Newsletter (2017-2018) January 2018 Newsletter | Page 21

(2014), also her first pop album. Her new releas-
es are even more pop-like and electronic. My
prediction was correct. Critics see Reputation as
a defining highlight of pop music in this decade,
and Taylor has been dubbed a pop mastermind.
The opening track, “…Ready for It?” ushers in
the era of Taylor’s electropop music, and the
third track, “I Did Something Bad,” accompa-
nied by pounding beats in the chorus, reveals
a darker side of her: she is unapologetic about
her past relationships, even though the media
has accused her of cheating in her love affairs.
Everything from Reputation sounds innovative
and dauntless so far, but I assume that I am not
the only one who keeps thinking about whether
Taylor has cut herself off from her country be-
ginnings, or even from her genuine self.
the vibes of her older work—the light, delicate
production in the former case, and the simple in-
struments and tearjerker lyrics in the latter.
I know there must be some fans who miss the old
Taylor a lot, and I sometimes feel the same way
when I play her old albums on my phone. But,
realistically, who does not change? We all change
for some reason. If you were Taylor, you might
also have to diversify your music styles, so that
your fans would constantly be surprised. This is
exactly how the game works. Business-wise, the
shift is a smart decision because the only way
to sustain staying in the highest echelons of fe-
male singers is to keep up with the current mu-
sic trends. EDM, synth-pop and electropop have
been the mainstream in this century.
Big names like Katy Perry and Rihanna became
famous and influential because they have re-
leased music in this genre these past few years.
Taylor has written four country-oriented albums
and she is now approaching her thirties, so she
has no time to idle away her youth and must ex-
periment with music styles that she is curious
about. The same applies to us, too. I see youth
as a treasure chest that everyone can only open
once in the lifetime, and it is shut in the blink
of an eye. Life has various possibilities, and we
should try out different things while we are still
young.
I am not a professional music critic or highly-de-
voted Swiftie, but to me, she is still the same
Taylor as she was in 2006 when she released her
debut and self-titled album. She has seemingly
assimilated into generic pop music nowadays.
For example, in “Look What You Made Me Do”,
the hook is repeated 8 times in the chorus, just
as the girl band Fifth Harmony chants the word
“work” twenty-eight times during the chorus of
the smash hit “Work from Home”. It seems like
the way to compose a Top Ten song is simply
by repeating the same word again and again to
make the song catchier, and Taylor has given a
nod to this kind of songwriting.
But maybe Taylor is right: the old Taylor is real-
ly dead, in a sense that she keeps re-inventing
Yet she also recently wrote a country song for the herself and there is always a brand new Taylor
band Little Big Town called “Better Man”, which waiting for you. Are you “…Ready for It?”
won Song of the Year at the 2017 Country Music
Association Awards. In this way, we know that
she has not completely separated herself from
the country music community. In fact, this song
is actually reminiscent of her previous work
such as Speak Now (2010) and Red (2012). In my
opinion, Red is still her best work to date, since
she managed to seamlessly combine a diversi-
A language geek, a mu-
ty of musical genres such as country, folk pop
sic nerd and an educator
and pop rock, as can be seen in tracks like “Be-
studying English
gin Again”, “All Too Well” and “State of Grace”.
education.
There was a sudden and unpredictable change
when “Shake It Off” was dropped in 2014, serv-
I am Sing and I sing.
ing as her lead single from 1989. This marked her
departure from country to pop, although some
of her songs in Reputation, such as “Call it What
You Want” and “New Year’s Day” remind me of
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JANUARY 2018