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Taylor Swift has made a name for herself in the music world by being the anti-Britney, and crooning the musical equivalent of the romantic comedy. I mean, you experience it (Swift song or any movie with Jennifer Aniston in it), enjoy it, relate a bit, then promptly forget it until you encounter it again.
The question now is, how long can Taylor Swift keep this up? The girl is twenty now, and her fan base has grown up with her. The twelve-year-olds that believed in her song “Love Story” in 2008 more likely than not have a more cynical view now that they’ve probably had first kisses, first breakups, first … whatever.
They are not going to believe in Taylor Swift anymore. It’s sad, really, kind of like the whole Santa Claus/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny thing. Taylor Swift exists in an alternate reality … or else she was always a sham.
Swift’s new song, and the accompanying video, does not ask of her fans even the slightest shift or growth in taste. In “Mine,” as per usual, Taylor sings about a perfect romance inhibited by some irritating, but conquerable, roadblock. This time it’s her relationship issues stemming from her parents’ bad marriage. In previous songs it’s been high school cliques, totally lame-o other women, and Montague/Capulet-esque parental objections to her unstoppable love(s).
The video that pairs with “Mine” is equally formulaic. Besides an inexplicable bit where she wanders in a forest that is decorated with the tangible iteration of Facebook’s “View More Photos” page, the video itself is really just a montage of romantic comedy clichés. There is walking along natural bodies of water. There are fields of unspecified Plants. There is gazing. There are 2am arguments. There is a passionate reconciliation. What there is not is groundbreaking, nor envelope pushing.
But should Taylor Swift be trying to break out of the obviously successful niche she’s carved for herself? Although a lot of her fans are tweens and teens (and for some odd reason my six-year-old daughter, who sang “You Belong With Me” in her summer camp’s talent show), there’s something about this girl that appeals to an incredibly wide demographic.
Swift is clearly aware of the fact that she’s no longer a teenager and that, at some point, her music will probably have to change. Her approach to this transition is pretty interesting, actually, as she’s apparently trying to “become” a young woman willing to work hard, help pay the bills, raise the children, and stand by her man’s side, the ideal woman for the adult men enraptured by her.
The other thing I found noteworthy was how Taylor was dealing with the transition from teen star to general entertainer. As much as she infantilizes herself, Swift is distinctly more adult here as compared to her previous videos. She’s got bills to pay! She has children! Usually when you see “teen” stars (she’s 20) make the transition from adolescence, they do it via the sexy route, à la Britney, LiLo, and Miley. This video is unique in the sense that Taylor Swift appears to be trying to age herself into a more matronly, albeit still conventionally attractive, role. It’s not often that we are encouraged to make an association between young pop starlets and motherhood….
I took professional voice lessons for several years; my voice teacher told me that, if I wanted to hear examples of pretty much every singing rule being broken, just listen to country music. To be fair, I think it was an object lesson (I had a habit of hanging on Rs and not opening my mouth wide enough when singing vowel sounds), but I loved my voice teacher, who died suddenly and tragically during my senior year of high school, so her musical prejudice toward country became mine.
Since both my children are fans of Taylor Swift, though, I’ve listened to my fair share of her stuff. The girl can sing, although the content of her songs is about as meaningful (and long-lasting) as cotton candy.
I’m of the generation that knows every word, every note, ever chord on Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, and my elder daughter has tried to convince me that Taylor Swift is her generation’s equivalent. I kind of laughed at her and said, “No, baby, Alanis got what real life is like. She was pissed off at the world in general and men in particular, and we can all relate.” She didn’t argue the point, but it got me thinking.
Alanis Morisette took the world by storm with Jagged Little Pill. There were five singles that got extensive radio play, but the entire CD was just freaking amazing. Who was this woman who got it? Who felt the anger I did? Who evidently gave Joey from Full House head in a theater? She was the coolest shit this side of the Mississippi …
And then she was gone. I mean, she played God in Dogma and there was a pretty decent song on the City of Angels soundtrack and she recently announced her first pregnancy, but for all intents and purposes, Alanis flew off the radar screen after literally polarizing it with Jagged Little Pill.
I suspect that this won’t happen with Taylor Swift. As Teenagerie pointed out, she is going for the “matronly mother as secret sex goddess” thang instead of the sextastic drama that a Miley Cyrus or Jessica Simpson provides.
If there’s something a little bit sad about that, I guess I should blame her PR people.
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I don’t like her at all. I don’t like her music’s message. I watched a video of hers where the tragedy that happened was that her best friend had lost her virginity to a boy, and that is BAD!! I thought this was dead offensive and very ignorant. I think the whole idea of “losing your virginity to your husband” is outdated, but seeing it glorified and certified by such a famous singer (in the US), was really bad. Don’t like her. However, I’m not surprised this is the role she is now trying to assume – after all, she is the girl who says losing your virginity is bad.
I don’t think it was that she is saying that losing your virginity to someone other than your husband is bad, so much as she is singing about her friend losing her virginity to a boy who kept saying he loved her, only to dump her soon afterward. If this girl was a freshman at the time and her boyfriend was an upperclassman, I can understand why this would be a devastating situation to the girl. I obviously don’t know the situation, but that was just what I had assumed from the lyrics, “and abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind”.
But why is your hymen everything you have? WHY? Why did Abigail lose everything she had at fucking 16? That’s my point. Why is virginity so important for girls but not for boys? We don’t hear songs about boys who regret losing their virginity.
Word!
I really like her – her music is soothing and hangover friendly. I’m the exact same age as Swift, and I like her current music – despite it still being quite ‘tween’.
But then soundtracks to musicals are the most played things on my ipod, so perhaps my taste can’t be trusted.
It has ALWAYS bothered me that this 20 year-old young *woman* was still singing about high school crushes and crap like that… It’s coming to the time where she is going to have to decide to try and make lightning strike twice with the whole “teen pop star” thing, or actually do something substantial. I’ve always said that if I ran into her on the street, I’d shake her and yell “GROW UP”… but I digress.She really has no fan base now, as the tweens are growing up, and older people never related to her to begin with. It’s sort of a blessing and a curse as far as branding goes. Personally, I think she should just go away and take those little Autotuned Disney Bubblegum brats Miley and Bieber with her.
It annoys me as well. She’s always so victimized and all-enduring in her music. It really just strikes me as incredibly irritating. I also find that most of her music videos involve her as the innocent blond, and if another female is antagonizing her or stealing her twu wuv or whatever, that girl is brunette. Very light=good, dark=evil bitches. It’s incredibly simplistic.
You hit the nail on the head. She’s simplistic. That’s why people love her.
I’m glad she is out there with her wholesome virginal type image,young girls have enough sluts to emulate. She will adapt,because she is talented. She was top female country star earner last year,45 million. Holy shit,thats some real cheddar,thats what the brother on my crew said was hip for money.
You can tell we are old Joey. I agree with you on the image. I’m not a country fan, but so far I have found her to be refreshing.
I guess we have the wisdom of age. You can’t replace whats real,and she has real talent. She also has a love for her fans,and a love for writing. She’ll be around for a long time. I’m a die hard bluesman,Stevie RayVaughn gives me a religious experience,but country is really growing on me.
Addressing the virginity comments. I don’t think losing your virginity to your boyfriend is a “bad thing”, nor do I believe waiting for marriage in necessary either.
My question to the young-uns that post here…and I’m trying not to sound ignorant or prudish in my phrasing..Is virginity important to young women as a whole? I’m taking the extremes out of the equation. Just on an average, is it a big deal anymore? As Doe brought up, the idea pf losing your virginity to someone who then dumps you would be humilitating I would think.
It seems that the young women I know think of sex as “no big deal.” Oral sex isn’t even sex and casual hook-ups are the norm. I can’t help but think that most of these girls have no idea what healthy sex can be like, or even orgasms. Sex seems like just a “thing to do.” Go out on a Friday night and hook up.
Don’t get me wrong, I lost my virginity at 16 and have had my sexual experiences, but looking back now, I view sex completly differently than I did then. (which I think is normal for everyone)
Heck the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were about casual sexual freedom, I guess I never thought that sex could get that much more casual.
Blurry, what have your girls shared with you?
God but I’m chatty tonight… Virginity meant nothing to me, I had one or two friends who decided I needed to know when and where they lost theirs (which I still find odd) and it mattered to my sister as she confessed to my mother and thought she would be angry (my mother laughed her ass off and called her a weirdo for feeling the need to confess anything.) But most people I know didn’t care about virginity. Casual hook-ups and the whole hip thing to do are on a person to person basis, some people do, some people don’t and I’ve always assumed it’s always been that way.
Virginity wasn’t a huge deal to me. I’m glad I waited for someone who genuinely cares about me (and who I’m still with), but I don’t see it as being anywhere near necessary to wait for marriage. I don’t know what to think about casual hook-ups because I’ve never had the opportunity, and I don’t plan on cheating.
Maybe I’m just weird, but I actually think it’s really important to have sex before marriage. I also think it’s very important to live with your SO before you get married. These are things that can potentially ruin a marriage… what if you find out that your husband is a dud in the sack on your wedding night as you both have that really awkward “first time” experience, and he snores like a chainsaw? Sexual chemistry is an absolutely vital ingredient to a relationship, you have to know that these things work. I’d much rather have the sky-gods think I’m a hussy than be sexually unsatisfied for the rest of my life. Dating is practice to find who you want to spend the rest of your life with, hook-ups teach you how to “please” each other.
Sexual chemistry isn’t about sex, it’s about whether or not you’re turned on by your partner. That’s something you can figure out without sex.
And most couples don’t have amazing sex the first time they go at it, even if it isn’t their first time. Every person is different, and so are their sexual preferences.
I’ve slept with plenty of guys who’d had multiple partners and they weren’t any better than the ones who’d had no experience.
The joy of a long term relationship is that you learn exactly how to please each other sexually. The most important aspect of good sex is good communication.
That said I can’t imagine marrying somebody without having been in a long term relationship with them first, and I also can’t imagine being in a long term relationship without having had sex at some point.
But marrying somebody before you have sex with them doesn’t mean you’re condemning yourself to a life of bad sex. That’s a lie people tell themselves when they feel they need to justify having premarital sex.
And there’s no need to justify premarital sex.
I agree with Dee. It would be nice to find out that your SO may be a fantastic caring human being, but a loser who only focuses on himself in the sack, before becoming chained down.
I’ve never encountered a person who was kind and considerate in every way but was inconsiderate about sex.
Ever.
You know, you don’t *have* to negate everyone’s opinion. Don’t tell me you’ve never been with someone who you’re very “turned on” by, only to later find that you’re completely sexually incompatible. Just a thought.
I’ve been turned on by men and had not so great sex the first time, but much better sex after a few goes. That’s the learning curve I was talking about. it exists and is one of the great things about a long term sexual relationship.
I’m not negating everyone’s opinion. I negated your opinion. Also, Erin brought up the point that you wouldn’t want to find a considerate man who turned out to be inconsiderate in bed. I said that in my experience, considerate people are considerate in all things. Because that’s true. The only men I’ve ever met who were inconsiderate in bed were jerks in every other aspect of their lives.
I’m sorry you’re offended by the way my experience with sex has differed from yours.
Two different things. You probably can get the hots for someone a bit, then turn out to have very different sexual sides. I think you’d figure this out somewhere in the middle between liking them and screwing them though…
A good person never being an inconsiderate lover is a different issue entirely. This could be nonexistent, while the above extant.
Personally, I appreciate somone who doesn’t have to sell sex and do a bunch of attnetion grabbing shiz to get people to like her. I’m about the same age as her and it’s nice to see someone who’s supporting rather than bashing the lifestyle me and my friends live. I don’t think she’s outdated, I think you’d be surprise how many girls are saving themselves for the right person. I’ve only had good experices with men, because I don’t view dating as the stupid game its become.