Taylor Swift Glitchy Snake Gifs thread 2017 - Reputation

Bjork, Robbie Wiliams, Blade Runner, The Host, Tron, etc. etc. etc.

There's some Scott Pilgrim and Ex Machina in there too.

Definitely.

Mister Police, You Could Have Saved Taylor From Ripping Off Prometheus pic.twitter.com/Pimj3EDNjz

— Josh Kurp (@JoshKurp) October 27, 2017

Sounds much more like a hit than the second single.

i hate all these heavily referential but conceptually muddy joseph kahn videos

i do like this song tho

Eh. My problem with all of the singles so far -- musically, leaving lyrics aside -- is that the whole lite-R&B shtick just doesn't play to her strengths as a singer or melodicist. She's always been rhythmically awkward, she can't pull off these verses even as well as Katy Perry.

The whole presentation of this album so far just feels very Trying Too Hard.

Video is self-parody. Singing about her exes, feel like I'm stuck in a time warp.

She should have pulled a Chris Gaines.

I don't get out enough to notice, but have any of these, what, 4 singles gotten much exposure? I know after the first one came out my kids told me they hated it, but they haven't mentioned any of the others, nor have I heard them out and about. Vs. the last album, which was pretty ubiquitous.

The whole presentation of this album so far just feels very Trying Too Hard.

This has been my read of Taylor's entire MO since at least Red, if not earlier.

I don't get out enough to notice, but have any of these, what, 4 singles gotten much exposure?

I was checking the status of a package from UPS the other day and their site is covered in Taylor Swift stuff. Only promo I've seen.

"Look What You Made Me Do" was being used as cutaway music during the one NFL broadcast I skipped through this year. I also noticed it in another sport but can't remember what it was.

LWYMMD is currently #10 on Billboard Hto 100 fwiw, Ready For It at #52

"Ready For It" (just the instrumental) was used as NBA interstitial music in at least one thing I saw

Huh, so youtube streams account for at least part of chart placement now? Anyway, looks like "Gorgeous" did/is doing/is going to debut well. That was the third song?

"Ready For It" went to radio a couple weeks ago even though it was supposed to be a promotional single (or maybe it was always supposed to be a single, who the fuck knows anymore)

Vs. the last album, which was pretty ubiquitous.

maybe you're just not ordering as much pizza lately?

"Look What You Made Me Do" was being used as cutaway music during the one NFL broadcast I skipped through this year. I also noticed it in another sport but can't remember what it was.

ABC was using it in ads/bumpers to promote the fall premieres of the Shondra shows.

"ready for it" feels much more sports broadcast cutaway music, like it was made for that purpose honestly.

it should be noted that "look what you made me do" is undergoing a decline of historic proportions at radio -- its current #10 hot 100 ranking was down from #4 the week it was topping the mainstream pop format's airplay chart, and with things continuing at the rate they have been (both sales and streams had long cooled off already) it will probably sink beneath the hot 100's top 20 next week.

more detail:

As "Look" drops from No. 1 to No. 7 on Pop Songs, marking the steepest fall from the top in the chart's 25-year history, it concurrently plunges from No. 5 (its peak) to No. 20 on Radio Songs, where it's likewise the biggest fall from the top five since the chart began in 1990; it passes the 5-16 descent of Kanye West's "Gold Digger," featuring Jamie Foxx (Dec. 24, 2005).

(the song it stole the pop songs record from was shaggy's "angel", which had been #1 for 8 weeks on the format before it started getting dropped -- like "gold digger", it was a legit radio smash before radio started burning out on it. by contrast, "look what you made me do" jumped very suddenly to #1 on pop radio then started dropping like an anchor basically immediately after.)

"Ready For It" (just the instrumental) was used as NBA interstitial music in at least one thing I saw

I'm amazed you were able to recognize it. Not one of these songs that I've heard has been even the slightest bit memorable, and without the vocals I would expect the forgettability factor to jump by 1000%.

My problem with all of the singles so far -- musically, leaving lyrics aside -- is that the whole lite-R&B shtick just doesn't play to her strengths as a singer or melodicist. She's always been rhythmically awkward, she can't pull off these verses even as well as Katy Perry.

my cynical but honest interpretation of the musical direction we've so far seen from this project is that taylor and her team have noticed that since the 1989 cycle ended, white, adult contemporary-friendly music (which, sorry, 1989 was) no longer draws the feverish levels of consumption they seem to be aiming for anymore, especially with streaming services being as influential as they are. (the numbers do bear this out: songs that are basically only big at black and crossover radio are now routinely topping the charts, buoyed by streams, while many of the biggest hits leaning toward the white/ac side of things are routinely missing the top 10 even as they top the pop airplay charts.)

it's somewhat telling imo that the first format with an announced impact date for "ready for it" was rhythmic, which is the crossover format that currently spins the hell out of cardi b and post malone but also gives quite decent play to e.g. lecrae, nf, and j balvin. basically, in today's climate it may have seemed wise to aim for an r&b-lite sound that could rake in heavy streams and find a home on the formats of radio that are likely to become even more influential as the pendulum continues to swing. but so far rhythmic radio is not biting (and unsurprisingly, despite the strong past support, ac is largely ignoring her this go-around) and the streaming numbers outside of impact-week and youtube have been pretty lackluster.

but at least "gorgeous" is out there now so they can see whether the ship can be righted :)

oh and none of that is to say that the r&b-lite approach is necessarily doomed to fail for (white) "pop" artists like taylor swift -- for instance, demi lovato is basically on that path right now with her single "sorry not sorry", and it seems to have worked out quite well

Well, Demi Lovato can sing much, much better than Taylor can, which is kind of important when trying to sell this stuff.

i had this weird moment today where i imagined that all the singles and videos released so far weren’t actually the album and the album itself (the one UPS is delivering to your door...) is 100% different and Red 2.0 and no one knows what’s on it. but that would be actually insane.

Would be great if she just sent an actually physically copy to everyone, one-upping U2, but made them C.O.D..

I mean the cynical explanation for "Ready For It" suddenly getting a radio push is so radio people could be like "THANK GOD WE CAN STOP PLAYING THE OTHER ONE"

(fwiw the first of the two singles I heard out in the wild was not 'Look What You Made Me Do' -- I don't think I've ever heard that out in the wild actually)

i have. it is a joyless experience.

underwhelming Katy and Taylor albums back to back is some end-of-an-era shit. or sumthin.

That can only portend one thing.

http://bravewords-public.s3.amazonaws.com/images/p195har8tc1rqe1k92mfpo1d11rq4.jpg

https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/katy-perry-taylor-swift.jpg?quality=90&strip=all

i spent some time going down the rabbit hole of taylor's tumblr likes today

what did you find

underwhelming Katy and Taylor albums back to back is some end-of-an-era shit. or sumthin.

she likes things that talk about her

http://lifeofswiftie89.tumblr.com/post/166838927350/she-was-caged-she-felt-trapped-she-felt

xp yeah don't get me wrong i really like a couple of the tunes too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V54CEElTF_U

makin farts under covers

so it's not a tesla cover

i rolled my eyes at the first several lines but otherwise i actually kinda like this one, the production feels good

So '90s.

seems she's given up on storytelling, it's all statements

very otm

good song

Glitchy Snake Gifs will always be the name of this album to me

otm

True :)

Not a good song though. "I want to wear you initials around my neck". Ok... I stand by what I said upthread. Everything about the new songs feels like complete digression. It's like she lashed out at her critics once (Look what you made me do), but after that crawled up into known territory and resorted to songs that were also written ten years ago. I don't get it. It's not even a lack of progress, it's a huge, defensive step back.

regression damnit, not digression

so it's not a tesla cover

I thought that too.

This song stinks.