Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Oct 2010) - hype, anticipation &c

at first i thought it was a filler at best, but 'sparks fly' has become one of the best things she's done, for me. (comma important).

b michael's a friend but oh boy do i hate his "story of us" blurb

but then i have fought with him about this before

It's funny how, a day after reading one of the best things about Taylor Swift, I read one of the worst

Brad, did you two do that back-and-forth on 10L? I wrote a few things on that site when it was starting. I think if I had to write the pro-Speak Now parts it'd just be some ARRRGH U IZ FULLA RONG rants

yeah i wrote the pro-taylor swift parts. basically i ignored his whole argument, which was "i hate the facebook generation and this is emblematic of that self-involvement."

i was like "the lyrics are real good and the music is pretty and when i listen to her albums i cry a lot"

b michael

more like ban michael

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLWpyRAaybU&feature=player_embedded#at=118

otm

<3333

I still basically cry every time I watch this, but then I'm such a huge fan of those dixie chicks days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDs9ocHVZ-g

and with martie maguire in the audience... sniff

Saw her last night and was disappointed, to say the least. If I knew a girl in college who still liked to play princess, I would think she was strange. Liked the singing, liked the songs well enough. Didn't like that both seemed to come a distant second to the spectacle, which seemed more or less interchangeable with several of the big-ticket spectacles I've seen over the past few years, only even more childish. I mean, she's 21, not 12. At some point she's going to have to decide if she's going to start performing for grown ups or stay a children's entertainer.

Oddly enough, I thought of the Dixie Chicks the entire time. The one show of theirs I saw, in 2003, was a spectacle, too, but every part of it supported the music rather than overshadowed it, as it did in Swift's case.

I don't know how she's switched the show up since I saw her on the European leg of the tour -- I know it's bigger and more showy -- but what exactly was childish in the show and her behaviour?

Not her, specifically. Well, not always. I just felt it frustrating that she/the stage director refused to let any of the songs speak for themselves without some sort of overwhelming literal-minded theatrical accompaniment. For example, "Back to December" did not need fake snow and a giant wintery bridge with a faux orchestra playing atop it. "You Belong To Me" did not need a "Glee"-like dance interpretation of high school locker drama. "Speak Now" did not need to follow a giant elaborate fake wedding, with Taylor "acting." "Mine" sure as hell did not need a big fake broken down back porch replete with supporting players dressed as hillbillies, one swigging moonshine and one actually tending to a fake goat. "Dear John" did not need fireworks - fireworks! "Enchanted" and "Haunted" were staged like Disney theatre by way of Vegas, opulent but totally silly and artificial, and without a doubt distractions from the music. My take-away was either she doesn't have faith in her songs or doesn't have faith in the fans, and I'm fully prepared to believe it's the latter. But all these distractions worked to her disadvantage, I thought. When this gorgeous young woman strapped on a red Les Paul, it sort of lessened the empowering effect to see four guitarists at work behind her. It made the guitar look like a prop, and it reinforced the idea that image and glamour were paramount, far more than the music itself.

I took my 6.5 year old daughter, by the way, and at least until she fell asleep she was all but oblivious to the music, so subsumed was it by the OTT Broadway visuals.

I mean, there were nine wardrobe changes! Those are the kinds of time-wasters I expect from artists who literally can't do much more than wear clothes. Taylor is talented, but the takeaway is gorgeous hair, white teeth and flawless make-up rules the day. Like I noted above, I think, I expect this sort of stuff from a pop arena show, but was I wrong to perhaps expect a little more (or less, in this case) from Taylor Swift? I kept having these flashbacks to Janet Jackson's totally vapid "All For You" tour, which at one point featured the singer cavorting with toys come to life.

i think when most ppl go to arena shows -- especially in this economy™ -- they expect to see lots of theatrics and to see the songs, often quite literally, put to life

i think the whole thesis of your last post is wrong, really -- being a talented musician doesn't preclude you from also being (or trying to be) a showy entertainer, & i think your insinuation that only talentless pop robot avatars need to or should be putting on elaborate, theatrical stage shows is weird

i agree

(as i often tend to do with you)

:D

i mean i haven't see the show, so maybe there were some distracting bits or whatever, but i also think it would be weird if a large portion of the show was her standing up on stage w/ a guitar & just singing

i imagine that part of it is also the idea that entertainers have to make the experience entertaining for them as well. i think it would be boring to perform the same songs the same way all the time.

I, like many of you guys, have seen hundreds of shows, and dozens of arena shows. The vast majority more than get by without anything to this degree. My issue is not that only talentless pop robot avatars need to put on elaborate shows, it's that only talentless pop robot avatars must put on elaborate shows, because they have nothing else to fall back on. And speaking of robots, there was very little to differentiate this show from the Britney Spears show I saw back in 2003, aside from the outfits. I have no problem with arena excess, it's fun. But this was little more than excess, which is not how I would characterize Swift.

I mean, I've seen tons of stuff of this ilk, and this was easily among the most over the top of the over the top stuff I've seen. I'll say it again: she had a dancer dressed as a hillbilly, caring for a fake goat. I kept expecting Kermit the Frog to pop up for a duet. And frankly, this:

i think when most ppl go to arena shows -- especially in this economy™ -- they expect to see lots of theatrics and to see the songs, often quite literally, put to life

I think is the true wrong thesis. People go to be entertained, but it's up to the entertainer to determine how best to do that. Swift took the easy road out by going Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I saw Brad Paisley play Saturday night, for example, to three times as many people, with a fraction the flash. And he certainly didn't dress up like a princess and fly above the crowd in a floating balcony. Though I would have paid to see that, especially in this economy.

brad!!

I think is the true wrong thesis. People go to be entertained, but it's up to the entertainer to determine how best to do that. Swift took the easy road out by going Andrew Lloyd Webber.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 3:02 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

first of all, thinking that putting on an elaborate stage show is "easier" than going up & playing songs on stage is pretty backwards. but also i think the upper echelons of pop (gaga, swfit, rihanna, kanye, katy perry, britney, beyone) demand this kind of elaborate show

"echelons" there should be singular

They demand something, to be sure, but a little bit of ingenuity beats renting from the great Hollywood stagecraft warehouse. From Madonna to Muse, the best spectacles I've seen have offered a novel take on OTT. Swfit was boilerplate, which again, did her music a disservice. It didn't fuel, it distracted. But that's just one grown man's opinion.

Y'all would have really liked "Cats."

They demand something, to be sure, but a little bit of ingenuity beats renting from the great Hollywood stagecraft warehouse. From Madonna to Muse, the best spectacles I've seen have offered a novel take on OTT. Swfit was boilerplate, which again, did her music a disservice. It didn't fuel, it distracted. But that's just one grown man's opinion.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 3:14 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

alright, fair enough -- gasface at muse tho

Y'all would have really liked "Cats."

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 3:14 PM

literally fell asleep

Lost me at 'Muse'.

i don't remember any of that from the swift concert!

i mean there were a few backdrops and scenarios that happened but uhhh iirc they weren't intrusive and i didn't pay attention to them and there was certainly no goatherd. did london get shortchanged the goatherd?

she did that whole backporch bluegrass hoedown thing for "mean" on some awards show -- maybe the AMAs, or some country music show? i don't remember

oh yeah that. it made that song better tbf

Ha, I didn't say Muse was any good! I was just talking about the light show. And granted, from Muse, I wouldn't have expected anything less. Next time around they should bring out a laser goat-milker.

Lex, did you get the flying balcony? Dance interpretation of "You Belong To Me?" Ballerina? Taylor pretending to fight with a dancer during "Better Than Revenge?" Tap dancing stage hand? Fireworks during "Dear John?"

"fireworks" during "dear john" sounds kind of amazing imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWAUDhszNPw&feature=related

Goat at around 2:00. I put the cut-off age for appreciating this as anything more than kitsch at around 14.

don't remember any dancing in "you belong with me", def no ballerina. pretend fight yes, tap dancing no, fireworks OBVIOUSLY AND THEY WERE AMAZING

Bunch of easy lays, you lot. ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GcPR5i5xts&feature=related

To me these skits emphasize Swift's commitment to narrative songwriting. It's possible the girls in the audience don't see it like I do, but to me this reenforces the idea that Swift's songs aren't autobiographical in the way that dullards looking for John Mayer allusions think.

I mean I never think songwriting is "personal" or "autobiographical" in the Oprah sense of the word.

To me these skits emphasize Swift's commitment to narrative songwriting.

Riiiiiight. Or maybe they emphasize her lack of commitment to narrative songwriting.

she's tellin' stories and she's illustrating them. Dylan could use a Super 8 images of Highway 61 or woman tangled up in blue string these days tbh.

Grammar collapsed in that sentence, but you get the idea.

So listening to "Mean," did you ever imagine a back-porch hoedown with goats and moonshine jug? I must have missed that part of the narrative.

Again, as a parent of two little girls, the prospect of another evening of arena-sized kids stories come to life strikes fear into the heart. I've had my fill. Can't imagine any adult getting anything out of this silly tbh, but apparently I am wrong.

Dylan should def. have a dude caring for a fake goat. Doesn't matter what song.

Something this silly, that is.