Lyrics about, or aimed at, critics

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Honestly think that "Mean" is about bullying and not necessarily about music critics.

kkvgz, Monday, 8 November 2010 01:22 (thirteen years ago) link

Ben (Keith?) mentioned "Ambulance Blues" six years ago, but he got the aimed-at-critics verse wrong; it's "So all you critics sit alone/You're no better than me for what you've shown/With your stomach pumps and your hook-and-ladder dreams/We could get together for some scenes." I'm guessing Neil meant critics in the more general sense of people who criticize, not the Lester Bangs variety.

clemenza, Monday, 8 November 2010 01:28 (thirteen years ago) link

pinpointing what a song's "about" is a mug's game (despite taylor being annoying and tempting everyone to focus on it) but "mean" is so obviously set in her pre-fame days, before she lived in a big city, so whether it's referring to the first critical audiences she performed to or high school bullies...it's certainly not national rock critics.

lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 8 November 2010 02:31 (thirteen years ago) link

Sting - "Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me)"

sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 November 2010 02:34 (thirteen years ago) link

Let's just say "Mean" works on a few different levels, and there's no requirement to take it as autobiography at all, when you get down to it. I definitely don't think it's mainly a song about critics, but it's not "obviously" anything. (Not even bullying -- could be child abuse!) And it will certainly be heard as being about people criticizing her singing in the here and now -- given that's when it's been released, and all. And it's a stretch to think that didn't Taylor didn't realize that, when she included it on a 2010 album. So it's kind of nit-picky to suggest it doesn't belong here.

xhuxk, Monday, 8 November 2010 03:09 (thirteen years ago) link

oliver wang, you don't know what gangsta is

my sex drew back into itself tight and dry (abanana), Monday, 8 November 2010 04:12 (thirteen years ago) link

Which leads to this.

the who cares (okamax), Monday, 8 November 2010 04:43 (thirteen years ago) link

G'n'R "Get in the Ring" ownzzz
― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, January 31, 2004 12:22 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
especially cuz Axl refused to back it up.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, January 31, 2004 12:22 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Did any of his targets actually challenge him?

billstevejim, Monday, 8 November 2010 04:58 (thirteen years ago) link


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