base talk Why is there such a massive gap between Taylor and every other girl?

[futuresuperstar2023]

Also Taylor discography as a whole is not bad. Her songs is not necessarily my cup of tea but I can see the appeal in her music. I think if her music was panned she wouldn't be as popular either

[TROPICUM]

she was already a text book pop star but her musical change to be a little more laid back/poetry but still ver much pop made her the perfect artist to be digested by the public 

 

 

also when you make an album like Evermore success is bound to happen 

 

 

[Communion]

17 minutes ago, =NEX= said:

Didn't Kesha have a similar narrative of not being able to record/release/own her music + the whole Dr Luke scandal? 

Trying to compare Taylor not liking who owned her former record label to someone stuck in a contract with their rapist is a bit.... odd.

 

The more reasonable comparison that wouldn't make you look defensive would be how Jojo's re-recordings didn't do much for her commercially, but again highlights how rare these situations are, let alone voluntary. Jojo had to re-record her songs because the owner of her past label simply decided they wouldn't put her music online.

 

Taylor took it upon herself to re-record her music because she didn't want to let the person who bought them benefit (which is fair!). But the music was there for people to still consume and know. Fans can eagerly track the progress of "Taylor Versions" over-taking "Stolen Versions" in streams. In Jojo's case.. there was no original versions! 

 

Jojo also had 1.5 hits compared to Taylor being one of the biggest modern pop girls at the time. Trying to deny the impact of the Scooter saga is so silly since.. she won it! She quite literally walked away from a situation that upset her as the victor with a new launchpad!

Edited March 10 by Communion

[NEX]

1 minute ago, BrandNewBrandon said:

Kesha has never been in the tier of MPGs. She was very big but always trailed behind Gaga, Katy, Taylor, Rihanna, Beyoncé. If someone like Beyoncé or Gaga had such a fight with their label it would cause massive traction and attention as well and success in one way or another. 

 

You simply cannot compare Kesha to Taylor. Two different leagues. 

Did Kesha get returns similar to her previous league or did she flop into oblivion despite the highly publicised battle? No need to make excuses for anyone in order to diminish Taylor's achievement with her re-recordings. There's simply no other parallel to draw from. A re-recording of a 10 year old album that opened with 1.2m first week sales opened with ~40% more sales than the original. Re-releases normally sell a fraction of the original and artists and lebel do their best to stuff those editions with a ton of new material. At best they end up charting at the lower reaches of the Top 10 for a week and then vanish. 

[NEX]

3 minutes ago, Communion said:

Trying to compare Taylor not liking who owned her former record label to someone stuck in a contract with their rapist is a bit.... odd.

The comparison was made because the member tried to imply Taylor was getting pity streams and sales because of her saga. If that was the case Kesha would have gotten (comparatively) a lot more pity streams and sales from her much more difficult and tragic situation. Your righteous interjection was not needed, as per. 

[BrandNewBrandon]

9 minutes ago, =NEX= said:

Did Kesha get returns similar to her previous league or did she flop into oblivion despite the highly publicised battle? No need to make excuses for anyone in order to diminish Taylor's achievement with her re-recordings. There's simply no other parallel to draw from. A re-recording of a 10 year old album that opened with 1.2m first week sales opened with ~40% more sales than the original. Re-releases normally sell a fraction of the original and artists and lebel do their best to stuff those editions with a ton of new material. At best they end up charting at the lower reaches of the Top 10 for a week and then vanish. 

The point is that you stated Kesha as an example and implied what Taylor did only she could do when - as you mentioned yourself - we have no other examples to draw from as there have not been any MPGs to do what Taylor did. Kesha was never a MPG. 

 

That's like comparing Beyoncé's second album first week sales to those of Ciara's. Two different leagues. And most importantly a dedicated fanbase. Like, what is Kesha's fandom even named? Beyoncé or Gaga, just like Taylor, would cause massive traction to the same situation because of their big and loyal fanbases and media recognition but because none of these MPGs apart from Taylor have ever done the re-recording thing you cannot properly compare it. Comparing it to Kesha doesn't do it.  

Edited March 10 by BrandNewBrandon

[wowsignal14]

she has cross generational appeal. 

[Communion]

12 minutes ago, =NEX= said:

The comparison was made because the member tried to imply Taylor was getting pity streams and sales because of her saga.

This language is weird and I'm weirded out that in your assumption that a user thinks people "pitied" Taylor you find the need to bring up a rape victim.

It's not suggesting people "pitied" someone to recognize that major news sparks greater public interest in someone. 

 

Things like highly publicized divorces or major life changes bring many pop girls greater publicity and attention.

Something like the Manchester bombing and Ariana's response renewed interest in Ariana and Sweetener.

It's not "pity" to recognize when public consciousness becomes more sympathetic.

 

Bringing up Kesha is unserious because many pop stars have no hurdles in releasing music when these major events occur. Taylor herself didn't - she literally signed a new deal in tandem with leaving Big Machine. In comparison, Dr. Luke blocked Kesha from releasing for years (thus dwindling public interest in her) while also tarring her in the media, claiming she was lying about being raped.

 

Again, someone like Jojo is a reasonable comparison that Taylor's already huge success (of her own creation) uniquely positioned her, yes, but also the event she experienced was unique in itself. Do you really think the Scooter saga didn't fundamentally change the trajectory of her career?

 

"She's a good writer" is silly of an argument because she's always been a good writer. She was a good writer when Lover was doing poorer than rep and her career was looking to be on a downward trajectory. You can't have an honest discussion of how Taylor is where she is if you can't acknowledge how she garnered the events to be in her favor.

Edited March 10 by Communion

[Karla Cabello]

she is a cia psyop

[elincomprendid]

46 minutes ago, Comedor said:

Have you seen pics of her concert + movie theater? A big part of her fan base are children.

Well thats usually what happens when you have the biggest public reach every generation is interested…

 

if you are a dying pop star only older people will go to your concerts/movies

[slw84]

Great songwriting

Savvy business moves

Role model image

Inspired and influenced by diamond album sellers like Britney, Shania, and Mariah (songwriting)

Relatable

Simple YET effective content

Versatility in content

Looks

Vibes

Energy

Determination

Drive

Cross-generational appeal

Keeping her pulse on what is needed in pop culture

Captures pop culture moments like a snapshot in time without trying too hard.

sprinkled with privilege, too

[makeme]

marketing + she works harder

Edited March 10 by makeme

[elincomprendid]

Imo the “answer” is pretty much simpler, she covers a place in the music industry and specially for female artists that no one else had.

Almost all other female pop stars you can always go back and say this reminds me of “x” artist meanwhile Taylor has always stayed on her own invented line.

 

Its a similar case to why Drake became the biggest rapper, he was the first to make rap more “sensible” something most other rappers dont do.

 

This “unique” pov plus her talent, and hardworking of Taylor is just a killing combo.

[Miley Cyrus]

I was told her mediocrity and not excelling in any specific field is a big contributing factor in her mass appeal to the GP

 

[princedonte]

She gave the Illuminati the best sacrifices over everyone else. 

[BrentB]

The Aryan princess did that! Also, plenty of her casual fans and stans, from across the globe, look to her as this safe, non-polarizing benchmark of Americana, beauty, youthfulness & femininity that they model aspects of their own life after. Acts like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Ariana could never reach her trajectory since their material & image is too provocative or polarizing to the GP. Like Ariana, for instance, could have EASILY taken Taylor's current trajectory if she had recorded  less racy songs, kept that Lolita imagery & was less R&B influenced. And Katy (despite having plenty of Kids Bop hits under her belt) is still largely considered as a sex symbol of the early 2010s who got that career-ending haircut in 2017 & went "woke." And acts like Beyonce will always be 2nd to her in terms of overall popularity due to obvious reasons (many that I've already previously mentioned). 

 

 

Edited March 10 by BrentB

[The Music Industry]

Having the greatest discography of all time helps

 

[wastedpotential]

One part talent, one part business acumen, and one part luck.

 

As has already been said more eloquently than I could manage, she strikes a unique balance between lyrical specificity and universality that comes from her years in Nashville. She tells her own story, but in a way which makes it easy for the listener to cast themselves and their lives into the songs.

 

She's always had a finger on the pulse of the industry, particularly on her role within the industry and how best to market herself. She's never been afraid of making a hard genre or image pivot, and because it's always been based on her understanding of her place in the industry (as opposed to trend hopping/chasing), it's always been received by the public to be authentic and genuine.

 

Finally, she came up and hit it big in the industry at the perfect moment in time. She'd already established an incredibly strong fanbase (with a precedent of buying music) before almost instantly becoming a household name in the week after the VMAs in 2009, long before the weakening of the monoculture. Because she was a country act who just had success with crossover hits, she was able to pivot her career into pop with the Red singles/1989, which were, for the most part, good pop songs that had wide-reaching success in a time when people like Meghan Trainor and Jason Derulo were clogging the radio. Her crusade against Spotify, though delaying her streaming dominance, came alongside securing the narrative that real Swifties buy the music (though this has lessened significantly with time). Then of course, during the reputation era/snakegate she basically purged her fanbase of everyone who wasn't a ride-or-die, because she was a sinking ship and only people who were really there for her were going to stick around. While the majority of the casual listeners have come back and have been joined by millions of new fans, the fact that there was about a 3 year period where the only people brave enough to talk about Taylor Swift on the internet were the obsessed fans meant that the discourse and parasocial relationship were forged deep. Then the Masters situation/surprise releases played out in a way that drove immense public interest in her, at the exact same time that every other pop girl she was competing with took a career nosedive or retired, leaving her as the only A-lister left. I'd say it was the release of Red TV where she hit critical mass and began attracting fans because she was the only game left in town, because there's an innate human interest in liking popular things and she was one of the only popular things left in pop music. Finally, these millions and millions of new fans around the world have been fed with 1-2 albums each year, all while being indoctrinated in Swiftie customs of buying albums and entering into a culture of deep parasocial bonds. She's also been helped by a few random circumstances along the way (like randomly entering into a relationship with a very high profile athlete after a long history of dating artistic British twinks), which just adds to the irreplicability of her career (no matter how much some girls try). 

 

Basically, she was able to gather about 75% of all people under the age of 35 in Anglosphere countries (and the Philippines lol) as fans by 2021, and has been spreading her influence (via her critical cultural mass) to older people and to the rest of the world. 

[Raptus]

She's the chicken meat of music world- plain, basic and easy digestible

 

 

 

 

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

3 hours ago, Erreur2 La Nature said:

She is extremely basic, bland and relatable, which is what the gp loves the most.

I agree with this 100%. Also don’t forget the white privileged. 

[The Music Industry]

7 minutes ago, BeenThereDoneThat said:

I agree with this 100%. Also don’t forget the white privileged. 

Yeah, she has white privilege as opposed to the thousands of other white artists who can't have a tenth of her success

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

3 minutes ago, The Music Industry said:

Yeah, she has white privilege as opposed to the thousands of other white artists who can't have a tenth of her success

 

Not you denying Taylor’s white privilege. 
 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

51 minutes ago, The Music Industry said:

Having the greatest discography of all time helps

 

Not you calling Taylor’s nursery rhymes the greatest catalog of all time. 
 

[taylorrrr]

"Songwriting is an asset that's able to give you a career with longevity” - Mariah Carey.

[Extremely Stable]

Sheer talent