My Life In Technicolor

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So my favorite “hit” of 08 was Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”, but for whatever reason I never listened to her album, Fearless in whole until this week. Its a pretty darn good album and I was surprised with the high quality of the musicianship and the melodies are just top notch stuff. However, the lyrics are a different story. I get the lyrics are targeted at 12-18 yr old girls, so they are pretty fluffy and generic. I don’t think anyone over 18 is listening for the lyrics here. However, they are influencing millions of girls to some degree or another and quite honestly, they are bat shit crazy at times. Here are two sample lyrics from two different songs from the same album: “You Belong to Me” You’re on the phone with your girlfriendShe’s upset.She’s going off about something that you said‘Cuz she doesn’t get your humor like I do… I’m in the roomIt’s a typical Tuesday nightI’m listening to the kind of music she doesn’t likeAnd she’ll never know your story like I do’ “The Way I Loved You” He says everything I need to hear and it’s like I couldn’t ask for anything betterHe opens up my door and I get into his carAnd he says you look beautiful tonightAnd I feel perfectly fine. But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rainAnd it’s 2 AM and I’m cursing your nameYou’re so in love that you act insaneAnd that’s the way I loved you I mean I can understand that either of those feelings are possible to have, and hey if you wanna write a song like “TWILY” and its honest like “Comfortable” by John Mayer (which this seems like where she was basing it off of considering her love for JM) then thats fine. However, you can’t write a song like You Belong With Me and then follow it with The Way I Loved You that are completely contradicting one another and put it on an album. Only a girl could put both those songs on the same album. *UPDATE: I made a generalization incorrectly, saying that this is why most men don’t respect female musicians. However, I was owned by my friend KG (see comments). I think the point I was thinking, but didn’t articulate correctly at all was that maybe this is why the vast majoirty of the great lyricists are men, and if you come up with a girl, say Jenny Lewis or Stevie Nicks or whomever, I would argue its more of an exception then anything else.

So my favorite “hit” of 08 was Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”, but for whatever reason I never listened to her album, Fearless in whole until this week. Its a pretty darn good album and I was surprised with the high quality of the musicianship and the melodies are just top notch stuff.

However, the lyrics are a different story. I get the lyrics are targeted at 12-18 yr old girls, so they are pretty fluffy and generic. I don’t think anyone over 18 is listening for the lyrics here. However, they are influencing millions of girls to some degree or another and quite honestly, they are bat shit crazy at times.

Here are two sample lyrics from two different songs from the same album:

“You Belong to Me”

You’re on the phone with your girlfriend
She’s upset.
She’s going off about something that you said
‘Cuz she doesn’t get your humor like I do…
I’m in the room
It’s a typical Tuesday night
I’m listening to the kind of music she doesn’t like
And she’ll never know your story like I do’

“The Way I Loved You”

He says everything I need to hear and it’s like I couldn’t ask for anything better
He opens up my door and I get into his car
And he says you look beautiful tonight
And I feel perfectly fine.

But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain
And it’s 2 AM and I’m cursing your name
You’re so in love that you act insane
And that’s the way I loved you

I mean I can understand that either of those feelings are possible to have, and hey if you wanna write a song like “TWILY” and its honest like “Comfortable” by John Mayer (which this seems like where she was basing it off of considering her love for JM) then thats fine. However, you can’t write a song like You Belong With Me and then follow it with The Way I Loved You that are completely contradicting one another and put it on an album.

Only a girl could put both those songs on the same album.

*UPDATE: I made a generalization incorrectly, saying that this is why most men don’t respect female musicians. However, I was owned by my friend KG (see comments). I think the point I was thinking, but didn’t articulate correctly at all was that maybe this is why the vast majoirty of the great lyricists are men, and if you come up with a girl, say Jenny Lewis or Stevie Nicks or whomever, I would argue its more of an exception then anything else.


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