You are stronger than me... I caved and bought a month of Disney+ so I could watch the eras tour docuseries.
I really appreciated your observation about how cultural criticism of Taylor Swift seems to fall into one of two buckets; it's something that I've also noticed and generally get annoyed by. One of my favorite things about good cultural criticism is how it complicates one's perception of a thing (person/persona, film, music, etc.). I often tell people that the only Taylor Swift thinkpieces I read are yours, because when I read your criticism I feel like my perceptions are being actively challenged and possibly changed.
That said, I'm still not sure what's up with TTPD. I'll have to take another look i suppose lol
I think Red is still her best album (and it's def the most Taylor Taylor album) and it is really obviously her favorite of her albums because no other Taylor's Version got that treatment. But I really like how messy TTPD is, the range in the sounds of the album, and how willing Taylor is to cast herself in roles that aren't totally likeable (spiteful alcoholic neighbor, murderer on the run to Florida, the big middle finger that is "But Daddy I Love Him") or are actively unlikeable (lots of songs about emotional cheating) or are just kind of weird (alien abductee). I also think parts of it are really funny.
But when she's like yeah… you should be afraid of me… I'm a war machine covered in blood… I was like omg I really never thought you'd say it girl. But it definitely doesn't have the tightness of her other albums, which is one reason I'd still put Red up there in the objective rankings.
Also I really appreciate that! And I may eventually cave we'll see.
this was a banger ty. the first time i saw this book on a bookstore i sort of rolled my eyes and told my friend "god, we get it".(even though i love taylor's music lmao). and now as i rethink it perhaps this was a bit of a misogynist impulse... especially since i spent most of november listening to TTPD on loop and now i've been converted too. she is so PISSED! she is so HONEST! and the songs are BANGERS! anyway i'm obsessed with the kind of artist that chases commercial reach too (i think somewhere else you called them "steel butterflies") so i'll be reading this book
I don't think it's a misogynist reaction… books like this are usually TERRIBLE lol. And TTPD is so good. It's also really funny imho… I love when the organ sound kicks in when she sings about wedding rings in the title track.
Yeah the steel butterfly line comes from this book called The Star Machine—it was a derogatory term for Loretta Young. If you are interested in this kind of stuff the book is super good (but very long) but here is a relevant graf about Young's approach to her career and why I have gravitated to the term:
"She had become a top-drawer movie star, appearing in top-drawer films. She had the money, the fan mag adulation, the fame, and the respect, and she had done it without most of the star machine manipulations, slipping past the one-two-three-kick plan for manufacturing people like her. Almost any actress in Hollywood would have settled for Young’s career; it was what most of them dreamed of achieving. But Young was restless, dissatisfied—not with stardom itself, which had always been a motivating goal for her, but with her form of it. She knew what it was she wanted from her stardom: She wanted more than the others had; she wanted control. She didn’t want to walk away, like a Deanna Durbin, or get away from the crowds, like a Garbo, or just choose her own roles, like a Davis. She wanted to make all the decisions herself. Like her mother, Loretta Young was a smart businesswoman. The system told her she was a product, so she figured that if her business was herself, she wanted to be the CEO."
yes I agree it's really funny and also sort of brilliant. this paragraph here is SO great omg. i wonder how this might intersect with "Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl", a book that's also about female self-commoditization... thinking
(1) "fuck it we ball" is the only critical approach i ever really respect; hadn't seen that kierkegaard quote but it's a banger
(2) i continue to believe history will vindicate day one TTPD hive.... one day........
(3) as the sister of a guy with a disney+ account i will probably watch the doc series at some point but less for taylor and more because it seems like at least some of it is about process and logistics... also because there is always laundry to fold
I saw people start coming out of the woodwork for TTPD when Showgirl dropped and while Showgirl is a distinctly inferior album, I'm also like… don't gaslight me… I was there… I remember how all of you behaved!!!!!
my niche indie darling ttpd with your mere 1.4 million sales opening week… you were never going to be understood by the masses… all the time they were throwing punches you were building something…
yes the other thing is I get Hulu for free through a deal Spotify did a long time ago, so I don't actually know if can subscribe without upsetting that situation.
footnote 8 made me cackle. also I'm with you on the ttpd train
my darkest secret…
i just announced yesterday for the first time in my ts groupchat that ttpd is now my favorite
🎶 we're modern idiots 🎶
You are stronger than me... I caved and bought a month of Disney+ so I could watch the eras tour docuseries.
I really appreciated your observation about how cultural criticism of Taylor Swift seems to fall into one of two buckets; it's something that I've also noticed and generally get annoyed by. One of my favorite things about good cultural criticism is how it complicates one's perception of a thing (person/persona, film, music, etc.). I often tell people that the only Taylor Swift thinkpieces I read are yours, because when I read your criticism I feel like my perceptions are being actively challenged and possibly changed.
That said, I'm still not sure what's up with TTPD. I'll have to take another look i suppose lol
I think Red is still her best album (and it's def the most Taylor Taylor album) and it is really obviously her favorite of her albums because no other Taylor's Version got that treatment. But I really like how messy TTPD is, the range in the sounds of the album, and how willing Taylor is to cast herself in roles that aren't totally likeable (spiteful alcoholic neighbor, murderer on the run to Florida, the big middle finger that is "But Daddy I Love Him") or are actively unlikeable (lots of songs about emotional cheating) or are just kind of weird (alien abductee). I also think parts of it are really funny.
But when she's like yeah… you should be afraid of me… I'm a war machine covered in blood… I was like omg I really never thought you'd say it girl. But it definitely doesn't have the tightness of her other albums, which is one reason I'd still put Red up there in the objective rankings.
Also I really appreciate that! And I may eventually cave we'll see.
this was a banger ty. the first time i saw this book on a bookstore i sort of rolled my eyes and told my friend "god, we get it".(even though i love taylor's music lmao). and now as i rethink it perhaps this was a bit of a misogynist impulse... especially since i spent most of november listening to TTPD on loop and now i've been converted too. she is so PISSED! she is so HONEST! and the songs are BANGERS! anyway i'm obsessed with the kind of artist that chases commercial reach too (i think somewhere else you called them "steel butterflies") so i'll be reading this book
I don't think it's a misogynist reaction… books like this are usually TERRIBLE lol. And TTPD is so good. It's also really funny imho… I love when the organ sound kicks in when she sings about wedding rings in the title track.
Yeah the steel butterfly line comes from this book called The Star Machine—it was a derogatory term for Loretta Young. If you are interested in this kind of stuff the book is super good (but very long) but here is a relevant graf about Young's approach to her career and why I have gravitated to the term:
"She had become a top-drawer movie star, appearing in top-drawer films. She had the money, the fan mag adulation, the fame, and the respect, and she had done it without most of the star machine manipulations, slipping past the one-two-three-kick plan for manufacturing people like her. Almost any actress in Hollywood would have settled for Young’s career; it was what most of them dreamed of achieving. But Young was restless, dissatisfied—not with stardom itself, which had always been a motivating goal for her, but with her form of it. She knew what it was she wanted from her stardom: She wanted more than the others had; she wanted control. She didn’t want to walk away, like a Deanna Durbin, or get away from the crowds, like a Garbo, or just choose her own roles, like a Davis. She wanted to make all the decisions herself. Like her mother, Loretta Young was a smart businesswoman. The system told her she was a product, so she figured that if her business was herself, she wanted to be the CEO."
yes I agree it's really funny and also sort of brilliant. this paragraph here is SO great omg. i wonder how this might intersect with "Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl", a book that's also about female self-commoditization... thinking
(1) "fuck it we ball" is the only critical approach i ever really respect; hadn't seen that kierkegaard quote but it's a banger
(2) i continue to believe history will vindicate day one TTPD hive.... one day........
(3) as the sister of a guy with a disney+ account i will probably watch the doc series at some point but less for taylor and more because it seems like at least some of it is about process and logistics... also because there is always laundry to fold
I saw people start coming out of the woodwork for TTPD when Showgirl dropped and while Showgirl is a distinctly inferior album, I'm also like… don't gaslight me… I was there… I remember how all of you behaved!!!!!
wind in my hair i was there i do not forger or forgive......
my niche indie darling ttpd with your mere 1.4 million sales opening week… you were never going to be understood by the masses… all the time they were throwing punches you were building something…
Actually Disney Plus has left being primarily child-focused - if it ever really was, but the folding in of all Hulu programming was the full end.
yes the other thing is I get Hulu for free through a deal Spotify did a long time ago, so I don't actually know if can subscribe without upsetting that situation.