On the Saturday before the Super Bowl I clicked a link at YouTube and jumped through a biography of Taylor Swift. I then got the idea to look into her music, and especially her lyrics. I listened to several lyric vids on Taylor's YouTube page. I was impressed. She writes clever lyrics. Then I found a playlist from her tour. I've now gone through the entire playlist. I remain impressed. I had no idea what an accomplished lyricist she was. I did not know she had gone into pop music. I did not know about her record setting musical tours. I did not know about the size of her fan base.
I looked into all of this because of the political hoopla surrounding her attendance at the super bowl - basically, the right wing paranoid loons were claiming that Taylor was going to steal the election at the Super Bowl by endorsing Joe Biden in front of a camera.
I'm glad I learned about Taylor. I am now quite fond of her and her music.
It turns out I was familiar with eight of her songs. Before my recent studies, I would have told you that I only knew one song of hers, "Mean", which I have always liked. Two songs, "You Belong to Me" and "We are Never, Ever Getting Back Together," I've heard a lot, but I always thought they were Avril Lavigne songs. I stand corrected . Another two I have heard many, many times in bars and restaurants, and would have carried no theories as to who did them, "Fearless" and "Long Live." These two country hits are quite nice and not very twangy. I think I have probably heard a few more of her country songs that are not on this playlist. I had also heard "Don't Blame Me", "Look What You Made Me Do" and "Shake It Off" more than once. I also think "Blank Space" seems familiar, like there was a period when I used to hear the start of that song in assorted restaurants, stores etc.
I was never familiar with the lyrics of Fearless and Long Live. I am now, and they are really nice songs.
I was impressed by a few other songs on the playlist, including some of the newest ones, like "Midnight Rain" and "Anti-Hero".
I was pleased with her lyrical abilities on songs that do not interest me much. I am a 62 year old male with a PhD. I like and appreciate poetry. I like Taylor's poetry, even when the songs are not my cup of tea. A really sad song is called "Tolerate It" -- musically, this is not for me but the lyrics are really well done. I can say the same for several other songs. "Love Story" is an old song that I have heard before. It has a Romeo and Juliette theme. It's more musically appealing than "Tolerate It". The lyrics are very well done. Not my kind of song, but I can see why it has been so popular for so long.
I think the song called Mastermind is brilliant. Also the song called Blank Space. Also a song called The Archer. These for me are three jaw droppers.
Taylor is now the biggest pop star on the planet. She has ten albums, around two hundred songs, a billion dollar tour, a growing fan base and a growing ability to write amazingly satisfying music. She started writing professionally at age 14. So, she has been a professional writer of songs for 20 years. Her lyrical abilities will only improve with time, I think.
I don't know that I would ever buy one of her disks. But with all that she means to the rotten righties in the USA, I wanted to know something about her. She is no longer the blonde kid with a guitar playing country songs on SNL that I recall her as. She is an icon. She might already be the most powerful entertainer there ever was. Move over, Orpheus.
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Below are links to Lyric Video streams of the three jaw droppingly good songs from the tour setlist. These are lyrically very fine songs and they are very different from one another musically.
BONUS:
I explored songs that were not on the Eras Tour setlist. I found the following especially nice. The song "Mirrorball", from the Grammy winning album called Folklore, compares being an entertainer during a pandemic to being a disco ball in a room where no one is around.
"This is Me Trying" is about recovery from addiction, toxicity, etc.
Below is an old favorite, "Mean," which is about bullying and won a Grammy for country music song of the year. I learned this song years ago when I frequented a bar whose owner had it on a loop she played frequently. That was in 2011-12. I think this was on Taylor's third album, which appeared in or around 2010.
Other socially aware songs from Taylor Swift include Anti-Hero, which is about not fitting in. Also "You Need to Calm Down", which has become a pride month anthem. But lots of her songs include social commentary. Even "Shake it Off" says, "the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, and the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, ...but I'm just gonna shake, shake, ...shake it off".
Below is a fan vid of Taylor performing "Don't Blame Me". There are lots of fan vids from her concerts. This is a pretty cool film shot close to the stage during her 2018 tour, known as the Reputation Stadium Tour.
5/10/24 Update: I tried out the new album. Amazing lyrics all over the place there. Here is one song that caught my eye. "I Hate it Here" addresses compensatory imaginings which arise from disappointment with reality.
