I don't have anything against the singer Taylor Swift per say. She's a hugely successful artist and seems to be generous in sharing her success and helping other musicians, which is admirable when you compare it to the likes of Justin Bieber and Chris Brown, who just seem to be content with buying a ridiculous amount of the same expensive cars and committing minor felonies.
However my problem is that she's just not that good of a singer and I'm pretty tired of being force fed her antics all over the place. This came to a head after all the ridiculous hype for her latest video 'Bad Blood'...hype which seems entirely misplaced as I finally gave in and watched the video for it and was entirely unimpressed. Other than the fact that the video is a rip of Sin City, nothing particularly happens in it other than some stunt men falling over chairs and explosions.
The song at no point draws me in and it continues to amaze me how people get suckered into enjoying this formulaic type of music that is the concoction of multiple producers and writers. There are so many more talented singers and songwriters out there but kids will always enjoy the easy listening which pop music creates. Take Ellie Goulding's (who features in the video) track from 50 Shades of Grey, that song was at number 1 in the charts for way too long and it was the most generic, soulless thing I've ever heard...just like the film was to watch (so I've read).
I suppose when I step back and look at the bigger picture I shouldn't be annoyed at Taylor Swift, rather the companies and the people who back these things because it will benefit them and because they think it is what the public want. This video received an incredible amount of hype...hey look! all you favourite singers, models and wannabes (the last one was for you Selena Gomez) are in a video together. We'll give them all 5 seconds of screen time where they are appearing to kick ass at something, but really they're just pouting and standing with their legs open because this is what they believe looking strong and 'fierce' is.
All of this detracts from the song itself and by the time they've fitted all these unnecessary features in there is no time left for any kind of story to the video. It may as well have been Swift scrolling through her celebrity friends lift on Facebook or Twitter so we can see how popular she is.
Anyway I don't want this to come across as me hating on a young and hugely successful girl, I'd just rather see her do more with what she has and generate genuine music and content that will stand the test of time. After all time is the greatest critic to a musician and so far I can't remember any of her songs without getting them confused with other generic pop songs.
I'm well aware that by writing this letter I am in fact providing the song with another form of publicity and in a way promoting it. I guess you just can't win against these big corporate machines...if you can't beat them then you may as well join them. Right?
