While not "All Too Well", I was able to forgive because she played Teardrops and that was literally the first Swift song I ever heard/video I ever saw, which began the confusing-for-everyone-around-me descent into teenage scene kid who inexplicably becomes obsessed with a blonde country singer. I'll wish till the day I die that she payed more respect to Red as an album, but otherwise the set list was pretty incredible. Gave a lot of love to those first two records, which was nice.
I hope she plays something I love for the alternating song. I'm not super well versed in some of her deep cuts, so I hope it's one of the more obvious ones. I'd looove something from Red. Begin Again or State of Grace in particular would kill me
Her first album was kinda scene kid lite tho like "And I know you wouldn't have told nobody if I died, died for you" is just the country pop version of "you could slit my throat and with my one last gasping breath I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt"
Lyrically you've got a point, it was moreso just the rest of the package was kind of the antithesis of scene-dom and at any rate, here we are 12 years later and I still get shocked gasps when I tell people I love her.
Interesting! At my school she was always the acceptable crossover pop artist like gaga was where everyone from all spectrums kinda owned to liking her tho I think most of them turned after Speak Now so they don't even appreciate the ray of light that is Red
Country music didn't even begin to have a toehold (pop country or otherwise) in the non-white parts of the Bay Area, where I grew up. Rap/hip hop/RnB was the pop music I came up on almost exclusively, at least as far as school was concerned. But even amongst the other kids who looked like a Hot Topic spat them out, pop artists like Rihanna, JT, Ne-Yo were much more widely a thing. Also, now I'm thinking about the artists that were breaking during my high school years and it's WILD. Good times.
This tour is hitting my area the same day as Warped, and the venue is only 5 miles from where Warped is. Highly considering hitting both up. Finally delved into Reputation over the last couple of days and I don't know why I slept on it for so long.
Teardrops or Tim McGraw (my first Taylor love) would be a good throwback song if not All Too Well or Red. Her catalogue is so vast. I would be super interested to see you do a write-up of the show eventually from that perspective. (I was considering it as well. I’d like to start doing more music writing.) I definitely came from the “How does the dude who only listens to screaming music also love Taylor?” side back in those days.
Hmmm. I like that idea. I'll have to mull over a thesis - I'm a very analytical writer and getting words down is like pulling teeth without one.
“Taylor Swift grew up and so did I” is so cliche with this era (she grew up with Speak Now, folks) but that’s also where I could see it fitting in still. I’m eight days younger than her, so it’s crazy the difference in our lives and yet I always seem to really understand her music as it relates to her age.
That makes sense! I grew up in country land so it wouldn't be a big stretch for her to crossover here since people are already constantly exposed to country as it is. And also explains why they stopped after Speak now cause they're all wah wah she left country she sux attitude
Ugh Chicago night 1 got Our Song so I’m gonna be extra bitter if tonight’s song doesn’t cater directly to my personal preference
Omg she gave a speech for pride month (which I didn’t really expect from her) that brought me to tears before launching into delicate where she flew across the stadium to the first B stage which was right in front of my section, where she did Shake It Off with Charli and Camila giving me a much closer view of them, then launched into 22 as her alternating track and I was reborn
Just back from seeing her in Manchester - Wow - Had a massive grin on my face for the whole show, loved the setup and Taylor was great 'Special' song was an acoustic version of 'I Knew You Were Trouble'
IKYWT is my nightmare scenario tbh. I'm experiencing an unreasonable amount of anxiety thinking about what she'll play in Arlington.
Ha - Well I was hoping and praying for 'All Too Well' but didn't expect it - IKYWT was fine - The only flat point of the setlist was probably the acoustic ' Dancing'
Dancing as the acoustic one has always stood out as an odd choice. It’s one of my favorite beats on the whole album.
You could make a killer setlist just from her special song selection: All Too Well Wildest Dreams The Best Day Red All Too Well Holy Ground Teardrops of My Guitar Our Song 22 I Knew You Were Trouble I Don't Wanna Live Forever Mean How You Get The Girl