Culture/Popular Music
The Redemption of Taylor Swift
My journey from “meh” to full-on Swiftie
I never took Taylor Swift seriously as an artist.
I heard the upbeat pop songs on the radio and wrote them off as fluff and nonsense — the kind of thing an angsty teenager writes.
Oh sure, they were fun to sing, and they were musically sound, but at the end of the day songs like “You Belong With Me”, “Teardrops on My Guitar”, and “Fifteen” seemed to be bland and lifeless.
Over the years, I’d generally written her off as a pop princess, someone who made nice music, but was generally bland, inoffensive, and mostly concerned with music as income instead of music as art.
And then came Scooter Braun.
I don’t claim to know or fully understand all of the nuances of their feud, or even of the music industry — but if there is any truth to the things Taylor has said about him and the the entire industry, then there’s a serious systemic problem in the music industry.
But…I’m getting ahead of myself…
When the rights to her music were sold out from underneath her, I began to pay attention. Her statements about the rights of artists and how she should own her own music make a lot of sense.
While I can understand not wanting to be involved in every tiny minute detail (because apparently there are literally thousands of ways an artist’s music can be used — all of which must be carefully negotiated), I’d always thought that artists (along with songwriters and producers) retained the rights to their music. I mean, they’re the ones who created it in the first place, right?
But apparently that’s not true…
And that’s where my opinion on Taylor started to change.
Let’s get two things out of the way…
- I am not Taylor Swift’s target market. I know that now and I’ve always known that. I never expected her to sing songs that speak to my experiences…my delight in her music is based on the music and artistry.
- Taylor never needed redemption from me or from anyone else — it was my opinion of her and her music that needed redemption.
18 months ago I met the woman who is now my girlfriend, and she was the catalyst for me to seriously rethink my opinion of Taylor. Of course I’d had some awareness of her all along — she’s everywhere — but it was mostly the songs that made it to the radio.
My girlfriend’s unabashed joy in introducing me to more music by Taylor was infectious — as was her knowledge and awareness of the issues surrounding Taylor. She introduced me to the “Taylor’s Version” series of re-releases, and took the time to explain the reasoning behind why Taylor was re-recording all of them.
This led me to do some more of my own research, some of which may have involved watching both “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” on Disney Plus and “Miss Americana” on Netflix.
If you want to see passion and dedication to art, then these are both movies you need to see.
“Folklore” is an intimate recording session at the Long Pond Studio with producer Aaron Dessner. It was the perfect accompaniment for a long cross-continent flight and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the recording process and the way in which Taylor collaborated with her producers. It was my first glimpse at the artist behind the music and concert tours.
“Miss Americana” on the other hand is an in-depth (if heavily curated) look behind the scenes on the Reputation tour as well as some intimate interviews and conversations with Taylor and others. I can’t speak to whether this is an accurate and honest look, but it certainly seemed like it falls more towards that side than not. The conversations and interviews seem to be open and honest, with Taylor talking about many of the challenges she’s faced throughout her career — including intimate ones such as eating disorders and body shaming.
Both of these movies helped me start to redefine the image I had of Taylor as a pop princess that was more worried about money than art.
They also brought home the problem of people like Scooter Braun and the commodification of the music industry.
Taylor has spoken openly about the challenges associated with trying to get the rights to her own music. Essentially she doesn’t have the ability to control what happens to her own music — and this is somehow considered normal in the music industry.
What happened to Taylor was that a rich man bought the rights to all her old recordings — without even talking to her.
If Taylor is to be believed (and I have no reason not to), there wasn’t any conversation with her at all.
No casual chat about the ways in which she’d like to see her music used or ways in which she specifically doesn’t want it used.
No courtesy call to see if she wanted first crack at purchasing the rights to her life’s work.
No formal conversation with her as an artist to do some due diligence about his investment.
Just the casual purchase by a rich man of an artist’s entire catalogue to be used however he thinks is appropriate.
Now, he subsequently sold those rights to another group of rich men so Scooter Braun is not the only villain in this story — but he’s the one who seems to be running into issues where he treats people like commodities to be bought and sold instead of actual people.
You just can’t be an asshole like that anymore.
Regardless of the truth of the situation, the reality for me was that it opened my eyes to the ways in which I continue to unintentionally benefit from structures and institutions that were designed to benefit white men. It also opened me up to reconsidering my view of Taylor as a pop princess who made inoffensive but catchy music.
What I’ve discovered since is an artist who has carefully built a musical empire based around her own skills and abilities. And while she’s had help from others along the way, the accolades she’s received are actually quite well deserved.
What happened was that her image was carefully calculated and controlled by music executives to make her “acceptable”. There was a taste of this in Miss Americana where she pushed back hard against her handlers on the issue of gay rights and publicly denouncing the Republican Senator for her home state of Tennessee.
In the documentary, this is framed in the context of The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) and the horrendous backlash that happened when Natalie Maines denounced then-President George W. Bush. Despite the concern that it could tank her career (which obviously didn’t happen), she pushes ahead and uses her platform to stand for something she believes in.
Just for the record, The Chicks happen to be one of my favourite groups of all time…but that was true even before the whole “controversy”.
I’m not going to say I’m a musical snob, but I definitely have strong opinions about what I like and don’t like…and some of the best music from Taylor is deep in her catalogue — never to be heard on the radio.
It’s always a little humbling to have your opinions challenged — especially when they turn out to be wrong. But that’s the point of growing up and continuing to grow — to learn and be better.
Taylor Swift never needed my redemption — but she got it anyways. Much more than what you hear on the radio, Taylor is an artist who cares deeply about her music and those who help her put it out into the world.
I hope to be able to see her in concert some day — though ticket prices are currently out of reach for us. Whether that happens or not, I’m glad to have found the artist behind the image, and the passion behind the playlist.
