I have to confess that other than that she was the girl Kanye interrupted there’s not a whole lot I know about Taylor Swift. Apparently I’m not missing much though… here’s an infographic about the themes and motiffs of her songs. It’s probably slanderously simplistic. But I like it. So there.
From here (an article that is doubtlessly slanderous in its views – perhaps justifiably so).
If Swift’s work connects with teenage girls, it does so on the most simplistic, reductive territory of all: pining for boys, walking in the rain, kissing in the rain, crying drops of tears on her guitar, driving in trucks with cool boys, wanting boys she can’t have, more rain, more letter-writing, more stalking, more broken hearts, breathing problems as a side-effect of broken hearts, fairytale princess this, white horse that, more pining at the window, more psuedo-stalking, more incomplete hearts yearning for your touch, and one song that misinterprets Shakespeare and The Scarlet Letter so criminally I’m certain she’s never read either.
Swift simply hasn’t had the life experience and doesn’t inherently possess the emotional maturity to create great art. Which is fine — most young pop stars don’t, which is why they don’t win Grammys.
Nice.