Are You a Swifty?

Who?

Yes, I am.  She's one of my favorite pop artists.

@Baylinor, Yup, she has nothing to offer the audiophiles.

I'll only say I'm forced to listen to her in the car when my daughter asks to play her Spotify list. But it's a limited selection of Swift songs. The song structure is typical of 90% of the pop music out there. And while her musical catalog has matured and changed, as any artist whose entire career has been managed to track music trends, I don't begrudge her success. 

I have other women artists that I prefer who write better material and (in the paraphrased words of Morrissey) whose songs say something to me about my life.

Swift and Kelce are a perfect match for each other. Two highly marketed brands that manufacture success via successful marketing. In Swift's case...coming from a very wealthy family with ties to the music industry to help her "get discovered" and in Kelce's case...having a marketing team market an okay player into a "star"

Mid 50s guy here. I think she’s great. Our adult kids have convinced me to listen critically, and I love lots of her stuff.

She’s the great poet-artist of our age. She’s not Adele or Whitney Houston or Holly Cole in vocal quality. And her voice does not have the character or distinction of Jennifer Warnes or Stevie Nicks or Aretha Franklin.

But her writing is deeply romantic and reminds me of falling in and out of love with my wife of 32 years all over again, including what it would have been like if we hadn’t. She’s the like Shelley or Frost or Dylan of this age.

Moreover, her re-recorded stuff is really well engineered. It sounds great and you are likely to enjoy it if you can tolerate good country or adult contemporary at all. If you’re all jazz and classical it may not be for you, but then you may not be looking for the poetry of words in that instance.

Give "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" a listen. It’s deep. It’s about the universal condition of young heartache. Everyone has felt this -- I hope. You can feel her heartache and your own (current or past) heartache when she sings. A few gems from just this one track:

"You told me about your past thinking your future was me."

"So casually cruel in the name of being honest."

"You who charmed my dad with self-effacing jokes. Sipping coffee like you’re on a late night show. But then he watched me watch the front door all night willing you to come. And he said it’s supposed to be fun . . . turning 21."

"You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath."

There are tons of other songs like this. Give her a serious try if you haven’t.

Happy listening (to whatever you listen to) from a first-time poster.