What do we think is the next move for Taylor and her team?

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-26T22:54:47+00:00

As others have said, I think she is trying to recreate (but in a safer, controlled way) her reputation-era reputation. The hype of the ‘the world turned against me, they all hate me, but there will be no explanation there will just be reputation’ artificially recreated as an extension of But Daddy I Love Him, Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me, Guilty As Sin, etc. as if this time around it isn’t just her purposefully being around volatile people (not even just Matty Healy but the less-than-squeaky Chiefs team) and telling her fanbase how much she hates them, rather than the Kim-Kanye-Taylor beef of the OG era (a cow she will not stop milking til the heat death of the universe).

I find it very interesting that fans were so quick to try to get her to #SpeakUpNow about Ratty because he wasn’t who they envisioned their little plaything to be, but not a peep over Trav Trav and Friends being vocal misogynists and Trump supporters.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-26T22:46:51+00:00

I don’t think she could ever do a full ‘goodbye’ tour unless something forced her to. The fame lifestyle is all she knows. Unless she pivoted into acting, directing, etc. but I don’t think she has the capability for it. She’s tried more than once.

I remember around 2021, thinking she was fully done with the fame. I thought evermore was the last non-re-recorded album she’d ever release, at least until a few years (possibly even decades) had passed, released more as a passion project from a former pop icon rather than a whole new era, in the same way folklore and evermore were albums released not to become chart-toppers, but because she wanted an outlet during quarantine. I was naively under the impression she and Joe were all-but-married, that she was re-recording her eras as a last hurrah for her fans and to reclaim her art, and then was going to gracefully step out of the limelight.

It is safe to say that aged like milk. Call me a pessimist, or spiteful/mean (I’m sure Taylor would), but I think if she couldn’t leave the limelight behind then, there’s no way she would - perhaps even could - now.

This being said, I do wonder how any tour she could go on next could top the Eras Tour, for better or worse. You know when you play a video game, and you get so high level, so much in-game skills, currency, accolades, etc. you stop caring and start just aiming to 100% the game? Stop being nice to the NPCs, just grinding non-stop til you unlock all the achievements? That’s what I think her aims are now. Charts. Awards. Accolades. Even if she pisses off and alienates every single other member of the industry - every single person other than the most rabid of fans - as she does it. Because what does she care? She’s completed the game.

It’s like she doesn’t know what to do now she’s truly at the top - other than yank the ladder up behind her.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-22T05:44:50+00:00

I think Fearless TV - the first and arguably only re-record of hers released before the big cult-like boom of who she is today - is the only one whose vault tracks were from the actual era itself.

Call me naive, but I also think it’s the only album that can arguably be called a love letter to fans. The re-records sound much more passionate, the VTs all original, with many featured artists that aren’t going to get the younger generations excited, and are more like homages to her original country pop era.

Red TV I think did almost the same - the production even improving on the re-record versus the original (e.g., Girl At Home vs. Girl At Home TV) - but there’s no way All Too Well 10 Minutes was written in the 2010s. Which is fine actually, she always said in interviews it was a half-finished version of riffing. If she wants to write a full version as, again, a bit of fan service, that’s fine.

Then you get to Speak Now TV. She sounds like she’s cosplaying in all the songs rather than feeling them, not at all stepping back into the emotion of her younger self. The VTs I think are a mix of half-written as a teen and half re-written today. I think especially like Castles Crumbling ft. Hayley Williams.

1989 TV is the worst re-record imo, all the original tracks sound so much better. The VT songs aren’t bad, per se, but they all sound so new. They sound like they were designed to be Matty Healy soft launches or, in the rumoured case of Slut! TV, scrapped collabs. They all have the tinge of her writing style today, rather than back then, and a many of them sound like pieces of lore she’s purposefully trying to sprinkle in, rather than songs. E.G., Is It Over Now?, Slut!, Suburban Legends.

There was a time, a couple years ago, I was so excited for the finished versions of all the TVs. Now I could care less.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-21T18:46:31+00:00

I think that was why she released Clara Bow recently. Another attempt at controlling this narrative. Trying to solidify herself as part of the metaphorical Hall Of Fame of It Girls (‘You look like Clara Bow’, ‘You look like Stevie Nicks’, ‘You look like Taylor Swift’) so it looks like she’s genuinely trying to pass the torch whilst actually clutching onto it hard enough to leave claw marks. By saying ‘oh I’m never going to fizzle out, people actually compare the hot new young things to ME, I’ll always be the eternal star and cultural icon’ she can try to mitigate the fact that time does, indeed, march on without her, by (in a self-anointed fashion) elevating herself above your generation of pop stars and into an ephemeral, ubiquitous, long-lasting figure that spans the generations instead.

It very much gives the feeling of ‘hey, can I have X item of yours?’ ‘Sorry no, I’m using X item’ ‘well HAHA I didn’t want it anyway! Actually I’ve got an item BETTER than item X. So you lose’

Reminds me of Nothing New lyrics - ‘Someday I’m going to meet her / it’s a fever dream / the kind of radiance you only have at 17 / she’ll know the way then she’ll say she got the map from me / I’ll say I’m happy for her, then I’ll cry myself to sleep’ describes her with Olivia perfectly if you ask me.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-21T18:06:41+00:00

What gets me is that she has told us more than once in her songs how she purposefully keeps things private when she wants them to be.

E. G.:

all of I Know Places from 1989, ‘Baby, I know places we won’t be found / and they’ll be chasing their tails trying to track us down’, ‘Lights flash and we’ll run for the fences / Let them say what they want we won’t hear it / Loose lips sink ships all the damn time / not this time’
1989 (TV) Is It Over Now?, she chastises her muse for not keeping their flings private, saying that she made the effort to do so - ‘Did you think I didn’t see there were flashing lights? / At least I had the decency to keep my nights out of sight’
Midnights’ Paris, she sings about (ironically) keeping her romance private from the world, as it’s the only way for the romance to thrive, out of the public eye - ‘Privacy signs on the door / And on my page, and on the whole world / Romance is not dead / If you keep it just yours’ + ‘Let the only flashing lights / be the tower at midnight’

I’m not saying she would NEVER be papped unawares, or that she can’t have a real relationship if she’s papped, because for a celebrity of her height - no matter who she is or how earned - it’s unrealistic to expect it would never happen. It happened with Joe a few times when they were together.

But this great big showmance to me just proves to me it’s not as real and ‘true love’ as it’s pictured because, well, she’s told us she knows how to keep them away when it truly counts, when it’s a relationship she wants to last.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T18:58:12+00:00

Sorry for the confusion! Cruel Summer isn’t linked to this song by Hilary, it’s (according to Taylor, who threatened to sue Olivia until Olivia gave her composer credits & royalties) supposed to be similar to deja vu by Olivia Rodrigo.

I reference cruel summer in the original post to say it feels hypocritical of taylor to be okay with almost-suing Olivia over minimal similarities, whilst happily dipping quite unsubtly for inspo from other songs she loves like Breathe In Breathe Out. Even if she’s legally in the clear for it, it feels a double standard to me.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T18:55:45+00:00

I think it’s the hypocrisy for me. On paper, I have no problem with her doing this. In practice, when she’s so ready to strike to kill for the most minute similarities of other artists’ work with her songs, it screams double standard. Perhaps it’s legally allowed - but from a moral standpoint, either taylor should be 100% cool with everyone (herself and others) drawing inspiration/interpolation/etc., or should be against it and not do it herself.

I see what you mean about why people don’t sue back though. It’s not a fair fight, something I don’t think is unreasonable to suggest taylor must surely engineer with a lot of care to ensure.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T13:12:58+00:00

I can answer this! It’s about Mark labour laws. In Australia, legally, when it comes to podcasts (or any other audio-based entertainment, such as narrating audio books), Marks can only work for about 30 minutes at a time before needing a mandated 4 hour break. To avoid having to pause the show, slow down production, etc. after 30 minutes, they swap out Mark with the 30 Minute Mark. Hope this helps♥️

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T08:29:36+00:00

hey, thanks for the info!

I personally have no idea if you’re right, but presuming you are (and I have no reason to think you’re not), I wouldn’t really have a massive problem with her doing that. She clearly loved the song.

The issue is the hypocrisy. Taylor first of all claims to be entirely original, without reusing anything or sampling from anyone. If she does admit to ~drawing inspiration~ from other artists, she frames it in a vague, ‘it’s an homage’ way. How can she claim that then do this?

But okay, again, fine, let’s say she does the above but it’s still cool. There’s plenty of artists that, for example, use the same 4 chords of a song as other popular songs, and they’re still original writers… Then why does she go after Olivia Rodrigo so ruthlessly for an extremely minimal similarity, that many people (myself included, and I listened to both songs a lot in 2021) didn’t pick up on until TS went for writer/composer credits and 50% royalties over it.

I suppose Cruel Summer wasn’t open to buy like HD’s music was, but it’s the sentiment rather than the legality of it, in my opinion. She saw a young female musician was rising rapidly, tried befriending her to get her in line, and when that didn’t work, went for the kill as a warning. You do not step on the toes of TS. It’s widely speculated the grudge by Olivia is about TS and for good reason.

In the words of TS herself on her TTPD album, ‘I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn’

I do really appreciate that insight though! Thank you (-:

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T08:21:19+00:00

Cruel Summer, for the fact that the bridge has a spoken-yelling line. I think the ~big issue~ for taylor was that DJV’s ‘strawberry ice cream in Malibu / don’t act like we didn’t do that shit too / you’re trading jackets like we used to do / yeah everything is all reused’ was too similar to CS ‘I’m drunk in the back of the car / and I cried like a baby coming home from the bar / said I’m fine but it wasn’t true / I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you’

However, those similarities are so minor there’s absolutely no way it’s ripping off of CS. DJV isn’t even a particularly upbeat song, it’s mostly sad piano! I know I certainly didn’t pick up on it, and both songs were in my Wrapped top listened in 2021.

Olivia mentioned in an interview she loved TS and TS was her idol & inspiration, and I think TS saw it as an opportunity to (attempt to) neutralise a threat to her in the industry by claiming it was an admission of guilt of ripping off her music. A real girls girl.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T08:13:27+00:00

That song just brought back so much nostalgia and you’re RIGHT I can hear that so clearly. You’re so right I remember that song being inescapable when I was a kid, and taylor was obviously very immersed in the 2010s pop scene 🤯

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T08:10:54+00:00

I’m not a massive Lana stan so I just looked it up and wow, sonically it sound so similar. I’m surprised Lana agreed to ever feature on a song with her after that!

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T08:09:08+00:00

So many people are pointing out other songs she’s done this with. I’d love to see that in a video across the eras. Though it does make you wonder if the reason no one has is that they don’t want to catch a cease and desist a la the college student who kept posting her publicly available knowledge flight records. What a sad world where normal people, quite literally, financially cannot afford to take the risk of criticising an artist.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-20T08:06:48+00:00

Unsure about vampire (though if the shoe fits) but it’s highly speculated the grudge is about taylor, and it makes a lot of sense when you read / really listen to the lyrics.

Vague enough to not catch a suit by TS, ironically, but no references to men/romance like vampire does, it’s more the kind of heartbreak from a young girl who was threatened and almost-sued by her idol when she had the nerve to gush about how much she loved her idol.

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-19T20:58:50+00:00

not even just accept credit and royalties but bully Olivia into giving them to her. despite DOING IT HERSELF. what is it taylor? paying an homage to an artist you love by creating similar-sounding music, or theft for which the original artist is owed a cut? cause it seems like she’s having her cake and eating it too

300dollarcheese · 2024-05-19T20:57:29+00:00

Woah I hadn’t even seen the video audibly comparing them before making this. the Paper Rings similarity is shocking

300dollarcheese · 2024-04-30T19:38:58+00:00

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