What's the Deal with Taylor Swift?

[luv2laugh]

I talked about this a bit in the Kanye thread but I wanted to bring it up here and ask others for their opinion. I feel like I am the only one that does not find Taylor Swift to be a genuine person and I don't know if others feel the same. I used to be a huge Taylor swift fan from 2008-2009. I listened to her everyday and I knew all her songs by heart.  Her music got me through some break ups. After the Kanye incident, I felt like she changed and not in a good way. I was disappointed because I'd watch her interviews and listen to her and in my heart, I could no longer find her a genuine person. It became clear that whether it was her choice or not, everything good that she was doing was being carefully crafted for her "image".  Taylor first was presented as a country girl who played her guitar, wrote songs for fun, and was an outcast in highschool. After the Kanye incident, there was a big change in how her image was being handled. Taylor has too many boyfriends? Let's show her with a group of girls all the time and have her talk about being a feminist. Too country? Let's chop her hair and have her do a signature red lip to transition to superstar and do away with country. Let's show her baking cookies with Hailee Steinfeld to appeal to young girls. Let's make her bring tall skinny models on stage to make people associate her with beauty and power. Lets have Taylor Swift do weekly hospital visits on tour and call in the papparazzi. Let's have her make donations and publicize them.Her $250,000 donation to Kesha didn't feel genuine. Why publicize it anyway? Why not just do it anonymously? Her donations all become trending headlines. I'm telling you, she has the best PR around and Duggars need to take a page from her book. It is so good that's even Forbes did an article on how to craft your company similar to how Taylor Swift crafts her image.  However, at the end of the day, I have a feeling these are not Taylor's own personal decisions but rather, her appearance, behavior, and actions, are the effect of an outstanding PR team managing her image as a brand as if she is some sort of commodity.  Off topic a bit, but I also didn't like how in her Grammy speech she mentioned "As the first woman to win two albums of the year..."

If you get the chance, these make for FASCINATING reads on this
Taylor Swift is Not Your Friend http://gawker.com/taylor-swift-is-not-your-friend-1717745581

Business Lessons from Taylor Swift (dozens more on this) http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertamatuson/2015/07/27/business-lessons-learned-from-taylor-swift/#60ed958845f5

[ShepherdontheRock]

Well, I definitely agree that I found her suddenly being a feminist rather weird when she had said things like "I'm not a feminist because boys and girls are equal." It seemed to be awfully coincidental that that's when feminism became trendy. 

As for the rest of her image, I guess she needs to change something to make money though. I mean, look how many image changes Rihanna went through. Every album.

[Rubaiyat]

This is fascinating.  I don't pay a ton of attention to Taylor - other than to snark occasionally that, if all your boyfriends are so awful, maybe you could get better taste in boyfriends? - but I think you're right.  I was very disappointed when she started down the mean girl route.  My kids love her, and we frequently bop along to her music in the car.  

Hadn't thought about it from a PR standpoint though, but I agree with you, her people are uh-may-zing.  

3 minutes ago, ShepherdontheRock said:

Well, I definitely agree that I found her suddenly being a feminist rather weird when she had said things like "I'm not a feminist because boys and girls are equal." It seemed to be awfully coincidental that that's when feminism became trendy. 

As for the rest of her image, I guess she needs to change something to make money though. I mean, look how many image changes Rihanna went through. Every album.

I really worry about Rihanna.  She has all the earmarks of a poor lost soul to whom something really bad has happened.  She's very talented, but I truly hope that she finds some peace and safety and soon.  

[luv2laugh]

I don't like how she refers to her group of tall thin models as her "squad". It would make me, the shy lonely high school student, feel like a loser.  What happened to the Taylor Swift that used to strum on her guitar and not be the popular girl? What happened to the "You Belong with Me" Taylor Swift where she played the "shy girl"? Now, she's *almost* cast as downright some popular mean girl.  Every charitable action she does is publicized and becomes a trending headline. It doesn't feel genuine.

[happy atheist]

She has always struck me as an incredibly fake, disingenuous person. Everything about her is calculated. And her music is not my taste. At all. 

[Maggie Mae]

She's a pop musician, so pretty much everything in her life is going to be scripted or at least manipulated by a team of PR agents and whomever else. 

I like a couple of her recent songs. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE country, so her older stuff doesn't interest me in the least. But mostly she's just filler, boring, radio hits. I don't know how she wins awards, but I imagine all of Hollywood to be this very fake place so... whatevs. It's not like she's the only person I feel that way about. 

[MarblesMom]

@Maggie MaeI am so glad you brought this up!  SO MANY Sheeple in this country do not understand that a celebrity is a brand, a product... I don't think most people even begin to understand that her record label "owns" her.

I think she is pretty.  She can sing better than I.

The rest of it is a ... wag the dog.

[clueliss]

Last fall there were what I'm going to call dueling Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus magazine covers/articles.  I don't remember which magazines.  I read both.  Miley came off, to me, as quirky but genuine.  Like her, don't like her.  She felt real.  Taylor and her mob of girls felt stiff.  Like she tried to hard to come off like a 'real girl' with all this stuff she does with her famous friends.  

[aquitana]

People always seem cooler and more interesting before they hit it really big. Then so much money is riding on them, they become very homogenized. I think she's a talented songwriter and singer. I think she's trying to figure things out with her different boyfriends. I like her feminism and pro-women acceptance speech.

 Young women can't win, Miley Cyrus is considered a crass weirdo appropriating black culture. Taylor Swift is a wimpy, insipid blonde. Katie Perry is all boobs and costume changes.

She's not my favorite, but it can't be easy to balance her own self trying to grow up, the business expectations and the fan's expectations.

[Four is Enough]

Wendy Williams doesn't like her, either. Says she's a mean girl.

 It doesn't help that she's from the same town in PA where Kate Gosselin lives. Something in the water there, I guess, LOL!

[aquitana]

I think Lorde, Iggy Azalia, and a lot of other young women are a lot more interesting, but don't sell the same amount of albums, so aren't so minutely scrutinized.

[AliceInFundyland]

She is one of the ones that makes me feel all of my 36 years. I want to find a babydoll dress Blossom hat, and a Cranberries cd and run back to the early 90s. That said, I do see Miley's rebellion against her Disney youth as much more real (although I'm uninterested). I also think that Lady Gaga is pretty darn alright, and I feel bad for her when she gets shredded on automatically for just recreating Madonna or Bowie or whoever. To an extent, everyone is reinventing themselves from someone else, and she is still young.

TSwift. No.

[MarblesMom]

1 hour ago, AliceInFundyland said:

I want to find a babydoll dress Blossom hat, and a Cranberries cd and run back to the early 90s.

Cranberries!  What a great sound.

[KylieJenner]

On February 25, 2016 at 10:23 PM, luv2laugh said:

I don't like how she refers to her group of tall thin models as her "squad". It would make me, the shy lonely high school student, feel like a loser.  What happened to the Taylor Swift that used to strum on her guitar and not be the popular girl? What happened to the "You Belong with Me" Taylor Swift where she played the "shy girl"? Now, she's *almost* cast as downright some popular mean girl.  Every charitable action she does is publicized and becomes a trending headline. It doesn't feel genuine.

Amen. She went from playing a victim to victimizing people herself.

I think she is just manufactured by her label/management. There is absolutely no telling who she is underneath it all, and we may never find out. She is a very beautiful girl, and her career has been interesting to follow since the beginning. Her early music came out in a perfect time during my life- all the HS angst, it was very relatable.

I just see her as more of a business person these days rather than the sweet girl she was when she first came onto the scene.

[luv2laugh]

Taylor also would never admit this but she's had A LOT of very subtle work done. She has a completely different nose. Some sources even suggest she's had something done with her eyelids to make them wider than when she first came out on the music scene but I think that is just weight loss. She's lost a lot of weight since starting out.

[SportsgalAnnie]

10 hours ago, happy atheist said:

She has always struck me as an incredibly fake, disingenuous person. Everything about her is calculated. And her music is not my taste. At all. 

Oh yeah, working in the industry I have heard many things. She is a money hungry master manipulator. Can't sing without auto tune, and unless you are deemed worthy...is a total biotch. For her it's all about the green, I went to college with a few people that have known her for a long time, they said she was excellent at playing the victim. The thing that bugs me the most is that she turned her back on artists that helped her get where she's at. 

[SnazzyNazzy]

5 hours ago, SportsgalAnnie said:

Oh yeah, working in the industry I have heard many things. She is a money hungry master manipulator. Can't sing without auto tune, and unless you are deemed worthy...is a total biotch. For her it's all about the green, I went to college with a few people that have known her for a long time, they said she was excellent at playing the victim. The thing that bugs me the most is that she turned her back on artists that helped her get where she's at. 

This all seems totally believable. 

[Screamapillar]

Taylor Swift seems to have a massive chip on her shoulder for some reason. Like a "poor little rich girl" who has so many problems without having any real problems, you know?

[19 cats and counting]

I will admit to owning all of her albums and being a fan of her music. And from what I'm told she's very good to her fans (but it could be for publicity.  I remember reading she made a student loan payment of $1989 on behalf of one of her fans.  Like others, I don't think the Kesha donation was genuine (I think others in the music industry were genuine to her-- ie Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson).

Keep in mind that she's the daughter of bankers, so she was not exactly a rags to riches story.  Her wealthy parents financed her early career.

I like country Taylor better.  And her hair looks much better in (dare I say) long Gothard curls.

 

[luv2laugh]

44 minutes ago, 19 cats and counting said:

I will admit to owning all of her albums and being a fan of her music. And from what I'm told she's very good to her fans (but it could be for publicity.  I remember reading she made a student loan payment of $1989 on behalf of one of her fans.  Like others, I don't think the Kesha donation was genuine (I think others in the music industry were genuine to her-- ie Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson).

Keep in mind that she's the daughter of bankers, so she was not exactly a rags to riches story.  Her wealthy parents financed her early career.

I like country Taylor better.  And her hair looks much better in (dare I say) long Gothard curls.

 

Her parents worked at a bank but they were not investment bankers. They had a middle upper class background but they themselves were not investment bankers. Her father was an executive at Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser. That's a back office bank role, not front office like banking and trading. I give Taylor major credit for getting her start in the industry without major connections but I'm disappointed with her because I think the fame has gotten to her head and that she no longer behaves in a way that she wants but is directed by her management team to do charitable things to make her look better and keep her relevant.

[KylieJenner]

11 hours ago, SportsgalAnnie said:

Oh yeah, working in the industry I have heard many things. She is a money hungry master manipulator. Can't sing without auto tune, and unless you are deemed worthy...is a total biotch. For her it's all about the green, I went to college with a few people that have known her for a long time, they said she was excellent at playing the victim. The thing that bugs me the most is that she turned her back on artists that helped her get where she's at. 

Not only fellow artists, but I also heard that she sued her former guitar teacher for putting her name on his website. Like what? I think he played a fair hand in the beginning when most of her music was acoustic.. and real.

[SportsgalAnnie]

5 minutes ago, KylieJenner said:

Not only fellow artists, but I also heard that she sued her former guitar teacher for putting her name on his website. Like what? I think he played a fair hand in the beginning when most of her music was acoustic.. and real.

yep I loved her up until the Red album, that's when I saw the change in her. The music started feeling different, I much prefer artists like Kacey Musgraves and Kellie Pickler who handle most of their stuff on their own. 

[Jingerbread]

On 2/25/2016 at 3:57 PM, aquitana said:

Young women can't win, Miley Cyrus is considered a crass weirdo appropriating black culture. Taylor Swift is a wimpy, insipid blonde. Katie Perry is all boobs and costume changes.

Those three are examples of women going from being genuine in who they are and becoming a drastic version of types of women our society looks down on.  We don't praise women who appropriate the cultures of others, who who try to act stupid, or who try to make it all tits and ass.  As a whole, we in society don't like people who reek of fakeness.  It makes us distrust, and not like.

We do have stars, like Madonna and Cher and Lady GaGa, who go over the top, but those are three women who as feel are only true to themselves when they dress up, and when they're in jeans and ponytails, it feels so wrong that we know who they genuinely are are the "freaks," and so we trust that, and are okay with it.

Miley and Taylor and Katie just too bad stereotypes of women, and ran with it.

[roddma]

I think this happens to many famous people. SOme handle fame really well but others do a Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

I heard about her using Auto Tune and if I'm right the grand Ole Opry doesn't allow it. IMO she doesnt sing bad but not spectacular either.

[Sera's Arrow]

I've never listened to Taylor Swift knowingly. It's not my cup of tea so I can't talk about her or her work with an informed opinion. What I do know is that I really don't like the mass-produced pop industry. 

It sucks people dry, changes them to be more marketable to the masses (o/' L.A told me you'll be a pop star. All you have to change is everything you are o/') and spits them out when they are no longer bringing in money or crowds. They gain too much weight, they do strange things, they get "old", blah blah blah. It's a disgusting business that is based more on image than on actual music.