Taylor Swift - explain the appeal to me please?

[Sakrysta]

I guess I just wanted to know if anyone else felt the same way about her as I do. She's cute. She seems nice. She produces "catchy" music. But her actual singing and live performance are baaaad, to the point of making me wonder how she got as far as she has at such a young age. I've run across dozens of young women like her over the years who are more talented, both in singing and songwriting, who are nowhere near her in terms of recognition. Why do her insipid little songs and sub-par vocals get so much attention? Oh yeah, the cute white blond chick phenomenon.

I at least wish one of her producers would team her with a decent songwriter who can teach her what a rhyme is and how being a scarlet letter would not be a good thing in Romeo's eyes.

 

[T'Girl]

However, I don't think she would have gotten so much press and become a house hold name if Kanye West hadn't made an ass of himself by upstaging her. It was the perfect chance for her label to play up "sweet & innocent" card.

Nah, Swift was big news before that awards show, with a nice string of pop songs. On the other hand I wasn't really sure who West was before he stumbled up on stage in that pathedic "look at me" stunt.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I at least wish one of her producers would team her with a decent songwriter who can teach her what a rhyme

Songs don't have to strictly rhyme any more than poetry does.

 

[Plomeek Broth]

She needs to eat a hamburger or ten.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Her popularity and the awards reaped on her is just more proof of how what passes for good or great continues to slide ever more.

I can't stand her annoying songs, her stupid videos and I think she is not that attractive. She sucks at country music and she sucks at pop music. The only people I would hope this would appeal to are those preening shallow 'tweeners who everything these days seems to be geared towards--the Hannah Montana, Super Sixteen 90210 crowd.

Give me a Jewel, Paula Cole, Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan any day over Taylor Swift.

 

[Aragorn]

I at least wish one of her producers would team her with a decent songwriter who can teach her what a rhyme

Songs don't have to strictly rhyme any more than poetry does.

At least Avril Lavigne knew that boy rhymed with... boy.

 

[Plomeek Broth]

I at least wish one of her producers would team her with a decent songwriter who can teach her what a rhyme

Songs don't have to strictly rhyme any more than poetry does.

At least Avril Lavigne knew that boy rhymed with... boy.

According to Avril, boy is spelled boi. Although Avril is fornication on a stick.

 

[Sakrysta]

I at least wish one of her producers would team her with a decent songwriter who can teach her what a rhyme

Songs don't have to strictly rhyme any more than poetry does.

I am well aware of this. However, her songs are filled with rhyme approximations that were quite obviously assumed to rhyme - alone/come, think/ring, etc. This isn't just a thing with Taylor, though. Too much popular music evidences lazy lyrics, where just a simple word change here and there would have strengthened the line, but no one bothered to help the writer improve.

And while of course poetry doesn't have to rhyme, a poem that follows meter and has a rhyme scheme is only a good poem if it follows its own rules. And Taylor's songs attempt to rhyme, just do so rather badly.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Alternatively, she's just going for words with similar sounds, even if they don't strictly rhyme.

 

[stoneroses]

No appeal to me. She is exactly what Bill Hicks was talking about.

 

[Plomeek Broth]

No appeal to me. She is exactly what Bill Hicks was talking about.

I agree and love your username. Awesome band.

 

[FordSVT]

Her popularity and the awards reaped on her is just more proof of how what passes for good or great continues to slide ever more.

I can't stand her annoying songs, her stupid videos and I think she is not that attractive. She sucks at country music and she sucks at pop music. The only people I would hope this would appeal to are those preening shallow 'tweeners who everything these days seems to be geared towards--the Hannah Montana, Super Sixteen 90210 crowd.

Give me a Jewel, Paula Cole, Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan any day over Taylor Swift.

Jewel made one good record and then made a terrible failed pop album which caved her career in, and the rest of them are adult women who had more than one album under their belts before they made it big. You're comparing a teenaged girl to 40 year old Paula Cole, think about that for a second. You seem really angry about this for some reason.

 

[stoneroses]

No appeal to me. She is exactly what Bill Hicks was talking about.

I agree and love your username. Awesome band.

Thank you. I can see you have good taste!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

She's a big deal because she writes all of these songs, some of which are very sophisticiated for pop music, and enough people love them to make them hits. If she were simply a performer, her recordings might be almost as popular but she wouldn't be winning all of these awards.

I think she's marvelous, BTW, and it wouldn't bother me if she kept winning every award they can invent for quite a while.

 

[BenRoethig]

I see her as more or less country's version of Avril Lavigne. Can't really identify with that teen angst anymore, but she has her following. Not the first young country star, but most of the time they have them sing songs beyond their maturity level. Like her or not, at least she's genuine.

 

[RandyS]

She's young. She's blond.

Wait a second......she sings??

 

[stoneroses]

She's a big deal because she writes all of these songs, some of which are very sophisticiated for pop music, and enough people love them to make them hits. If she were simply a performer, her recordings might be almost as popular but she wouldn't be winning all of these awards.

I think she's marvelous, BTW, and it wouldn't bother me if she kept winning every award they can invent for quite a while.

So great she writes her own ow songs. That don't make them good. In any case the vast majority seem to be only co-written by her ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift_(album) ) which often means the singer does enough to get a share of the royalties.
She seems very boring when they talk to her on TV