This post is not intended to be a bash fest. I am not interested in snarky comments about Miss Swift, aside from the few in the original post. What I am interested in is exactly what my friend is interested in, which you will see below.
The following is a text I received from this friend last night.
People who I have actual musical respect for, critics,
friends, Ryan Adams, Macca, Carole King, etc., claim to revere the
songwriting of Taylor Swift. She’s now got more Grammies than are even possible, and higher record “sales” than any one we like.
I
give everyone a try. If there’s a new album people are jizzing all
over, I check it out. If an artist I don’t like is on SNL or anywhere
doing a real live performance, I try to always give it two verses and a
chorus. So I’ve heard a whole bunch of Taylor Swift, even Ryan Adams' cover
album of hers. Even her ten minute high school angry note that we’re
supposed to accept as this era’s "Like A Rolling Stone" (with added sleek
music video).
But I’ve literally never been able to
find a song I liked, or even a melody or turn of phrase I admired. To
hear her attempt to sing a Carole King song with any recognizable moment
of human feeling, felt like watching something from Boston Dynamics
sing "Happy Birthday" before jumping over an obstacle and landing.
The
songs I do hear just make me think “you guys broke up, you weren’t
right for each other for fuck’s sake, move on. He didn’t beat you.
You’re a billionaire, go buy a new fucking scarf. Or a scarf factory.”
Not to mention...
“You
also know that these little high school hate notes for all your exes
make your craziest fans send death threats to guys you dated. Maybe by
not being careful about that and addressing it, you possibly prove every
one of them right for leaving the if-she-doesn’t-get-everything-
But
more importantly, do you hear a master craftsman in there? I hear
angry jingles sung in a voice that’s somehow “angry-perky," but
emotionless.
I try to imagine what
we’d think of a 30 year old man’s work if it was “you broke up with me
and we are never, ever, ever getting back together." I’m pretty sure
we’d think he was laughably, embarrassingly childish.
Or “where’s my damn red scarf?" The fact that you didn’t give it back means you still secretly remember me.”
Taylor, for fuck’s sake, shake it off.
I don't have anything to add other than I feel the same way. I too have tried. I too, do not get it. But unlike the Meghan Thee Stallions and Olivia Rodrigos who are clearly not speaking to me, Taylor Swift has been endorsed by some of my musical heroes, as well as some people I love and respect, and I'd like to think I've listened to enough music in my lifetime, covering all genres, that I'd be able to recognize something good. But like my friend, I do not. The track above sounds like formulaic, autotuned pop that could have been recorded by anyone. Maybe Taylor fans are thinking, "No. 'Red' is not a good example." Well, what is a good example? I need to know, because this is what all of her music sounds like to me.
I am interested in a conversation, not snark. If you are a fan, lead those who don't understand, down a path. Give us 10 songs to justify all of this praise and respect. If you feel the way my friend and I feel, explain why. Please refrain from the standard "She's alright" or "We like what we like" type comments. This is a place to discuss music, not blow it off.
45 comments:
Like you, Sal, I've tried a number of times to listen to Taylor Swift. I even made it all the way through her last album (not the Taylor's version one, the one before that). I want to like her music, and I go in with an open mind. But the autotune turns me off right away. It's the first thing I hear when I click on the song you posted. There is a modern pop song underneath all that heavy handed studio production, but it's too hard to get to. I often find it hard to get to the songs when I listen to her music. Nothing seems to stick. I suppose, like I do with Joni Mitchell's Blue, I'll keep giving Taylor a try every now and again. But I find it hard to devote the time to something that slides out of my brain a minute after I listen to it. It may be generational, but I think it's more than that for me.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed her performance on SNL. She seemed to be actually singing the song and not just lip syncing. Still, I don't feel the need to relisten (or rewatch).
Bill
Yes, please! I'd also like to know what songs to listen to.
For many of these performers, there is a sameness to the songs and the singing. Hard to tell stuff apart. I am happy that the new generation has music that they love. I'll stick with mine.
Very much a generational thing, and the effusive praise from some of our musical heroes IS surprising. I have a young adult daughter who was a TS fan when she was in middle school and high school. I remember driving her and her friends somewhere and they were all singing along with Taylor, the same way that my friends and I would have sung along to Cheap Trick or The Cars. There was a lot of joy in that, and I realized that TS music was for them, not for me.
That said, I've only heard one song by her that grabbed my attention. It's called 'exile' and it is a duet with Bon Iver. Lovely little piano thing with some heartfelt, if overwrought, lyrics.
Ah but that's the thing, Troy. It's not "very much a generational thing." That's the point.
Macca is a doll. I hardly remember a name of someone to whom he had been disrespectful so, not a good example. And Ryan, he is great, and though I feel the NYT wanted their ‘story’ on the me too hype and they wanted blood, I also believe he did it more to impress her than a real work of admiration. My 2 cents.
Roy
TS is a tough one; it's not that she shows me my age (almost fifty) or my solidified taste in rock and roll, versus pop music. It's that I want my music to move me viscerally or intellectually (or sometimes both). I can't find either prime mover in TS's music, especially when the woman, who herself has moved fully into chronological adulthood, writes lyrics that sound like my high schoolers in the hallways or their tik tok posts. That said, may she continue to sell out coliseums and influence countless fans like my daughter. Maybe TS encapsulates the era like Donald Trump does - in ways that make me shake my head and ask, "WTF?"
-paulinca, I guess now telling kids to get off my lawn...
Just like Madonna for me the only thing I give her & it's always been A & the big thing with rock artist, is she writes her own tunes.They do little for me but @ least there's that.
So here's where I lose my street cred. Hah.
To start off: my criticism of TS is that almost all of her albums are *way* too long. The original version of "Red" is over an hour, ffs. "Taylor's Version" -- with a number of vault songs that should have been left in the vault -- is over two hours. The recent "folklore" and "evermore" -- which I like -- are both over an hour. Almost *every* TS album is too much TS for one sitting.
But, 1989 is a masterful pop album. "Shake It Off" is one of the greatest pop songs of the last 10 years. Full stop.
I think her "Reputation" concert film on Netflix is incredibly entertaining and I think her actual live singing voice has gotten better (and I don't think she's auto-tuned because she's sung live too many times now and it's on point), as she's gotten older and she's grown into somebody that clearly is a confident performer and can put on a good live show.
But I'm not a fanboy: I also don't think all of her albums are masterworks. Her post-1989 album "Reputation" is a misfire for me. And "Lover" has a number of dull songs. *Both* of those albums are over-produced with too many "sing-song" melodies, IMO.
But "folklore" and "evermore" are solid, quiet albums. 1989 and Fearless -- are great albums. TS and Speak Now -- are decent. Red is somewhere in the middle of the pack (some great songs and some things that could easily have been cut.)
Musically, yes, many of her song structures and melodies are fairly simple -- not denying that. But, she often does write some engaging lyrics so the whole package works for me. She's growing as an artist with each album, IMO, but her strengths are her lyrics.
Yes, a lot of her songs are about breakups. but "write what you know" isn't a bad thing, is it? TS doesn't have the life that's going to make "Rehab" or "Waiting For My Man" fall out of her and songs about falling in love and breaking up are perennial topics that speak to new generations.
I've come to the realization that she's a musical *star* in all senses of the word and has the material to back it up. She just needs an editor to cut her albums down to no more than 45 minutes and save the other 15 for "bonus tracks" or shelve them as this is where TS being a "prolific songwriter" is a problem. She's too *big* to have somebody tell her "uh, this song isn't that great..." probably. (Neil Young and Paul McCartney have this same problem, but I digress...)
The Big Hits worth listening to: "I Knew You Were Trouble", "Fifteen", "Love Story", "You Belong With Me", "Mine", "Cardigan", the 10-minute version of "All Too Well" from the rereleased "Red", *all* the hit singles from 1989 and, yes, "We Are Never Getting Back Together" (which is the first song of hers that I thought was truly an earworm no matter how over produced that one is). That's about 10+ off the top of my head. If you don't like the (deserving) big hits, I doubt there are any deep cuts that would change your mind, tbh.
(Singles like "ME!" and "Look What You Made Me Do" are dreck -- not everything she does is gold no matter how high it goes in the charts.)
I think she will make a Greatest Hits album someday that will probably rival "Abba Gold" and/or Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits" as a perennial mega-seller. And it'll be awesome and well-deserving of that status.
(And now I'm ready to reestablish my cred by talking about the latest album from The Darkness whenever you are, Sal -- hah!)
Shriner,
I expected this from you, and I say that with all respect. I knew you were a fan. If you haven't lost street cred after deeming "Get The Knack" the greatest record ever made, you never will!
But seriously, this is what I was looking for...at least the song suggestions.
As for "Shake It Off," I don't disagree it is one fantastic pop record. But how much of that is Taylor and how much is Max Martin?
Oh, I know that 1989 had a strong producer's hand in the mix as it was unlike any previous album's sound. TS clearly wanted to shoot for mainstream pop success with 1989 and it succeeded on all counts (presumably by bringing Martin on board...)
But if he had the same influence on Reputation -- it didn't work as well.
I am all for making great records, pop or otherwise. What confounds me is the heaps of praise and respect usually reserved for the true heavy weights being thrown upon a "pop star." I am sorry but NOTHING is remotely on a par with Carole King, Joni, etc.
The girl has no sense of humor.
I like lot's of pop music, but I'll be damned if I can remember one of her tunes after it ends.
We are living a fantastic dream of music in the 2000s.
I have little time to waste on something so ephemeral and frankly mean spirited.
john
TS is some what of anomaly -- a cute teenage girl who co-wrote an album that zoomed up the country charts and became a global phenomenon and still is to this day (Olivia Rodrigo looks on wonderingly...).
By all accounts, she seems to be an honestly genuine person (for a billionaire, I'm sure) who is still appears surprised by her continued success and praise from peers and I'm sure that's part of her appeal, too. If it's all a calculated act, it's a great one and I'll tip my hat to her if it is (and thank Kanye for some of that.)
And I don't see her as a "pop star" (as those fade away), but more of just a flat-out "Star" with a capital S. There's certainly very few others that have come along in the last 20 years with such an impact or body of work whose every album continues to be looked forward to with massive enthusiasm and whose lyrics are dissected like it's The White Album trying to figure out the clues explaining that Paul is dead.
Does TS have a song (yet?) as timeless as "So Far Away" or "You've Got A Friend"? I don't know if I could say that with a straight face. But I don't think that's the point. I don't think your heroes are saying she's *better* than Carole or Joni, are they? In the realm of those making *current* music, TS is right up there as someone deserving praise. Whether or not that's "faint praise" is in the eye of the beholder.
And that's all I really have to say about TS. I certainly didn't get the excitement for a long while. I do now. I don't know where or when she flipped the switch. But she did.
I honestly don't know what I am reading anymore.
"Star with a capital S?" Sure. I won't argue. So is Dwayne Johnson. Should he be put in the same category as Marlon Brando?
The only time I enjoyed Taylor was on her CMT Crossroads show with Def Leppard, and even that had some cringe moments. I feel the same about Adele. My daughter asked me if I like the new album and I replied that I didn't like that type of singing and production because I knew that being a breakup album is not a rationale (Rumours? Shootout the Lights? Here My Dear? shoot, even Blood on the Tracks is regarded as a breakup album).
My daughter played me the "evermore" album while we were driving through Indiana this summer and I was struck by how early 70's it sounded. it was pleasant, but didn't motivate me to seek out more.
I'm with Shriner. There's a lot of craft in her music, especially lyrically (given the limited subject matter), way beyond much that is popular these days and if that doesn't make her enduring like Carole King or James Taylor (yuck, sorry), it's no small thing. I too have teenagers and have witnessed them happily singing along with their friends to all the words. This in turn makes me happy. While it's not my cup of tea, particularly the teenage/post teenage angst, I've spent my time in far worse ways than listening to Taylor Swift on those occasions. I think maybe this is the problem, that we are old(er) and that her music will never speak to us in the same way as the young, other than to acknowledge its craft. If she ever broadens her palette, maybe it will.
Jim G,
As I said in response to Troy, this isn't about age anymore. She is being endorsed by adults, though "worse ways to spend time" and "limited subject matter" and "not my cup of tea" are certainly not phrases usually bestowed on artists who are receiving the praise and respect she is.
This wouldn't be a blog post or conversation if Taylor Swift was just another pop artist. She's obviously not and isn't being treated that way, which is what my friend and I find so baffling. Is that bar that low?
Let's flip the question around then...
If the 10 songs I posted don't float your boat for , is there anything that she could possibly release that's going to change your mind about it?
If you don't like her voice, the production choices, her songwriting/lyrics -- that's unlikely to change from her perspective because it works for her (though a "rock" album ala Miley Cyrus album might be interesting...) -- so then what?
This might just be a case of "I don't get it and never will", right?
Shriner,
I haven't listened to the 10 songs you listed yet. I plan to. I am reacting to the comments.
I didn't say I don't like her voice or her production choices. I did say I thought "Shake It Off" was a fantastic pop record.
What I am trying to get to the bottom of is what makes her brand of pop music different/better/more respected than the others, when to my pretty open ears, it's not THAT much better. Yes, better than Miley and Britney and Katy and THAT list goes on. But being better than those artists isn't saying much. Yet that is NOT what is happening and that is what this post and my friend's text is about.
I GET Taylor Swift on a purely pop level. She is NOT Carole King or Joni or Carly or Sandy Denny or blah blah blah. She is a talented singer/songwriter that is not even close to being on the level of those she is being compared to. So yes, you are right. After all is said and done, I might still not get it. But I'd like to try.
Back to your comment about "writing what you know," since when did that make you a good songwriter? Ten years of breakup songs isn't a particularly good resume, if you ask me.
It may be as simple as personal taste, not everyone likes everything , if you have to work at liking something then it's not for you. Just because our musical heroes get behind a particular performer it doesn't necessarily follow that we will like that performer as well. I don't get Adele or Ron Sexsmith but their peers and critics love them , that's fine , I tried but they don't resonate. McCartney can tell me how great it is to be a vegetarian but I really love a good steak.
plenty of room for all of us and our likes and dislikes
Strummer62,
I appreciate your "can't we all just get along" sentiment. But that is not what this post is about. If it was all about "I like it, you don't" then I needn't waste 12 years of my time with this blog.
Personal taste is pineapple on pizza, saddle shoes and owning the entire "Big Bang Theory" on Blu Ray.
Im with you....The "I dont get it" side.
I too am a life-long (59yeras) music listener, I too have my artists that I respect and admire.
I look forward to the Ten songs lists, and I will listen (again).
Without wearing a scarf.......!
Cheers
See post below the TS.
THE VERDICT:
I listened to most of five songs: "I Knew You Were Trouble", "Fifteen", "Love Story'', "Mine," and "Cardigan.""Cardigan" is the only one that remotely sounded like something that might appeal to an adult.
The other four were perfectly fine, interchangeable pop songs that could have been written or performed by anyone. That's it. I never want to hear them again.
If I didn't understand before, I feel like I understand less now that I have listened.
That whole "writing what you know" thing is not holding water with me, any more than it would with music fans if I released a 3 CD boxed set with nothing but songs about pasta.
Diary entries set to a beat with factory churned pop melodies is not songwriting. Sorry.
Taylor Swift has a good voice and can write some decent pop songs. That she is revered by or compared to any of the heavyweights, is a "travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of two mockeries of a sham."
FWIW, I get a kick out of "Kirby Krackle" -- and all they do is write power pop songs about superheroes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
But you tried at least. So there's that. :-)
I'm late to this conversation and you know I'm a fan. 1989 got me in, which I thought was a great pop record. All of the singles worked for me. We definitely see "All Too Well" through different eyes. I think the level of detail in the writing lifts it way above and beyond your standard breakup song. "Reputation" had some great pop songs as well, "Delicate" especially. "Lover" had "Cruel Summer", which i LOVE and "Cornelia Street", "Death By 1000 Cuts" and "Paper Rings", all of which I've returned to again and again. And i just loved the last two albums. Is she Joni? of course not. But I can't be mad at everyone who isn't Joni. I've played the fuck out of Taylor's last 4 records (especially the last 2) and I love them every time. She's incredibly prolific (maybe too much so) and yet kind of unknowable. That may be a knock on her writing. But I don't know anyone in the pop arena who has given us as many good songs in the last 10 years as Taylor.
My last TS comment echoes the one above. There definitely is pre-1989 and post-1989 TS in terms of songwriting maturity. Most of the songs I posted above (as you noted) were pre-1989 and have their charm. The post-1989 material is much less about breakup material, for sure.
For the record, I am not mad at TS for not being Joni. I am not mad at anyone. I am baffled.
Anyone who has been reading this blog for as long as I have been posting knows I am not a music snob. I've raved about more stuff readers hate than love. I will take Kiss- Dressed To Kill and Judas Priest- British Steel with me when I die. But I couldn't possibly keep a straight face while I professed the type of love and reverence for them that is given to TS.
She is a pop star!
Sal,
I think the bar is that low, unfortunately. And when you list my backhanded compliments in a row like that, it's even more obvious.
"If it all had to be Joni Mitchell, then only Joni doesn’t fail.
I worship her like Dylan, but I also like a hundred other female (and male) singer songwriters who have merit but aren’t her equal. They don’t have to be. They just have to be great.
I think Gillian Welch is a thousand times the writer that Taylor Swift even aspires to be.
Telling detail, detail that reveals character, detail that makes you taste or smell, detail that tells the story without fail, that’s Gillian and Joni writing.
“You left my red scarf at your sisters that time you weren’t nice” doesn’t cut the mustard. "
Not my words, but I wish they were.
I have to admit, Sal, that I don't get it either. However, my daughter (mid-30s) simply adores Ms. Swift. Saying it isn't a generational thing kinda misses the point, innit? Using your or my criteria for what qualifies as artistic merit is a loser's game. I just doesn't matter!! I have absolutely no idea if Taylor's work will outlast that of, say, Laura Nyro. I hope not, but it is totally out of our control.
If discussions about music, artistic merit, generational things, good songwriters or bad don't matter, then I'll post my SOTW mix on Sunday and call it a day here and start a completely different blog with no access to comment.
I am not going to refrain from offering my opinions or stop others from offering theirs because "Hey, we like what we like. It doesn't matter."
My mind has been changed dozens of times thanks to discussions and suggestions on these comment pages. Bands or artists I thought I had no use for, becoming artists I now respect and listen to because I read someone else's take. Or suddenly growing out of records I had been listening to and loving my whole life because something better has come along.
For the last time...really and truly...I don't think TS is bad! I was simply trying to understand the reverence given to her by listeners of ALL ages when what I hear is your basic, better than average pop star and nothing more.
I honestly don't know how anyone listens to "All Too Well" and only comes away with hearing "You left my red scarf at your sisters that time you weren't nice". But I guess people hear things differently.
Chris Collins,
I don't have "the" answer for that, but I have a reply.
SPOILER ALERT:
My Songs Of The Week mix on Sunday will be an all reggae mix. I fully expect silence, the same silence I get when I post any reggae, or metal, or even jazz occasionally . You know what? I'd rather someone listen and feel something rather than nothing. Nothing worse than indifference. Even if I get "I can't stand reggae, all I hear is the same beat" or "What makes that ska tune any different than the other ska tune?" I'll take it over a dismissal. I will always prefer an ongoing discussion about all of this over no discussion at all.
Oh my God "All Too Well" really.....Oh my tortured feelings, gimmie a break. She does say fuck though. Big deal. I'm telling you hype has replaced artistic talent. PLEASE SOMEONE STOP IT. I'm trying to get through the ten minutes of this slogging, boring, song. Stopped it after the break in the line "turning twenty-one" Can you imagine if TS was to appear as a contestant on American Idol the judges would run up on the stage to wipe the dribble off her chin. Where as say the next contestant is a Mr. Bob Dylan. I know it's a generational thing, but we who are over 60 watched as the way was paved for people like TS. All Too Well and Red reminds me of when country music went "rock" Something is just missing I don't know what it is but(as Keith Richards said) it just don't move me. However I did think Red was pretty good at the least the band is. The singing is basic generic found her working at a Denny's. For every one TS fan that think she's the shit there's a thousand more waiting to be "discovered" Ah what the hell who cares what I think about TS I just know I won't be buying any of her records and will use that money to buy the reissued Tattoo You
Oh yeah and by the way, the song "Without a Song" done by Billy Preston, John and Ringo that closes out the second chapter of "Get Back" blows anything out of the water that TS could ever conjure
I like some of her music.
That said,I have thoughts.
First, if you're older, [as I'd bet most commenting here are], you're not supposed to dig it. Artists like TS, don't aim their efforts at older people. As a matter of fact,the vast majority of entertainment made today isn't made for people who are older.It's about the kids. It was that way when we were kids.
As for the artists who compliment her songwriting, they're musicians. They listen to other artists and musicians with different ears then most listeners. I can understand how they feel she writes good songs.
Next, I clearly recall watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show when they first came to the US for the first time. My mother would take my sister and me to my grandparents house to watch Sullivan. As we watched the Beatles play, I could see my mother, in her late twenties, was excited by them. When they were done, my grandfather, [who was the same age then as most of us are now], looked at my mother and said to her, "what the hell was that shit?" He was bewildered at what he had just seen, and he was supposed to be.
This isn't a defense of TS. She appeals to certain people, and some can't stand her.
Same as it ever was, and is.
Steven,
I hear a lot of what you are saying. I would only add these thoughts:
When I was a kid, my whole family listened to WABC and WMCA. Aunts and uncles, even grandparents loved rock and roll. My record collection started because my 45-50 year old uncles had doubles of Who singles and Stones singles. This is not the norm, I realize that. But even film clips of Beatlemania show people ages 6-60 burning Beatles records albums, as well as people ages 6-60, talking about how much they loved they Fabs. It's not a 100% generational hate fest.
I don't believe entertainment both then and now, was/is strictly about the kids. Some of it, yes! But I have to believe an artist like TS doesn't sit down to write an album thinking, "These songs are not for adults." She is writing from her heart, hoping it reaches everyone. No?
And I hope I don't have to dedicate a separate post to this, but as I have said in the past and a few times already in these comments:
This blog exists for the sole purpose of discussing music, good and bad. And thankfully, aside from a few anonymous trolls, everyone is always respectful of each other, including your host. If we reduce every opinion to "some like it, some don't," why the hell bother with all the work put into this place? Of course, "some like it, some don't." That's not what this TS post is about. It was an attempt to understand why it is not just teenage girls who love and respect TS.
Finally, I am a musician. Been playing for over 50 years. I had a piano for 20 years. Played everyday for a very long time, though not a note in the last 25. I think I have the right ears to recognize good songwriting. I have never made a film in my life. Does that mean I can't recognize the difference between "Citizen Kane" and "Hardbodies 2?"
OH...and "Hardbodies 2" was strictly for a laugh. I am not, in anyway, comparing TS to that film.
To your point - I know this was surely a sort of tossed-off comment, and may be as much about record sales and some sense of reinvention (?) as anything, but come on, Billy!
https://americansongwriter.com/taylor-swift-responds-to-billy-joel-comparing-her-to-the-beatles-that-broke-my-brain/?fbclid=IwAR0kQOM515_IA3zq2zvwpeAxIeOmo3SMl6DiEzFoKoRByb-Hmj2_-gle4nY
Harbodies 2 is an underrated classic!!!!
(I'm joking). And, Sal, I know that you're engaging in a sincere conversation here. NO artist is for everyone. That's totally fair. I, btw, share your love for metal and a lot of other things that critics often dismiss. I LOVE Genesis, for example. ALL eras. Love.
That said, I know know if this all has to make sense. I know a ton of people who LOVE Rush for example. I hear absolutely nothing when I hear Rush. Nothing. I'm not moved. I'm not in awe of their musicianship. Nothing. At all. Same goes for Steely Dan. Nothing. Period. I don't hate them. I don't love them. Nothing. Aural wallpaper. How about the Grateful Dead? People give up their lives to follow this band around. I hear nothing. Nothing at all.
You get the point.
That said, I love Taylor. Her music lifts me. I don't see her as a great poet, but I don't think that about Paul McCartney either. Paul writes amazing pop songs. Lyrics are less important. Taylor, to my ear, is a lesser Paul McCartney, not a lesser Joni. But we only get one Paul per century. Taylor is not Paul. Obviously. But I love her last few records and lately I've wanted to hear "Folklore" a lot more than I've wanted to hear a lot of other artists. I don't get why. I just do.
I'm rambling. But I love this discussion
Sal, I appreciate your point of view.
Of course there are no absolutes when discussing something subjective. Always exceptions to the rule[s]. My comments were made in a general sense.
We would like to think of an artist like TS as a pure creator, but her songs appeal in large part to a certain audience. Again, there are exceptions to the rule. I'm not convinced she [or any musical artist] of her stature simply writes from he heart and lets the songs fly. She knows her audience. The cynical side of me believes she knows what appeals to that audience, and that influences her songwriting on some level. Maybe it was pure artistry at some point in the history of music, but business has become so much a part of the mix that artistry and what sells walk hand in hand.
The idea that entertainment is aimed at kids isn't mine, really. I'm friends with and/or friendly with people who have or even now work in the entertainment industry. They've told me about the analytics and research that is done to determine what will sell. Demographics and even psychological factors are considered. Again, people of a certain age would like to believe it's an organic process, but I have my doubts.
More comments than the Beatles!
I will listen to The Dollyrots.....instead thanks
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