Taylor Swift was just becoming tolerable for me. Maybe it's that 'Mine' song that just came out which is, to quote Santana from Glee, "so freakin' charming." Maybe it's also the fact that she has given us a reprieve from her oversaturation and has until recently been laying low in her post/pre album interim. But when I heard the first single off her new album was being released on my birthday (oh cruel, cruel fate!), I knew to brace myself for the impending deluge of Swiftmania.
Which brings me towards my point. I have long harped on the sappiness of T. Swift's music. But apparently there are many, many people out there who love her little "open-diary" shtick. And I am increasingly convinced that it is just that- shtick.
Her new album, "Speak Now," is a compilation of songs directed at certain people in her life. So of course each week brings about the revelation that one song is about Kanye West, or Taylor Lautner, or even John Mayer. This diary of hers, so deep and personal, is starting to read more like a tabloid put to music. And you know the insatiable thirst for celebrity gossip that exists in this country. Hell, I even find myself curious to see what she writes about these people.
And that is the problem I have. Maybe her earlier music was truly personal and intimate, with stories of anonymous romances of time gone by. But now, she's just writing a really expensive gossip mag. She is supposed to be Miss Relatable- but who among us gets upstaged by self-aggrandizing rap stars and breaks the hearts of teen werewolves on a day to day basis?
Say what you will about Miley, but her music is what it is, and isn't sold as anything other than garbage-y, flashy, "non-pop" (Jay-z is pop and she is not, remember?) pop. Taylor is played to be this courageous heroine who writes about her life and exposes her "feelings" and "relationships."
I'm certain studio bosses and producers are mindful of the fact that Taylor penning songs about celebrities will rake in tons of cash. Just sayin. And that's fine- but let's call it what it is- she's pseudo name-dropping and profiting mightily as a result. And she is certainly not the first to do so. But when you do it over and over again, you start to look like a one-trick pony.
So let's not pretend it's all about great music and songwriting with Swift. When you pen a song with lyrics that include "Dear John," you know you're going to get about a bazillion hits on google trying to dig up information on her and John Mayer and did-they-or-didn't-they date, and now it's more than about a song. Now she's just as much a part of celebrity alternate universe as Kanye himself.
