Taylor Swift - Lover (August 23, 2019) Album • Page 28

I don’t doubt her ally status at all, just think in the past it wasn’t used as a timed part of an album rollout. Taking up this much space in queer spaces (stonewall, really?) during pride to promote a new album is iffy regardless of intention.

I agree that different people in the community will feel different about it, and that none of us speak for all of us. that is my personal opinion on the matter and other gays will feel super different about it, but idk.

This video makes me think of Leslie Knope singing poker face when she gets crowned queen of the gays

 

I'm not saying that Taylor has never been an ally before now. I'm saying the way she presents her allyship in this video is as for a specific part of the community and comes at the expense of other parts of the community. I'm happy that a young queer person could see themselves in that video but I think it's shitty that a young poor queer person, or a queer person from a rural community with a family that looks like the "homophobes" in that video, could be made to feel like they're on the wrong side of a binary. There is a clear designation there of Who Is Good and Who Is Bad and what both of those things look like, while using some pretty gross stereotypes about poverty to illustrate the Bad side.

This song is very "Same Love" to me in the sense that it feels more for straight people to listen to and feel good about themselves.

 

I don't think there's any maliciousness on her part but the theory/rumor that she's always been apolitical because she doesn't want to alienate Conservatives makes sense to me, The Dixie Chicks and Kacey Musgraves really did put their careers on the line, and you gotta admit the whole thing does seem like a joke from The Other Two haha

 

I just feel like she’s clearly trying to tell us something w/r/t her sexuality, which does not need to be assumed as straight, and that’s why she’s being so loud. That’s my opinion.

I also don’t think it’s a cash grab to alienate your huge, rich, conservative fanbase for the smaller and arguably poorer LGBTQ+ community.

 

I completely understand the sentiments from both sides. I am just happy she’s speaking out at all, at this point. I’m intrigued to see what the rest of the album entails.

 

definitely still holding out for like...one song that sounds like RED.

 

I’d also be cool with something 1989 style but updated to match this new pastel / rainbow aesthetic

 

Feel like I'm probably preaching to the choir here but I was listening to the new Jonas Brothers album recently and thinking about how the sounds on there are very reminiscent of shit like "Style" and that breezy kind of 1989 pop. Def listen to that if you're missing the 1989 sound,

 

Just when I thought I had no desire to listen to that haha.

 

How about 16 of them? Haha

 

I feel like "straight people to listen to and feel good about themselves" is overly dismissive of Same Love. Yes, that song was written by a straight person for straight people. But it was also written at a time where marriage equality was the exception not the norm. Macklemore's straightness gave him an avenue to address people and change their minds on an issue. Its a bit of an unfortunate part of human nature to ignore oppressed groups talking about themselves and dismiss their concerns as exaggerations. I felt Mack did a pretty good job using his privilege to give a voice to the oppressed and change a few minds about an important issue

here though i agree it does feel a bit odd. The focus of the video is still about Tay. All the LGBTQ people in it are still basically just background characters. Feels less like her giving them a voice and more like she is using them to amplify hers

 

I've always liked that Taylor, even at a young age, recognized the need and responsibility of people in positions like hers to be aware of their influence and power, and use it the right ways. While she's touching on the important topics, it's intertwined consistently with this pop icon self-awareness that feels like it diminishes the harsh realities of the queer community. And before this, her music always came across to me as a product of the industry once she left the country scene. I'm always so surprised at how much this community loves her music because I don't think she does anything different from the constant rotating wheel of pop artists doing what she does.

The person who wrote that Esquire piece summed up and articulated my feelings way better than I ever will (because of the clearer and better understanding of the topic than I ever will have) and think everyone should read it.

 

Taylor is a much, much better songwriter than anyone else in the "constant rotating wheel of pop artists." I don't think anyone else in pop even comes close right now. I might be in the minority on that, but that's why I've always been drawn to her music.

 

he also made it about himself and used a homophobic slur haha

 

pop is such a vague genre right now (which is fine!) - I think Billie Eilish is the most exciting songwriter within that pop genre tag right now.

 

essentially this

 

She's certainly much more original and that's what I like about her. Listening to her music feels like a first time experience which, if you are going the pop music route, is important nowadays imo. Taylor knows her stardom is already at the top so she's free to do whatever she wants, whether that's talking about dating/gossip about her/or someone else's hardship over the same cookie cutter pop production i've come to expect every time I press play on a new single from her.

 

I’d struggle to name a single thing I liked about that Billie Eilish record. Really, really not for me.

 

That’s too bad because it’s incredible

 

Just dropping in to say Dave Holmes is a fantastic writer, that piece seemed to be pretty on point as he seems to be wrestling with it too. He was a great MTV VJ back in the day.

 

If she was and did come out, she'd then be accused of riding the ~fluid sexuality~ bandwagon even though we could never fully know the extent of what it must be like to be someone so public and also struggling with such a thing, so I truly think she can't win here.

 

SEXUAL FREEDOM FOR ALL

SEXUAL FREEDOM FOR ALL

 

Billie Eilish is great. I don’t love the new record, but the highs on that thing rule, and I’m very, very excited for her future.

 

i was listening to the billie eilish record on the way to work today. she's the real deal

 

fundamentally agree with craig about taylor though even if i think the adjustment into pop has been a kind of awkward and gradual shedding of most of the things i loved about her songwriting