Ok, so she grew on me a little, enough to buy THIS CD. I don’t think she is a terrific singer, but I wanted to hear the whole thing so I bought it.
Taylor Swift had great music previously, but she tries too hard on this album and falls short of anything pleasing to the ear. Some songs sound as if she can’t decide whether she is going to sing or talk and the songs just end up sounding awkward.
8 Yr old listen to cd over & over again. It’s nice to not have to worry about what songs she’s hearing.
My daughter and I are both huge fans of Taylor Swift and her music. This is a great cd. One thing I love about her cds is that when you buy it all the songs are great not just 1 or 2 so you don’t feel ripped off for buying the whole cd for just a song or two.
best list of taylor swift songs
There seem to have been two camps of people in the Taylor Swift debate, as far as I can tell – erudite bashers and inarticulate fans. I’m going to do my best to serve the role of an erudite fan.
First: the whole “she can’t sing” issue. Maybe this has been laid to rest, as her more recent live performances have been much stronger than earlier ones, but it seems to me that even her earlier singing has been over-criticized. I don’t know if it’s the influence of American Idol, which has caused people to consider a certain athletic, virtuoso vocal style as the only vocal style, or if it’s simply that people want to find as much fault as they can. I’ve listened to all the YouTube clips and heard her sing live, and I don’t hear a problem. On some of the awards shows from the earlier days of her career, she sometimes has some problems with breath control, sounding a little nervous at times. Other live performances seem fine. Award shows are a terrible situation to judge someone’s vocal abilities on, anyway – you get one song, and the conditions are never ideal.
Another factor: I think a lot of people don’t have a good understanding of the difference between the sound of a vocal on a recording and the sound of a live vocal.
A lot of people are upset that she doesn’t sound exactly like her records when she performs live. This mystifies me. I don’t think there’s any secret that Swift’s records are pop records – she and Nathan Chapman use every device at their disposal in the studio. Leave aside the question of Autotune – you still have studio vocals that have been compressed, equalized, double-tracked, and finessed in the mixing process. You have layers of harmony vocals on most songs, as well. Of course she’s not going to sound like that in concert. It’s not possible, for one thing, and for another thing, it’s missing the whole point.
Another thing – have any of these people criticizing her singing ever tried to sing a Taylor Swift song? Not easy: big jumps, long phrases without much chance to breath, lots of words, passages that move from low to high in a single line, sometimes in a single word. Maybe Swift is her own worst enemy in this department, because she doesn’t make things easy on herself. One trademark of these songs is that conversational language is melded with pop melody. Still, Swift manages to imbue every word with feeling. I’d go so far as to compare her with Bob Dylan – both are artists whose words, and the delivery of those words, trumps any expectation of vocal perfection.
So, to anyone who says “she can’t sing,” my honest reaction is the same as it is when someone tells me Dylan can’t sing: that said person is a hopeless case. You think Dylan can’t sing? Then there are whole worlds of American music that are closed to you. It’s not even worth arguing about. You officially have a tin ear, as far as I’m concerned, or worse, a tin soul.
The second case I’d like to make concerns people who are ignorant enough to consider Swift some kind of “manufactured” pop star. Anyone who takes the time to learn some facts about her will know that the opposite is true. This is someone who wrote over 500 songs, with Nashville pros as her co-writers and critics, before she turned 20. Think about that. There are a lot of older pros who probably haven’t written 500 songs yet in their entire careers. I think people who only see the glamorous image that Swift projects fail to see the work ethic and craft behind it. This is a driven woman, and the songwriting craft that she was driven to perfect was what created her success. Her producer, Nathan Chapman, her record label, Big Machine records, her co-writers, like Liz Rose – these were collaborators who helped her achieve her vision, but there is no shadowy figure who made Swift who she is today.
About that work ethic – the stories about Swift’s dedication to what she does bring to mind stories of Bruce Springsteen’s perfectionism. Springsteen once insisted on being at the printing press when the record jackets were printed, to make sure the image and colors were right. Her radio promo tour for her first album lasted 6 months, instead of the usual 6 weeks. And so on. Swift is willing to do the grueling work that come with being a star – and then she goes beyond it. How about meeting your fans after every concert? Not everyone does that, and there have got to be nights when she would rather not. But the possibility of being invited to the T-Party is an undeniable draw for her fans, a way for her to stay in touch with the real people coming to see her, and a killer-smart, 21st century music marketing technique.
Finally, the songs. I think Taylor Swift is a star for a lot of reasons. She’s beautiful and charismatic, she’s intelligent in a specific, focused way that helps her achieve her goals, and she has the knack of doing grueling, hard work and making it look easy. But the foremost reason for her fame is the songs. Even though the charts and the record sales speak volumes for the songs’ appeal to listeners, there hasn’t been enough critical appreciation for how well written these works are.
Instead, there’s been a lot of condescending talk, even from well-meaning critics.
Several critics have taken Swift to task for not being “feminist” enough. The problem for these critics is that too many of the lyrics revolve around boys. There seems to be a double standard here. Aren’t most of Hank Williams’s songs, the ones that aren’t about The Lord, about women? Aren’t most love songs about the opposite sex? Swift confesses to being a hopeless romantic, so why is it a problem that she writes mostly about her relationships?
Well, the criticism goes, Swift should be “empowering” herself, rather than letting her life be dictated by some man’s affections. In case these critics hadn’t noticed, Swift doesn’t seem to be a woman who has trouble finding her own direction in the world. Beyond that, it’s not fair to the songs that she’s written to say that they don’t depict an empowered young woman. It’s true that some of those songs about boys are starry-eyed and dreamy, but plenty are tough and clear-eyed. Even on her first album, songs like “Cold As You” and “Should’ve Said No” are impressive in how they sketch out in a few words the power struggle of a particular relationship. “White Horse,” “Tell Me Why,” and of course, “Dear John” – these are all powerful, eloquent statements of a person in perfect control of their emotions and with an unclouded view of the situation.
But the other person doesn’t get to make their case, said one critic. Of course they don’t get to make their case! This is a pop song. A song is a crystallization of a certain emotional moment, from one person’s point of view. Songs aren’t fair, the way that love isn’t fair. Let’s go back to Hank – “Your Cheatin’ Heart” doesn’t give the addressee a chance to respond, either.
Let’s stay with Hank for a minute. Hank Williams senior said that the key to a great country song was “sincerity.” I think Taylor Swift has sincerity in spades. Maybe the thing that rankles people is that they can’t handle the truth: that this is a young woman who is talented, principled, hard-working, and savvy. Maybe it goes against some current grain in our culture, where irony and ambiguity, and especially, snark, are held in high esteem. I think time will vindicate Taylor Swift as a musical artist whose greatness transcends the cultural static that surrounds her. She writes emotionally open, cathartic, honest songs that resonate with millions of people. She did it herself, and she’s steering her own course. And she’s only getting started.
