May be I am outdated. Most likely I am, but I view her not as a top performing singer, rather a media promoted figure. She is very appealing on the stage, but certainly not better singer than Adele, Celine Dion, or Whitney Houston. Again, I am there for the music, sound, voice. Certainly entourage is not my first preference.
It’s about entertainment. The total package. There’s countless better singers out there that are too shy, ugly, or boring. The lyrics, music, and voice combine to create a feeling that makes people want to listen to it. Look at the dozens of American Idol and The Voice winners over the last 20 years. Few have any success with their great voices.
Thank you for sharing your POV on this. What luck to be divinely protected and have the chance to lovingly air your grievances with a huge crowd! This is the type of people that are true 'Swifties'...swift to emote painfully, but swift to love again!
So this is hilarious. Trump now thinks that the Swifties are wanting Trump for President because an Islamic terrorist got her concerts in Vienna cancelled. What a dolt.
Swifties seem sort of endearing to me. Alone, they’re just everyday kind and wholesome people. But together, they’re like a secret society that serves as a sanctuary in a world that sometimes overlooks them. I don't think it's really about the music or you'd have Swifty-style music festivals featuring similar artists. There's something about what Taylor represents.
I can name many female vocalists that are Taylor Swift contemporaries that are far better singers: Adele, Amy Winehouse, Valerie June, Shemekia Copeland. Samantha Fish, Susan Tedeschi, and many more.
Though I'll for sure admit that she is a brilliant marketer and business woman, and it seemed she was good for the economy.
I do remember an interview with Aretha, maybe a year before her death.
She had recorded a cover album of songs by modern *divas*. She had complimentary things to say about most of them, but when asked about Taylor, she replied:well she does have nice gowns.
If I never heard the name “Taylor Swift” again - not to mention her mind-numbingly shallow, under-talented and over-produced, dystopian facsimile of music - I would be inordinately pleased.
Wow. A review of Anges Callard's contributions to any relevant social or political public conversation reveals an embarrassingly poor record. Why, Bari Weiss, are you so thrilled to have her in the FP? ("So thrilled to have @AgnesCallard in @TheFP".) Is her cultural criticism so valuable? Are you attempting an expansion of FP with culture/social/arts columns? If Callard is an indication of the content you're courting, I am concerned that my media spending is wasted on the FP.
If you google Agnes Callard, you will find that she was born in communist Hungary to a Jewish family where both of her parents were the children of Holocaust survivors (all 4 grandparents). The family left Hungary when she was 5 yrs old, relocating to Rome before finally settling in NYC. Callard’s mother was a hematologist and oncologist who specialized in the treatment of AIDS in the 80’s. So, if you factor all that into Bari Weiss’s strident Jewish activism and her own part in the LGBT zeitgeist, then of course, Bari will want an intellectual Jewish woman who’s the granddaughter of 4 Holocaust survivors and the daughter of an AIDS medical researcher to be a contributor to The Free Press. I’m surprised that you haven’t noticed how the editorial process works here.
What a demonstration of resilience and creativity. Turning lemons into lemonade. Lucky niece to have such a terrific aunt and lucky daughter to have a great mom. I love sister love. This made me happy.
It is all about dopamine. When appetitive (appetite - I need this) behavior's ultimate acquisitive (I got this) goal is blocked, dopamine tends to go off the rails, setting up a situation for addiction. Drug dealers know this instinctively.
I remember this woman! She left her husband for her grad student, and now lives with both of them. She also got dogpiled on Twitter for her bizarre parenting tactics. Interesting to see what she’s up to.
I guess I didn’t have the emotional reaction to this piece that many others did. I did not find it beautiful or inspiring or anything of the sort. I saw this as a 13 year old “screaming” over being denied. That’s what’s heartbreaking. When I read the title I kept expecting to read how the niece realized they’d all put way too damn much into attending a concert. But no. Instead the family is trying to buy her another ticket somewhere in the world so she wouldn’t be disappointed.
Guess what? There are worse things in life. There are people in the world starving. There are people in the world losing the only family they have. There are people in the world being brutalized. And in America (and the West) we are paying thousands of dollars to travel to watch someone sing songs, and screaming in anguish when it doesn’t happen? We have truly lost our way.
This has nothing to do with Taylor Swift. I’ve been listening to her music since her first album. There is much about her to be applauded. We did pay $300 for one of our daughters to see her (locally) and her dad and I (both lawyers) thought that was a lot for a concert ticket. We told her so. Likewise our family has been to Vienna. We went last year to Krakow, Poland and did a side trip to Vienna. While in Krakow we went to Auschwitz. That night I found the same daughter crying in the bathroom over what she’d seen there.
IMHO, that is what privileged teens should experience and cry over - the suffering of others. We do ourselves no favors to shield our children from the reality of life and what brought on something like the Nazi regime. Our kids are spending too much time in the fantasy world of Instagram and TikTok now.
So no, I do not think this was a beautifully written piece about heartbreak or anything else. And I’m not a TS hater or a curmudgeon. I’m someone who is worried about what we are becoming, what we place above others, and what is most important to us.
Overreaction to this article? Perhaps. But I don’t think so. It was quite astonishing to me that it was published. More astonishing to me the comments applauding it.
Screaming over being denied a concert that was planned a year ago. All the time spent planning the traveling, paying for it, and the actual traveling.
I’m a wealthy healthcare provider in Connecticut planning a week in Disney for my daughter’s 4th birthday. Between the tickets, housing, car rental, flights, and constantly changing rules I’ve spent at least 30 hours researching this trip. And my in-laws are now coming. What’s an appropriate reaction if DisneyWorld is closed the night before we arrive due to a terrorist plot?
You are correct. Your reaction to this article is 100% an overreaction.
The idea that, let me say it plain, ISLAMIC TERRORISM can shut down business, events, and government, and rule of law is, emphatically, a defeat for liberty as conceived of a State that protects people's rights. Call it 'The West', or I prefer Enlightenment, but whatever it is, this is a concrete example of people being driven in terror by Islamists away from choosing their own actions. And it is a loss. A country, a people, that understands individual rights and liberty would be assaulting our foes -primarily Iran, but also Hamas and Hezbollah and ISIS, and all their other derivatives which are proxies of the same movement- who has raised an ideological banner of worldwide Islamist rule. They say openly what they want -Sharia law and the rule of Islam- which is the opposite of everything which is good about liberal values that see life as the rational pursuit of life and happiness. That is something that should be stood for, fought for, and needs be. Or will we lose it.
May be I am outdated. Most likely I am, but I view her not as a top performing singer, rather a media promoted figure. She is very appealing on the stage, but certainly not better singer than Adele, Celine Dion, or Whitney Houston. Again, I am there for the music, sound, voice. Certainly entourage is not my first preference.
It’s about entertainment. The total package. There’s countless better singers out there that are too shy, ugly, or boring. The lyrics, music, and voice combine to create a feeling that makes people want to listen to it. Look at the dozens of American Idol and The Voice winners over the last 20 years. Few have any success with their great voices.
Thank you for sharing your POV on this. What luck to be divinely protected and have the chance to lovingly air your grievances with a huge crowd! This is the type of people that are true 'Swifties'...swift to emote painfully, but swift to love again!
Again, all caused by a Muslim................
Islam is a cancer, United States of Sharia playing in a town near you !
So this is hilarious. Trump now thinks that the Swifties are wanting Trump for President because an Islamic terrorist got her concerts in Vienna cancelled. What a dolt.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/donald-trump-falsely-claims-taylor-005141263.html
Swifties seem sort of endearing to me. Alone, they’re just everyday kind and wholesome people. But together, they’re like a secret society that serves as a sanctuary in a world that sometimes overlooks them. I don't think it's really about the music or you'd have Swifty-style music festivals featuring similar artists. There's something about what Taylor represents.
I can name many female vocalists that are Taylor Swift contemporaries that are far better singers: Adele, Amy Winehouse, Valerie June, Shemekia Copeland. Samantha Fish, Susan Tedeschi, and many more.
Though I'll for sure admit that she is a brilliant marketer and business woman, and it seemed she was good for the economy.
I do remember an interview with Aretha, maybe a year before her death.
She had recorded a cover album of songs by modern *divas*. She had complimentary things to say about most of them, but when asked about Taylor, she replied:well she does have nice gowns.
If I never heard the name “Taylor Swift” again - not to mention her mind-numbingly shallow, under-talented and over-produced, dystopian facsimile of music - I would be inordinately pleased.
Wow. A review of Anges Callard's contributions to any relevant social or political public conversation reveals an embarrassingly poor record. Why, Bari Weiss, are you so thrilled to have her in the FP? ("So thrilled to have @AgnesCallard in @TheFP".) Is her cultural criticism so valuable? Are you attempting an expansion of FP with culture/social/arts columns? If Callard is an indication of the content you're courting, I am concerned that my media spending is wasted on the FP.
If you google Agnes Callard, you will find that she was born in communist Hungary to a Jewish family where both of her parents were the children of Holocaust survivors (all 4 grandparents). The family left Hungary when she was 5 yrs old, relocating to Rome before finally settling in NYC. Callard’s mother was a hematologist and oncologist who specialized in the treatment of AIDS in the 80’s. So, if you factor all that into Bari Weiss’s strident Jewish activism and her own part in the LGBT zeitgeist, then of course, Bari will want an intellectual Jewish woman who’s the granddaughter of 4 Holocaust survivors and the daughter of an AIDS medical researcher to be a contributor to The Free Press. I’m surprised that you haven’t noticed how the editorial process works here.
Yea, you! This should be in the New Yorker's Talk of the Town. Please. FP, don't keep publishing this tripe.
What a demonstration of resilience and creativity. Turning lemons into lemonade. Lucky niece to have such a terrific aunt and lucky daughter to have a great mom. I love sister love. This made me happy.
👍🏻
It is all about dopamine. When appetitive (appetite - I need this) behavior's ultimate acquisitive (I got this) goal is blocked, dopamine tends to go off the rails, setting up a situation for addiction. Drug dealers know this instinctively.
I remember this woman! She left her husband for her grad student, and now lives with both of them. She also got dogpiled on Twitter for her bizarre parenting tactics. Interesting to see what she’s up to.
+ 48 years old "Swiftie" :)
I guess I didn’t have the emotional reaction to this piece that many others did. I did not find it beautiful or inspiring or anything of the sort. I saw this as a 13 year old “screaming” over being denied. That’s what’s heartbreaking. When I read the title I kept expecting to read how the niece realized they’d all put way too damn much into attending a concert. But no. Instead the family is trying to buy her another ticket somewhere in the world so she wouldn’t be disappointed.
Guess what? There are worse things in life. There are people in the world starving. There are people in the world losing the only family they have. There are people in the world being brutalized. And in America (and the West) we are paying thousands of dollars to travel to watch someone sing songs, and screaming in anguish when it doesn’t happen? We have truly lost our way.
This has nothing to do with Taylor Swift. I’ve been listening to her music since her first album. There is much about her to be applauded. We did pay $300 for one of our daughters to see her (locally) and her dad and I (both lawyers) thought that was a lot for a concert ticket. We told her so. Likewise our family has been to Vienna. We went last year to Krakow, Poland and did a side trip to Vienna. While in Krakow we went to Auschwitz. That night I found the same daughter crying in the bathroom over what she’d seen there.
IMHO, that is what privileged teens should experience and cry over - the suffering of others. We do ourselves no favors to shield our children from the reality of life and what brought on something like the Nazi regime. Our kids are spending too much time in the fantasy world of Instagram and TikTok now.
So no, I do not think this was a beautifully written piece about heartbreak or anything else. And I’m not a TS hater or a curmudgeon. I’m someone who is worried about what we are becoming, what we place above others, and what is most important to us.
Overreaction to this article? Perhaps. But I don’t think so. It was quite astonishing to me that it was published. More astonishing to me the comments applauding it.
Screaming over being denied a concert that was planned a year ago. All the time spent planning the traveling, paying for it, and the actual traveling.
I’m a wealthy healthcare provider in Connecticut planning a week in Disney for my daughter’s 4th birthday. Between the tickets, housing, car rental, flights, and constantly changing rules I’ve spent at least 30 hours researching this trip. And my in-laws are now coming. What’s an appropriate reaction if DisneyWorld is closed the night before we arrive due to a terrorist plot?
You are correct. Your reaction to this article is 100% an overreaction.
I really love this post. Thank you for your thoughtful response.
The idea that, let me say it plain, ISLAMIC TERRORISM can shut down business, events, and government, and rule of law is, emphatically, a defeat for liberty as conceived of a State that protects people's rights. Call it 'The West', or I prefer Enlightenment, but whatever it is, this is a concrete example of people being driven in terror by Islamists away from choosing their own actions. And it is a loss. A country, a people, that understands individual rights and liberty would be assaulting our foes -primarily Iran, but also Hamas and Hezbollah and ISIS, and all their other derivatives which are proxies of the same movement- who has raised an ideological banner of worldwide Islamist rule. They say openly what they want -Sharia law and the rule of Islam- which is the opposite of everything which is good about liberal values that see life as the rational pursuit of life and happiness. That is something that should be stood for, fought for, and needs be. Or will we lose it.
Every other religion has been legally and culturally told to change their views and accept others.
The word "fan" comes from the word fanatic.
Jihadists are fanatics. Swifties are fanatics. Weird.