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[MUSIC] THE SAVAGE ANIMAL
"Who The F--- Is Taylor Swift?" |
11/02/11 |
BY MIKEY MIGO
This is not the column I intended on writing. My plan was to objectively look at the career of Taylor Swift before and after the whole Kanye West VMA incident. I’m not going to claim I’m well versed in modern pop music so I wasn’t too informed of Taylor Swift. I’ve seen a little bit here and a little bit there, but nothing stood out. So I took it upon myself to youtube her bigger singles and check out some of her “career highlights”. That objectivity I had going into this got its ass handed to it.
I feel it’s my right to go off on a rambling rant about topics I want to rant about. Some people aren’t going to like this, but I’m really tired of people pretending Taylor Swift is the end all be all when it comes to music. She is pretty and she has a pleasant singing voice. I’m happy she’s making money and achieving success. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but I don’t have to accept it. Other than that, what’s the deal? She has no substance, no style, no personality, and really nothing to offer anyone other than what I’ll call “candy ballads.”
Her very presence is bothersome. I’m sure in person she’s a nice girl and fun to hang out with, but she comes off so frail and doe-like. She does seem to represent a certain kind of old school lady-like kindness, but she doesn’t project any type of stance or strength. I don’t think that makes her a good role model for young girls. She’s 21, but I think her super vanilla innocence makes it impossible for me to take her serious as a “lustful” entity. To me, she’s like Olive Oil from Popeye with a southern style beauty pageant make over. It’s not like she’s singing her own songs. Sure she’s on talk shows getting praised over shit like “I wrote HALF dem songs myself!”, but let’s be realistic here. She’s part of the bubble gum pop machine.
I know what you’re thinking. If I’m this negative about her then why am I even talking about her to begin with? I’ll tell you…
Kanye West.
Before September 13th, 2009 Taylor Swift wasn’t on my radar. I think I knew she existed and was a popular singer of some sort, but I didn’t know about her or care enough to introduce myself to her or her work. She did quite well for herself, but I didn’t need to involve myself with it. Kanye West interrupts her acceptance speech for “Best Female Video” and does the whole “I’mma let you finish”-“Beyonce’s video is the best of all time… OF ALL TIME!” thing.
Kanye was a dick for this situation and a dick for plenty of others. He, being the attention whore he is, jumped on stage and interrupted her to tell everyone that the wrong woman won. He had no right or real reason to do this other than because he’s stupid. And really, Beyonce’s video sucked anyway.
Still, no matter how you look at it, Kayne West’s antics turned Taylor Swift from successful pop country singer to a global headline and fully fledged cross over superstar. Don’t agree? I don’t care…
I’m NOT saying she wasn’t successful. She was successful as hell! She sold well over 10 million albums and had well over 25 MILLION digital song sales. She was a huge star in country music and a big new draw for pop music. Still. It’s country music. To be a jerk and go directly after the stereotypes, I just don’t think many country fans steal music. The ones I know don’t know how to download music and will actually go to their local Wal-Mart and pick up albums. Who the hell does that anymore? Country fans. In the millions. Why else do you think Hootie and Bon Jovi are going after that Beverly Hillbilly money? You sing a song about your family, America, or old teenage memories and that’s just as valuable as Uncle Jed shooting up some Texas gold out of the ground.
It’s the status that was effect. Taylor Swift was another lame pop country act enjoying the rewards of a lesser fan base. Kanye West made her the victim and underdog. She then popped up on a million talk shows and crossed over. I think this really proves there are two mainstreams. There’s that Middle America “fly over state” mainstream that loves Taylor Swift, Blue Collar comedy, domestic beer, Tyler Perry, Jay Leno, eating SPAM, Tim Allen, and all that. Not so much a “southern stereotype”, but more-so suburbia. That’s one mainstream and then there’s everyone else. The artists, the freaks, the coast people, the people who are more into rock, more into rap, more into something of substance. I don‘t want to break it down to “red state” vs. “blue state”, but it’s definitely in the same ballpark.
I live in Indiana. I’m not too far from Chicago, but I’m far enough to still experience “the other mainstream” first hand. Between my personal experiences and what I’ve read the faceless masses on the internet say I’ve come to a few conclusions. Kanye West gave already racist people another reason to be outwardly racist. Of course there were the macho country music types who said they were going to “kick his ass!” and shit like that. People took to social networking to down the guy. Sure, he was an asshole but he being a black asshole had nothing to do with it. That didn’t matter. Taylor Swift had EVERYONE on her side.
Once some time passed us, the jokes and warm-over effect of everything was past us… or so we thought. Kanye West would go away for awhile but then comeback with his biggest artistic stroke in My Twisted Fantasy. It’s not for everybody, but it’s something to be experienced. He still has the whole “asshole stigma”, but he seems to be doing just fine. Meanwhile, Swift rode the fame train as far as she could. Just when everyone forgot about “in incident” she pops back up on the MTV VMAs and performs the song “Innocent”. The song is about… surprisingly enough… “The Kanye West incident”. I watched the performance when it happened. If she showed just a little more charisma or personality JC Penny’s would have probably considered her for a full time mannequin job. In this spree of research, it’s funny that the last thing to really pop up was that she had another encounter with Kanye. They exchanged high fives.
Maybe it’s the professional wrestling fan and conspiracy theorist in me, but I’m one of those folks who wonder if the whole thing was one big plan. MTV wanted bigger ratings so they went to someone they were always doing stuff with in Kanye. The seeds were already planted that he was vocal about not getting awards. So why not have Kanye go interrupt the innocent teenage girl to cause a scene? The Jay Leno show was debuting that next week and Kanye was a scheduled guest. Same company owned both and I’m sure if dug deep there could be gains for all involved. It sure as hell made Taylor Swift famous. But this is just a random hair-brained conspiracy theory. We’ll stick to the facts.
There are plenty of opinions on this. A lot of people just don’t like Kanye West. He comes off obnoxious, abrasive, and VERY egotistical. People see this and let it cloud their judgment on his actual talents. Kanye West IS a successful and talented rapper and producer. You can say he was better back in the day or that others are better, but he is awesome at what he does. I’m saying that as a casual fan. I haven’t really enjoyed him all that much since his “College” albums, but Kanye West is an artist. You might not get it, Middle America, but he is. He’s got a big mouth, but he has talent to back it up.
I don’t feel Taylor Swift has that talent. She’s a pretty white girl that dominated a joke genre of music and then gained huge crossover success once “the incident” happened. I’ve listened to her bigger singles, I’ve seen her award show spots, I’ve seen her act, and I’ve seen her react. She writes tame pop songs about her exboyfriends and is deemed an “everyday girl”. That kind of sell is pretty hard to keep doing without becoming a little bland, but that’s exactly what they did. Taylor Swift makes soulless music for soulless people. I’m sure there are good people who like her music, but I’m sure those people listen to a lot more music than JUST Taylor Swift. I know I’m not the target demographic for this kind of music, but I can acknowledge talent and something being good for what it is. I’m not into R&B so much, but Justin Timberlake, Usher, and even R-Kelly to an extent are respectable artists and I get their appeal. Within pop music, I know and get why Spears, Christina, Beyonce, Gaga, and the like are acclaimed and loved. I just don’t get what makes Taylor Swift appealing outside of her being a harmless pretty white girl who was smart enough to latch on to the push-over modern country “pop with a twang” bullshit. She could have made a pretty penny doing just that. She could have rode it out like a LeAnne Rimes, Carrie Underwood, Gretchen Wilson, Trisha Yearwood, and others who sold millions of albums within country music and then pretty much drifted into obscurity. Country music, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton and beyond, IS fickle and disposable. What crap is popular today is forgotten crap tomorrow. I think that’s what Kanye did for her. Without Kanye West, Taylor Swift would have still sold millions of albums but could have faded into the whatever.
Now she’s REALLY famous.
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