I just feel like she became that corporate machine that's just here to make money. Even her wedding is starting to feel like the most soulless event of all times and her future husband being the most Americanized person doesn't help.

Do you miss the folkmore eras Taylor ? Or the Midnights Taylor ?

Like she knew she was good and was humble but not cocky now she just thinks she's invincible.

I'm just going to talk about the music here.

Debut to Reputation was a perfect 6 album run, but then it all changed with Lover.

Lowkey ever since she left Big Machine Records and had full creative control, quality control has dipped and fluctuates with every release.

Scott Borchetta was a terrible man, but he would have never allowed songs like ME! to see the light of day.

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Timeless

I don't miss the old her nor I need the current her.

She's a billionaire with unlimited resources, the biggest fanbase on Earth, complete creative freedom, and the industry wrapped around her finger yet she still approaches artistic risk 20 years later like she's applying for a mortgage.

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Ribbit

imo, the old Taylor never left. The Taylor we see now is still the relatable, desperately uncool (not in a bad way) girl she's always been. It's how she chooses to interact with the public and how much she lets us into her personal life that's changed, really...

I don't see her as cocky at all…

Edited June 23Jun 23 by AvrilMoonlight

Yes. I used to be such a huge fan.

The music is extremely bad, but her personality has become egregious. I can usually ignore when an artist is being annoying if the music is good, but...

uh...

10 minutes ago, ugo said:

I just feel like she became that corporate machine that's just here to make money.

10 minutes ago, ugo said:

Do you miss the folkmore eras Taylor ? Or the Midnights Taylor ?

Mind you Taylor always had a capitalist mindset. Folklore and Midnights had multiple vinyl variants as well, so I don't understand this argument.

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Timeless

8 minutes ago, ugo said:

I just feel like she became that corporate machine that's just here to make money.

Do you miss the folkmore eras Taylor ? Or the Midnights Taylor ?

Speaking as a Swiftie... Naming these 2 eras specifically is really funny to me, because everything she gets critiqued for as a capitalist, she was already doing with those albums. Folklore had cover variants, and so did Midnights, which had different songs on different versions. Go even further back, 1989 was physical-only and you were encouraged to buy duplicates for a polaroid collection. But most people can agree that 1989 was an iconic pop album regardless.

Is "new" bad? Are people going to look back on Tortured Poets and maybe even Showgirl fondly when we get TS13/14? Is that what's happening?

5 minutes ago, Timeless said:

I'm just going to talk about the music here.

Debut to Reputation was a perfect 6 album run, but then it all changed with Lover.

Lowkey ever since she left Big Machine Records and had full creative control, quality control has dipped and fluctuates with every release.

Scott Borchetta was a terrible man, but he would have never allowed songs like ME! to see the light of day.

Ya'll weren't calling Reputation a "perfect" album at all when it first dropped. I know because I was there. Both critics and a lot of pop forums at the time were criticizing it.

Also, Taylor was just as vilified as she is today when that album dropped. Hence, why she essentially embraces the "villain role" for the concept of the album and even calls herself a snake.

This was back when the Internet believed Kanye and Kim about the phone call situation and people started hating on Taylor a lot online, calling her a snake and pushing the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty hashtag.

The revisionist history behind Reputation's reception needs to be studied.

You're high off of nostalgia if you think that album is anywhere as well received as Folklore, Evermore, Red(TV), and Fearless(TV). I'd even say that Midnights is EASILY better than that album. Nostalgia and Taylor fatigue is removing all sorts of objectivity among you guys.

Let's be real.

75% of Taylor Swift hate online is because of who she is and not due to her actual music.

Showgirl was a poor album for sure but ya'll already had the pitchforks out before it even dropped. A lot of people here can't even articulate why Midnights is a "bad/poor" album that doesn't involve being upset that it's not a continuation of Folkmore.

Taylor Swift is a Blonde multibillionaire capitalist who prioritizes her brand as much as her music career and lives a lavish life. That alone will give you a lot of hate online.

I'm a Madonna fan so I can tell you outside of pop spaces, Madonna gets tons of hate too. I've seen people disrespect Madonna as a person and an artist. Even the "hee hee" Moonwalkers seem to resent Madonna for some reason. It is what it is.

do people not remember how many remixes willow had

Edited June 23Jun 23 by dobrevv

no, she's always been like this. but i would overlook it because at least the music was quality. now it's just bad music and rabid, annoying, delusional fans

Anytime I think of the fond memories I associate with her in my own personal golden era of her career (Red through 1989), I realize it's less about her and more about the nostalgia I have for my life during that time because her music is intertwined in those memories

She died.

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Taylor fanboy

shes always been a corporate machine but at least the music was better, may not have been fond of midnights at release but it has far more redeeming qualities than tloas which just has a couple of catchy choruses going for it

Yes. As some have said above, she's always been corporate and cookie cutter (which is fine all the mpgs are) but at least her older work feels effortful and like it has some meaning. Her last 2 efforts have felt like a cash grab, TLOAS especially. It genuinely reads like an in-joke to me between her and her team of them saying "let's see how successful I still can be even when I release fodder". Comparing TLOAS to even recent efforts like Midnights feels like comparing two different artists.

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Jack!

38 minutes ago, Storm653 said:

Ya'll weren't calling Reputation a "perfect" album at all when it first dropped. I know because I was there. Both critics and a lot of pop forums at the time were criticizing it.

I remember ALL of atrl made fun of the album. It grew on a lot of us.

50 minutes ago, Timeless said:

Lowkey ever since she left Big Machine Records and had full creative control, quality control has dipped and fluctuates with every release.

This is my main complaint about Taylor Swift nowadays. Ever since Midnights I feel like many of her songs sound like demo mixes. TTPD has a great album hidden in there but i'm sure she recorded Showgirl with the build in microphone from her iPhone

58 minutes ago, ugo said:

I just feel like she became that corporate machine that's just here to make money. Even her wedding is starting to feel like the most soulless event of all times and her future husband being the most Americanized person doesn't help.

Do you miss the folkmore eras Taylor ? Or the Midnights Taylor ?

Like she knew she was good and was humble but not cocky now she just thinks she's invincible.

This is mostly because of how the media depicts Taylor, not because of how she acts.

Example: There's zero actual info on her wedding, all that you know about is from tabloids or stans speculating. This is not something she has control over.

The private jet? She got her first in 2011, during the Speak Now era, basically as the "old Taylor" that you speak of.

Variants? The original 1989 famously had countless collectible polaroids.

And does it really make someone that much more "humble" or relatable if they're worth 200 million instead of a billion?

What I'm trying to say that she actually hasn't changed, the narrative around her has. If you watched her Songwriters Hall of Fame speech, it's pretty obvious she's the same person that she's always been.

Yeah, I miss the old Taylor that was supportive of the next generation of artists and did not steal from them and bully them into submission.

The thing about Taylor in my opinion and I think TLOASG proves this image/narrative very well is that she's less for the arts now and more for the charts. Max Martin and Shellback could've very well given her a hot 1989 esque album (Ariana proves he's never stopped making hits) but she failed to listen and made bland music on that record. Also the rushed timing was very odd, I feel like she could've recorded the max martin project / album AFTER the tour.

The thread serving this

But, with Midnights it's clear she started taking a commodity first artistry last approach to making music

the old Taylor is the same as the the young Taylor

OP seems confused

Haven't liked anything she's put out since evermore apart from the odd song here and there so yeah. As others said she's always been a good bussinesswoman but I feel like she's now really compromising her art. Showgirl doesn't feel genuine at all, TTPD was a bloated mess it's just a shame cos she still has the talent. It just feels like she doesn't care anymore.

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Mikeymoonshine

I really miss the way Taylor was making every release a big moment for her career, it all started with folklore & evermore during 2020, then we have Taylor's Version specially Red TV like I remember going so excited after school for my coffee on Starbucks I was 16.

Now, Midnights was so special like she was EVERYWHERE I remember when it came out and all the nostalgia with the spooky ghost trend and Anti-Hero.

The Eras Tour for me was the peak of this New Taylor Era that started with Lover, I really enjoyed TTPD even if it was really destroyed by media only because of her success but now with TLOAS it seems she pulled this once to get back to the Top of the charts with the singles but more than that... not even her serms excited about it and it makes me kinda sad.

I'm sure she can still pull an amazing rollout and emotional album for her next era but she needs to have a break like I don't want her to release something just to top #1 and then never say nothing about it.

I dont miss old tay but here some of my takes about current taylor:

MUSIC:

Her creativity, in my opinion, is not gone. Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department were fun melancholic records (could been better but they were not bad), and Showgirl was intended as a lighter non serious album, lyric-content-wise as a palatte cleanser from the sadness. If we talk about reinventions, to be fair, Taylor has never really been someone who goes extremely far. We are expecting her to be like FKA twigs when she usually takes a middle ground. Yes, she has been innovative, but it was never something completely radical. So we are building expectations in our heads that don't really exist. Folklore doesn't stray that far from Red. But yes, the next era should be more introspective or move a bit away from the synth-pop lane into something new. There's a need for something more conceptual and ethereal or new genre shift. I think a visual album would be the best decision specially cause is her T13 album. She loves the number 13 for the ones unaware of it

I also wonder if she's just tired of music (needs a rest) but her inner self is like...........if i dont release music i will lose my crown
i need to keep workin and doin and winning everything. Im gettin old oh my god. Im lookin haggy lately

ROMANCE:

There are some theories that she didn't want to break up with Joe, but things just went wrong. Then she regretted it so bad, but it was too late. After that, Matty and Travis were the rebounds. There's also a theory that her parents were not happy with Joe because he wanted to live in Europe, while they wanted her to stay in America and Joe was too "woke" for her and Taylor is always obeying her parents wishes. The downside with Joe was that he was charming prince like, soft, classy, gorgeous, empathetic, and beautiful, but he was also a very depressive person—a haunted soul. So in some ways, he clashed with Taylor's extroverted persona. He was the best muse to her but not everything is as shiny as it looks.

I think the mistake for Taylor was not waiting to reflect.... and getting in love again so soon with Travis.I think it's creepy how her mom looked more interested in him than Taylor did in the documentary.....In my opinion, Travis is too vapid,hypermasculine and dumb for her. He will get bored of taylor and cheat. Taylor will break up with him and write another magnum opus, and one of the songs will be about ending up a cat lady all alone If things go well, she will finally have a kid with him. He can be her sperm donor like Madonna with Carlos Leon. She's in her tradwife era now.

MESSINESS:

Now, about the cancellations, I think she's at a point where she's just tired of it.
The leftists in America hate her deeply even if she's nice-vocal. MAGA hates her too. So she's basically like:
"Enough. I'm tired of all of you. I don't give a **** anymore about what you think of me. Go eat grass."
"I will do whatever I feel like. I will stay silent if I want to. I will pollute if I want to. I will block whoever I want."
It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to
Cry if I want to, cry if I want to.......
"My life is not decided by you anymore."..............

BLOCKING ARTISTS:

Billie (Love her deeply and know her well) and Charli (Talented) are not saints. They were talking **** about Taylor behind the scenes with peers, and she realized it-someone told taylor.... and now they are facing her wrath. She had two options: stay silent and be the bigger person (best classier choice), or pursue a vendetta. Taylor is more of a revenge-oriented person. She's a Sagittarius. I dont think Billie hates taylor deeply but she's influenced by her bieber upbringin,phineas, she knows without taylor she would be the nr1 white artist with all the awards and love..........Charli in the other side is jealous of her success and i wonder if maybe charli is in love with her in secret

Now about Olivia....... I'll give Olivia a pass. She's not a saint either. She knows what she's doing with some of her recent antics and some of the anti-Taylor lyrics in her music. But Taylor really messed up by taking money from her songs. Yeah, this is a mistake Taylor made....... Olivia is, of course, smart, and she's either playing into it for clicks and attention, or the similarities and situations are just wildly coincidental.
But maybe we dont know. Maybe there's something more behind the scenes. They were both 4 talkin online messagin each other. We dont know what went down* What if they fought for something else and they hate each other now. But there's definitely a situation
Olivia's dad liked an antitaylor tweet like 1-2 years ago

Edited June 23Jun 23 by AvadaKedavra