“Retrospectively, Red is still her best body of work to me…but it could still be a million times better.
I certainly don’t hold the record to some deity like standard these days, though I definitely have nostalgia associated with it as it was definitely a definitive record of my teen years. I think Red cannot act as a stable muse for upcoming artists as its essentially the conception of Taylor’s indecision at the time—i.e, is she a pop star (WANEGBT) or does she continue making (matured) country pop with Speak Now leanings? But, as [Blue] said, I don’t really see new artists citing Swift as an inspiration for country music. She’s viewed as a pop star first and foremost, as that is the image of her that she’s determined to have penetrate the cultural conscious. The larger issue with Taylor is that she sees cultural impact (despite what she said in those faux-intellectual texts to Lorde) to be almost solely based on numbers and accolades.
This unequivocally reflects in her music which is now (and I do use this word sparingly) nearly soulless, sharing effectively no DNA with her older music. (Which, looking back, aren’t exactly the incredible records I once believed them to be at 16 but at the very least and have some moments of real talent on them, even if that talent was partially overstated by Swift’s then reputation as…somewhat of a teenage wunderkind.) 1989 as a record has always confounded me, because, while yes, its a fine pop record, I don’t think it’s really the most reflective of her as an artist. But, [Blue’s] right in the sense that Red (the 2012 album, not the rerecord, I see that as a different beast than Red, 2012 which, as a body of work has gone largely forgotten; how often do we still see people—not stans—fervently discussing “Treacherous”) is largely vanquished to the background in favor of more watershed records for Swift like 1989 and folklore. But the issue with those records is that while they’re great defining moments for Taylor Swift, they didn’t actually move the needle in music as a whole, despite what her fans might think. (IMO, to a great bulk of them, Taylor is literally reflective of every trend in music because she is, more often than not, the brunt (or all) of their music consumption) For example, while folklore is a pleasant folk-pop record, it’s not close to the something I’d think of when thinking of my top folk albums. It’s quite an effort from Taylor, but it’s clear she doesn’t consume as much folk (especially older folk) as when you listen to records like folklore & evermore they still very much boast her pop sensibilities…which is not a bad thing. I suppose we can’t expect Taylor to write like Sufjan when all she consumes is Sombr. But, all that to say, It wouldn’t even be a blip on my radar. 1989 fares a tad bit better on that front, but it’s truly it’s nowhere near where her fans would have you think. Anyway, if I’m being harsh now talking about the “golden age” of her music, imagine how much worse it gets when we dissect a post Midnights world…YEESH. But yeah..her impact will be solely forcefully pushed by her rabid fanbase, but pushed forward it will be.
our convo was honestly the closure we needed
THE CAPTION BEING ABOUT ME