I'm not a Swifty, per se. I like some of her music. And, I respect how she tossed out the misogyny and rules placed upon her and took control of her path to be her authentic self as an artist and an activist.
In 2015, Apple Music began its streaming music trial with the announcement that they weren’t going to pay artists during the music service's free trial. TS promptly announced she was withdrawing her music from the streaming service saying “We don’t ask you for free iPhones, please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Apple immediately reversed its decision. I immediately became a fan.
For Boomers who have trouble relating to Taylor Swift's music, may I suggest Ryan Adams' version of her album 1989. He reinterprets the songs and reimagines the melodies and makes the album much more adult. I think TS's performances of her songs are aimed at teenage girls. I can't wrap my ears around virtually all of them. It took Ryan Adams to show me what an extraordinary songwriter she really is. Listen to his version of "Shake it Off" below.
And I should pre-emptively point out that Ryan Adams, while a great musician, has in his past been a shit human being. I believe he is cleaning up his act now.
The DJT virus has no known cure. The symptoms: infidelity, misogyny, racial and anti-semitic slurs, will lead to total moral decay and anarchy! Presently, the virus has infected 30% of the population. With no known cure we can only hope that the primary carrier of the virus withers away. If not, the majority that so far has not been infected, must take our swords out of our scabbards and fight for freedom and democracy!?!
It’s easy to dismiss popular music (too frequently without really listening to it) but it is, as the cliche goes, “the sound track of our lives”. And if not exactly our lives, then many of those around us. I regularly devote some time listening to current popular tunes because I want to have a sense of what’s going on. It’s not like I’m going to try to show a bunch of Swift fans how hip I am (that would be creepy) but I’m not looking for a one way ticket to old fartdom either. I’m a firm believer that if you mix music and snobbery, it’s your loss. While I’m not a big fan, Taylor Swift is clearly skilled at her craft.
I’ve always struggled with the tension between celebrity culture and popular art. Taylor isn’t the best example because having seen her in interviews and comedic skits on various shows I find her likeable, intelligent and quick witted. However, I try hard not to judge someone’s art based on what I may know about their personal life. If I curated my music collection based on how I might feel about the artist as a person I’d probably have to throw half of it out. And that goes for rock, country, jazz, classical, man or woman, dead or alive.
One quibble with your post. I not sure encouraging people to vote has ever been completely non-partisan, especially now since half the population believes in discouraging/denying the vote.
Anyway, regardless of how you all feel about any of this, we could probably stand to be a little more like this guy.
Oh! I love that video. And I think of encouraging people to vote to be entirely non-partisan (or bipartisan). It is my League of Women Voters' training.
About those Twitter types: in their mentalité, girls and women are simply commodities-- according to what E.M Forster calls "this derived sensuality—the sort that classes a mistress among motor-cars if she is beautiful, and among eye-flies if she isn’t." So with that lordly stance they fling aside the purported charms of Ms. Swift!
And yet-- and yet-- society is failing to recognize their power, their prophetic annunciation of the Truths of the Universe that Rush Unquestioned through their Cores, that are their Very Skeletons! Again and again they thunder the denunciations that should obliterate Ms. Swift, and still she stands!
The universe has gone wrong. Still, they will perseverate to Make It See.
-----
Elsewhere In that Forster novel, A Passage to India, his character Adela says, “I don’t think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like or dislike them.” Myself, I don't feel so devoid of knowledge of others as Adela, but I don't think I'm able to judge them for anyone but myself, in any way but internal consistency or whether I like them or not.
How odd it seems to me that Ms. Swift is matter for evaluation, that her being someone to spend ink and airwaves and electronic signals to judge....
Someone wrote recently that we continue to underestimate Ms. Swift because of that Kanye incident, where she stood by at an awards show while he interrupted her on a rant. She was quite young at the time. She was, I think, being polite but we make a mistake by thinking she’s still that interruptible young woman.
I'm really not in the Swiftosphere. I see rantings by deranged misogynists, and I see headlines about Ms. Swift's relationship with Mr. Kelce, and that's about it. Aside from the good and seldom-repeated news about her triumphant advocacy of voter registration.
I hadn't thought of her being ruled unimportant or weak or whatever as a sequel to Mr. West's rant about her reward-- or in recognition of its justice, which should be charged against the organs of the VMAs. But it wouldn't surprise me. Women with and without prominence are blamefully dismissed for being dismissed, blamefully dismissed for protesting against being dismissed, blamefully being dismissed for being "too soft," for being "too aggressive," "too unaggressive," "too bloodthirsty," and on and on.
When my leftie friends rejected Secretary Clinton as militaristic, I occasionally tried to remind them that women could and would be considered soft and unfit for command unless they assertively backed use of the military. When she gave that little "get a load of him" head shake in debate with then-candidate Trump, I thought, "Damn, she's going to be condemned for being discourteous to him, and the next morning there it was, though I don't recall it reaching nationwide currency.
So while I fundamentally agree with you that Ms. Swift is a power and a force, in my experience *anyone* can be interruptible. It is a matter of how the zeitgeist swings or is swung. How I wish President Trump would be denied traction. Ideally, all traction except what's needed to hold a begging bowl and use a loo.
You are absolutely correct, that a woman cannot win as a leader. If she's married, the concern is that her heart will be at the hearth. If she isn't, well, there's something wrong with her. If she has children, she's a mother and all that that entails. If she doesn't have kids, well, how selfish of her. I also agree that any one is interruptable. I'm not sure, if I had her talent and been in that position, I would have done any thing different. An idiot is on the stage. Back away.
I think it's important to remember that women as unable to win as leaders in our set of cultures not because they are women, not because of their inherent womaniness, but because of a deep, pervasive, long-lasting social construction of patriarchy.
There's nothing inevitable about patriarchy. We can choose differently.
The way we frame people as ludicrous/unimportant/disgraceful and then they're not players any longer is dangerous, and has certainly worked to deny opportunities to those who aren't cis-het abled men, but anyone can play it-- if enough others play along. That might should give us confidence as we hope to neutralize forces of chaos and oppression. More cheerfully, on the opposite side, those same social forces of raising up constructive ideas and persons and ceaselessly clamoring for them to heard can more us from resistance toward proactive creation and staffing of graceful institutions.
Wow, that was fun! Thanks to Ms Susan Campbell, I just watched my 1st TS video! She's quite lovely, talented, and according to many who know her, kind. And this song says it all: "Haters Gonna Hate". Sadly, due in part to Maga world, there's alot of haters.
At this point in the political insanity process, we need everyone who can speak up to save Democracy, to do it. Seize the day! 🤺
I admire what she’s doing.
After watching "Miss Americana"
(available on Netflix), I became a fan. https://youtu.be/q07_k5VKuaQ?si=6D0TTykOqb6kEnGL
I'm not a Swifty, per se. I like some of her music. And, I respect how she tossed out the misogyny and rules placed upon her and took control of her path to be her authentic self as an artist and an activist.
That's an excellent documentary. I highly recommend it.
Oh no, am I now a "Swifty-adjacent" because I just saw my first video of her and liked it?! I can't "shake it off!" (-:
And I have also liked the clips of her supporting Biden! Go Taylor!
Puns are generally not accepted on this Substack but you're a good guy, so....
In 2015, Apple Music began its streaming music trial with the announcement that they weren’t going to pay artists during the music service's free trial. TS promptly announced she was withdrawing her music from the streaming service saying “We don’t ask you for free iPhones, please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Apple immediately reversed its decision. I immediately became a fan.
Now THAT? Is a businesswoman.
For Boomers who have trouble relating to Taylor Swift's music, may I suggest Ryan Adams' version of her album 1989. He reinterprets the songs and reimagines the melodies and makes the album much more adult. I think TS's performances of her songs are aimed at teenage girls. I can't wrap my ears around virtually all of them. It took Ryan Adams to show me what an extraordinary songwriter she really is. Listen to his version of "Shake it Off" below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwmXO0J-PAA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_(Ryan_Adams_album)
Her talents as a songwriter are her bonafides, and thank you for this recommendation. I hadn't heard of it.
And I should pre-emptively point out that Ryan Adams, while a great musician, has in his past been a shit human being. I believe he is cleaning up his act now.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pefZ_4d-8pg
The DJT virus has no known cure. The symptoms: infidelity, misogyny, racial and anti-semitic slurs, will lead to total moral decay and anarchy! Presently, the virus has infected 30% of the population. With no known cure we can only hope that the primary carrier of the virus withers away. If not, the majority that so far has not been infected, must take our swords out of our scabbards and fight for freedom and democracy!?!
I know one cure. Shut him down at the ballot box. Let the courts kick him to the curb.
Swift is a brilliant businesswoman! More power to her!
It’s easy to dismiss popular music (too frequently without really listening to it) but it is, as the cliche goes, “the sound track of our lives”. And if not exactly our lives, then many of those around us. I regularly devote some time listening to current popular tunes because I want to have a sense of what’s going on. It’s not like I’m going to try to show a bunch of Swift fans how hip I am (that would be creepy) but I’m not looking for a one way ticket to old fartdom either. I’m a firm believer that if you mix music and snobbery, it’s your loss. While I’m not a big fan, Taylor Swift is clearly skilled at her craft.
I’ve always struggled with the tension between celebrity culture and popular art. Taylor isn’t the best example because having seen her in interviews and comedic skits on various shows I find her likeable, intelligent and quick witted. However, I try hard not to judge someone’s art based on what I may know about their personal life. If I curated my music collection based on how I might feel about the artist as a person I’d probably have to throw half of it out. And that goes for rock, country, jazz, classical, man or woman, dead or alive.
One quibble with your post. I not sure encouraging people to vote has ever been completely non-partisan, especially now since half the population believes in discouraging/denying the vote.
Anyway, regardless of how you all feel about any of this, we could probably stand to be a little more like this guy.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8XFBUM8dMqw
Oh! I love that video. And I think of encouraging people to vote to be entirely non-partisan (or bipartisan). It is my League of Women Voters' training.
About those Twitter types: in their mentalité, girls and women are simply commodities-- according to what E.M Forster calls "this derived sensuality—the sort that classes a mistress among motor-cars if she is beautiful, and among eye-flies if she isn’t." So with that lordly stance they fling aside the purported charms of Ms. Swift!
And yet-- and yet-- society is failing to recognize their power, their prophetic annunciation of the Truths of the Universe that Rush Unquestioned through their Cores, that are their Very Skeletons! Again and again they thunder the denunciations that should obliterate Ms. Swift, and still she stands!
The universe has gone wrong. Still, they will perseverate to Make It See.
-----
Elsewhere In that Forster novel, A Passage to India, his character Adela says, “I don’t think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like or dislike them.” Myself, I don't feel so devoid of knowledge of others as Adela, but I don't think I'm able to judge them for anyone but myself, in any way but internal consistency or whether I like them or not.
How odd it seems to me that Ms. Swift is matter for evaluation, that her being someone to spend ink and airwaves and electronic signals to judge....
Someone wrote recently that we continue to underestimate Ms. Swift because of that Kanye incident, where she stood by at an awards show while he interrupted her on a rant. She was quite young at the time. She was, I think, being polite but we make a mistake by thinking she’s still that interruptible young woman.
I'm really not in the Swiftosphere. I see rantings by deranged misogynists, and I see headlines about Ms. Swift's relationship with Mr. Kelce, and that's about it. Aside from the good and seldom-repeated news about her triumphant advocacy of voter registration.
I hadn't thought of her being ruled unimportant or weak or whatever as a sequel to Mr. West's rant about her reward-- or in recognition of its justice, which should be charged against the organs of the VMAs. But it wouldn't surprise me. Women with and without prominence are blamefully dismissed for being dismissed, blamefully dismissed for protesting against being dismissed, blamefully being dismissed for being "too soft," for being "too aggressive," "too unaggressive," "too bloodthirsty," and on and on.
When my leftie friends rejected Secretary Clinton as militaristic, I occasionally tried to remind them that women could and would be considered soft and unfit for command unless they assertively backed use of the military. When she gave that little "get a load of him" head shake in debate with then-candidate Trump, I thought, "Damn, she's going to be condemned for being discourteous to him, and the next morning there it was, though I don't recall it reaching nationwide currency.
So while I fundamentally agree with you that Ms. Swift is a power and a force, in my experience *anyone* can be interruptible. It is a matter of how the zeitgeist swings or is swung. How I wish President Trump would be denied traction. Ideally, all traction except what's needed to hold a begging bowl and use a loo.
You are absolutely correct, that a woman cannot win as a leader. If she's married, the concern is that her heart will be at the hearth. If she isn't, well, there's something wrong with her. If she has children, she's a mother and all that that entails. If she doesn't have kids, well, how selfish of her. I also agree that any one is interruptable. I'm not sure, if I had her talent and been in that position, I would have done any thing different. An idiot is on the stage. Back away.
I think it's important to remember that women as unable to win as leaders in our set of cultures not because they are women, not because of their inherent womaniness, but because of a deep, pervasive, long-lasting social construction of patriarchy.
There's nothing inevitable about patriarchy. We can choose differently.
The way we frame people as ludicrous/unimportant/disgraceful and then they're not players any longer is dangerous, and has certainly worked to deny opportunities to those who aren't cis-het abled men, but anyone can play it-- if enough others play along. That might should give us confidence as we hope to neutralize forces of chaos and oppression. More cheerfully, on the opposite side, those same social forces of raising up constructive ideas and persons and ceaselessly clamoring for them to heard can more us from resistance toward proactive creation and staffing of graceful institutions.
Just as you've done in your defense of Ms. Swift.
Wow, that was fun! Thanks to Ms Susan Campbell, I just watched my 1st TS video! She's quite lovely, talented, and according to many who know her, kind. And this song says it all: "Haters Gonna Hate". Sadly, due in part to Maga world, there's alot of haters.