Taylor Swift's Turning Point: 1989

By RAR

It happens, in the career of every successful pop music artist, that after a time they reach a sort of a Y (or Why?) in their career path. They can go one of two ways. They can either continue to do what they have been doing, and run the risk of stagnating into cultural irrelevance as the world about them changes, or they can think more about their legacy and attempt to do something significant, important, or lastingly memorable. The Beatles came to this point in their career and they evolved to do a higher level of work before disappearing into legend. Bruce Springsteen hit a similar career turn, but without the intellectual horsepower to evolve into some greater form of who he had become, he dissolved into a kind of a caricature of a populist, a little like Lonesome Rhodes from A Face in the Crowd, gambling on the probability that his fans would accept that his millionaire self was still an authentic voice of the working class. It worked for Lonesome Rhodes for a while, and it worked big time for Springsteen, who had his biggest years of money-making success after he became a phony Woody Guthrie pandering to the low common denominator in American culture. (He was proudly born in the USA, worked hard jobs, knew high school friends in their glory days, ran into old flames in bars, visited Nebraska, etc.) Springsteen hung around to become a wealthier mediocrity.

Madonna hit this same point, and became sort of legendary for her perceived skills at career management. She reinvented her look frequently in an effort to stay alive (different from relevant) in a changing commercial youth culture. Her music never changed appreciably, and she certainly never evolved to become anything more than a showgirl. She expanded her acting range, not so effectively in her actual movies, but sufficiently so in the marketing of her music career to remind people that she is still around and was once a big deal.

All of this brings us to Taylor Swift, who at a mere 25 years of age has become the most successful recording artist of our day, but who has now exhausted those themes "that brung her", i.e., high school drama songs. Fabulously wealthy and glamorous, she can no longer portray the dorky underdog who feels over-matched by her cheerleader rivals. So, late last year Swift veered off her native pop country course to reinvent herself as a... well, there's the problem. What is the Taylor Swift that presents herself through her album 1989? She wrote only one track on the album herself, and instead relied on collaborations with a range of pop songwriters, and they produced a multi-producer synthesizer album. Some critics saw parallels to Springsteen's career-changing Tunnel of Love album. Neither 1989 or Tunnel of Love were improvements on their artists' careers, but they were something other than what each had done before. If Springsteen was destined to become Lonesome Rhodes, Swift was headed curiously in the direction of Kelly Clarkson, but with a long, lanky body and commercial associates doing a sort of lightweight hip-hop. If Springsteen became a panderer, Taylor Swift has become an avatar in a superficial and silly virtual reality.

Swift is so powerful in the music industry at this point in history that it seems as if people can't bring themselves to the truth about the new Taylor Swift, which is that 1989 (her birth year) is an awful album.

Welcome to New York - (Swift/Tedder) For some reason people can't write about New York City and capture anything elemental. Certainly Swift doesn't. This track apparently announces that Swift is no longer a Nashville product, but more of a cosmopolitan. Shockingly lame song, utterly inauthentic.

Blank Space - (Swift/Martin/Shellback) A little of Taylor Swift goes a long way. By track two of this album you start to get that feeling that you've consumed too much cotton candy and the carnival has hardly started. Swift is going to be a nightmare vision by the time she reaches middle age, but for now she is utterly full of herself, too cute to live. There is a sleaze factor at work in "Blank Space", a kind of conceit that Taylor does whatever she pleases with her superficial infatuations because she can. She's too rich and special for vulnerability. One wonders how long audiences can put up with that before they turn on her, like a pack of rabid wolves. My guess is that Chrissie Hynde would look at anything that Taylor Swift does on 1989 and determine that she is asking for whatever she gets. The song itself is really kind of like standard Taylor Swift, but with an urban beat.

Style - (Swift/Martin/Shellback/Payami) Swift's 1989 is supposed to take her to new places, but this song is about as fresh as Brittany Spears.

Out of the Woods - (Swift/Antonoff) Another generic synth-rhythm track right off the shelf. It is pretty clear by the third track on this LP that Taylor Swift's songs on this album are just affectations that don't really mean anything. This song is like a faux African tribal expression. An up and comer trying to use this song to sell themselves to a label wouldn't get past the receptionist.

All You Had to Do Was Stay - (Swift/Martin) This song is more or less what Taylor Swift has always done, not better or worse, just Swiftian. For you Taylor Swift fans, "Swiftian" usually refers to work similar to that produced by the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift. He wrote Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal and other pieces, and is generally credited with developing the satirical form in literature, rather like Taylor Swift has elevated the satirical form of teenage confessional songwriting, except that Taylor is probably being serious.

Shake It Off - (Swift/Martin/Shellback) Swift's biggest hit from her 1989 LP has been "Shake It Off", which feels as if it was conceived for the Kids Bop market. Her official video has more than a billion views on YouTube. In her girly prime, Swift has looks and a figure that lend themselves to extraordinary permutations, like a Barbie doll that can be dressed as a nurse, a cheerleader, an Audrey Hepburn, or a hundred other avatars. The lyrics recall the defiant Swift we've heard before, who spits in the face of those who put her down. But who is left to put her down?  If every viewer somehow steals themselves to watch this stupid video 10 times, then Taylor Swift must have 100 million fans scattered around the world with access to YouTube. Is that even possible? I mean to sit through this video and listen to this song 10 times?

I Wish You Would - (Swift/Antonoff) A.M. radio crap circa 1989. This recalls the velvet baloney of great talents like Alannah Myles. Remember her?

Bad Blood - (Swift/Martin/Shellback) Bad rapping by Kendrick Lamar and a repetitive, juvenile catch line. This isn't even a song, but rather a pander to that part of the hip-hop community that has not yet reached the age of consent. Once they do, they will not consent to this faux music, hopefully.

Wildest Dreams - (Swift/Martin/Shellback) Pretty much the Taylor Swift we have always known, just with a pulsating synth. Not terrible, just nothing, really.

How You Get the Girl - (Swift/Martin/Shellback) Kind of standard Taylor Swift stuff. One might get the impression, by this point, that the Swift/Martin/Shellback team has all the juice of potato, just sort of dry and uninteresting.

This Love - (Swift) This song sounds like something some preadolescent came up with in her bedroom as an attempt to mimic current pop conventions. Boo!

I Know Places - (Swift/Tedder) Not really a fully realized song of any kind, just a repetition of a not very interesting hook.

Clean - (Swift/Heap) This song really sounds like Imogen Heap more than it does Taylor Swift. It isn't anything special, but it feels darker and weightier than the other tunes on this album. Taylor Swift is in the odd position of needing some mature woman songwriter to move her out of the molasses under which she has buried herself.