base talk Taylor's biggest innovation is the parasocial relationship. Agreed?

[Revolution]

All once-in-a-generation stars have brought innovations to music.

 

The Beatles: popularized the album as an art form

Michael Jackson: popularized the music video as an art form with iconic dances

Madonna: broke down barriers for female performance art

 

I think Taylor's legacy will be the parasocial relationship. 

 

By dating (exes), befriending (squad) or feuding with (katy, kanye, scooter) famous people publicly and writing personal songs about them, she has made others feel that her exes are their exes, her friends are their friends and her enemies are their enemies. 

 

Do you agree?

 

 

[Infinite]

No lol

[Kimi]

Nah, other acts did it before her.

[perpetual novice]

No? There was huge fan mania and parasocial behaviour for The Beatles and especially Michael Jackson

[Dear Reader]

Just now, perpetual novice said:

No? There was huge fan mania and parasocial behaviour for The Beatles and especially Michael Jackson

And Elvis Presley. 

 

OT: No. 

[Mr.X]

LOL nope. It's not new, and it is mainly called capitalism at play. Sell your own identity, art, life and relationships to capitalise on it.

There's nothing new in her methods, it's just unabashed love for marketing and money.

[byzantium]

You heard it on ATRL first, Taylor Swift invented the intense fandom.  Elvis, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson could never.  

[Revolution]

Olivia copied the parasocial relationship aspect in SOUR era with love triangle drama and WON.

 

But she forgot to copy the parasocial relationship part for GUTS (only copied aspects of Taylor songwriting) and underperformed.

 

Taylor's constant ability to create parasocial relationships will go down in history. We all listen to Taylor albums because we want to live her latest drama.

[Solaria]

No, in fact if we’re talking about women, Madonna had a parasocial relationship with her fans too. She was literally hailed as the first female artist who was able to gather a fanbase on the size of The Beatles or Elvis:

 

Quote

Madonna pioneered a relationship with her fans in Truth or Dare.[183] In 1990, Lisa Lewis wrote that Madonna "was one of the first women to attract the kind of devotion of young female fans normally associated with male rock stars".

 

[Kodak Energy]

Taylor’s legacy will probably be stuff like making songwriting more mainstream for women, fighting for artist rights/ownership and poptimism. 

 

1989 was the catalyst for Max Martin to win his first Grammy and sparked off the whole pop albums high metacritic scores. 
 

The re-recordings brought shady label practices into the light and made new artists with potential like Olivia ask to own their masters. She also got UMG to agree to pay out artists for increases in the share price of their stake in Spotify. 
 

As for songwriting, she was responsible for a massive surge in guitar sales amongst young girls. Bringing gender parity to a male driven instrument. 

[lachiqui_klk]

sorry no lol

 

she didn't invent it and she doesn't even have the biggest parasocial relationship with their fans. kpop is worse

[Solaria]

Taylor’s real innovation is her blend of popstar image and songwriter image being intertwined. The female pop artists that came before her were rarely praised for their lyricism or their songwriting, and if they were it was often retrospectively. But after Taylor we got Billie, Olivia, Maisie Peters, Gracie Abrams, etc. 

[By the Water]

Every male artist ever benefits from parasocial relationships. Except maybe Ed Sheeran

[Taylor fanboy]

[Revolution]

8 minutes ago, lachiqui_klk said:

she didn't invent it and she doesn't even have the biggest parasocial relationship with their fans. kpop is worse

those people don't write personal lyrics or have interesting lives.

[mxoonlight]

You can’t mention the aforementioned acts and act like people weren’t fainting in the streets over them.  

 

It’s not new. The buzz word for it is.

[Dante Silva]

She certainly appears to have had a lot of parasocial experiences with random penises, relatable Kween.

[Gelato]

The concept of a parasocial relationship has existed for decades. Her fans just have particularly strong ones.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Gelato

[Big Bad Wolf]

I guess. She’s so overrated and I’m sick of it. Taylor doesn’t deserve her success, plenty of other pop girls deserve it way more than her. We will look back and be in awe at how much influence the public has given her. 

[Khal]

She definitely didn’t innovate it, but she definitely took it a whole new level, birthing a new generation of parasocial loons. 

[Jay07]

She's definitely the one who weaponized it more effectively by constantly pretending to be a victim, persecuted and an "anti-hero" and making her fans believe they are her best friend and need to defend her and support her constantly when it has been made obvious she is a capitalist billionaire who wouldn't piss on any of them if they were on fire if it meant reducing her net worth. What happened to her at the VMAs was the biggest blessing of her career, she realized she could go from anonymous singer-songwriter to megacelebrity by weaponizing victimhood.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Jay07

[Daddy]

Draining parents' money through children isn't new.  

[lachiqui_klk]

52 minutes ago, Revolution said:

those people don't write personal lyrics or have interesting lives.

that's not the point of the thread though

[Klein]

If there's anything she's mastered and taught the girls regarding parasocial relationship is how to use social media to build a career and a strong, large, and faithful fanbase. No one was doing it like her. But parasocial relationship have always existed. 

 

58 minutes ago, Kodak Energy said:

Taylor’s legacy will probably be stuff like making songwriting more mainstream for women, fighting for artist rights/ownership and poptimism. 

 

1989 was the catalyst for Max Martin to win his first Grammy and sparked off the whole pop albums high metacritic scores. 
 

The re-recordings brought shady label practices into the light and made new artists with potential like Olivia ask to own their masters. She also got UMG to agree to pay out artists for increases in the share price of their stake in Spotify. 
 

As for songwriting, she was responsible for a massive surge in guitar sales amongst young girls. Bringing gender parity to a male driven instrument. 

100% agree with this.

 

I'd add for the songwriting aspect that her influence can also be seen in the proliferation of singer/songwriters since the late 2010/early 2020s.

 

Also, more than just 'poptism', she has also initiated a shift in the way teenage girls in music are seen nowadays. At the time, critics were quick to write off anything a teenage girl would write as inconsequential and childish. Now, teenage girls are taken seriously by the critics.

[littlebodybigheart]

did you just start listening to music yesterday…? this ain’t new