Taylor Swift’s Midnights: Four generations debate the new album.
2 years, 4 months ago

Taylor Swift’s Midnights: Four generations debate the new album.

Slate  

To debate where Taylor Swift’s Midnights ranks among her albums, Slate assembled representatives from four generations of Swift fans: Slate music critic Carl Wilson, a Gen Xer; Slate executive editor Susan Matthews, a millennial ; ICYMI host Rachelle Hampton, a zillennial; and Amity, a 10-year-old who requested we not use her real name. On key songs such as “Anti-Hero,” “Question …?”, “Mastermind,” and, among the bonus tracks, “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and “Dear Reader,” we find her returning to stories that feel familiar, but with second thoughts. I’m a fan of 1989 and there are songs off Lover I really love, like “Death by a Thousand Cuts.” Amity: I think Olivia Rodrigo is beating her now. Matthews: Agree that the bonus tracks are superfluous except “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.” Feels like it is time to talk about “Karma,” which seems to be another controversial song … Amity: I also think we should bring up “Karma.” I have been very on the fence about it. Hampton: I almost feel like “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” … should’ve been on the main album?

Folklore Political Taylor Swift Reputation Album Songs Feel Wilson Think Taylor Swift Susan Slate Albums This Album Lover Lana Karma Midnights  albums  feel  think  really  songs  debate  swift  generations  taylor  album  midnights  swifts  political

History of this topic

Taylor Swift previously said she was uninspired by politics in her music. Now, she’s singing a different tune
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Taylor Swift previously said she was uninspired by politics in her music. Now, she’s singing a different tune

CNN  

CNN — In newly released audio from a 2011 interview with “60 Minutes,” a then-21-year-old Taylor Swift says she was, at the time, not inspired to sing about topics related to politics. It wasn’t until over a decade into Swift’s career, in 2018, that she decided to finally broach the topic publicly and in her music, and the never-before-heard audio …

Shake it off: When politics tries to Taylor-made endorsements
6 months, 3 weeks ago

Shake it off: When politics tries to Taylor-made endorsements

China Daily  

Taylor Swift wins historic fourth Album of the Year Grammy for Midnights. There, in all its pixelated glory, stands America's sweetheart, Taylor Swift, apparently offering her enthusiastic endorsement to none other than the man who once declared he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" without losing voters. In an era where attention is the most …

Shake it off: When politics tries to Taylor-made endorsements
6 months, 3 weeks ago

Shake it off: When politics tries to Taylor-made endorsements

China Daily  

Taylor Swift wins historic fourth Album of the Year Grammy for Midnights. There, in all its pixelated glory, stands America's sweetheart, Taylor Swift, apparently offering her enthusiastic endorsement to none other than the man who once declared he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" without losing voters. In an era where attention is the most …

Taylor Swift Is Doing Michael Jackson–Level Numbers, but Does She Have a “Billie Jean”?
10 months, 1 week ago

Taylor Swift Is Doing Michael Jackson–Level Numbers, but Does She Have a “Billie Jean”?

Slate  

Quick pop quiz: Prior to this week, what was Taylor Swift’s last new No. 1 hits series, because we’d just covered “Cruel Summer,” and “Over” seemed like a rounding error—a fluky side effect of Swift’s newest album-release gambit, not a hit anyone beyond rabid Swifties would remember by 2024. But Swift’s streams per song number was also exceptionally high: “Fortnight” …

Taylor Swift's Fortnight music video is here! Pop superstar is Victorian goth glam in a $6.2K gown as onscreen lover Post Malone helps her escape an asylum
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Taylor Swift's Fortnight music video is here! Pop superstar is Victorian goth glam in a $6.2K gown as onscreen lover Post Malone helps her escape an asylum

Daily Mail  

Tracks on The Tortured Poets Department 1. Fortnight Taylor appears to reference the end of her relationship with Joe Alwyn and her subsequent fling with Matty Healy in the first track on her album. But Daddy I Love Him 'I know he's crazy, but he's the one I want,' sings Taylor, showing wry humour as she admits to falling for …

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department is the anti-Reputation.
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department is the anti-Reputation.

Slate  

Taylor Swift has released The Tortured Poets Department, and her fans and detractors alike can agree on one thing: To quote the poet, “This is exhausting.” The feeling doesn’t come entirely as a surprise, given the midnight release of the lengthy 16-track album, or the larger context into which it drops. The richest tracks on TTPD are the songs about …

LIZ JONES: Why I've publicly shamed my former partners for over 25 years
1 year ago

LIZ JONES: Why I've publicly shamed my former partners for over 25 years

Daily Mail  

Revenge isn’t just best served cold. I sat up straight when I read Whatshisname thinks Taylor has dissed him, because that very morning, in North Yorkshire not Nashville, I received a text from my most recent ex-boyfriend that read, after I tentatively reminded him about Valentine’s Day: ‘I seem to remember being dissed and rejected by you IN YOUR COLUMN.’ …

Taylor Swift Made Grammy History—and One Big Mistake
1 year, 1 month ago

Taylor Swift Made Grammy History—and One Big Mistake

Slate  

Two different events happened simultaneously last night in the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, a venue fittingly named after a postmodern financial shell game. The best indication of that was the night’s domination by women, six years after former Grammys President Neil Portnow sniped that women needed to “step up” artistically if they wanted to win more Grammys. Portnow has …

Yet another college course on Taylor Swift makes clear: She’s more than a pop star
1 year, 3 months ago

Yet another college course on Taylor Swift makes clear: She’s more than a pop star

LA Times  

Taylor Swift arrives at the world premiere of her concert film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” at the Grove in Los Angeles. Though Fink doesn’t plan to teach a course on Swift, he imagines such a class could discuss “genre and race and whiteness,” “the state of the music industry,” and feminism and girl culture. Earlier this year, another Stanford …

From country to pop, 2014 nostalgia to 2023 reality — it’s time for Taylor Swift’s ‘1989'
1 year, 4 months ago

From country to pop, 2014 nostalgia to 2023 reality — it’s time for Taylor Swift’s ‘1989'

Associated Press  

LOS ANGELES — Taylor Swift’s reimagined “1989” is here, the album that ushered in the first Peak Swift era — revisited at the height of her massive pop culture dominance. Here are some key things to consider as “1989” propels the New Peak Swift era forward: OPENING THE VAULT Listeners will dive deep into the vault tracks for clues into …

Taylor Swift, 1989, review: a cheesy celebration of young and reckless love
1 year, 7 months ago

Taylor Swift, 1989, review: a cheesy celebration of young and reckless love

The Telegraph  

This is a tale of star-crossed celebrity lovers: America’s country sweetheart and British pop’s bad-boy Romeo. Taylor Swift has something of a reputation for writing pithy songs about her love life and this time her subject matter is One Direction ladies man Harry Styles. In case listeners are in any doubt about the identity of the heartbreaker with the “James …

A user’s guide to Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’
1 year, 8 months ago

A user’s guide to Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’

LA Times  

The best songs on “Speak Now ” represent a high point in Taylor Swift’s catalog, with an emotional and intellectual incisiveness she’s never surpassed. SHE RETCONNED A SNIDE LYRIC Though she’s made a virtue of precisely replicating her old albums — the “Taylor’s Version” campaign began, don’t forget, as a way to devalue master recordings she doesn’t own — Swift …

Review: Taylor Swift gets dark, electric on ‘Midnights’
2 years, 4 months ago

Review: Taylor Swift gets dark, electric on ‘Midnights’

Associated Press  

Taylor Swift “Midnights,” “All of me changed like midnight,” Taylor Swift confesses halfway through her latest album, the aptly named and moody “Midnights.” It’s a moment on the electric “Midnight Rain” that finds lyricist Swift at her best, reminding you of her unparalleled ability to make any emotion feel universal. But Swift presents “Midnights” as something different: a collection of …

Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' Gives You Something To Stay Up For
2 years, 4 months ago

Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' Gives You Something To Stay Up For

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Back in September, Taylor Swift offered a glimpse into her songwriting process while speaking at the Nashville Songwriter Awards. She sorts her songs into three categories, she said — “quill lyrics, fountain pen lyrics and glitter gel pen lyrics” — based on the writing implement she imagined using when composing each one. Her latest work, “Midnights,” feels …

Taylor Swift’s Midnights Is the Right Kind of Concept Album
2 years, 4 months ago

Taylor Swift’s Midnights Is the Right Kind of Concept Album

Slate  

Through the history of the “concept album”—allow 1967’s Sgt. What’s more, Swift promised a “special very chaotic surprise” at 3 a.m. Eastern time, which turned out not to be simply a video, interview, or social-media post, but seven entire extra tracks. Opening track “Lavender Haze” puts a sexy groove to Swift’s perspective on a major theme of the album, her …

Taylor Swift review, Midnights: Her darkest and most cryptic album yet
2 years, 4 months ago

Taylor Swift review, Midnights: Her darkest and most cryptic album yet

The Independent  

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “Gaylor” fans who’ve stuck to a queer reading of …

Taylor Swift's Midnight album lyrics: An in depth look at each song
2 years, 4 months ago

Taylor Swift's Midnight album lyrics: An in depth look at each song

Daily Mail  

Taylor Swift elated her devoted fans as she dropped her highly-anticipated tenth studio album Midnights on Friday. MailOnline takes an in-depth look at each song on Taylor Swift's Midnights album as she gives fans a rare insight into her world Beau: Having dated her fiancé Joe Alwyn since 2016, she detailed their love on a track named Sweet Nothing, and …

Critics award Taylor Swift's tenth studio album Midnights high praise
2 years, 4 months ago

Critics award Taylor Swift's tenth studio album Midnights high praise

Daily Mail  

Taylor Swift is already receiving high praise from fans and critics, alike, just hours after releasing her highly-anticipated album Midnights early Friday morning. Variety's Chris Williams deemed Midnights something 'worth losing sleep over' as it's a triumphant return to the 32-year-old singer's pop era 'steeped in synthesizers and programmed beats.' Billboard's Jason Lipshutz calls Midnights a 'focused, legacy-extending new project' …

Out of the woods, Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ heralds the return of a pop-music mastermind
2 years, 4 months ago

Out of the woods, Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ heralds the return of a pop-music mastermind

LA Times  

Taylor Swift’s pin-sharp new album, “Midnights,” closes with a song in which the pop superstar patiently explains to someone — perhaps many millions of someones — that their intimate relationship wasn’t a product of kismet but of design. “No one wanted to play with me as a little kid,” she sings near the end of “Mastermind,” which might be the …

The 40 best albums of 2020, from Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways to Taylor Swift’s Folklore
4 years, 2 months ago

The 40 best albums of 2020, from Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways to Taylor Swift’s Folklore

The Independent  

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. ROC Read the full review 30) Bob Dylan – …

Music Review: Taylor Swift’s new album is strikingly heroic
4 years, 7 months ago

Music Review: Taylor Swift’s new album is strikingly heroic

Associated Press  

Taylor Swift, “folklore” In the years since Taylor Swift released her killer pop album “1989” in 2014, the singer has amped the production of her music, adding sounds including electronica, synth pop, R&B, dubstep, dance and even trap to her songs. Her eighth record has a calmness and coolness reminiscent of the 2008 masterpiece “Fearless” and 2010’s charming “Speak Now,” …

ADRIAN THRILLS: Taylor Swift re-discovers her mojo in seventh album
5 years, 6 months ago

ADRIAN THRILLS: Taylor Swift re-discovers her mojo in seventh album

Daily Mail  

Taylor Swift: Lover Rating: Verdict: Taylor rediscovers her mojo Sheryl Crow: Threads Rating: Verdict: Smartly stitched together Most poignantly, Soon You’ll Get Better is a haunting account of her mum’s battle with cancer. In moments of doubt, it pays to look back, and Lover reprises the bubbling synths of Swift’s best-selling album, 1989, and the zestful pop of its 2012 …

Taylor Swift Lover review round-up: Critics say album feels ‘evolutionary rather than revolutionary’
5 years, 6 months ago

Taylor Swift Lover review round-up: Critics say album feels ‘evolutionary rather than revolutionary’

The Independent  

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Here’s a round-up of some of the major reviews …

Taylor Swift, 1989 - album review: Pop star shows 'promising signs of maturity'
10 years, 4 months ago

Taylor Swift, 1989 - album review: Pop star shows 'promising signs of maturity'

The Independent  

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy On 1989, Taylor Swift’s world …

Taylor Swift: Country-Pop With Joyous Ambition
14 years, 4 months ago

Taylor Swift: Country-Pop With Joyous Ambition

NPR  

Taylor Swift: Country-Pop With Joyous Ambition Enlarge this image toggle caption Ash Newell Ash Newell Taylor Swift will turn 21 in December, and she'll still be one of the youngest country singer-songwriters to have achieved massive success. And even if you and I aren't particularly invested in whether Swift's heart was broken by Joe Jonas or a cast member of …

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