Byron The Bulb
Byron the bulb
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- 18,074
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She's great. I've been drinking and don't feel like going to bed or doing real work, so here are a bunch of words about songs marketed to teenage girls.
Taylor Swift - Our Song
IIRC, Czech once called this song "replacement level country," which at some level is what it is. The whole thing, from the fiddle flourishes to the strategically deployed references to Christian faith, is designed to appeal to country radio audiences in the most blatant ways. But even here, hemmed in by a rigid Nashville formula, there are moments of brilliance. First of all, there's the fact that it's, like, totally meta- and about its own conception. Second, there's the way in which the sudden perspective shift in the last chorus (from her boyfriend to herself) presages the much more complex use of the same device (in the opposite direction) in "Mine" (see below). Then there's the way she sings "Cuz it's late/and your mama don't know," which is just fantastic. It's basically a thumbnail look at everything that makes her an appealing artist.
Taylor Swift - Picture To Burn (HQ + Lyrics!)
It's a shame that the "I'll tell [my friends] your gay!" line retained here was edited out of the radio/video version and eventually disowned by Swift herself, because, PC or not, it's the truest moment in the whole thing. It fits perfectly with the petulant tone of the rest of the song, and is totally in line with the sort of thing that an actual spurned 16 year old girl would say about the dude who left her heartbroken. It's real, you know? For an artist constantly accused of being overly stage-managed, it's a moment of 100% unfiltered expression.
White Horse-Taylor Swift with lyrics
Taylor Swift is often accused of perpetuating unrealistic fairy tale visions of love and relationships. As demonstrated by songs like this, such a criticism is plainly nonsense. For the most part the lyrics here speak for themselves, but there are a few moments worthy of special attention. The first is the final chorus where she shifts tenses and "this is a small town" becomes "that was a small town/there in my rear view mirror/disappearing now," which implicitly rejects the traditional country music idealization of the small town as a utopia by instead figuring it as just a shitty place where bad boyfriends live and which you have to flee in order to be happy. The second is the line "I'm gonna find someone someday who might actually treat me well," which is just devastating in so many ways.
Taylor Swift - Mine
So great. "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter" is just a ridiculously well-rafted line and it's just sort of tossed into the middle of the chorus here. "You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes" is a perfect bit of quiet, tossed off melancholy. The perspective shift technique mentioned above resurfaces here with a vengeance, as it takes on a much weightier narrative purpose. The whole thing is just a marvel of pop songcraft and I really feel bad for you if you can't appreciate it.
Taylor Swift - Change
According to wikipedia, this was written "the day after she won the CMA Horizon Award...about being on a small record label in this huge music industry." But it's a song called "Change" that came in out in the fall of 2008. It's totally about Obama. To that end, it's a startling rebuke to country music's typically unflinching conservatism. More than that, though, it captures the mixture of naive enthusiasm and genuinely painful longing for something new that, more than anything, was the animating force behind the whole Obama campaign. Written months before it actually happened, the last few lines capture the (unfortunately soon-to-be-disappointed) feelings of excitement and euphoria which defined that Election Day better than just about anything:
What I'm trying to say is that Taylor Swift has her finger on the pulse of America. Recognize.
Taylor Swift - Our Song
IIRC, Czech once called this song "replacement level country," which at some level is what it is. The whole thing, from the fiddle flourishes to the strategically deployed references to Christian faith, is designed to appeal to country radio audiences in the most blatant ways. But even here, hemmed in by a rigid Nashville formula, there are moments of brilliance. First of all, there's the fact that it's, like, totally meta- and about its own conception. Second, there's the way in which the sudden perspective shift in the last chorus (from her boyfriend to herself) presages the much more complex use of the same device (in the opposite direction) in "Mine" (see below). Then there's the way she sings "Cuz it's late/and your mama don't know," which is just fantastic. It's basically a thumbnail look at everything that makes her an appealing artist.
Taylor Swift - Picture To Burn (HQ + Lyrics!)
It's a shame that the "I'll tell [my friends] your gay!" line retained here was edited out of the radio/video version and eventually disowned by Swift herself, because, PC or not, it's the truest moment in the whole thing. It fits perfectly with the petulant tone of the rest of the song, and is totally in line with the sort of thing that an actual spurned 16 year old girl would say about the dude who left her heartbroken. It's real, you know? For an artist constantly accused of being overly stage-managed, it's a moment of 100% unfiltered expression.
White Horse-Taylor Swift with lyrics
Taylor Swift is often accused of perpetuating unrealistic fairy tale visions of love and relationships. As demonstrated by songs like this, such a criticism is plainly nonsense. For the most part the lyrics here speak for themselves, but there are a few moments worthy of special attention. The first is the final chorus where she shifts tenses and "this is a small town" becomes "that was a small town/there in my rear view mirror/disappearing now," which implicitly rejects the traditional country music idealization of the small town as a utopia by instead figuring it as just a shitty place where bad boyfriends live and which you have to flee in order to be happy. The second is the line "I'm gonna find someone someday who might actually treat me well," which is just devastating in so many ways.
Taylor Swift - Mine
So great. "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter" is just a ridiculously well-rafted line and it's just sort of tossed into the middle of the chorus here. "You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes" is a perfect bit of quiet, tossed off melancholy. The perspective shift technique mentioned above resurfaces here with a vengeance, as it takes on a much weightier narrative purpose. The whole thing is just a marvel of pop songcraft and I really feel bad for you if you can't appreciate it.
Taylor Swift - Change
According to wikipedia, this was written "the day after she won the CMA Horizon Award...about being on a small record label in this huge music industry." But it's a song called "Change" that came in out in the fall of 2008. It's totally about Obama. To that end, it's a startling rebuke to country music's typically unflinching conservatism. More than that, though, it captures the mixture of naive enthusiasm and genuinely painful longing for something new that, more than anything, was the animating force behind the whole Obama campaign. Written months before it actually happened, the last few lines capture the (unfortunately soon-to-be-disappointed) feelings of excitement and euphoria which defined that Election Day better than just about anything:
What I'm trying to say is that Taylor Swift has her finger on the pulse of America. Recognize.
