So anyway, back to Taylor Swift. So the reason why she has come before me today is because what has happened to her in the last few months. It all started when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the Golden Globe Awards in January, where they both took jabs at Taylor's dating life and Tina stated "Don't go after Michael J. Fox's son". She and Amy continued to have a little discussion about her, garnering much laughter from the audience. Now to be clear, this wasn't meant to be taken seriously, they're comedians, it's their job to make fun of people. But apparently to Taylor, that was the straw that broke the camel's back because when she appeared on the April issue of Vanity Fair, she had a few choice words in regard to the jokes. She stated (and I quote):
"You know, Katie Couric is one of my favorite people because she said to me a quote that she loved, (from former secretary Madeline Albright), that said, 'There's a special place in hell for for women who don't help other women.'".......................WOW. I mean, I know why you're upset, but, really? That's probably one of the most balls-y things I've heard her say, in music or in real life. So that's what I want to dissect, why did she feel the need to say this? Is she suggesting that Amy and Tina are sexist? Well actually, that's exactly what she meant. She stated in the same interview that she felt that the fact that she, a girl, is getting picked on for being spotted with so many guys is sexist. Okay, so throwing the old "when a guy gets a bunch of girls, he's a celebrity, but when a girl does the same thing, she's a whore" would definitely be a valid argument, since Taylor is right, there are quite a lot of men in the world that date anything with legs, but yet the jokes about them are minimal or non-existent. I can see where she's coming from, and I definitely think that there are one too many internet memes about her personal life on the internet right now, but there's one key difference that she is overlooking. All of those guys who date many girls don't write a song (or many songs) about them and then go on to exploit the personal details of their relationship. By doing this, Taylor is whole-heartedly welcoming all of those jabs towards her personal life because she doesn't keep it all that personal. And once again, just look at her catalog of songs. Out of the four albums she's created, with a total of 54 songs, only 11 songs are not about love. The rest of her material talks about how a boy broke her heart or how she wants to fall in love again. And those songs are always about somebody in particular, which isn't doing Taylor any favors right now because it's no secret who the subject matter of her songs is.
Now, she also claimed that since 2010 she's only dated two people, meaning Connor Kennedy and Harry Styles. If that's not setting off the bullsh*t detector than here's another thing: she also said that Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer weren't actually dating her, they were just seen going to lunch and hanging out together, she denies that any romantic relationship ever happened. Um, Taylor, remember when you wrote "Dear John" from your album "Speak Now"?? That song was clearly about a relationship, not just going out to have lattes. I know that since I'm not you, I don't know all of the details of your personal life, but you make it extremely hard not to talk about it when that's ALL you sing about. As I have already stated, I do agree that it's getting extremely annoying seeing so many people constantly bash her for the same thing over and over again (I know that Taylor has bad luck with men and a bad habit of writing too many love songs without ever thinking that she is just as guilty for the failure of her relationships, I get it), but as she keeps producing album after album of the same old thing, she's not doing anything to rectify the situation. Constantly being in the public eye is difficult, we all know this, but I think if Taylor were to keep her personal relationships personal, she may not be so under-fire as she is right now.
I do think that Taylor is rather talented. She writes all of her own songs, she helps produce them and plays alot of the instruments, and her voice does sound good on in the studio. Now, in her defense, I know that she's crappy live, but her voice wasn't really meant to be loud and stately. She has a soft, girl-ish voice that just cannot be translated from studio to stage. But as for as songwriting goes, I'll admit she has chops, and she definitely does make some pretty good songs (like "Mean", the best song she's ever recorded), and her album "Fearless" is definitely one you should listen too. But, with all of her strengths aside, it's time for her to start singing a different tune. She may be "America's sweetheart", but her album sales prove that she's not that popular worldwide. Over 3/4 of her albums sold have been sold in the US, which is actually uncommon for a mainstream artist (in comparison, Madonna has sold over 200 million albums worldwide, only 64.5 million were sold in the US). And even America is getting tired of the same thing, as already proven: the internet memes, the jabs, the many references to her dating life in pop culture, she's become a lightning rod for critics and haters everywhere. I think with a change of pace, she might be able to salvage her image, but if she keeps acting out like she did in Vanity Fair, the public may punish her before she can.
She's floundering right now, due to both the media's obsession with her love life and her failure of trying to be subtle about it.
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