outofthewoodsagain - Tumblr blog

outofthewoodsagain · 4 months ago

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TAYLOR SWIFT ↠ 2024 VMAs

#love her hair and makeup here #vmas 2024

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outofthewoodsagain · 4 months ago

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Olivia Rodrigo

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outofthewoodsagain · 5 months ago

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PART 1 / ?

is this not how this scene went??? [part two>>]

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outofthewoodsagain · 8 months ago

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outofthewoodsagain · 8 months ago

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Regrettably, I really like "But Daddy I Love Him." It has Fearless vibes, which is probably why, but even the mess surrounding the song is weirdly compelling to me. Like, I've had this theory for a while that Taylor tries to date those perfect sons-in-law type cause those are the guys she thinks she should like but when it comes down to it her actual type is literally just John Mayer. You know, the pretentious bad boy rock star who looks like he never bathes...Well, to each their own I guess.

I also find it really interesting that this song marks the first time Taylor has ever actually publicly criticized her own fans, going as far as to call them vipers. And how fitting that she's never cared that they harass, doxx and intimidate people on her behalf but the second they have a problem with her dating a huge racist they need to mind their own fucking business, right Taylor? You can tell she was absolutely fuming that her fanbase would ever dare do anything but heap countless praises on her head and instead would try to tell her what to do and honestly she'd probably have a point about her love life being her business if a) the reason her fans hated MH wasn't that he's a huge racist (which she really buries the lead about in this song, you'd think they didn't like him because he's a 'bad boy' or whatever crap), and b) if she hadn't literally spent her entire career using her romantic life as a marketing ploy. Like, I'm sorry girl but you can't parasocial this hard with your fans and then be mad at them for being too invested in your love life, at a certain point you have to admit you created this situation yourself.

#WHOOPS there it is #reducing fan’s complains to ‘he’s just kind of wacky’ is…a Choice #the irony of this whole album - and specifically the weirdly defensive and territorial ‘try and come for my job’ lyrics #is that truly the one (1) and only person in the Whole Fucking World who could EVER threaten Taylor Swift’s career #is Taylor Swift herself #if she doesn’t cut it out with this shit and make friends with the mirror #eventually she’ll become as outdated as her moral compass #and she’s the only one who can stop that from happening #also the fact that the lead album aesthetic is ‘insane asylum but make it Fashion’#and that’s not even being called out because it’s so far down the list of atrocities related to this album #REALLY says something huh

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outofthewoodsagain · 9 months ago

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the tortured poets department is so bella swan coded actually

#op ur MIND #also your tags #chef's kiss 10/10 do agree #i just cant add them since im on mobile #galaxy brain tier stuff tbh

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outofthewoodsagain · 9 months ago

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Wait when did they say Taylor’s adding TTPD to the Eras Setlist?

#she posted a video on socials that show her practicing new choreo #so i think that's where it came from #she's wearing a TTPD-coded pleated skirt in one of then too

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outofthewoodsagain · 9 months ago

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The more I think about ICDIWABH the weirder it is. I’m gonna be talking a lot about Taylor Swift as a brand and a celebrity here. That’s because I think it’s relevant, but rest assured that I know that she is also a real person with real actual feelings. In discussing the brand that she has carefully cultivated and works to maintain I am not implying that any of her feelings are fake or anything. I’m just speaking about a specific aspect of Taylor Swift.

Lots of celebrities have a thing where they cultivate a relationship with their fans. Taylor Swift is a bit more extreme than most, since closeness with her fans has consistently been a part of her brand. So when she comes out on tour and tells us that it’s great to see us, we believe her! We’ve built up this relationship with each other and it’s important to her brand that we maintain the idea of this relationship existing.

ICDIWABH shatters that illusion. It violates the contract we’ve formed where we mutually agree that we care about each other and we are all having the time of our lives at her shows. On the other hand, it also functions to deepen our connection with her, as she is sharing her “real” thoughts despite the fact that they go against the branding. This reinforces that we are allowed intimate access to her because we’re her friends and she chooses to share herself with us.

So the song itself is already walking this weird line. But then the lyric video is the lyrics about how miserable she is during the tour superimposed over images from the tour. The video is cut to make the tour look sexy and fun, because of course it is, because it’s in her interest to sell the tour as sexy and fun. And so the lyrics about her treating the tour as her job (instead of something that is actually fun for her) are being placed over this image of the tour as really fun. It’s a song about how the tour is work instead of being fun for her, but the song is fun, and the video is portraying the tour as fun, turning around and spinning this song that undercuts the branding into part of the branding.

There are also parts in the video that specifically cut to moments onstage when Taylor was looking sad or smiling or winking. And some of these are probably staged moments, like moments when she looks sad because she is performing a sad song (for example, “my tears ricochet”) and the performance of that requires her to perform an emotion other than joy. Given the lyrics of the song, these moments are being recontextualized as her actual feelings coming through instead of being part of the act. So using those moments, which are part of the act, as representative of her not performing the act, in a song that is about not performing the act but is being actively made into part of the act.

The levels of branding here are really dizzying to me. The song and especially the lyric video are layering meanings on top of each other quite thickly. It’s impossible to speculate where the real feelings of the artist lie in all this, which is why I haven’t tried. What is interesting to me is the presentation of certain feelings as real or performative and how those are renegotiated several times by the tour/the song/the video.