My Issues With Taylor Swift
February 1st, 2010 | Categories: Entertainment | 15 CommentsI’ve been getting more and more irritated with Taylor Swift lately. Mainly it’s because I think that while she is talented, she’s getting to be more and more overrated. And after watching the 2010 Grammy Awards last night, a lot of the stuff that has been bothering me about Taylor suddenly fell into place.
Yes, she is a talented songwriter, even though her live performances are mediocre at best (at least, judging by her performances at the Grammys). And yes, she is a good role model and sends a positive message to young girls through her music1. But is she a country singer? No. She may have been, once upon a time, but she most definitely is not anymore. Just because she plays the guitar in her songs doesn’t make her a country singer. Not when her songs are more fluffy pop than anything else.
When Taylor performed her rendition of You Belong With Me featuring Stevie Nicks, there was something not quite right about the song. It took about a verse for me to figure out why the song sounded so strange. Why, she reworked it so that it actually sounded like country music rather than pop! I’m not saying it was a bad rendition of the song; it was fairly enjoyable. But what bothered me about it is that country music is supposed to be Taylor’s niche. She markets herself as a country artist but has a chart-topping album full of guitar-infused pop songs and seems to only sing country-style music when performing with other country singers at music award ceremonies. Hmm, what’s wrong with this picture?
There was a lot of what I saw of the Grammys that had a lot left to be desired and frankly, most of it has to do with Taylor Swift. But what annoys me the most is that Taylor won Best Album of the Year. Lady GaGa should have won that award, hands down. Lady GaGa had four #1 singles off her debut album and she lost Best Album of the Year to Taylor? Give me a break.
ETA: “The Surprised Awards Show Faces of Taylor Swift” made me LOL. :P
- Although by the way she keeps ragging on Joe Jonas over how the pair broke up, I’m not so sure. But that’s a different argument entirely. [↩]
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Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
I didn’t watch the Grammys (aside from Gaga’s performance with Elton John on YouTube) as I have zero interest in them, but after hearing the results of Album of the Year… I was floored. I thought perhaps I was being a bit biased as a huge Lady Gaga fan, so hearing someone else was equally confused by how Taylor Swift managed to nab the award makes me feel less like a ‘sore loser’. :P Because I 100% agree – Lady Gaga’s album has done astronomically well! I thought for sure she’d win.
Anyhow, I don’t really pay that close of attention to Taylor Swift – her music isn’t my cup of tea – so I’m afraid my only qualms with her rest in the above.
If not GaGa, then definitely the other nominees over Taylor. (And I’m still mixed about my feelings towards Lady Gaga so I’m probably not as biased about this as you are :P) They are all far better artists than her, IMO.
I saw her performance with Stevie Nicks and I thought she was very off-key at some parts and had a bunch of pitch problems.
I’m not a Taylor fan; I’m not into her music. However, I do enjoy good country music, and her music is definitely not country. I congratulate her on making it this far, but in my opinion she’s incredibly overrated.
This is why I don’t want to know anything about the people that sing the music I listen to xD
I usually enjoy music for the music, and if I somehow got irritated with a person that sang it I think I would enjoy it less.
I’ve become a lot less knowledgeable/familiar with the personal lives and such of the celebrities whose work I enjoy (movies, music, etc). But it’s a little hard to not know anything about some certain people when they’re splashed all around media outlets and there’s no escape! Maybe the celebrities who are constantly in the spotlight have a really good PR team, but it definitely gets irritating after a while, as demonstrated by Taylor :P
I have a lot issues with Taylor, too. I’ve (unfortunately) seen her perform numerous times, and while she’s OK, she’s nothing stellar. She is also, in my opinion, not very role model-y; I want someone who makes mistakes and learns from them to look up to, not this barbie doll that’s apparently this perfect being. Of course, I’m old(ish), so I can’t really have role models. SADFACE.
Lady Gaga isn’t classical because she uses a piano, and therefore the guitar stigma going around isn’t true either. Sure, it’s acoustic, but a good number of artists use acoustic instruments, but that doesn’t make the artists involved country singers.
Of the artists nominated, Taylor should not have won, “hands down” as you said. Kind of sad she did, because there were a LOT of great artists nominated.
I think a lot of the appeal Taylor exudes to young teens is that she’s “just like them.” You know, innocent and wholesome, wishing away for a some guy to whisk them off into some fairytale land. I don’t know about you, but the girls I knew in high school who seemed to be the most put together were usually the ones who, well, weren’t. Like the character Quinn Fabray in Glee, for lack of better comparison.
I also wonder how long Taylor will maintain her image as all-around good girl. I don’t necessarily think a scandal will break out or a skeleton will come bursting out of her closet, but the girl’s only human and she’s bound to want to experience a taste of the wild side, however tame her “wild side” may be.
I was surprised that Taylor won Album of the Year… but at least she didn’t win any of the other ~big~ awards! :P
Hello :)
Hm, I won’t lie, I can’t stand Taylor Swift. Personally I think her songs all sound alike. To the point where I was going to be smart and sing a song of hers in a silly voice, but started with the lyrics to a different song of hers.
She is meant to be country? In what way? I guess I don’t really follow “new” music artists and the going on’s of everything.
She won best album of the year? What? This is a joke. >.< Lady Gaga is a pretty good artist.. as far as new music goes. (Sorry, I'm really about old school or sticking to a few bands, I don't do the whole Hannah Montana, Jones bros, Taylor Swift thing..) I'm not sure of the line up for awards but anyone is better then Taylor Swift (Unless it was Rihana…) ARGH. Bag on new music much? Yes I do. :P
Working a part time would be very hard to save money from with costs like that. I was lucky in the way that when I had a part time job, I lived with my dad, I just paid for the internet and a few other things for myself. Because I had to save my money to move down south to my full time job. :)
Saving is friggen hard. Spesh when you have so much things you NEED to buy (Work related costs etc) or family and friends you want to visit. It's tough. But we'll get there eventually hey. :)
She’s considered a country artist because her roots are in country. Certainly her first album sounds a heck of a lot more like country than Fearless does. But just because someone has roots in one genre doesn’t mean that’s the genre they remain throughout the career. It’s like how model-turned-actresses want to be seen as actresses rather than models once they make the change.
I like her sweetness, and purity, and her old songs were pretty good, but now she’s completely changed. Definitely overrated.
I have only listen to 1 of her songs but I definitely like Lady Gaga’s more. Swift’s music just wasn’t my type. ;) Seems like most weren’t expecting her to win since I saw lots of OMG tweets when the results were released.
Oh wow. I can’t believe it was just yesterday when we were talking about this on Twitter. Anyway, I agree with what you’ve said. I’ve heard some of Taylor’s songs especially since her music videos are quite popular here so I keep seeing them on a local music channel countdown. I haven’t seen her perform live yet and perhaps yesterday was the first time I did, thanks to the Grammy Awards. Unfortunately, the duet sounded off-key. Does she really sing like that live? And it’s quite a shame because it was a duet with Stevie. I also felt bad for those singers who are actually in the country genre because I just feel that they’re getting robbed especially since Taylor took home a lot of awards during the CMAs too. After the whole Kanye West fiasco, she’s definitely become overrated and I’m getting sick of it, to be honest. Also, I just don’t like it when she acts really surprised every time she wins something. I thought that she probably would’ve gotten over it by now after winning so many awards already in different award shows. I would also just like to agree on what you and Tess have said that she’s not that stellar and she reminds me of Quinn too from Glee. Although I do like the actress who plays Quinn, I think she’s the weakest in their group because her singing is not really that great. Oh and lastly, I also wonder until when will she keep up her good girl image and the songs about fairytales, high school drama and the like.
I definitely agree about the Kanye West incident. Yes, what Kanye did was rude and uncalled for. But was it the worst possible thing in the world to happen? Of course not! I guess you gotta give credit where it’s due, though – Taylor’s PR team really milked that incident for all it was worth.
I’ve only heard “Love Story” which is good but nothing ground-breaking. Regarding Lady Gaga about a third of The Fame is good and the rest never gets much attention so it would depend on whether Taylor’s is the same throughout (ie no fillers) as to whether I’d agree on the best album decision. If Lady Gaga was up for The Fame Monster however I agree without any other thought because there are no low points.