Taylor swift: A New Journey
Taylor Swift was criticised her whole career for writing only about heartbreaks, exes and the so called “teenage stuff”. What people forget that she was literally a teenager with a guitar when she debuted. What do you expect teenage girls to write about? politics? And the most shocking part: The music industry hasn’t changed even a little bit since then. It still is the same misogynistic place for women.
Olivia Rodrigo, the new music sensation, is now facing the same criticism as her idol, taylor did. Teenage girls face backlash for liking something and being interested in something while men are appreciated for the same. Honestly, a teenage girl writing and singing a song about her toxic ex is much better than a grown man singing about raping a woman.
But back to Swift, she is not a teenager anymore but a bold woman in her 30s and she is much more than just a white singer songwriter. She understood, during her long career, that it’s time for her to tell stories of other people and not just hers. Thus, stunned everyone when she dropped Folklore in the middle of the pandemic, arguably her best album, earned a lot of praises from all over the world and the grammy for the album of the year, deservedly so. She didn’t stopped just then, but went on to release Folklore’s sister album, Evermore, which is my favourite album so far.
According to taylor, Folklore tells the stories of other people lives how they were, could have been or how they imagine it to be but Evermore is darker and deep. It tells the stories of lives that are struggling, how their lives actually are. While Folklore had some great songs like cardigan, August, The lakes, and so on, Evermore has songs like happiness, tolerate it, exile among the others.
I don’t attempt this to be a Taylor Swift appreciation article but don’t blame me if it turns out to be one. Every song on Folklore tells a story from a different perspective, different point of view, as if making the listener feel they are actually listening a narrator recite a story to them and not just a song. Like how genius it is to put three characters of a same story into three songs, each explaining their point of view (Betty, August, Cardigan).
Let’s be real, Evermore is not as successful on the charts as the previous album was but honestly, it is so much more inclusive and deep. While it tells stories too, the album is full of songs about real people’s real problems . Again, great songs, but let’s just forget about them for a while. The stories, lyrics are the main factors that would keep you engaging with it. A story of a heartbroken person, a depressed person, one who misses their old love, one who meets their old love and even a crime story!
Personal opinion: Taylor Swift’s music is as much gay as you want them to be. Her queer fanbase interpret these songs to be gay and I like to agree. Of course, songs are open to interpetation but like come on! leave heteronormativity mentality behind and think about it. Beyond the great lyrics which are so relatable, there are vocals and beyond both these things, there’s music. Swift really has pushed her limits with the music in these albums with her old pals Jack Antonoff and Aron Dessner. Not to forget her collaborations with Bon Iver, which the world did not knew it needed.
