna – probably not.
In other words there is a theory that the way people relate to music now has changed , people are much more in bubbles (even if the bubble is quite varied) it’s just that the bubble containming Swifties is particularly huge. The other theory is that I’ve just got a but old and ensconed in my niche.
Ironically my favourite new record is by a band called Fear Of The Known.
Anyway off to do some field reasearch, back in a mo.
The results of my research are in.
I asked wyngate jnr who the most famous pop star in the world at the moment was. He said he didn’t know.
I asked who the most famous female pop star at the moment was. He said “I don ‘t want to say her name”. We established it was T***** S**** .
I asked if he knew any of her songs. He said no and he don’t want to , but then conceded that he knew one and one only, which was Lose Control but “I don’t want to talk about it….”
A mixed picture. He prefers Whitesnake and Metallica. Blame my wife.
Seismic events due to concerts aren’t new by the way, the Madness comeback gig at Finsbury Park (92?) caused one due to the number of men old enough to know better engaging in nutty dancing.
At least it’s not Ed Sheeran. Have got very excited about very popular artists – mainly for reasons of over-exposure. Less of an issue these days as it’s much easier to avoid music you don’t like.
Lana Del Rey would be an exception to prove the rule.
That was me