Watch the #freetaylor video The Problem with Taylor

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With the Tortured Poet Department, we’ve entered the Dull Era.

Let’s talk about Taylor Swift. I think she peaked with 1989 or Folklore. Abramoff is boring. Here are the instrumental tracks of Fortnight, the biggest hit today. This music is so generic, that YouTube does not identify these backing tracks. It’s because there’s nothing interesting about the music. Sure, you can argue it’s just a place for Taylor to spill her guts and have a little revenge fun. And that’s what her fans expect. Yet, she might be getting trapped in her teenage fan’s timewarp.

I’m not sure. Do you think Taylor is writing teenage breakup songs because that’s all she knows, or do you think it’s more calculated as a business model to keep the younger fans fired up and relatable? If the Poet response is any clue, looks like she’s scored a hit with her fans. (Even if she’s required to release “safe” versions of her songs for the underage fans. Is Taylor trapped in her money-making machine?

“Blank Space” from Taylor Swift’s 1989 album is her most streamed song, with over 1.7 billion streams on Spotify. “Cruel Summer” (1.68 billion streams) and “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” (1.56 billion streams).

In 1989 Taylor Swift hit her peak creatively. It happens to all great artists, they hit a peak, and struggle to discover some meaning of their lives beyond being a smash hit. Let’s take U2, Radiohead, The Foo Fighters, and Coldplay as examples.

Two of my favorite bands of all time lost me after their peak album (as defined by me). Radiohead’s In Rainbows brought together the angst, rock, and angularity of the ambient albums and drove all of music in a new direction. The song House of Cards delivers the best possible song Yorke and company would ever create. Then touring and supporting that great record shaped the next several years of their lives. And as the money flowed in, the human stories, the RELATEABLE stories of life, became fewer and fewer. Radiohead, defined early on by their initial hit, Creep moved from angst and edgy to “what do I write about now?”

Radiohead Losing Steam

As a huge fan, I can name 3 songs off their next three albums. I can tell you I left early from a Radiohead live show at SXSW. Their music became more jazz and less rock. Their albums from that point on, explored the edges of what music could become rather than being driven by a great song or a great hook. As a memory experiment let’s see if I can name the songs. Burn the Witch. Black Swan (oh, wait, that’s Yorke’s solo project). And, that’s all I can come up with unless I open Spotify and see my Radiohead tracks.

 

The Death of Coldplay

Okay, let’s skip The Foo Fighters for a second (Name any song from their last three albums.) and explore how Coldplay lost their musical edge. The most powerful album of Coldplay’s massive catalog is X & Y. Sure, it came out during a pivotal moment in my life, but the songwriting and performances are outstanding. Huge hits. More impactful than previous top titles like Yellow, and Politik. On this album all the warts are exposed, vulnerabilities, pain. The album does not pull punches. Then we enter the lost period for Chris Martin. Sure, we understand loss, divorce, and ennui, but we will never understand Mrs. GooP, or the loss of her. Now, name a song or an album of songs you love after X & Y. I can name one. This comes from Mr. Martin’s rebirth and rediscovery period, Higher Power from an obscure unnamed project that became Music of the Spheres.

 

Losing the All Perspective

Here’s what I think happens, and has happened to Taylor Swift.

As these huge acts move out of survival mode into rockstar mode it becomes harder for them to write music from the memory of when they were struggling. Think of Taylor Swift for a second. She reached her perfect expression and ascendency very early in her career. She escaped the trappings of normal human life around 16 – 18. She’s never come back to the same Earth that most of us inhabit. But Taylor can’t stay in the stars forever. No one can.

Since that time, she’s been in a class all of her own. Millionaire (now billionaire) rockstar. Once her life as a performer took off, I’m imagining, her daily experiences were extremely different and disconnected from most of her audience. So, Taylor needs someone or something to push back at to give her relevance to her audience. Guess what her foil is? Men. Well, boys in the beginning. But here’s the point, as a girl of XX years old, Taylor’s life experience left planet Earth. Since then she’s lived in a bubble of world tours (with both parents in-tow) and album releases.

The one human experience Taylor knows about is breaking up. She perfected the breakup song on RED. But Taylor is frozen in time. She is the same “girl” who emerged as global star. Her emotional growth as an ordinary human ended at that point. You and I can’t imagine what Taylor’s life is like. Sure, we catch moderated and curated experiences. Movies. Videos. Media. And we (or more clearly, Taylor’s target audience) are rabid for the trail of broken love songs, and who done me wrong songs she’s put out ever since RED. Taylor Swift can’t have a healthy and happy relationship to a man because she’s still trapped in the 18 year-old version of herself. Men must be either daddy (literally) or dumb stars.

Taylor dates other rockstars. Um, because they are the only ones who can understand (or put up with) stardom. And they don’t work out. I wonder if “daddy” nearby is an issue. One hint from her newest 31-hit wonder is this gem.

“Screamin’, ‘But Daddy, I love him / I’m having his baby’ / No, I’m not, but you should see your faces” – “But Daddy I Love Him”

Um, this is funny? Relevant? No, it’s bullshit. But it also points to what makes Taylor Swift tick. This lyric actually illuminates a huge part of Taylor’s evolutionary problem. If Mom and Dad have been on tour constantly with Taylor since 1989, when has she had a chance to grow up? She hasn’t. That’s why she’s still looking for happiness and even more fame in the arms of another superstar. With, Mom and Dad nearby providing comment and color on her career, life, future.

And when Taylor writes about becoming a mother, what does she say?

It’s not part of Dad’s business plan for Taylor to take a 5-year break to start a family. I suppose the suitable man has yet to be vetted by Team Taylor. So, how could Taylor be expected to write more evolved or adult lyrics when she’s been emotionally flash-frozen as a teenager with relationship and daddy problems? Taylor will be trapped writing songs for her audience of 12-year-old girls (and adults that can related to teenage breakup songs) until something massive changes. What could that be?

U2 – Breakdown and Reinvention

Let’s back up and look at u2 fo a second as a contrast. Boy, U2’s first commercial release came out in 1980. (9 years before Taylor was born in 1989.)

And with “I Will Follow” burning up the charts in my early years of high school and college, rock music would never be the same. And then U2 understanding they needed to reinvent themselves began working with Brian Eno to release 1984’s The Unforgetable Fire. (This moment also welcomed Van Halen’s Jump era of fame and stardom.) New sounds, new song structures, and textures. And for the next “era” U2/Eno morphed into U2/Eno/Lanois climaxing in Zooropa. This global tour and rock experience crowned U2 as the biggest most innovative entertainment act in the world. From 1993 to 1997 U2 explored the edge of rock, pop, stardom and media domination.

Everyone needed a break after the madness of ZOO.TV world mega tour that played with every aspect of the staged performance of a rock band. (In 2024, this show became the source for the Sphere Experience in Las Vegas.) This massive era was capped by this music video for Discotheque.

Rebirth: Getting back to the rock of it all. In 2000 All That You Can’t Leave Behind was released. Fourteen years ago they reunited as a rock band with the hit Beautiful Day.

The entire album, helmed again by Eno and Lanios, focused on songs overproduction. Back to basics, U2 came back to life with three albums in succession, including the Apple iTunes FREE ALBUM release disaster in 2004 (How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – the band’s 11th album) and finishing up the sequence with No Line on the Horizon in 2009. Nine years, three albums. Tons of touring. And pause again.

And perhaps without the Sphere Experience U2 was ready to fade from the limelight. (Let’s see if a new album emerges from the energy and momentum of the Las Vegas tour de force.

Semi-Contemporary Artist – St. Vincent

Starting in 2007, Anne Erin Clark, launched her solo career with Marry Me, as St. Vincent. And over the next formative years, unlike Taylor, Ms. Clark did not become a huge rockstar. And guess what happened with her music?

And in the course of this evolution, St. Vincent has reinvented herself many times over as an artist, musician (wicked guitar player), and singer. I would guess Anne’s life has a lot more in common with most humans on the planet as she struggled with love, creativity, and being a musician. And as we explore music in 2024, I’ll contrast the extreme difference in music and approach between St. Vincent and Miss Swift.

Let’s look at St. Vincent LIVE in Barcelona Spain in 2023.

Now, let’s go visit a Taylor Swift show from the same period.

It’s obvious if you watch much of the Eras tour, that a ton of Taylor’s tracks and vocals are being played back “from tape.” Here’s what we know about Taylor’s live performances on the Eras tour. No, she’s not lipsyncing exactly, but Taylor’s performance is more of a halftime show. I would make the point that much of the difference is not scale or money, it’s more of a choice.

Taylor’s live shows are manufactured, pre-recorded extravaganzas set to make as much money as possible. That’s okay. We just have to accept that she puts the performance over the music. That’s cool. BUT… On her albums, on her songwriting, I’m afraid her new 31-track “Poet” album has very little poetry. Again, choices fuel this loss of creative energy and innovation. There is not one sick beat on the new Taylor Swift album. Why? Because she used the same two producers to spin up the lifeless tracks underneath her often repetitive and predictable vocal styles.

What Taylor Swift needs is a break and a rebirth. Perhaps that will come when she’s forced to explore her motherhood options. At 33, I suppose she’s got another ten years before that becomes an issue. What would also be critical to getting out of the “dull era” would be working with other musicians. Not button-pushing producers with synths, computers, and the same 808 beats and sounds made popular in the 80s. Taylor needs to find her Brian Eno. She could use an injection of David Byrne, not Post Malone.

A New Collaborator – Imogen Heap

Here’s a moment when she collaborated with Imogene Heap.

Heap is clear to acknowledge the massive talent of Taylor and her musical abilities. There’s a moment where she acknowledges how the one song on 1989 is paying for her current career and pause for motherhood.

Here’s the lyric version of Clean.

What’s funny about Imogen is her transformation into motherhood and her ability to stay relevant and fresh. Even with her quirky, kid-like, antics, she’s a mere mortal trying to make her way as a musician in this world that doesn’t support average musicians very well. In most of our circles, musicians are poor, unreliable, and often suffering from addiction or mental illness. The struggle for most artists is to survive. Then after we drop the Who’s “hope I die before I get old” ethic, we get on with what’s next? What’s the next act for Taylor?

I can understand how Taylor’s talent is unquestionable. She’s the most powerful woman in music today. AND, Taylor needs more Imogene Heaps in her life. She needs to pull out from under the machine of money and fame and put her trust back in the music and working with other musicians.

Music is a conversation. Today, Taylor’s conversations are from the same perspective as the young lady who exploded with 1989. Her personal and emotional maturity, in my opinion, has been stunted over the next 20 years of her life by the successful rockstar lifestyle. How could Taylor Swift have a normal relationship? How could she have a successful partnership with someone other than a movie and music star? I think that’s the point. She needs to take a break from being Taylor Swift to see what emerges next.

Every great artist needs to go through a reinvention. Taylor has gone through Eras of musical styles, releasing a huge catalog of great songs. And then we have Poets. 31 songs. All HITS. But… Are they? Are the songs on Poets good? Or just more Taylor Swift songs? And did we need all of the tracks? Shouldn’t she have kept a few of these clunkers in the vault?

Everything Changes

As we know, Madonna could not remain “Like a Virgin” forever. She, like Taylor has a need for the fame and attention. Today, Madonna is more characterized by her attempts for publicity and fame rather than her music. Vogue was the end of her innovative and creative era. So what’s next for Taylor? She won’t be 33 forever. If she wants to be a mother she’s going to have to make plans to take some time off. Fortunately, she’s got money in the bank.

The real change we need from Taylor, actually, is more maturity. I’d like to see her finish the Poets tour and take a break. Give us all a breather. In the space of quiet and rebirth so many futures are possible for Taylor. Locked into the current juggernaut she is not likely to find true love or motherhood. How do you grow a healthy and loving relationship when you’re traveling around the world on tour with your parents?

We were ALL prettier and more handsome when we were young. As Taylor enters her next era, let’s hope she chooses life and living rather than stadium tours. But that’s me, a dad with a 21-year-old daughter who adores Taylor Swift.

When I asked my daughter what her favorite song on Poets was she was quick to respond.

Imgonnagetyouback

While these lyrics are from Poets or Red they have the same childish revenge angle. Or, as my daughter pointed out, it’s like she’s telling him she’s not sure, but she’s in control. That’s what’s obvious about Taylor Swift’s current world domination. It’s a plan. There is more money to be milked. More fans to satisfy. And more world tours to invoke.

But, I hope that Taylor’s instincts toward becoming a parent pulls her out of her current upward spiral. Maybe that’s why she gave us TWO ALBUMS worth of material now. So she can take a quick break afterward to mature as a woman. Sure, it must be some torture of its own kind, being a billionaire, but it is a very different experience of life than ANY OF TAYLOR’S FANS. So, in a sense, she has to keep her lyrics juvenile to keep her audience, and to pull in new teenagers getting their first iPhones.

The Taylor Swift Rebirth

If Taylor is still in her YA period, that’s cool. I look forward to her evolution away from Abramoff’s drivel to something more creative and human-inspired. Maybe another session with Imogene Heap or a collab with St. Vincent or the masterful Jason Falkner (playing guitar on the St. Vincent tour).  What will the Adult Version of Taylor Swift sound like? What topics will come to mind after she becomes a parent? What mother/daughter or mother/son hits are yet to be written by the transformed Taylor.

That’s what I want for Taylor Swift. A shot at true love. The experience of becoming a parent. And ultimately a more mature and evolved perspective on love, loss, and life. From the never-ending world tour, we get imgonnagetyouback on repeat. If we allow Taylor to grow up, we might get something as self-aware and powerful as St. Vincent’s New York.

 

Free Taylor

Let’s hope Taylor is let out of the gilded cage of wealth and fame. The same cage that killed the creative output of so many artists before her. I’d prefer more of a U2 trajectory for Taylor Swift. And perhaps her kid will become a musician too, like Bono’s or Sting’s sons. I want to hear about her self-awareness and pain rather than revenge and teenage breakup songs. She’s already conquered the YA topics. Maybe repeated herself a few times.

Let’s Free Taylor Swift for her next act.