the new taylor swift single

[itchybro]

Well, folk in Gnashville, consider it "product". It's part of her "catalog" of "product". They hope to SELL that product. (paging captain radio guy, the white courtesy telephone)

With regard to "getting over myself for a minute", have you considered that perhaps we seek different things from the listening experience? We're obviously pretty big fans of "the art" but, we each bring different baggage to the party. I'm an old dude cured in the fires of close to fifty years of listening. Over thirty of those years have been devoted to listening on the highest technical level I can muster with regard to unlocking the harmonic content, engineering and production employed and "just what did he/she/they mean by that". And yet, like yourself, I still consider myself mostly a fan.

Thus, I wouldn't characterize my "anti-Taylor" sentiment as knee-jerk. I've given her ample consideration. I just have other musical goals.

[jfm]

Well, folk in Gnashville, consider it "product". It's part of her "catalog" of "product". They hope to SELL that product. (paging captain radio guy, the white courtesy telephone)

yeah but that's how record-company people talk about everything. it's a reflection of their mentality, not a comment on the quality of whatever they're hawking. it's how record-company people no doubt talked about elvis and the beatles, too. (not comparing taylor swift to elvis and the beatles, just saying it's how the biz worked. but speaking of elvis and the beatles, think how many old dudes there were around then sneering at the young pretty boys who all the little girls loved.)

With regard to "getting over myself for a minute", have you considered that perhaps we seek different things from the listening experience?

of course, that's true of everyone. based on what i know of your tastes, i'd say i like a lot of the same stuff you do (and i like your own music, too). but i like a lot of other things that you probably don't. i like horrible-noise bands that you probably can't stand, and free jazz, and i also like modern r&b and country top 40 stuff that you also probably can't stand. (don't know where you are on hip-hop, tho i haven't been as into that myself the last year or two.)

[itchybro]

I will say this, she's probably one of the last of a dying breed. The artist that actually sells CD.

On a personal level, I'd feel kinda creepy padding around like Tom Cruise in my whitey tight-y's rockin out with Taylor. Tho' I'm sure some one has already spent much time on that "Daydream".

[toby]

I won't believe in her until she shows up unconscious, naked from the waist down with a rubber strap around her arm, and at least two warrants for arrest in a town no more upscale than Lubbock or Soddy Daisy.

[jfm]

I won't believe in her until she shows up unconscious, naked from the waist down with a rubber strap around her arm, and at least two warrants for arrest in a town no more upscale than Lubbock or Soddy Daisy.

ha. i do think that's one of her problems from an artistic-respect standpoint: she's sort of fundamentally untortured. but at least she doesn't try to be anything she's not. like in "the best day," she says, "i grew up in a pretty house and i space to run" -- she's a not-very-deep-thinking suburban girl from a nice family, and so that's what she sounds like. she just happens to also be a heck of a pop songwriter.

[Hayduke]

But alas, it's Taylor Swift singing them with with too much autotune...

This implies there's an acceptable amount of autotune. Not buying it (hell, I'm not even downloading the torrent). If you can't sing, write it down and sell it to someone who can. I suppose regular listeners to pop radio got the frog in the pot treatment, gradually having more and more autotune mixed in with their music until they quit noticing the difference, but it grates on me every time I'm forced to listen and I'm shocked that people are willing to tolerate, much less recommend, it.

[jfm]

it's true that in an earlier era someone with taylor's vocal deficiencies probably would've been a behind-the-scenes songwriter. and a successful one, too. but otoh, studio sweetening hardly started with autotune. there've been a lot of mediocre singers over the years propped up by background vocalists and other tricks. i don't know. i think of recorded music and live music as two just fundamentally different things. if a song sounds good on my radio or my ipod (to the extent that anything can really "sound good" on an ipod), i don't care who did what or which tricks went into it. those "tricks" are just part of the process of making recorded music. now, if i'm going to see someone perform, it's nice if they can actually sing or play. that's why i would not pay for a taylor swift ticket (tho i'd go to a show if someone gave me one, just for the fun of it). i'm afraid i'd spend the whole show cringing at missed notes.

lemme put it this way: there are a whole lot of people making records in nashville who can sing a whole lot better than taylor swift. but i like her records better than most of theirs.

[Apeville]

Speaking of pop music, this is fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G5JaicYuVU

[itchybro]

Speaking of pop music, this is fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G5JaicYuVU

You led me to this. AWESOME.

[Celestial Dung]

First off that's the best Pomplamoose song I've heard...granted the only one I've really liked but....oh come on it counts for something.

I think I'll just settle for the fact that Taylor Swift is of an animal I can't approach. Most Pop music scares me. I can appreciate synth pop. Pop 'n' dance can make me go. But other then that Pop music sounds like zombies invading the studio. Here's songs about love, loss, and family but you know something...we ain't going to feel it. Ok it's not zombies invading the studio it's more like academia invading the studio. The hook goes here, the chorus goes here, and somewhere we've got to put down a line that sounds poetic but it's direct.

Auto-tune isn't such a bad thing, I just wish someone would come up with auto-emotion.