What is there to write about when you have it all? Taylor Swift, it seems, lives an abstractly human life. In “The Tortured Poets Department,” we see the pop artist write from a perspective with the lens that many are criticizing to be “performative victimhood,” and I am inclined to agree.
At least, that is what I would have said if this was a review, which it is not. But did it make you fans of Swift uncomfortable? It was meant to. That’s what music criticism does. It holds musicians accountable and creates discourse, contributing to the overall evolution of music. Like many cases, these critiques could be rooted in “nothing burgers,” but it is actually very important to process critiques of music generally.
A trend that I have been seeing following the release of “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift has been the critique of the criticism of Swift — something is backward about that. Examples of this have been the following things such as: “You don’t get real poetry,” “You hate women,” and “Not a proper review as it is based solely on opinions.” Yes, the last one is a direct quote.
May it be true that some of these can be true in some cases? Yes. Are reviews based solely on opinion? Well, yes. Can one not critique such lines as “My friends used to play a game where/We would pick a decade/We wished we could live in instead of this/I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists and getting married off for the highest bid” that Swift sings in the song “I Hate it Here.” As a racial minority, I find the line quite strange, especially considering the racist history of Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Matty Healy. And maybe this is the part of the article where fans of Swift would say “You’re judging her for a man’s actions!” or “This is biased!” And maybe I will never know the pain of Taylor Swift. But all of that aside, I think the album, to me, presented a bigger problem.
But hear me out! I do like Swift, to an extent. I respect her for her pop music and “Folklore.” I respect her for most of her projects, well, those before “Midnights.” But I did not like “The Tortured Poets Department.” I still enjoyed parts of it — I liked most of “Florida!!!.” However, it seems to me that Swift’s best works are found in her feel-good music and storylines like that of “New Romantics” or the “Betty,” “Cardigan,” and “August” trilogy. To me, “The Tortured Poets Department” and its responses are a sign of burnout for both Swift’s music-making and for those who listen to it — those who are not being swayed by fandom at least.
There’s an argument to be made that Taylor Swift is possibly running out of creative juices; I too am making this argument. The delusion of fans praising mediocrity contributes to the dilution of projects. And that’s fair! Because if I were Taylor Swift, I would also make diluted music for fans who would listen to anything I made, such as “Karma (feat. Ice Spice).”
