PoisonedIvy

Apparently Taylor's downfall has arrived so this is not surprising. I cannot wait for her next tour to be downgraded to theaters and TS13 to only open with 3M instead of 5M

Bebe Rexha - I'm a Mess or Ava Max - So Am I

It's her punishment for not releasing the evermore long pond sessions

Everyone is listening to 1989 on vinyl

My two favs joint slaying like this Congrats to Nashe and Tay Tay

Life runs fast but I run faster

This is a micro aggression and I will be reporting you for violating ATRL's zero tolerance policy of racism

I don't really think either side is beefing with the other though, there's some people trying to make it seem so but Tinashe isn't really biting the bait and most Swifties don't even know Tinashe (which is entirely their loss, she's been one of my favs since Aquarius )

Girl I think it's time to log off and touch some grass because this is embarrassing

I think the negative reception to TTPD was largely framed as "31 songs is too much" instead of "Taylor had 31 songs worth of material that she felt compelled to share; let's dissect why." I'm not asking the critics to kiss her ass, I'm just asking them to not be so immediately dismissive of her work, because that shapes the general public's perception of the project right away. I understand where you're coming from about critics needing to inject their subjective opinions; that, I do not disagree with. But it's fairly obvious when a writer simply does not like an artist and isn't even attempting to reconcile the redeemable aspects of a record with the readers. A good critic should also be critical of their own interpretation, not just the project they are reviewing.

Critics can point out the flaws within the musicality of the album while still highlighting the strengths of it, but that's where the disconnect happens. Reviewers tend to want to point out what Taylor is doing "wrong" without making it a point to acknowledge what she is doing well! I think the best reviewers are able to guide the casual listeners/readers to a neutral starting point so that they can develop their own subjective opinion on a body of work, but the "scoring" system everyone has adopted has kind of soiled that aspect of professional journalism. Instead of being told that TTPD is an album that /is/ lengthy, bloated, and at times, monotonous, but that it is also a rewarding character study of the artist that is narratively rich in lore, is a much more valid starting point for a non-fan to approach the album with than just seeing a score of 5.6 or whatever and a headline about how Taylor is giving us "more music than anyone cared to receive from her." That type of criticism perpetuates the very public narrative of fatigue that incited the negative reception in the first place. In a way, the public grows more tired of Taylor because of reviewers telling the audience this is the case. If reviewers shifted their narrative around Taylor's releases, the general audience's reception of her work would follow. Most casual music listeners /are/ relatively sheep-like, after all. I don't mean that in a derogatory manner, but it's pretty easy to sway public opinion.

Right, I acknowledge that Showgirl probably won't earn any notable acclaim, even once time has shifted the narrative surrounding Taylor once more. But the fanfare and narrative should not be affecting the analysis of the work itself. In no world are the 4 encore tracks a 4.0 PZ (outside of its bridge), PC, & Babylon especially are all perfectly average/above average tracks for her standards. They're being weighed down by the general narrative of fatigue that plague the artist herself (& Cleveland) instead of being graded based on the content themselves. I'm not insinuating they deserve an 8, but a 4 is obviously a dogpile score based on fanfare & narrative; especially considering deluxes getting reviewed separately from the parent album is already pretty ludicrous lol

These are things her fans could have told/tried to tell y'all on release day though, but people act like someone being paid to analyze an album makes their opinion more valuable than someone else's? We have always understood that TTPD is not an easy album to digest for casual listeners — but for anyone willing to engage with the character and the lore, it is the most rich and rewarding album in her entire catalogue. That it has taken critics a year or two to start parroting the same talking points we've had since Day 1 is the real anti-intellectualism, if you ask me TLDR; critics should have done their job from the start and properly dissected TTPD, instead of focusing on the artist behind it. General audiences don't always know how to properly engage with the work of some artists and instead follow the lead of professional critics, so those professionals should be doing a better job of analyzing the material and not the creator

Right but they reviewed Showgirl's Encore edition tracks, and they're blatantly admitting that online discourse affects their digestion of Taylor's music; so how can we take their review seriously after that confession? Or any reviewer for that matter? Taylor's music will never be fairly graded because she's reached a level of frenzy that afflicts people's consumption of her work. This is not to say Showgirl should've been rated any higher, but it does call the authenticity of her critical reception post Taylormania into question!

But that WAS her expressing herself, she had 31 tracks worth of things to say and any actual fan would love to get that much of a data dump from their artist during one of their most emotionally turbulent periods. Hell I would love a 31 track Gaga album where she lets it all out in the music! Just because you don't personally enjoy the output doesn't mean the intention behind it was commercial success. And to top it off, I don't think any of the despair filled ballads on TTPD were released to become sleeper streaming hits