Speak Now
Posted by: ina on: November 1, 2010
Taylor Swift - Speak Now
Last week, on my commute back home one day, the train experienced delays. I had nothing to read and I had managed to mess up the one side I had completed on my Rubics cube (yet again), so I decided to just read something light. I went on my smartphone and News.Googled Taylor Swift. Maybe I’d catch a glimpse of what critics are saying of her new Album titled “Speak Now” (released Oct 25th). I was not prepared for what I found.
Turns out that LAST YEAR this critic called Bob Lefsetz (former entertainment lawyer whose opinion apparently matters) had said a few things about our Tay Tay that were not very flattering. He claims she can’t sing and probably HAS to use something called an “auto tune” in order to sound on key. Mind you, this is after he had written a rave after going to one of her awesome concerts.
Taylor didn’t take this sitting down. She called him up and had a long conversation with him to address his comments. Bob said she was intelligent and had full domain of certain topics. She assured him she doesn’t use am auto-tune and wouldn’t even know what one looked like if it was put in front of her. She even invited him to check out her equipment. Then he said he still stood by his opinion that she can’t sing. She laughed it off and said she could take that, but what she could not take was any claim that accused her of being inauthentic.
Then there were claims that her new song “Mean” was about him. I can see it, after all, she does say:
♪ Nobody’s listening,
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things,
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing ♪
I don’t really care what this dude has to say. People don’t come to Taylor’s concerts to hear an Aria. They come because they love her and love singing along and love that she cares about them so much. She’s a real-life Barbie doll who inspires young girls the way that the Barbie comics used to inspire me when I was 9. Barbie was always so kind to others, so loved, so humble, so daring, so adventurous, that I really wanted to be like her. That’s the impact our dear Tay Tay has on her fans. Can she sing? Well, of COURSE she can. Put her up on a stage with a mike and she certainly makes it sound good (as a karaoke aficionado, I can attest to the fact that it is HARD to sound good on a microphone). Now, does she have the vocal range of Martina McBride or Carrie Underwood? Definitely not, but that’s not Taylor’s hook anyway, so who cares?
I do have a confession to make, though. After reading these critiques, I see Taylor in a different light.
You see, we, the fans, are completely sheltered from the bad stuff because we follow Taylor on Twitter, Facebook, mySpace or through her very-fan-oriented TaylorSwift.com site, where no bad stuff ever enters. We follow her bandmates on Twitter, and we delight ourselves in knowing which country they are visiting at the moment, which TV show they are playing on, and learning what great foods they ate along the way. There is never talk about anything bad, and I really appreciated that. It fed our perfect fantasy.
Now that I realize, like Bob Lefsetz, that Taylor’s love stories are no longer anonymous, she’s going to have to take a deep breath and accept the consequences that her stories belong to those who participated in them also, and not just her. People will lash out, respond, and create a second side to Taylor’s songs. Did she know this was coming? I really didn’t see it coming… but I guess it makes sense.
So now that I know that “Mean” is about Bob, that “Dear John” and “The Story of Us” are both about John Mayer, that “Back to December” is about Taylor Lautner, that “Last Kiss” is about Joe Jonas, and that “Better than Revenge” is about Camilla Belle (stealing Joe away), I have to say that I am a bit scared for Taylor. She’s a very nice person with real feelings and a lot of class, and it must feel like nails on a chalkboard to see that her letters, which will continue to make her famous, are targetting people who have their own fans and defense. It’s as if her personal diary had been plastered all over the news… but she was the one who leaked it.
I feel very uncomfortable with this way of lashing out at the world. I know she can only write what she knows, and her own feelings are what she knows… but writing letters to her past boyfriends in such a public way may backlash.
I just hope she can start seeing the difference between being authentic and airing out your dirty laundry. It’s not classy, it’s not necessary, and it’s not her.
ina
November 18, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Ina, your comments are well-written, thoughtful and balanced, but in fairness to Swift she has only ever used TWO persons actual names in her songs: Abigail (in “15″) and Drew. “Dear John” is a common idiom used to say so long to a boy of any name; she has never acknowledged it was about Mayer.
Yes, people who know her story can look at her little clues (spelled out in capital letters) and can figure out who the songs are about. And maybe John or Joe will respond. So what? Taylor doesn’t seem afraid to be challenged. Joe already did — he said his girl was “much better”; Taylor came with “show me how much better you are.” Hilarious! This stuff is nothing new. Oscar Wilde was famous for it; rap artists do it regularly.
Writing about her life is intrinsic to the nature of Swift’s songwriting, her art. It’s unique … and it’s honest.
Personally I would love hear a song called:
“Hey there, Mr. Know-it-all, Bob Lefsetz, you said my career was dead in the water after the Grammy’s … and I just sold over a MILLION albums in one week! Guess some someone was WRONG And a liar. And pathetic!!!”
November 19, 2010 at 6:45 am
I love your perspective, and I hope you’re right: I hope it’s not that big a deal and she’s able to get out of this in the same high spirits that have always defined her. She said on an interview that she officially stopped reading stuff about herself — that’s healthy.
Oh, and hey, don’t forget about Cory in Beautiful and Stephen in Hey Stephen!
Thanks for your comment!!