Taylor Swift - RED - October 22

the Papa John promo is "carry out only" which is fucking bullshit

also, uh, ilxor owen p. did them strings

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, October 22, 2012 4:32 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its too much of a plodding snow patrol song for me. them strings is dope tho

― king louie riel (rennavate), Monday, October 22, 2012 4:33 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ok, I had assumed that BradNelson was completely and totally bullshitting, but I just read through the liner notes for the 1st time. Nice job, owen!

November 2008: Taylor Swift has a #1 album, and the last song is called "Change." November 2012: Taylor Swift has a #1 album, and the last song is called "Begin Again." I think we have to consider the possibility that she's actually running the country.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, November 7, 2012 5:48 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:D

No comment!

been spending the last three days watching her interviews on youtube. wow, what a personality that she has. now I'm officially in love with taylor swift the person. my favs are her interviews with ellen and jonathan ross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOSHsthCZWY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggwKZh6TsNU

^^

so. SFJ and the Salon article huh.

is this the right place to act like a teenage girl? because taylor just won 3 EMA's. yaaay! so proud of you, tay tay.

that salon article literally gave me a stroke

I'md ying

I read the comments :(

REAL MUSIC BLA BLA BLA I'M SO SERIOUS CAN I SHOW YOU MY RECORD COLLECTION WHICH IS AN EXTENSION OF MY O SO CURATED MENTAL SPACE? ALSO I AM FUN AT PARTIES I PROMISE

what sfj article please?

it's his twitter. @sfj

SASHA FIERCE JONES

i love it when critics get righteously angry and stop pussyfooting around

http://msmagazine.com/blog/files/2011/10/ryan-gosling.jpg

Yeah the Salon article is the worst kind of cultural criticism -- throw a bunch of things together in a blender and pretend you've made some kind of connection between them. I especially like the suggestion that "Fifteen" resonated with families who were trying to rein in their spending. Waht.

The sfj tweets are funny, tho.

Heh, Guarino once (5+ years ago) wrote a favorable review of my old band, for a suburban newspaper. Weird to see him caught up in this.

I'm sure he had no role at all in this

I don't know what you mean by that.

Mark is a good guy, and it's kind of easy for SFJ to just shoot him down like a dick from his perch; can't think of the last time one of his New Yorker essays did anything for me but exist. I think the Guarino essay is fine, if maybe too messy in the way it delineates Swift's balance of "safe" and "personal." Same with its theory that her calculation has dovetailed with the economy (which maybe it has, but it's a total coincidence). But I think incensed reactions to it are somewhat misplaced, and I think the sexist stuff is a non-starter. Young female singers processed through the pop machine are a thing, no? While male singers processed through the same are much less so? Just can't get too excited about this controversy.

Anyway: Taylor Swift is touring stadiums this summer!

I don't think it's sexist, I just think it's a good illustration of how not to take pop culture "seriously." (For one thing, to take it seriously, it helps to actually enjoy it. Not at all clear he does.)

That's totally fair. He's begging his own question.

"Are we taking TS too seriously? Yes, because here are a bunch of pop stars no one takes seriously, including me, because they are not worth taking seriously."

Mark is a good guy

lol didn't take long for that to happen http://gazingmales.tumblr.com/post/35515975912/an-assignment-for-mark-guarino-who-will-probably-be

also "gracefully lift her porcelain legs" ffs

fucking absolutely dying that someone actually said "Mark is a good guy" just like maura predicted.

i love that dude did enough research to go back and zing willa ford but like 5ive totes gets a pass because they have peens

yeah i mean that piece is blatantly sexist, c'mon

Young female singers processed through the pop machine are a thing, no? While male singers processed through the same are much less so?

i can't even believe i'm going to argue this BUT: "much less so"... what?

ughhh at that piece and the people who retweeted it

'porcelain legs'? gotta read this now

I totally get why people would - especially you people - would get all up in this piece, but compared to something like the Salon horror movie essay? This thing is like Didion.

fucking absolutely dying that someone actually said "Mark is a good guy" just like maura predicted.

I mean, fuck you. I know Mark. He is a good guy. So fucking what?

because it's a worthless defense against the claim that something (or someone!) is sexist

Who called it a defense? I just know him and think he is a good guy. So fucking what? Just saying he's not some fly by night bombthrower asshole, wrongheaded though he may or may not be.

Like, I get how he perfectly sets himself up for a takedown in the piece, but I really don't read it as as reactionary as some of you are making it out to be, especially when it comes to perceived sexism. Many (most?) of the hitmakers today are male. And per Maura's fish-in-barrel retort, the male equivalents of whatever Guarino wants to dismiss are products of a totally different system. One of the many TS qualities I've seen amplified is her difference from many of those all-female aforementioned in terms of personality, lack of overt sexuality, down-to-earthness or whatever, accurate or not. And it's always all-female. I've never seen her positioned as an alternative or respite from the likes of Marilyn Manson or whomever his current equivalent is, let alone someone like Justin Bieber. That's a rhetorical problem, as far as the piece goes, because there are always exceptions. But that's why I chalk it up to sloppiness or laziness on the part of the writer or editor, not sexism.

it is important to remember, i guess, that a lot of nastily pervasive sexism does come from people you'd recognise as "good guys" and not from "bombthrower assholes", and it's the fact that these "good guys" are the ones maintaining their sexist line with a blithe lack of self-recognition that makes it so nastily pervasive.

like w/ any other kind of casual prejudice! i mean, i'm a nice enough person and i've done and said things that were offensive/awful/wrong, and I have the choice to either say "because i recognise myself as a nice person it is impossible that what i said was offensive" or "because i want to continue recognising myself as a nice person i should recognise when i am being offensive and learn to quit it"

I totally recognize that. I just didn't read the piece as particularly nastily pervasive sexism, which one can easily find elsewhere, especially in comments sections and truly reactionary rockist diatribes. Mark is totally capable (and culpable!) of being sexist, and rockist, and all those things, but I didn't see comparing Taylor Swift to other female pop performers, or citing her male songwriters, as someone beyond the pale. Maybe predictable, sure, but that's a broader picture of sexism being painted.

comparing Taylor Swift to other female pop performers, or citing her male songwriters

the problem is that it isn't this, it's female pop performers who are "trash" and male songwriters who are "a-listers"

(I know him a bit too--definitely a good guy.)

nope guys, sorry, its not possible. he wrote a really boneheaded, sexist article so there is no possible way for him to be anything other than a terrible human being.

xpost I think the dialectic is troubling, but it's also I think a product of poor choice of words. I think he's defining the performers as disposable - even though some of them were A-listers, too!

(Haven't read his article yet.) xpost

And per Maura's fish-in-barrel retort

Really sucks that Maura is shooting at misogynist fish in a privilege barrel

Who called it a defense? I just know him and think he is a good guy. So fucking what? Just saying he's not some fly by night bombthrower asshole, wrongheaded though he may or may not be.

this is irrelevant to the discussion. no one is flaming him personally yet the reason maura preemptively said that is because when someone writes something offense people often immediately rush to clarify that no he's a great person. but it doesn't matter.

Sorry I guess I'm conflating a lot of the externals here, because SFJ did rip on him personally, and Maura's reponse does patronizingly tip toe around that territory.

But that is well within their rights.

i think Maura's post was fine except for that weird, accusatory strawmanning about "Since U Been Gone".