#anti ttpd

[khruschevshoe]

There is a conversation to be had about the fact that Taylor Swift's album is being played in its entirety across all of iHeartRadio's 868 stations, pushing out the opportunities other artists might have had to get radioplay. That's the literal definition of a monopoly. No wonder she'll hit the top of the radio play charts with this maneuver, because at least 65 minutes (if not the back side of the album, which would take it to nearly twice that length) across EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT STATIONS will be dedicated to her, artificially boosting her radio play and decreasing everyone else's. In this essay I will—

[squanchys-standup]

just saw hozier live and he thanked everyone for using their hard earned money to come see him and support him. yeah you would never find taylor having that sentiment.

for reference my ticket was 80 dollars.

the cheapest ticket i found for taylor’s upcoming show was 549 dollars. (i compared multiple third party sellers)

and i haven’t even mentioned how all art is political. and how hozier chooses to uplift ceasefires. he encouraged us to contact our u.s. representatives. how is opener (a black queer person) thanked hozier for creating a world where it’s safe for her.

[sarazanmai]

I cannot stress enough how embarrassingly dumb this album is.

[pinkpinkmermayyy]

“touch me while your bros play gta” “maybe the 1830s but without all the racists” “you were like a tattooed golden retriever” “get your shit together so I can love you” “You wouldn't last an hour in the ““asylum”” where they raised us”

true, it’s raw, too raw, it’s giving me salmonella and killing and torturing me slowly dear god make it stop

@punkeropercyjackson @fancylala4

[courfeyrec]

i keep coming back to 'i was a functioning alcoholic til nobody noticed my new aesthetic' because i do distinctly remember conversations about how taylor seemed to be drinking a lot more and getting drunk at like every awards show she went to. and those conversations were coming from a place of concern and of hoping that she was alright and that this wasn't a problem.

so to then say 'ugh i can't believe no one noticed this problem i had' when i know that people definitely did, and on the same album say that fans who are genuinely concerned about a new relationship that you are in are just 'bitching and moaning'? what do you want from them? you're talking about so many people who do at least believe that they are coming from a place of care and concern, and you are totally dismissing them on both ends of a scale!

not to mention that her implying that since nobody (???) was noticing her ~aesthetic~ drinking problem she just stopped having it is a bit of a kick in the teeth to people who do have drinking problems and can't just stop having them, since that's not how it fucking works.

[the-girl-lost-in-fandoms]

one thing i hate about ttpd is how misleading it's been since the title was announced

'here's the title of my new album, it's gonna be all tortured poetry, emily dickinson, virginia woolf and dead poets society! basically folkore 2.0'... 'look at the album cover! it's a sexy sad girl album'... 'turns out it's an album about grief and all of my variants represent the stages!'... 'listen to my playlists! it's gonna be a joe alwyn bashing album and i never meant anything i wrote about him before'... 'turns out it's actually a cringy matty healy centered album'... 'i added ttpd to my tour so you can listen to fEmALe RaGe: tHe mUsiCaL live!'...

it's actually literally none of these things

[singing-like-a-bird-about-it-now]

Everything about ttpd makes me cringe.

Actively playing into the victim thing by hinting at her ex doing her wrong, when the album wasn't even about him. Doing nothing to prevent the hate he got from the Easter eggs she was leaving, and instead fueling it when she goes on to make it clear he already has mental health issues.

Using an aesthetic that does not relate to the album because poetry and dark academia explore deep emotions, not whatever power trip spiral she's on.

Calling her personal tantrum female rage the musical when female rage is supposed to attribute to the wrongs done to women by virtue of our societal structure.

The fetishism of cheating/wanting someone who is with someone else. How the fuck is fortnight a lead single when it outright says toxic things like 'your wife waters flowers. I want to kill her.'

And just when it can't get worse, the music video. That awful triggering harmful music video. Psychward aesthetic?!?! Thats an aesthetic now? And that too from a woman who has publicly said 'I've never been to a therapist because I just feel very sane?'

Stop. Just stop.

(Also whatever that song was with the hint at outing someone bisexual. Wtf)

[nartml]

"You just don't get her deep lyricism and her poetic plays on words—"

Yup. You're right. I don't get it.

Because how am I supposed to get it, when the beat puts me to sleep? How am I supposed to get it when all 31 songs somehow manage to blend into one?

You want me to listen to the lyrics, but I'm too busy nodding off.

I don't give a rat's ass if Taylor Swift is some sort of lyrical genius (which I know she isn't), because if I wanted only good writing I'd pull out a fucking poetry book.

Taylor Swift is a singer. You know, a song artist.

Who makes music. Who is regarded by Swifties as this amazing, misunderstood genius. She's 'objectively good'.

But I say that to be objectively good at music, you're supposed to be able to take care of the lyrics and the rhythm.

You're supposed to be able to both write well and have a good beat in the background. Preferably, one that doesn't sound the exact same as the previous five.

I'm not under any circumstances saying that every song has to have both. Not at all.

But if an album of 31 songs is to be considered actually good, then it better have both to an extensive degree.

There should be variation. There should be something to make it interesting, to pick up the pace.

Now before the whataboutisms kick in, I'm not saying that you can't enjoy it. I'm not saying that it can't be your favourite.

I'm fucking saying that you have no right to act as if we're the crazy ones because we don't "get it".

Or, or, or maybe, have you considered that for some of us, there's nothing to get.

We're not stupid, nor slow. We know what a damn metaphor is. We get what she's trying to say.

But just because there's meaning in something doesn't mean it's good, or smart, or interesting.

'You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum that they raised me.'

Mhm. Yes, Taylor, tell me more about how your parents brought you to Nashville to get famous because you wanted to. About a deliberate choice that you made and keep making, even though that line implies that you had no say in the matter.

Fascinating. How difficult it must be to have a billion dollars lying around in your bank accounts.

That's just cringe worthy.

[bee-unknown]

Duuuuude TS fans are fucking crazy

You can go and say that TTPD is bad and give actual criticism about how shallow the lyrics are, how the lyrics say nothing, etc etc

And her fans will go "omg you're not smart enough to understand the complexity of her songs" or "omg you're obsessed with her, leave her alone"

[joesalw]

As someone who’s been on both sides of a relationship impacted by depression as the girl who’s unwell and the girl who’s looking after the unwell partner…being partners with someone in the midst of clinical depression is HARD. Social media and ‘it’s ok not to be ok’ awareness campaigns sanitise how difficult and boring and mean-spirited and ugly mental illness can make a person. The partner (especially if it’s a woman) is given very little grace if they don’t have inhuman saint-like levels of patience when they’re basically doing unpaid care work. And sometimes the realisation dawns that you can love a person and you want to save them but you can’t save them and if you don’t get out you will drown. There are many stories and songs to be written out of being the partner in that situation about empathy and guilt and love and frustration and compassion and anger and more guilt. It would’ve been a more mature way to approach the topic if it had to be approached at all. ‘Fuck you for being too depressed to marry me’ is not the route I’d have taken.

i agree!

[pinktwingirl]

As someone who has been in a psych ward both as a patient and a medical student, I just need to say that Taylor Swift romanticizing mental illness with her “psych ward aesthetic” is disgusting and incredibly out-of-touch. She’s promoting this harmful idea to her predominantly young fanbase that mental illness is somehow “cool” and “edgy” when literally nothing could be further from the truth. Being admitted to a psych ward is not some kind of badge of honor. It’s an incredibly difficult and traumatic experience for someone going through one of the most painful periods of their lives. She genuinely comes across as someone who thinks that mental illness is just feeling sad and angry at your ex-boyfriend because you got dumped. If her privileged ass had any ounce of understanding of what going through a mental health crisis was like, she would know better than to promote something like this. She should be ashamed of herself.

[celery-the-druid]

Enough ink has been spilled for Taylor Swift but no one has really talked about my most hated song on the album- “imgonnagetyouback” which has the EXACT SAME PREMISE as “Get Him Back” by Olivia Rodrigo except it’s BORING.

[squanchys-standup]

taylor swift trying to trademark female rage: the musical is like when disney tried to trademark the phrase dios de los muertos

[riecaloca]

I've reached the point in my "not supporting taylor swift era" where I've gone from "I still respect her music a lot" to "Fuck her AND her music," and I think that's very sexy of me.

[bat-kidsarebi-kids]

i forgot one of the horrendous and unexpected consequences of a new taylor swift album is my beloved mutuals making beautiful art and gif sets with her atrocious goofy ass chatGPT-esque lyrics

[forzafinally]

I am getting this off my chest once and we're not talking about this again. In my personal opinion it is a mediocre album by her standards. Firstly it's too long. More songs does not equal a better album. Sometimes some songs deserve to be left on the cutting floor for a reason. After a time the songs start blending together because sonically they sound very similar.

Secondly the lyrics. They're clunky in a lot of places I'm sorry. The annoying part for me is that she's capable of writing better songs!! Folklore showed that. Red showed it. I don't understand why she's backsliding like this.

Okay also this is probably not applicable for everyone but personally I do Not appreciate the way the fandom just bullied Joe Alwyn and are now coming up with all these takes about how the album is actually not about her relationship but about her experiences™️. Where was this energy 6 months back? And I'm sorry, but I can't find it in myself to be sympathetic towards a multi-millionaire who can definitely afford to go to therapy and get the help she needs while selling out stadiums on her world tour.

Lastly, the thing that disappointed me the most was that the whole album cycle was marketed as a more mature folklore but it turned out to be something that Red era Taylor would have probably written and rejected. I guess the main reason I'm so disappointed is because she is definitely capable of doing better!! She has done it before!!

Overall maybe she needs less yes men and more people to say that hey maybe this isn't the best direction to go album wise. (Don't come at me with the Braun controversy because there are two ends of being extreme and both are equally harmful).

Again. I'm not saying it's all bad. I think it could have been a wonderful album if she'd cut it down to 12-14 songs, polished up the lyrics and shaken up the production a bit. Songs like my boy only breaks his favorite toys, loml, who's afraid of little old me and I can do this with a broken heart definitely show that the potential is still there. All I'm saying is that it's definitely not her best work.