#but I’m fascinated by the Taylor swift machine I try hard to not actually feel full on parasocial
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There’s something so weird and full circle about Taylor’s first massive hit being a song about her parents disapproval of a love affair, only for her to write another song over ten years later that uses her parents disapproval as a metaphor for her own fans disapproval
#fans she wouldn’t have if not for the first song#idk I think but daddy I love him is a very interesting song I mean it’s a side of Taylor we do know well#the sort of bitter and angry victim-y side to her#but directed towards her fans which I’m sure she’s felt privately numerous times but kind of crazy to hear her air out those grievances in a#I mean I like it though#but I’m fascinated by the Taylor swift machine I try hard to not actually feel full on parasocial#can be hard tho#love her
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Lover Conquers All
By: Mark Sutherland for Music Week Date: November 4th 2019 issue (published online on December 13th 2019)
She’s the world’s biggest pop star, but despite her global success, Taylor Swift is also the music industry’s greatest advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights. And, with a ground-breaking new record deal and a bold new album, Lover, she’s not about to stop now. Music Week meets her to talk music and business...
Around this time of year, the Taylor Swift anniversaries come at you thick and fast. Nine years since her third album, Speak Now, every note of which was written entirely by Swift, hit the shelves. Five years since she released her mould-breaking pop album, 1989, and went from the world’s biggest country star to the world’s biggest pop star overnight. Two years since her Reputation record saw her become the only musician to post four successive million-plus debut sales weeks in the United States. And so on.
But today, Swift’s mind is drawn further back, to the 13th anniversary of her debut, self-titled record, and the days when her album releases weren’t automatically accompanied by mountains of hype and enough think-pieces to sink a battleship. Her journal entries from the time - helpfully reprinted as part of the deluxe editions of her new album, Lover - reveal her as an excited, optimistic teenager, but also one with a grasp of marketing strategies and label politics way beyond her years, even if she was reluctant to actually take credit for her ideas.
“It always was and it always will be an interesting dance being a young woman in the music industry,” she smiles ruefully. “We don’t have a lot of female executives, we’re working on getting more female engineers and producers but, while we are such a drastic gender minority, it’s interesting to try and figure out how to be.”
And, of course, when Swift started out she was, as she points out, “an actual kid”.
“I was planning the release of my first album when I was 15 years old,” she reminisces. “And I was a fully gangly 15, I reminded everyone of their niece! I was in this industry in Nashville and country music, where I was making album marketing calls, but I never wanted to stand up and say, ‘Yeah, that promotions plan you just complimented my label on, I thought of that! Me and my Mom thought of that!’
“When you’re a new artist you wonder how much space you can take up and, as a woman, you wonder how much space you can take up pretty much your whole period of growing up,” she continues. “For me, growing up and knowing that I was an adult was realising that I was allowed to take up space from a marketing perspective, from a business perspective, from an opinionated perspective. And that feels a lot better than constantly trying to wonder if I’m allowed to be here.”
In the intervening years, Taylor Swift has released six further, brilliant albums, growing from country starlet to all-conquering pop behemoth along the way. She takes up “more space”, as she would put it, than any other musician on the planet: a sales and now - having belatedly embraced the format with Lover - streaming phenomenon; a powerhouse stadium performer; an award-garlanded songwriter for herself and others; and a social media giant with a combined 278 million followers across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (which would make the Taylor Nation the fourth most populous one on earth, after China, India and the US).
But her influence on music and the music industry doesn’t end there. Because, over the years, Swift has also become a leading advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights, in a digital landscape that doesn’t always have such matters as a priority.
In 2015, she stood up to Apple Music over its plans to not pay artist royalties during subscribers’ three-month free trials (Apple backed down immediately). She pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify in 2014 in protest that its free tier was devaluing music, sending Daniel Ek scrambling to justify his business model. When she returned in 2017, it was a crucial fillip for the streaming service’s IPO plans.
More recently, her ground-breaking new record deal with Republic Records contained clauses not only guaranteeing her ownership of her future masters, but also ensuring Universal Music will share the spoils of its Spotify shares with its artists, without any payments counting against unrecouped balances. And when her long-time former label boss Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, taking Swift’s first six albums with him, the star publicly called out what she saw as her “worst-case scenario” and stressed: “You deserve to own the art you make”. She may yet re-record her old songs in protest.
In short, Swift has, for a long time now, been unafraid to use her voice on industry matters, whether they pertain to her own stellar career or the thousands of other artists out there struggling to make a living.
All of which makes Swift not just the greatest star of our age, but perhaps the most important to the future development of the industry as a more artist-centric, songwriter-friendly business. Hers is still the life of the pop phenomenon - she spent today in Los Angeles doing promotion and photoshoots (or, in her words, “having people put make-up on me”) as Lover continues to build on huge critical acclaim and even huger initial sales. But now, she’s kicking back with her cats - one of whom seems determined to disrupt Music Week’s interview by “stampeding” through at every opportunity - and ready to talk business.
And for Swift, business is good. The impact of her joining streaming, and the decline of traditional album sales, may have prevented her from posting a fifth successive one million-plus sales debut, but Lover still sold more US copies (867,000) in its first week than any record since her own Reputation. It’s sold 117,513 copies to date in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company.
Even better, while Reputation - a record forged in the white heat of a social media snakestorm over her on-going feud with Kanye West - was plenty of show and rather less grow, Lover continues to reveal hidden depths. Reputation struck a sometimes curious contrast between the unrepentant warrior Swift she was showing to the outside world and the love story with British actor Joe Aiwyn that was quietly developing behind closed doors, but Lover is the sort of versatile, cohesive album that the streaming age was supposed to kill off.
It contains more than its fair share of pop bangers (You Need To Calm Down, Me!), but also some gorgeously-crafted acoustic tracks (Lover, Cornelia Street), some pithy political commentary (The Man, Miss America & The Heartbreak Prince) and the sort of musical diversions (Paper Rings’ irresistible rockabilly stomp, the childlike oddity of It’s Nice To Have A Friend) that no other pop superstar would have the sheer musical chops to attempt, let alone pull off.
“Taylor’s creative instincts as an artist and songwriter are brilliant,” says Monte Lipman, founder and CEO of Swift’s US label, Republic. “Our partnership represents a strategic alliance built on mutual respect, trust, and complete transparency. Her vision is extraordinary as she sets the tone for every campaign and initiative.”
No wonder David Joseph, chairman/CEO of her long-time UK label Virgin EMI’s parent company Universal Music UK, is thrilled with how things are going.
“Love Story was a fitting first single release for Taylor here - she’s loved the UK from day one and has engaged so much with her fans and teams,” says Joseph. “She really respects and values what’s going on here creatively. To see her go from playing the Students’ Union at King’s College to Wembley Stadium has been extraordinary. Taylor is an artist constantly striving for perfection, and with Lover - from my personal point of view, her most accomplished work to date adore working with her and whilst it’s been more than 10 years this still feels like the start.”
And today, Swift is keen to concentrate on the present and future. She has a starring role in Cats coming up (and a new song on the soundtrack, Beautiful Ghosts, co-written with Andrew Lloyd Webber) and, after a spectacularly intimate Paris launch show in September, festival dates and her own LoverFest to plan (UK shows will be revealed soon). Time, then, to tell the cats to calm down and sit down with Music Week to talk streaming, contracts and why she’s “obsessed” with the music industry...
Unlike with Reputation, most of the discussion around Lover seems to have been focused on the music... Absolutely! One of the ideas I had about this record, and something I’ve implemented into my life in the last couple of years is that I don’t like distractions. And, for a while, it felt like my life had to come with distractions from the music, whether it was tabloid fascination with my personal life or my friendships or what I was wearing. I realised in the last couple of years that, if I don’t give a window into distraction, people can’t try to look in and see something other than the music. I love that, if you really pour yourself into the idea that an album is still important and try really hard to make something that is worth people’s attention span, time and energy, that can still come across. Because we are living in an industry right now where everyone’s rushing towards taking us into a singles industry and, in some cases, it has become that. But there are still some cases where clearly the album is important to people.
Does it matter that some new artists won’t get to make albums the way you always have? It’s interesting. Five years ago I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and said, maybe in the next five years, we would see artists releasing music the way that they want to. I thought that each artist would start to curate what is important to them, not just from an artistic standpoint but from a marketing standpoint. It’s really interesting to see different release plans, if you look at what Drake did and then what Beyoncé does, incredible artists who have really curated what it is to drop music in their own way. We all do it differently, which is cool. As long as people dropping just singles want to be doing that, then I’m fine with it, but if it feels like a big general wave that’s being pressured by people in power, their teams or their labels, that’s not cool. But I do really hope that in the future artists have more of a say over strategy. We’re not just supposed to make art and then hand it to a team that masterminds it.
Were you worried about putting an album on streaming on release day for the first time? Well, there are ways that streaming services could really promote the [whole] album in a more incentivised way. We could have album charts on streaming. The industry follows where they can get prizes. So you have a singles chart on streaming services which is great but, if you split things up into genre charts for example, that would really incentivise people. It’s important that we keep trying to strive to make the experience better for users but also make it more interesting for artists to keep wanting to achieve. But I really did love the experience of putting the album on streaming. I loved the immediacy, I loved that people who maybe weren’t a huge diehard fan were curious and saying, ‘I wonder what this is like’ and listening to it and deciding that they liked it.
You’d resisted streaming for a long time. Have you changed your mind about the format now? I always knew that I would enjoy the aspects of streaming that make [your music] so immediately available to so many people. That’s the part of it that I unequivocally always felt really sad I was missing out on. There wasn’t ever a day when I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m really glad that multitudes of people don’t have access to my music!’ So I always knew that streaming was an incredible mechanism and model for the future but I still don’t think we have the royalties and compensation system worked out. That’s between the labels and their artists and I realised that me, to use a gross word, ‘leveraging’ what I can bring to cut a better deal for the artists at my record label was really important for me.
How big a factor were things like that in you signing to Republic/Universal? That’s important to me because that means they’re adopting some of my ideas. If they take me on as an artist that means they really thought it through. Because with me, come opinions about how we can better our industry. I’m one of the only people in the artist realm who can be loud about it. People who are on their fifth, sixth or seventh album, we’re the only ones who can speak out, because new artists and producers and writers need to work. They need to be endearing and likeable and available to their labels and streaming services at all times. It’s up to the artists who have been around for a second to say, ‘Hey guys, the producers and the writers and the artists are the ones who are making music what it is’. And we’re in a great place in music right now thanks to them. They should be going to their mailbox and feeling like they’ve got a pension plan, rather than feeling like, ‘Oh yay, I can pay half my rent this month after this No.1 song’.
Did you have more creative freedom making Lover than on your previous albums? In my previous situation, there were creative constraints, issues that we had over the years. I’ve always given 100% to projects, I always over-delivered, thinking that that generosity would be returned to me. But I ended up finding that generosity in a new situation with a new label that understands that I deserve to own what I make. That meant so much to me because it was given over to me so freely. When someone just looks at you and says ‘Yes, you deserve what you want’, after a decade or more of being told, ‘I’m not sure you deserve what you want’ - there’s a freedom that comes with that. It’s like when people find ‘the one’ they’re like, ‘It was easy, I just knew and I felt free’. All of a sudden you’re being told you’re worth exactly, no, more than what you thought you were worth. And that made me feel I could make an album that was exactly what I wanted to make. There’s an eclectic side to Lover, a confessional side, it varies from acoustic to really poppy pop, but that’s what I like to do. And, while you would never make something artistic based on something so unromantic as a contract, it was more than that. It was a group of people saying, ‘We believe in what you’re making, go make what you want to make and you deserve to own it too’.
You’re obviously not happy about what’s happened at Big Machine since you left. But will the attention mean artists don’t find themselves in this situation in the future? I hope so. That’s the only reason that I speak out about things. The fans don’t understand these things, the public isn’t being made aware. This generation has so much information available to them so I thought it was important that the fans knew what I was going through, because I knew it was going to affect every aspect of my life and I wanted them to be the first to know. And in and amongst that group, I know there are people that want to make music some day. It involves every new artist that is reading that and going, ‘Wait, that’s what I’m signing?’ They don’t have to sign stuff that’s unfair to them. If you don’t ask the right questions and you sit in front of the wrong desk in front of the wrong person, they can take everything from you.
Songwriters are in dispute with Spotify in the US over its decision to appeal the Copyright Board decision to boost songwriting royalties. Do writers need more respect? Absolutely. In terms of the power structure, the songwriters, the producers, the engineers, the people who are breathing magic into our industry, need to be listened to. They’re not being greedy. This is legitimately an industry where people are having trouble paying their bills and they’re the most talented people we have. This isn’t them sitting in their mansions going, ‘I wish this mansion was bigger and I would like a yacht please’. This is actually people who are going to work every single day. I got into writing when I was in Nashville and it was very much like what I read about the Brill Building. You would write every day, whether you were inspired or not, and in the process I met artists and writers. Somebody would walk in and someone would say, ‘Oh, he’s still getting mailbox money from that Faith Hill cut a couple of years ago, he’s set’. That’s not a thing anymore. Mailbox money is a thing of the past and we need to remember that these are the people that create the heartbeat that we’re all dancing to or crying to.
You were clearly aware of music industry machinations from a young age... Reading back on the journal entries, I forgot how obsessed I was with the industry as a teenager. I was so fascinated by how it works and how it was changing. Every part of it was interesting to me. I had drawn the stages for most of my tours a year before I went on them. That really was fun for me as a teenager! A lot of people who start out very young in music, either don’t have a say or don’t have the will to do the business side of it, but weirdly that was so much fun for me to try and learn. I had a lot of energy when I was 16!
Are you doing similar drawings for next year’s LoverFest? Definitely. And that’s why it’s still fun for me to take on a challenge like, ‘Oh, let’s just plan our own festival’. Let’s create a bill of artists and try and make it as fun as possible for the fans. I’m so intrigued by what that’s going to be like.
Finally, when we last did an interview in 2015, you said in five years’ time you wanted to be “finding complexity in happiness”. How has that worked out? That’s exactly what’s happened with this album! I think a lot of writers have the fear of stability, emotional health and happiness. Our whole careers, people make jokes about how, ‘Just wait until you meet someone nice, you’ll run out of stuff to write about’. I was talking to [Cats director] Tom Hooper about this because he said one thing his mother taught him was, ‘Don’t ever let people tell you that you can’t make art if you’re happy’. I thought that was so amazing. He’s a creator in a completely different medium but he has been subjected to that same joke over and over again that we must be miserable to create. Lover is important to me in so many ways, but it’s so imperative for me as a human being that songwriting is not tied to my own personal misery. It’s good to know that, it really is!
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Around this time of year, the Taylor Swift anniversaries come at you thick and fast.
Nine years since her third album, Speak Now, every note of which was written entirely by Swift, hit the shelves. Five years since she released her mould-breaking pop album, 1989, and went from the world’s biggest country star to the world’s biggest pop star overnight. Two years since her Reputation record saw her become the only musician to post four successive million-plus debut sales weeks in the United States. And so on.
But today, Swift’s mind is drawn further back, to the 13th anniversary of her debut, self-titled record, and the days when her album releases weren’t automatically accompanied by mountains of hype and enough think-pieces to sink a battleship. Her journal entries from the time – helpfully reprinted as part of the deluxe editions of her new album, Lover – reveal her as an excited, optimistic teenager, but also one with a grasp of marketing strategies and label politics way beyond her years, even if she was reluctant to actually take credit for her ideas.
“It always was and it always will be an interesting dance being a young woman in the music industry,” she smiles ruefully. “We don’t have a lot of female executives, we’re working on getting more female engineers and producers but, while we are such a drastic gender minority, it’s interesting to try and figure out how to be.”
And, of course, when Swift started out she was, as she points out, “an actual kid”.
“I was planning the release of my first album when I was 15 years old,” she reminisces. “And I was a fully gangly 15, I reminded everyone of their niece! I was in this industry in Nashville and country music, where I was making album marketing calls, but I never wanted to stand up and say, ‘Yeah, that promotions plan you just complimented my label on, I thought of that! Me and my Mom thought of that!’
“When you’re a new artist you wonder how much space you can take up and, as a woman, you wonder how much space you can take up pretty much your whole period of growing up,” she continues. “For me, growing up and knowing that I was an adult was realising that I was allowed to take up space from a marketing perspective, from a business perspective, from an opinionated perspective. And that feels a lot better than constantly trying to wonder if I’m allowed to be here.”
In the intervening years, Taylor Swift has released six further, brilliant albums, growing from country starlet to all-conquering pop behemoth along the way. She takes up “more space”, as she would put it, than any other musician on the planet: a sales and now – having belatedly embraced the format with Lover – streaming phenomenon; a powerhouse stadium performer; an award-garlanded songwriter for herself and others; and a social media giant with a combined 278 million followers across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (which would make the Taylor Nation the fourth most populous one on earth, after China, India and the US).
But her influence on music and the music industry doesn’t end there. Because, over the years, Swift has also become a leading advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights, in a digital landscape that doesn’t always have such matters as a priority.
In 2015, she stood up to Apple Music over its plans to not pay artist royalties during subscribers’ three-month free trials (Apple backed down immediately). She pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify in 2014 in protest that its free tier was devaluing music, sending Daniel Ek scrambling to justify his business model. When she returned in 2017, it was a crucial fillip for the streaming service’s IPO plans.
More recently, her ground-breaking new record deal with Republic Records contained clauses not only guaranteeing her ownership of her future masters, but also ensuring Universal Music will share the spoils of its Spotify shares with its artists, without any payments counting against unrecouped balances. And when her long-time former label boss Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, taking Swift’s first six albums with him, the star publicly called out what she saw as her “worst-case scenario” and stressed: “You deserve to own the art you make”. She may yet re-record her old songs in protest.
In short, Swift has, for a long time now, been unafraid to use her voice on industry matters, whether they pertain to her own stellar career or the thousands of other artists out there struggling to make a living.
All of which makes Swift not just the greatest star of our age, but perhaps the most important to the future development of the industry as a more artist-centric, songwriter-friendly business. Hers is still the life of the pop phenomenon – she spent today in Los Angeles doing promotion and photoshoots (or, in her words, “having people put make-up on me”) as Lover continues to build on huge critical acclaim and even huger initial sales. But now, she’s kicking back with her cats – one of whom seems determined to disrupt Music Week’s interview by “stampeding” through at every opportunity – and ready to talk business.
And for Swift, business is good. The impact of her joining streaming, and the decline of traditional album sales, may have prevented her from posting a fifth successive one million-plus sales debut, but Lover still sold more US copies (867,000) in its first week than any record since her own Reputation. It’s sold 117,513 copies to date in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company.
Even better, while Reputation – a record forged in the white heat of a social media snakestorm over her on-going feud with Kanye West – was plenty of show and rather less grow, Lover continues to reveal hidden depths. Reputation struck a sometimes curious contrast between the unrepentant warrior Swift she was showing to the outside world and the love story with British actor Joe Alwyn that was quietly developing behind closed doors, but Lover is the sort of versatile, cohesive album that the streaming age was supposed to kill off.
It contains more than its fair share of pop bangers (You Need To Calm Down, Me!), but also some gorgeously-crafted acoustic tracks (Lover, Cornelia Street), some pithy political commentary (The Man, Miss America & The Heartbreak Prince) and the sort of musical diversions (Paper Rings’ irresistible rockabilly stomp, the childlike oddity of It’s Nice To Have A Friend) that no other pop superstar would have the sheer musical chops to attempt, let alone pull off.
“Taylor’s creative instincts as an artist and songwriter are brilliant,” says Monte Lipman, founder and CEO of Swift’s US label, Republic. “Our partnership represents a strategic alliance built on mutual respect, trust, and complete transparency. Her vision is extraordinary as she sets the tone for every campaign and initiative.”
No wonder David Joseph, chairman/CEO of her long-time UK label Virgin EMI’s parent company Universal Music UK, is thrilled with how things are going.
“Love Story was a fitting first single release for Taylor here – she’s loved the UK from day one and has engaged so much with her fans and teams,” says Joseph. “She really respects and values what’s going on here creatively. To see her go from playing the Students’ Union at King’s College to Wembley Stadium has been extraordinary. Taylor is an artist constantly striving for perfection, and with Lover – from my personal point of view, her most accomplished work to date – her songwriting has gone to a new level. I adore working with her and whilst it’s been more than 10 years this still feels like the start.”
And today, Swift is keen to concentrate on the present and future. She has a starring role in Cats coming up (and a new song on the soundtrack, Beautiful Ghosts, co-written with Andrew Lloyd Webber) and, after a spectacularly intimate Paris launch show in September, festival dates and her own LoverFest to plan (UK shows will be revealed soon). Time, then, to tell the cats to calm down and sit down with Music Week to talk streaming, contracts and why she’s “obsessed” with the music industry…
Unlike with Reputation, most of the discussion around Lover seems to have been focused on the music…
“Absolutely! One of the ideas I had about this record, and something I’ve implemented into my life in the last couple of years is that I don’t like distractions. And, for a while, it felt like my life had to come with distractions from the music, whether it was tabloid fascination with my personal life or my friendships or what I was wearing. I realised in the last couple of years that, if I don’t give a window into distraction, people can’t try to look in and see something other than the music. I love that, if you really pour yourself into the idea that an album is still important and try really hard to make something that is worth people’s attention span, time and energy, that can still come across. Because we are living in an industry right now where everyone’s rushing towards taking us into a singles industry and, in some cases, it has become that. But there are still some cases where clearly the album is important to people.”
Does it matter that some new artists won’t get to make albums the way you always have?
“It’s interesting. Five years ago I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and said, maybe in the next five years, we would see artists releasing music the way that they want to. I thought that each artist would start to curate what is important to them, not just from an artistic standpoint but from a marketing standpoint. It’s really interesting to see different release plans, if you look at what Drake did and then what Beyoncé does, incredible artists who have really curated what it is to drop music in their own way. We all do it differently, which is cool. As long as people dropping just singles want to be doing that, then I’m fine with it, but if it feels like a big general wave that’s being pressured by people in power, their teams or their labels, that’s not cool. But I do really hope that in the future artists have more of a say over strategy. We’re not just supposed to make art and then hand it to a team that masterminds it.”
Were you worried about putting an album on streaming on release day for the first time?
“Well, there are ways that streaming services could really promote the [whole] album in a more incentivised way. We could have album charts on streaming. The industry follows where they can get prizes. So you have a singles chart on streaming services which is great but, if you split things up into genre charts for example, that would really incentivise people. It’s important that we keep trying to strive to make the experience better for users but also make it more interesting for artists to keep wanting to achieve. But I really did love the experience of putting the album on streaming. I loved the immediacy, I loved that people who maybe weren’t a huge diehard fan were curious and saying, ‘I wonder what this is like’ and listening to it and deciding that they liked it.”
You’d resisted streaming for a long time. Have you changed your mind about the format now?
“I always knew that I would enjoy the aspects of streaming that make [your music] so immediately available to so many people. That’s the part of it that I unequivocally always felt really sad I was missing out on. There wasn’t ever a day when I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m really glad that multitudes of people don’t have access to my music!’ So I always knew that streaming was an incredible mechanism and model for the future but I still don’t think we have the royalties and compensation system worked out. That’s between the labels and their artists and I realised that me, to use a gross word, ‘leveraging’ what I can bring to cut a better deal for the artists at my record label was really important for me.”
How big a factor were things like that in you signing to Republic/Universal?
“That’s important to me because that means they’re adopting some of my ideas. If they take me on as an artist that means they really thought it through. Because with me, come opinions about how we can better our industry. I’m one of the only people in the artist realm who can be loud about it. People who are on their fifth, sixth or seventh album, we’re the only ones who can speak out, because new artists and producers and writers need to work. They need to be endearing and likeable and available to their labels and streaming services at all times. It’s up to the artists who have been around for a second to say, ‘Hey guys, the producers and the writers and the artists are the ones who are making music what it is’. And we’re in a great place in music right now thanks to them. They should be going to their mailbox and feeling like they’ve got a pension plan, rather than feeling like, ‘Oh yay, I can pay half my rent this month after this No.1 song’.”
Did you have more creative freedom making Lover than on your previous albums?
“In my previous situation, there were creative constraints, issues that we had over the years. I’ve always given 100% to projects, I always over-delivered, thinking that that generosity would be returned to me. But I ended up finding that generosity in a new situation with a new label that understands that I deserve to own what I make. That meant so much to me because it was given over to me so freely. When someone just looks at you and says ‘Yes, you deserve what you want’, after a decade or more of being told, ‘I’m not sure you deserve what you want’ – there’s a freedom that comes with that. It’s like when people find ‘the one’ they’re like, ‘It was easy, I just knew and I felt free’. All of a sudden you’re being told you’re worth exactly, no, more than what you thought you were worth. And that made me feel I could make an album that was exactly what I wanted to make. There’s an eclectic side to Lover, a confessional side, it varies from acoustic to really poppy pop, but that’s what I like to do. And, while you would never make something artistic based on something so unromantic as a contract, it was more than that. It was a group of people saying, ‘We believe in what you’re making, go make what you want to make and you deserve to own it too’.”
You’re obviously not happy about what’s happened at Big Machine since you left. But will the attention mean artists don’t find themselves in this situation in the future?
“I hope so. That’s the only reason that I speak out about things. The fans don’t understand these things, the public isn’t being made aware. This generation has so much information available to them so I thought it was important that the fans knew what I was going through, because I knew it was going to affect every aspect of my life and I wanted them to be the first to know. And in and amongst that group, I know there are people that want to make music some day. It involves every new artist that is reading that and going, ‘Wait, that’s what I’m signing?’ They don’t have to sign stuff that’s unfair to them. If you don’t ask the right questions and you sit in front of the wrong desk in front of the wrong person, they can take everything from you.”
Songwriters are in dispute with Spotify in the US over its decision to appeal the Copyright Board decision to boost songwriting royalties. Do writers need more respect?
“Absolutely. In terms of the power structure, the songwriters, the producers, the engineers, the people who are breathing magic into our industry, need to be listened to. They’re not being greedy. This is legitimately an industry where people are having trouble paying their bills and they’re the most talented people we have. This isn’t them sitting in their mansions going, ‘I wish this mansion was bigger and I would like a yacht please’. This is actually people who are going to work every single day. I got into writing when I was in Nashville and it was very much like what I read about the Brill Building. You would write every day, whether you were inspired or not, and in the process I met artists and writers. Somebody would walk in and someone would say, ‘Oh, he’s still getting mailbox money from that Faith Hill cut a couple of years ago, he’s set’. That’s not a thing anymore. Mailbox money is a thing of the past and we need to remember that these are the people that create the heartbeat that we’re all dancing to or crying to.”
You were clearly aware of music industry machinations from a young age…
“Reading back on the journal entries, I forgot how obsessed I was with the industry as a teenager. I was so fascinated by how it works and how it was changing. Every part of it was interesting to me. I had drawn the stages for most of my tours a year before I went on them. That really was fun for me as a teenager! A lot of people who start out very young in music, either don’t have a say or don’t have the will to do the business side of it, but weirdly that was so much fun for me to try and learn. I had a lot of energy when I was 16!”
Are you doing similar drawings for next year’s LoverFest?
“Definitely. And that’s why it’s still fun for me to take on a challenge like, ‘Oh, let’s just plan our own festival’. Let’s create a bill of artists and try and make it as fun as possible for the fans. I’m so intrigued by what that’s going to be like.”
Finally, when we last did an interview in 2015, you said in five years’ time you wanted to be “finding complexity in happiness”. How has that worked out?
“That’s exactly what’s happened with this album! I think a lot of writers have the fear of stability, emotional health and happiness. Our whole careers, people make jokes about how, ‘Just wait until you meet someone nice, you’ll run out of stuff to write about’. I was talking to [Cats director] Tom Hooper about this because he said one thing his mother taught him was, ‘Don’t ever let people tell you that you can’t make art if you’re happy’. I thought that was so amazing. He’s a creator in a completely different medium but he has been subjected to that same joke over and over again that we must be miserable to create. Lover is important to me in so many ways, but it’s so imperative for me as a human being that songwriting is not tied to my own personal misery. It’s good to know that, it really is!”
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Taylor Swift: Music Week Magazine
November 4, 2019
Around this time of year, the Taylor Swift anniversaries come at you thick and fast.
Nine years since her third album, Speak Now, every note of which was written entirely by Swift, hit the shelves. Five years since she released her mould-breaking pop album, 1989, and went from the world’s biggest country star to the world’s biggest pop star overnight. Two years since her Reputation record saw her become the only musician to post four successive million-plus debut sales weeks in the United States. And so on.
But today, Swift’s mind is drawn further back, to the 13th anniversary of her debut, self-titled record, and the days when her album releases weren’t automatically accompanied by mountains of hype and enough think-pieces to sink a battleship. Her journal entries from the time – helpfully reprinted as part of the deluxe editions of her new album, Lover – reveal her as an excited, optimistic teenager, but also one with a grasp of marketing strategies and label politics way beyond her years, even if she was reluctant to actually take credit for her ideas.
“It always was and it always will be an interesting dance being a young woman in the music industry,” she smiles ruefully. “We don’t have a lot of female executives, we’re working on getting more female engineers and producers but, while we are such a drastic gender minority, it’s interesting to try and figure out how to be.”
And, of course, when Swift started out she was, as she points out, “an actual kid”.
“I was planning the release of my first album when I was 15 years old,” she reminisces. “And I was a fully gangly 15, I reminded everyone of their niece! I was in this industry in Nashville and country music, where I was making album marketing calls, but I never wanted to stand up and say, ‘Yeah, that promotions plan you just complimented my label on, I thought of that! Me and my Mom thought of that!’
“When you’re a new artist you wonder how much space you can take up and, as a woman, you wonder how much space you can take up pretty much your whole period of growing up,” she continues. “For me, growing up and knowing that I was an adult was realising that I was allowed to take up space from a marketing perspective, from a business perspective, from an opinionated perspective. And that feels a lot better than constantly trying to wonder if I’m allowed to be here.”
In the intervening years, Taylor Swift has released six further, brilliant albums, growing from country starlet to all-conquering pop behemoth along the way. She takes up “more space”, as she would put it, than any other musician on the planet: a sales and now – having belatedly embraced the format with Lover – streaming phenomenon; a powerhouse stadium performer; an award-garlanded songwriter for herself and others; and a social media giant with a combined 278 million followers across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (which would make the Taylor Nation the fourth most populous one on earth, after China, India and the US).
But her influence on music and the music industry doesn’t end there. Because, over the years, Swift has also become a leading advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights, in a digital landscape that doesn’t always have such matters as a priority.
In 2015, she stood up to Apple Music over its plans to not pay artist royalties during subscribers’ three-month free trials (Apple backed down immediately). She pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify in 2014 in protest that its free tier was devaluing music, sending Daniel Ek scrambling to justify his business model. When she returned in 2017, it was a crucial fillip for the streaming service’s IPO plans.
More recently, her ground-breaking new record deal with Republic Records contained clauses not only guaranteeing her ownership of her future masters, but also ensuring Universal Music will share the spoils of its Spotify shares with its artists, without any payments counting against unrecouped balances. And when her long-time former label boss Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, taking Swift’s first six albums with him, the star publicly called out what she saw as her “worst-case scenario” and stressed: “You deserve to own the art you make”. She may yet re-record her old songs in protest.
In short, Swift has, for a long time now, been unafraid to use her voice on industry matters, whether they pertain to her own stellar career or the thousands of other artists out there struggling to make a living.
All of which makes Swift not just the greatest star of our age, but perhaps the most important to the future development of the industry as a more artist-centric, songwriter-friendly business. Hers is still the life of the pop phenomenon – she spent today in Los Angeles doing promotion and photoshoots (or, in her words, “having people put make-up on me”) as Lover continues to build on huge critical acclaim and even huger initial sales. But now, she’s kicking back with her cats – one of whom seems determined to disrupt Music Week’s interview by “stampeding” through at every opportunity – and ready to talk business.
And for Swift, business is good. The impact of her joining streaming, and the decline of traditional album sales, may have prevented her from posting a fifth successive one million-plus sales debut, but Lover still sold more US copies (867,000) in its first week than any record since her own Reputation. It’s sold 117,513 copies to date in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company.
Even better, while Reputation – a record forged in the white heat of a social media snakestorm over her on-going feud with Kanye West – was plenty of show and rather less grow, Lover continues to reveal hidden depths. Reputation struck a sometimes curious contrast between the unrepentant warrior Swift she was showing to the outside world and the love story with British actor Joe Alwyn that was quietly developing behind closed doors, but Lover is the sort of versatile, cohesive album that the streaming age was supposed to kill off.
It contains more than its fair share of pop bangers (You Need To Calm Down, Me!), but also some gorgeously-crafted acoustic tracks (Lover, Cornelia Street), some pithy political commentary (The Man, Miss America & The Heartbreak Prince) and the sort of musical diversions (Paper Rings’ irresistible rockabilly stomp, the childlike oddity of It’s Nice To Have A Friend) that no other pop superstar would have the sheer musical chops to attempt, let alone pull off.
“Taylor’s creative instincts as an artist and songwriter are brilliant,” says Monte Lipman, founder and CEO of Swift’s US label, Republic. “Our partnership represents a strategic alliance built on mutual respect, trust, and complete transparency. Her vision is extraordinary as she sets the tone for every campaign and initiative.”
No wonder David Joseph, chairman/CEO of her long-time UK label Virgin EMI’s parent company Universal Music UK, is thrilled with how things are going.
“Love Story was a fitting first single release for Taylor here – she’s loved the UK from day one and has engaged so much with her fans and teams,” says Joseph. “She really respects and values what’s going on here creatively. To see her go from playing the Students’ Union at King’s College to Wembley Stadium has been extraordinary. Taylor is an artist constantly striving for perfection, and with Lover – from my personal point of view, her most accomplished work to date – her songwriting has gone to a new level. I adore working with her and whilst it’s been more than 10 years this still feels like the start.”
And today, Swift is keen to concentrate on the present and future. She has a starring role in Cats coming up (and a new song on the soundtrack, Beautiful Ghosts, co-written with Andrew Lloyd Webber) and, after a spectacularly intimate Paris launch show in September, festival dates and her own LoverFest to plan (UK shows will be revealed soon). Time, then, to tell the cats to calm down and sit down with Music Week to talk streaming, contracts and why she’s “obsessed” with the music industry…
Unlike with Reputation, most of the discussion around Lover seems to have been focused on the music…
“Absolutely! One of the ideas I had about this record, and something I’ve implemented into my life in the last couple of years is that I don’t like distractions. And, for a while, it felt like my life had to come with distractions from the music, whether it was tabloid fascination with my personal life or my friendships or what I was wearing. I realised in the last couple of years that, if I don’t give a window into distraction, people can’t try to look in and see something other than the music. I love that, if you really pour yourself into the idea that an album is still important and try really hard to make something that is worth people’s attention span, time and energy, that can still come across. Because we are living in an industry right now where everyone’s rushing towards taking us into a singles industry and, in some cases, it has become that. But there are still some cases where clearly the album is important to people.”
Does it matter that some new artists won’t get to make albums the way you always have?
“It’s interesting. Five years ago I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and said, maybe in the next five years, we would see artists releasing music the way that they want to. I thought that each artist would start to curate what is important to them, not just from an artistic standpoint but from a marketing standpoint. It’s really interesting to see different release plans, if you look at what Drake did and then what Beyoncé does, incredible artists who have really curated what it is to drop music in their own way. We all do it differently, which is cool. As long as people dropping just singles want to be doing that, then I’m fine with it, but if it feels like a big general wave that’s being pressured by people in power, their teams or their labels, that’s not cool. But I do really hope that in the future artists have more of a say over strategy. We’re not just supposed to make art and then hand it to a team that masterminds it.”
Were you worried about putting an album on streaming on release day for the first time?
“Well, there are ways that streaming services could really promote the [whole] album in a more incentivised way. We could have album charts on streaming. The industry follows where they can get prizes. So you have a singles chart on streaming services which is great but, if you split things up into genre charts for example, that would really incentivise people. It’s important that we keep trying to strive to make the experience better for users but also make it more interesting for artists to keep wanting to achieve. But I really did love the experience of putting the album on streaming. I loved the immediacy, I loved that people who maybe weren’t a huge diehard fan were curious and saying, ‘I wonder what this is like’ and listening to it and deciding that they liked it.”
You’d resisted streaming for a long time. Have you changed your mind about the format now?
“I always knew that I would enjoy the aspects of streaming that make [your music] so immediately available to so many people. That’s the part of it that I unequivocally always felt really sad I was missing out on. There wasn’t ever a day when I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m really glad that multitudes of people don’t have access to my music!’ So I always knew that streaming was an incredible mechanism and model for the future but I still don’t think we have the royalties and compensation system worked out. That’s between the labels and their artists and I realised that me, to use a gross word, ‘leveraging’ what I can bring to cut a better deal for the artists at my record label was really important for me.”
How big a factor were things like that in you signing to Republic/Universal?
“That’s important to me because that means they’re adopting some of my ideas. If they take me on as an artist that means they really thought it through. Because with me, come opinions about how we can better our industry. I’m one of the only people in the artist realm who can be loud about it. People who are on their fifth, sixth or seventh album, we’re the only ones who can speak out, because new artists and producers and writers need to work. They need to be endearing and likeable and available to their labels and streaming services at all times. It’s up to the artists who have been around for a second to say, ‘Hey guys, the producers and the writers and the artists are the ones who are making music what it is’. And we’re in a great place in music right now thanks to them. They should be going to their mailbox and feeling like they’ve got a pension plan, rather than feeling like, ‘Oh yay, I can pay half my rent this month after this No.1 song’.”
Did you have more creative freedom making Lover than on your previous albums?
“In my previous situation, there were creative constraints, issues that we had over the years. I’ve always given 100% to projects, I always over-delivered, thinking that that generosity would be returned to me. But I ended up finding that generosity in a new situation with a new label that understands that I deserve to own what I make. That meant so much to me because it was given over to me so freely. When someone just looks at you and says ‘Yes, you deserve what you want’, after a decade or more of being told, ‘I’m not sure you deserve what you want’ – there’s a freedom that comes with that. It’s like when people find ‘the one’ they’re like, ‘It was easy, I just knew and I felt free’. All of a sudden you’re being told you’re worth exactly, no, more than what you thought you were worth. And that made me feel I could make an album that was exactly what I wanted to make. There’s an eclectic side to Lover, a confessional side, it varies from acoustic to really poppy pop, but that’s what I like to do. And, while you would never make something artistic based on something so unromantic as a contract, it was more than that. It was a group of people saying, ‘We believe in what you’re making, go make what you want to make and you deserve to own it too’.”
You’re obviously not happy about what’s happened at Big Machine since you left. But will the attention mean artists don’t find themselves in this situation in the future?
“I hope so. That’s the only reason that I speak out about things. The fans don’t understand these things, the public isn’t being made aware. This generation has so much information available to them so I thought it was important that the fans knew what I was going through, because I knew it was going to affect every aspect of my life and I wanted them to be the first to know. And in and amongst that group, I know there are people that want to make music some day. It involves every new artist that is reading that and going, ‘Wait, that’s what I’m signing?’ They don’t have to sign stuff that’s unfair to them. If you don’t ask the right questions and you sit in front of the wrong desk in front of the wrong person, they can take everything from you.”
Songwriters are in dispute with Spotify in the US over its decision to appeal the Copyright Board decision to boost songwriting royalties. Do writers need more respect?
“Absolutely. In terms of the power structure, the songwriters, the producers, the engineers, the people who are breathing magic into our industry, need to be listened to. They’re not being greedy. This is legitimately an industry where people are having trouble paying their bills and they’re the most talented people we have. This isn’t them sitting in their mansions going, ‘I wish this mansion was bigger and I would like a yacht please’. This is actually people who are going to work every single day. I got into writing when I was in Nashville and it was very much like what I read about the Brill Building. You would write every day, whether you were inspired or not, and in the process I met artists and writers. Somebody would walk in and someone would say, ‘Oh, he’s still getting mailbox money from that Faith Hill cut a couple of years ago, he’s set’. That’s not a thing anymore. Mailbox money is a thing of the past and we need to remember that these are the people that create the heartbeat that we’re all dancing to or crying to.”
You were clearly aware of music industry machinations from a young age…
“Reading back on the journal entries, I forgot how obsessed I was with the industry as a teenager. I was so fascinated by how it works and how it was changing. Every part of it was interesting to me. I had drawn the stages for most of my tours a year before I went on them. That really was fun for me as a teenager! A lot of people who start out very young in music, either don’t have a say or don’t have the will to do the business side of it, but weirdly that was so much fun for me to try and learn. I had a lot of energy when I was 16!”
Are you doing similar drawings for next year’s LoverFest?
“Definitely. And that’s why it’s still fun for me to take on a challenge like, ‘Oh, let’s just plan our own festival’. Let’s create a bill of artists and try and make it as fun as possible for the fans. I’m so intrigued by what that’s going to be like.”
Finally, when we last did an interview in 2015, you said in five years’ time you wanted to be “finding complexity in happiness”. How has that worked out?
“That’s exactly what’s happened with this album! I think a lot of writers have the fear of stability, emotional health and happiness. Our whole careers, people make jokes about how, ‘Just wait until you meet someone nice, you’ll run out of stuff to write about’. I was talking to [Cats director] Tom Hooper about this because he said one thing his mother taught him was, ‘Don’t ever let people tell you that you can’t make art if you’re happy’. I thought that was so amazing. He’s a creator in a completely different medium but he has been subjected to that same joke over and over again that we must be miserable to create. Lover is important to me in so many ways, but it’s so imperative for me as a human being that songwriting is not tied to my own personal misery. It’s good to know that, it really is!”
@taylorswift @taylornation
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Bowie’s Favorite Albums of 2017 Big List! (Intro, #60-41)
Alright! One of my favorite times of the year is actually this list haha. It’s when I finally get to unleash on the world some of my collected thoughts on what came out in the music world this year, and there are a lot of them! I used to just post this list on Facebook in previous years, but this year’s list is a whole new monster. A monster waaaayyy too big for Facebook.
Out of all the years in my life, 2017 was probably my favorite year in music so far (2013 taking 2nd place). Maybe that’s just because I’ve become more invested in it since years past, but either way, it blew me away. I knew last year about some of the big names preparing for releases this year (Eminem, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Taylor Swift, etc.), so of course expectations were high, but those got beat! And I’m lovin’ it! SUCH A GOOD YEAR IN MUSIC!! And my band released our first EP earlier this year too, but out of fairness and all that jazz that won’t be included on here. But hey, I’m a fan ;)
So here I’ve got my top-60 favorite albums of 2017. I listened to around 65 or so new albums this year, but some honestly weren’t good enough to be included and sixty’s a nice, pleasant number haha. Please understand that these are my OPINIONS, so even if it sounds like I’m saying something that could be taken as a fact, like, “this album is amazing,” it’s really not a fact at all. I believe that there really aren’t definitive answers for music. It’s all about how it hits us individually. To say a song is or isn’t great as a fact is kinda dumb. The closest guide I use is what I once heard John Mayer say, which is “the public is never wrong.” And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
So here I’m going to give you the album artist and title, my thoughts on the release, and a few (or one, or whatever I feel like, dang it) of my favorite songs from the album. Just because I like them doesn’t necessarily mean I’d recommend them though. We’re all different, and I try to make my recommendations very personalized. So take a quick look, read every word, skip to number one, or whatever you’d like. It’s all here for you. Enjoy!
———-
Honorable Mention:
Coldplay - Kaleidoscope EP
The only reason this isn’t on the main list is because it’s not actually a full-scale “album.” That’s. It. Coldplay still consistently makes some of the best music out there today (the public is never wrong), and this EP is full of solid songs. Well, besides the live version of “Something Just Like This,” I just don’t feel like that was necessary here and takes away from the cohesiveness of the EP. But the rest of the songs push Coldplay’s songwriting to new limits, seeing how far they can stretch it without losing who they are at heart. “Aliens” might just be their most experimental song to date, “All I Can Think About Is You” feels like the beautiful love child of “Atlas” and their old “Blue Room EP,” and “Hypnotized” I’ll be babbling about later. Great EP.
*All I Can Think About Is You, Hypnotized
——–
60. Julien Baker - Turn Out The Lights
I was intrigued to listen to this one after hearing her debut album a while back, but it’s not an album to lose any sleep over. Most every song uses similar guitar tones, effects, and patterns on top of repetitive singing tones and patterns. It’s one of those albums I wouldn’t mind just having in the background of a chill session (is that a thing?) for a little bit, but that’s about it for me.
*Claws In Your Back
——
59. Kesha - Rainbow
Good album, not great. Somehow it creaked into Rolling Stone’s top-10, but hey, to each their own haha. Kesha went out and made a very self-empowering album here, and she very clearly states she’s done takin’ y'all’s crap. It has it’s very cool moments (“Praying”), and very possibly the most charming song of the year (“Godzilla”), but it’s just a “good” album to me.
*Praying, Godzilla, Old Flames
—
58. Migos - Culture
Maybe this album will grow on me, buuuut I’m not there yet haha. It’s not a bad album, I just don’t get all the hype that’s been around it. But like I said, maybe I will someday. There are interesting ideas and concepts in here, and definitely some interesting uses of onomatopoeia (never predicted I’d use that word on this list) though, and it makes it an album to at least check out. I don’t see this album changing rap forever like some have claimed, but it is interesting.
*Big On Big, Slippery
—
57. AJR - The Click
Ya know, this album gets a lot better when I forget about the hat. AJR are an interesting band. They’re part of that new generation/movement that has access to an incredible amount of digital sounds and decides to use a very high, diverse selection of them. I mean, Native Instruments might as well sponsor these guys at this point with how often they show off their Maschine and all the sounds the got from it during their live shows. So it’s an interesting album. But it’s also pretty good. Not all great, but mostly “good.” Think Twenty One Pilots’ little eccentric cousin. I dunno. It’s good haha. Definitely a bit fascinating to listen to for the production choices if not much else. And they use an overture, which I actually really dig. Definitely one of the harder albums here to wrap your mind around, for better or worse.
*Overture, The Good Part
—
56. Phoenix - Ti Amo
I just found out Phoenix is from France. Huh. Anyway, Phoenix has built a reputation as being a consistently solod alternative band. They go for a bit of a change of sound this time around, and it makes me kinda think of an 80’s high school dance -type thing. But they do it really well, and even though that was probably a terrible comparison, it does sound modern and groovey. Definitely a much more colorful, bright album than their previous albums. Phoenix just makes good albums.
*Fior Di Latte, Ti Amo, Tuttifrutti
—
55. Margo Price - All American Made
I checked this album out because Rolling Stone named it their #1 country album of the year, and though I don’t quiiiite agree with that placement, I’m glad I did. Simple, genuine, charming. Definitely an honest album from the artist, and it gives a good insight on her views on some of the social issues out there today. And in a world that’s losing that “old country” feel, albums like this keep it alive, and it’s a beautiful thing.
*Learning to Lose
——
54. Maroon 5 - Red Pill Blues
2017. This album in one word. There’s been a lot of distaste by listeners for Maroon 5 over the past few years because of their draw towards pop trendiness instead of the way they used to be in the early 00’s, and I can’t say I blame ‘em, but Maroon 5 is still Maroon 5, and you can’t get as big as they are without making at least “pretty good” music. (What a big run-on sentence.) I mean, you can still occasionally hear the old Maroon 5 somewhere deep in here but it’s too often buried beneath the biggest sounds and trends of 2017, and that really does detract from the heart of everything. But still, the album has it’s good moments and is generally enjoyable. Definitely not their best, but it’s still a decent pop album.
*Denim Jacket, Lips On You
—
53. Andy Grammer - The Good Parts
Alright, we’ve all heard Andy Grammer on the radio before, and that’s pretty much what you get. No big changes or evolutions, no big surprises, but you get an enjoyable, radio-factory, cookie-cutter pop album. Basically like any AG album haha. He follows the national trend with this one and has gone more electronic and all that, and that’s as new as you’ll get, but he still does those feel-good vibes probably better than anyone else on pop radio these days (and I actually believe him). I wish he’d sometimes take a step back from overreaching for a catch at the expense of an emotional center (I’m looking at you, “The Good Parts”), but I still enjoyed listening to this one.
*Fresh Eyes, Workin On It
—–
52. The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
Nah, I get it. I really do. Some people adore this album and it’s near the top of their “Best of 2017” lists. But I don’t quite feel it as much. Probably the main issue I’ve got with it is that it’s just. too. long. The average song on here is six minutes long. For me, I don’t mind long songs at any given time if there’s some sort of change in them, something that expands its reach and says something else within that spectrum (Green Day’s “Jesus Of Suburbia” comes to mind). These songs sometimes just kinda feel like they take forever to say what they need to say. So it’s hard to sit down with this album and thoroughly enjoy it without checking my watch, but the songs themselves are good songs I wouldn’t mind having shuffled in my playlists on occasion. Despite its length and lack of strong melodies, it is a well-made album and worthy of the praise it’s gotten, but it just doesn’t click with me super well.
*Pain
—
51. Zac Brown Band - Welcome Home
If you know Zac Brown Band, you know what you’re getting here. If not, this is another upbeat, fun, warm album from one of the best country groups out there today. Not really anything suprising here or any big changes of formula from the usual ZBB, but it’s still a very enjoyable album to just throw on and have a good day to.
*Long Haul, All The Best
—
50. Prophets Of Rage - Prophets Of Rage
You think these guys voted democrat?
I’m a huge Rage Against The Machine fan, so I was pretty excited when I heard about these guys coming together to form this project. It’s a hard-hitting, no punches pulled, fists in the air, solid rap/rock album. Just be prepared to deal with strong opinions, because pretty much every track on this album is exactly that. It’s pure disruption. These guys do what they do very well though, and no matter your social stances, it’s a fun time getting into. (Please note though, the songs I chose for this album are purely based off musical preferences.)
*Living On The 110, Hail To The Chief
—–
49. William Patrick Corgan - Ogilala
“William *Patrick* Corgan.” This is not the same Willy/Billy I’ve ever heard haha. No more of The Smashing Pumpkins’ grungey guitars or hard-hitting drums here. No more drums here. He took a huge step back here and made a true solo album that is primarily just piano and guitar, and it actually makes his songwriting glow a bit. It’s probably the simplest album on this list, and it’s kind of refreshing to listen to at times. Solid effort, Willy/Billy. Solid effort.
*Aeronaut
—-
48. Mansionz - Mansionz
If you haven’t listened to this just because of the cover art, I can’t say I blame you haha. These guys (Mike Posner and Blackbear, actually really good artists) are throwing all popular opinions and expectations out the window and making sure you know it. Seems like they literally just got together, said “**** it, let’s make a crazy album,” and did it. But here’s the shocking thing, is it’s actually pretty good. Not all of it was all that great, but it’s mostly an enjoyable experience. Mike Posner is also one of the artists out there I’m most fascinated by these days (“I’m Thinking About Horses”), and it’s interesting to see what these two guys made together.
*I’m Thinking About Horses, Rich White Girls, White Linen
—–
47. Linkin Park - One More Light
It’d be really easy to write a glowing opinion on this one because of what happened with Linkin Park this year, but I’m going to try to drop all sentimentality for a sec. Linkin Park went pop here. Though not to the levels of Chainsmokers or whatever, that’s what they did. These artists who are filled up with so much fire and rage in their youth grow up, and if they’re being honest their music grows up with them, which usually means it mellows out at least a bit (look at Eminem). So pop seems like it was just the place where what they were feeling and wanted to express happened to fit at the moment. WHICH IS TOTALLY FINE. And it breaks my heart now like it broke my heart when this album came out that a lot of their fans don’t seem to understand that. Or probably moreso. Linkin Park made a really good album here, but rather than supporting the band at heart and looking at this album for what it really is, a lot of their fans supported their own idea of what they wanted to the band to be instead and ripped on this one, which makes me really sad. It’s a good album. Sure, I definitely wouldn’t grade it anywhere near as high as “Hybrid Theory,” but Linkin Park are still Linkin Park here, and Linkin Park makes dang good music. If this is going to be Linkin Park’s last album, they ended on a different, but strong note.
*Good Goodbye, One More Light, Sorry For Now
—
46. Rise Against - Wolves
Well, they’re not exactly trying to make an “Abbey Road” here or anything like that, but I do love me some Rise Against! Rise Against is one of those bands that has a formula for themseleves that works and that they do very well, and they stick to it rather than try to re-create themselves all the time. But hey, that’s perfectly fine by me. There will always be a nice spot on my lifting playlists for their songs. And, “if it ain’t broke…”
*Wolves, Miracle
—
45. Beck - Colors
Considering the tone of Beck’s previous album, the excellent “Morning Phase,” this one was a bit of a surprise. He got a lot groovier, and I dig it. It’s a very bright, fun album. Definitely more reliant on synthetic sounds this time around, but that’s not a bad thing. Beck’s still out there making great albums.
*Seventh Heaven, Up All Night
——
44. Russ - There’s Really A Wolf
Russ is an intriguing guy. This isn’t some amazing, instant-standout rap album. But! It is a good rap album. And Russ strikes me as a guy who has worked his butt off to get where he is and who will continue to work his butt off to get where he wants to be. It feels like the beginning of something. Will he get hits later and make it to arenas? I dunno. He writes, produces, mixes and engineers all of his songs himself though, and that is enough to impress me with the level these songs are at. It’s a promising start to his mainstream career.
*There’s Really A Wolf, Pull The Trigger
—
43. The National - Sleep Well Beast
This album feels kinda like taking a warm bath. It’s nice and relaxing, but not quite “hot,” you know? But don’t get me wrong, it is definitely a good album. There aren’t really many standout songs, or any that stand out significantly to me, but the album as a whole is the kind of solid piece of art we’ve come to know and love from The National. I’d recommend playing it in the background of a chill night.
*Carin At The Liquor Store, Dark Side Of The Gym
–
42. The Chainsmokers - Memories… Do Not Open
Love 'em or hate 'em, there’s no denying The Chainsmokers are good at what they do, which is making hits. If you want 2017 pop radio summed up in an album, this would probably be a decent one to pick. They’ve got catchy choruses, big drops, the works. It’s not exactly a Da Vinci of an album, but hey, I enjoy dipping my feet in it on rare occasion.
*Something Just Like This, Paris
——
41. St. Vincent - Masseduction
Yeah, no, this is a pretty dang good alternative album. Definitely not the usual album out that’s out there. Has it’s own vibe going. Kinda strange (not in a bad way), and kinda empowering. It’s not *all* my cup of tea, but there are some really good songs on here (“Los Ageless”) for sure. This is the first St. Vincent album I’ve listened to and it’s good enough for me to want to keeo checking out more of them. So even though it’s not quite all the way up my alley, I can see why it’s held in such high regard.
-Slow Disco, Los Ageless
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5,000 Question Survey–Part twenty-seven
2501. what image, scent, memory, etc. would you take with you into the dark/light, the land of dead, heaven, infinity…..? the smell of a forest.
2502. Who is the most annoying musical artist EVER? Taylor Swift...Justin Beiber....Demi Lovato...Miley Cyrus 2503. If you HAD to go to one of the following concerts, which would it be: Snow Vanilla Ice NKOTB Milli Vanilli BSB NSYNC
2504. Do you believe in manifest destiny? no... 2505. Have you ever fallen for an email forwarding hoax (send this to 13 people and old navy will send you a $200.00(100 pound) gift card)? Do you ever think ‘well, maybe…’ and actually forward those damn things? no; no
2506. Let’s say there are 2 schools. one for boys and one for girls. They are both supposed to offer the same facilities so that the girls and boys get equal education. Would you take this to mean that the same courses should be offered to both girls and boys or that the same amount of money should be spent on each school? both?
Imagine that in the boys school fifteen boys sign up for calculus. In the girls school only five girls sign up for calculus. Should the girls calculus class be dissolved and replaced with an easier one? no.. 2507. Would it bother you if you found out that the fruits, vegetables, and meat that you eat is genetically altered (in lots of cases it is!)? they are tho... 2508. What does this world need? peace. 2509. Is there anything you do just because you want to even though it has no redeeming social value? yes...tumblr lol
2510. If you drink what kind of drunk are you? i don’t really drink. 2511, Do you ever 'conveniently’ forget something you don’t want to remember? yeah... 2512. If you have any cousins are you close? no 2513. Are you in love with yourself (your beautiful self)? not at all. 2514. What was the first movie you got on dvd? i think Lilo and Stitch tbh 2515. If you’re sexy and you know it clap your hands. Did you clap? no 2516. have you ever called a: psychic hotline? no suicide crisis line? i’ve dont an online chat one. sex line? no dating line? no 2517. have you ever placed a personal ad anywhere? yeah 2518. Do guys look good in make up? sometimes. 2519. What are 5 things you don’t care about? - 2520. What are you going to do until you die? read books; watch movies; sing. 2521. What 'issue’ do you think your opinion is so right about that you end up trying to sway others to your point of view? mental health stigma 2522. What age do you hope to live until? don’t care. 2523. Do you like to tie others down during sex? no
Have you ever been tied down? no 2524. Do you own any “toys”? yes
Do you ever use them? yes
2525. Have you ever been spanked in that sexy way? no
Have you ever spanked anyone else? No.
2526. Do these questions make you uncomfortable? kinda
Do you like that feeling? no?
Does it turn you on? no..... 2527. You know those ___ for dummies books (COMPTERS FOR DUMMIES, SURFING FOR DUMMIES, GOLDF FOR DUMMIES, WICCA FOR DUMMIES)? yes Which one do you need to read? none. 2528. What do your socks look like? white 2529. Which of these really famous music artists started their career as a mime: no clue...
Alice Cooper David Bowie Bruce Springsteen Moby Jewel Frank Zappa
2530. Does love float away if you let go? probably? 2531. Do you think that most people in today’s society are: kind? no calm? no humble? no peaceful? no helpful? no happy? no spiritual? yes creative? yes friendly? no independent? yes intelligent? some? having fun? no clue coming up with new ideas? yes able to think for themselves? no able to really connect with others? maybe?
If you answered no to any of the above, why do you think that is? experience.
2532. Do you believe that every action has a sexual motive (think Freud)? no 2533. Speaking of Freud, did you know he was on drugs (think cocaine)? don’t care. 2534. Do you trust psychology as a valid science? yes 2535. ID: In Freudian theory, the division of the psyche that is totally unconscious and serves as the source of instinctual impulses and demands for immediate satisfaction of primitive needs(sex, food, aggressive behavior, drugs, alcohol, yelling, anger, fighting). SUPEREGO: In Freudian theory, the division of the unconscious that is formed through the internalization of moral standards of parents and society, and that censors and restrains the ego. So, which one do you express more, your ID or your SUPEREGO? superego 2536. Do you think that people who are alone and depressed are depressed because they are alone or alone because they are depressed? neither. they have a mental illness. 2537. Can you complete any of the following lyrics: I stop and I stare too much, afraid that I care too much… - You’re a new and better man, he helps you to understand,He does everything he can, he’s…. - Took the needles from my arms and put them to the sky… - Top Gun shut down your Firm like Tom Cruise…. - Don’t you take it so hard now, And please don’t take it so bad…. - 2538. How about these? From around the way, born in '73, Harcore B-boy named… - And this feeling shivers down your spine, Love comes in colors I can’t deny…. - Before he hung up the phone he took a deep breath, stopped, and replied…. - When I want you in my arms, when I want you and all your charms, whenever I want you all I have to do is… - Silly games that you were playing, empty words we both were saying… -
2539. Have you ever been to see a ballet? maybe 2540. What is the difference between Satan and Pan? - 2541. What should a poem be or do if it is a successful poem? ? 2542. When you interpret a poem can each line mean anything you want it to? i’m sure? 2543. Are you an orgasm addict? i like them but naw 2544. Are you a sugar junkie? yes 2545. What are you doing? this and watching The Purge Anarchy
Why aren’t you marching in line with the rest of them? ? 2546. Do you only hear what you want to? sure 2547. Are you anal-retentive? ? 2548. In and Out Over and Under Around and ???
WHAT 2549. What was the last thing you returned to the store? - 2550. Why ask why? to learn
2551. What is your favorite song or artist that is: jazz: Ill Wind - Billie Holuda metal: suicide season - BMTH rock: Since I’ve been loving you - Zeppelin new wave: - psychadelic: - 2552. What are your feelings about: Picasso? - Van Gogh? - Michaelangelo? i like his work D'Vincci? interesting Einstein? he’s cool Tesla? -
2553. Who else can you think of that made a MAJOR contribution to art or science? - 2554. Who can you think of that made a major contribution to modern thought? - 2555. Why is it called 'coca cola’? no idea. 2556. Would you ever buy a Ford car? i have 2557. Donald or Daffy duck? none 2558. What is the most memorable thing about Pee-Wee Herman? - 2559. Lease or buy a car? which i could buy 2560. Have you met Real Talkin’ Bubba? no
Do you love him to death? - 2561. Have you ever been in a situation where you weren’t sure if you were seducing or being seduced? no 2562. Can you 'pinch an inch’ on your belly? - 2563. Have you ever been to: a temple? no a bar? yes a massage parlor? no 2564. Would you ever want to visit Thailand? Sure. 2565. What culture are you fascinated by? European 2566. Have you ever worn a cape? naw 2567. What is the difference between 'nude’ and 'naked’? I don’t care
2568. What can you get for a dollar (.59 brittish pounds)? a soda from the vending machine 2569. What makes you who you are? everything 2570. How do you search for meaning in life? i don’t 2571. If your partner collected internet porn pics of celebs s/he thought was hot would that bother you? no. 2572. You are alone with your lover’s diary. What do you do? ? 2573. You read some and find out that a whhhiiillle back your lover had a crush on someone else, but you two were together. You both still hang out with this person. What do you do? nope. fuck that bitch. 2574. Are you an old fart? basically. 2575. What were your favorite things to do in the yard as a kid? play 2576. Why don’t people have more fun? no idea? 2577. Have you ever wanted to have a pet skinned and turned into an article of clothing? um no wtf
What pet? -
What article of clothing? -
2578. Do I come off sounding normal, mildly irrational, blatantly insane or completely certifiable? i don’t like this question. 2579. Did you ever feel that you were unable to function in society? yes 2580. Is it nap time yet? feels like it. 2581. Do you have to have the space next to the door or can you walk from the other end of the parking lot and still be okay with the world? sure? 2582. Do you like trains? sure 2583. What’s in Hungary? people 2584. have you ever felt like you were holding someone else back? probably.
Has someone ever held you back? dunno 2585. What do you think of the term, 'organized religion’? not a fan 2586. What do you think of the name 'Orson’? idc. 2587. What frustrates you? ignorance. 2588. Winkin, Blinkin and Nod, one night, sailed off in a sea of dew.. ? 2589. Is ten dollars (5 pounds) a good price to pay for one lipstick? no
Does anyone else remember when lipstick was, like, 2 or 3 bucks? no 2590. Are you ill? no 2591. Where were you the night of…..oh hell, last night? home 2592. Do you pronounce the 'er’ sound at the end of words(lookER or lookA)? yes 2593. Do you drink only 100% juice? probably? 2594. Do you remember the bills you have to pay…or even yesterday? yes? 2595. What duck? - 2596. Do you collect coins? no
How about stamps? no 2597. What’s the best way to learn a new language? no idea. 2598. Is god in you? nope 2599. Are you in god? nope. 2600. Do you know which fork to use at a formal table setting?
no
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