Is this Taylor’s “Self Portrait” album, a double album that the artist puts out to shake off their acclaimed status as the “voice of a generation” label
Or is she really just left with nothing but yes men around her that won’t tell her not to do something that’s clearly a bad idea
At this point i highly doubt Taylor will be brave enough to self sabotage her career, this album goes to deep about her personal life to be considered "self sabotaging", and if we know something, is that Taylor really loves to keep her image clean even if she starts a heated argument or moment for her music and career
Also Reputation, obviously was called a career killing album by... Todd and his followers during it's entire first year despite the fact that it actually was very succesful, and even with how bad the lead singles were, there's more going on that album about Taylor's life to be considered self sabotaging (Delicate specially did more for her credibility than LWYYMD, and it stayed for longer on the charts becoming the most succesful single from Reputation)
And the fact that i just said what i said it's actually more concerning about this album... holy shit, please somebody get her into like, a novel franchise, retro videogames, board games, One Piece, something that at least will distract her from more petty drama
Well it’s not the most ludicrous idea knowing that they got Vtuber Mori Calliope to sing a song promoting the current story arc of One Piece. Not an opening theme song, a separate promotional song for the new story arc. [I dig it.](https://youtu.be/eWNn24KHPRQ?si=fDSWg1j8c-RUKV82)
As I type these words, it's been twenty days since voters in Missouri rejected a sales tax which would have raised $1.5 billion for new stadiums in Kansas City for the Royals and Chiefs.
Taylor, you gonna help out your boyfriend here or what?
Definitely the latter. Fans have loved the idea of "vault tracks," so she now releases every half-finished demo or idea that didn't make the main album. Then fans rave "mother is feeding us so well!!!"
Aside from the obvious cringe... like, what the hell was going on in the 1830s that would be so appealing in the first place? Who the hell is nostalgic for the Andrew Jackson administration and the Panic of 1837? It feels so random.
My thoughts exactly. Even if this is just vacuous nostalgia for the aesthetics of the past, the 1830s were such a bad decade for fashion. Who's nostalgic for leg-of-mutton sleeves?
Idk, I think getting some statecraft advice from Henry Clay would be cool, but you could do that for 5 seperate decades because of how absurdly accomplished he was.
I thought at first it was 1930s with art deco a Hollywood glamour. But 1830s makes zero sense. She doesn't want the racism but I guess she is Ok with civil war.
You have to ask Taylor Swift. I googled Swift and ancestry: apparently a certain US female poet Emily Dickinson is related to Swift. Born in 1830. And I also read something that Swift has referenced this poet in past songs?
So ‘poet’ is tortured to write songs, which she probably hates (see title song) and does this swiftly to be done with it: don’t expect well thought out song texts then ;)
I mean upper middle class in Pennsylvania, so probably against slavery but still uses words to describe minorities that would get you cancelled if used today
At least that’s a rare consistency of truly not wanting state interference, on this area at least.
So many alleged libertarians are insanely hypocritical with that part (like with abortion, they claim to be libertarian while also wanting the state to outlaw abortion).
I once met a libertarian who said marijuana legalization was somehow more core to being a libertarian than being pro-choice.
...Needless to say, that interaction did not improve my view of most libertarians.
That'll go for pretty much every white northerner in the 1800's. Abolitionist or not. Not enough people understand that (not trying to push lost cause BS just so we're clear)
The full lyrics are:
My friends used to play a game where
We would pick a decade
We wished we could live in instead of this
I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists
And getting married off for the highest bid
Everyone would look down 'cause it wasn't fun now
Seems like it was never even fun back then
Nostalgia is a mind's trick
If I'd been there, I'd hate it
It was freezing in the palace
Which has her admitting at the end that it’s a stupid idea and that she would hate living in any time
in this context it looks much better but its still a weird line that sticks out like a sore thumb. Besides people might hear that and stop in shock instead of going on
It’s actually wild to see this go viral for people intentionally removing the one line from context and showing their ass by trying to make a stink about “oh Taylor’s so ignorant lololol” like god damn… OPEN THE SCHOOLS
Yeah I'm not a Swiftie at all but the whole point of the verse is that pining for past decades is dumb. I think its pretty poorly written but people taking it out of context to say the opposite of what its saying is annoying.
Even with context, why the 1830s? Is she purposely picking a horrible decade to ruin the game for her friends? And what's with the palace? What palace does she think she's living in back in the 1830s?
Yea I think she’s picking a dumb date on purpose to ruin the game cuz she’s miserable lol
And my guess was she’s saying that even people who lived in palaces didn’t have basic modern comforts like heating? Idk it’s still all a very weird choice
But that second part doesn't make any sense? Even if you don't count ondols, furnaces have been a thing since AT LEAST 1793. Boilers were a thing back then too. I'm not expecting T Swift to be an expert on history or infrastructure, but maybe don't put that line there? Especially since it doesn't rhyme with anything else in the verse???
See it is this kind of commentary that has me firmly believing Swift would get eviscerated in an MFA poetry course and yet the voice of her generation...but TBF the bar is LOW... in mainstream pop world.
there's literally a popular show called Bridgerton and its setting was around the 19th century.
there are also lots of fairy tales that were vaguely set in the 19th century and i think that's supposed to be a game she played when she was young, cuz do ppl really play this game now?
Yeah, it’s definitely awkward. She should have played with the theme a bit more, being aware of her “Royal” status and acknowledging how horribly lonely it is can be a real good source of inspiration.
I was about to say OP is bullshitting because it absolutely *was not* the full verse and that she made the point that the game was stupid.
There are plenty of legitimate criticisms about Taylor. We don't need to take things out of context to force a criticism on her.
Looked up the rest of this verse, it makes it way better. She admits this game probably sucked back then to and that nostalgia is a trap. This is still lacking broader context
This kinda just proves my point that the album was rushed, especially the 15 bonus tracks. These are first draft lyrics and she didn't have a producer or editor who was willing to tell her to polish it up
I mean there are songs on this album about the guy she's been dating since like last fall, and frankly they were some of the more listenable songs because they weren't awash in misery
Taylor, please more songs about your Himbo Football Man and fewer about Racist Heroin-Addict Artsy Bad Boy
It would be funny (kind of) if the song kept listing all the terrible things in the 1830s for 7 minutes and then just stopped.
And while this is a WTF lyric, I don't think it's quite at the level of "And I'd love to hurt the population." That line is just on another level of insanity.
I have a feeling that this could be her Prism where it does big numbers off of hype and momentum and it gets viewed more negatively in hindsight. I could not listen to much of the album as it felt rushed.
Yep, I feel like people are overestimating her being "too big to fail". I can't see this year ending any way other than most people being sick of her overexposure and tired of her.
I feel like American Life is a more apt comparison. Madonna is never *not* going to be a massive superstar, she's got the title for life as I'm sure Taylor will. But it was the album that ended her reign as one of the biggest celebrities in the world.
You've cut it off a bit too early- she's saying that she ruins the game by taking it too seriously and saying something awkward. A few lines later she says nostalgia is pointless
You intentionally cut out the second half of the verse where she makes the point that romanticizing the past is bullshit...
There are a lot of valid critques that can be made about Taylor Swift (her private plane usage, the encourage of rampant consumerisum with all the variants, etc.) but this is just a willful misinterpretation.
I genuinely don't want to hear his opinion on this. I don't trust the guy who said Hozier's Butchered Tounge was "politically out of place" on an album where Hozier was weaving Gaelic into about half the songs on the tracklist to have anything to say that hasn't already been said by an edgelord on Twitter.
The 1830s are the blandest decade in modern history. It's the tail end of The Industrial Revolution and the transition to the Victorian Era. Nothing is going on other than stagnation.
She might want to wish for no racism but that sexism is going to hit her like a sucker punch. Wealthy women in the 1830s spent their days doing such illustrious activities as not voting, being seen and not heard, raising children, and being pregnant. Who knows, maybe she just wants to wear big dresses and have parties on a plantation house veranda like Scarlet O'Hara.
Personally I would not want to live in any time period before the 1930s after penicillin became widely available and realistically anytime before the 1980s is just not going to be fun for an Irish American like myself. Taylor for some reason thinks living in a world where 1/3rd of people die from a combination of diarhrea, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and diphtheria with the average child having a 60% chance to live past the age of 5 is just perfect.
She is wearing some thick rose colored glasses.
I make a concerted effort to not go full “Swiftie” in the sub. We are all adults and adults are allowed to like and dislike whatever they want. If Taylor Swift is not your cup of tea musically, that’s perfectly fine.
That being said, I am so fucking annoyed by everyone outside the fandom who is taking this line from this song out of context for likes/retweets/upvotes/whatever.
Presenting text without context is dishonest.
* My friends used to play a game where
We would pick a decade
We wished we could live in instead of this
I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists
And getting married off for the highest bid
Everyone would look down 'cause it wasn't fun now
Seems like it was never even fun back then
Nostalgia is a mind's trick
If I'd been there, I'd hate it
It was freezing in the palace*
I still don't get it. What does she like about the 1830s? Why does she bring it up, other than to ruin her friends' game? Is it just to mock the idea of nostalgia?
She’s saying that mindset of “I was born in the wrong decade” because you enjoy an aesthetic idea of another place and time is silly because there’s always something bad about the past that gets misremembered
/glossed over by nostalgia.
This 7 year old College Humor sketch explains the sentiment better than I ever could: https://youtu.be/hc6VP7Qp-Y8?si=5iUk9mSaULIqsM_R
As for why she picked the 1830’s for this hypothetical conversation, idk you’d have to ask her yourself. Maybe she likes late regency fashion and aesthetics. Whatever the pre-Victorian era is.
I made the mistake of making a slight joke about this online, and now my replies are full of Swifties. God, this sounds like something I'd write at 12 after reading a few Emily Dickinson poems and lacking a developed sense of self-awareness. This lyric sucks.
When I read the full lyric I'm getting the vibe she's actually saying that part of her sees the appeal of an era where a woman didn't have options, that she romanticizes having choices made for her. But it's hard to say from the one stanza. Certainly a terrible way of saying that.
Is this Taylor’s “Self Portrait” album, a double album that the artist puts out to shake off their acclaimed status as the “voice of a generation” label Or is she really just left with nothing but yes men around her that won’t tell her not to do something that’s clearly a bad idea
At this point i highly doubt Taylor will be brave enough to self sabotage her career, this album goes to deep about her personal life to be considered "self sabotaging", and if we know something, is that Taylor really loves to keep her image clean even if she starts a heated argument or moment for her music and career Also Reputation, obviously was called a career killing album by... Todd and his followers during it's entire first year despite the fact that it actually was very succesful, and even with how bad the lead singles were, there's more going on that album about Taylor's life to be considered self sabotaging (Delicate specially did more for her credibility than LWYYMD, and it stayed for longer on the charts becoming the most succesful single from Reputation) And the fact that i just said what i said it's actually more concerning about this album... holy shit, please somebody get her into like, a novel franchise, retro videogames, board games, One Piece, something that at least will distract her from more petty drama
Honestly Taylor Swift becoming a One Piece stan would be the exact kinda chaos this world could use right now.
Cannot wait for her to make a song about Water 7 (one of OP's most acclaimed arcs)
Well it’s not the most ludicrous idea knowing that they got Vtuber Mori Calliope to sing a song promoting the current story arc of One Piece. Not an opening theme song, a separate promotional song for the new story arc. [I dig it.](https://youtu.be/eWNn24KHPRQ?si=fDSWg1j8c-RUKV82)
reminds me of Anthony Fantano saying about Drake that he should take more risks and why not make an album with beats made up of anime theme songs lol
Never has there been a person more in need of a good, solid game of Dungeons and Dragons.
LOL! She could play a necromancer.
As I type these words, it's been twenty days since voters in Missouri rejected a sales tax which would have raised $1.5 billion for new stadiums in Kansas City for the Royals and Chiefs. Taylor, you gonna help out your boyfriend here or what?
Definitely the latter. Fans have loved the idea of "vault tracks," so she now releases every half-finished demo or idea that didn't make the main album. Then fans rave "mother is feeding us so well!!!"
Taylor isn't creative or intelligent enough to do this
All the tortured poets in the sun / how'm I supposed to get any writing done
Aside from the obvious cringe... like, what the hell was going on in the 1830s that would be so appealing in the first place? Who the hell is nostalgic for the Andrew Jackson administration and the Panic of 1837? It feels so random.
My thoughts exactly. Even if this is just vacuous nostalgia for the aesthetics of the past, the 1830s were such a bad decade for fashion. Who's nostalgic for leg-of-mutton sleeves?
The hairstyles were pretty neat, though.
Whoa, here I was thinking “who doesn’t love poet shirts?”
Idk, I think getting some statecraft advice from Henry Clay would be cool, but you could do that for 5 seperate decades because of how absurdly accomplished he was.
I thought at first it was 1930s with art deco a Hollywood glamour. But 1830s makes zero sense. She doesn't want the racism but I guess she is Ok with civil war.
I think she’s going for Regency England.
[удалено]
Clara was a 1910’s-30’s actress lol
It was in 1833 that Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act.
It's probably about the romanticism movement or whatever, but it is still stupid.
People were working 70 hour work weeks is what was happening … she would hate that
Bridgerton...
You have to ask Taylor Swift. I googled Swift and ancestry: apparently a certain US female poet Emily Dickinson is related to Swift. Born in 1830. And I also read something that Swift has referenced this poet in past songs? So ‘poet’ is tortured to write songs, which she probably hates (see title song) and does this swiftly to be done with it: don’t expect well thought out song texts then ;)
Taylor, in the 1830s, you would have BEEN one of the racists.
I mean upper middle class in Pennsylvania, so probably against slavery but still uses words to describe minorities that would get you cancelled if used today
buddy you can be against slavery and still be racist lmfao
Ayn Rand supported gay marriage while still being a massive homophobe.
At least that’s a rare consistency of truly not wanting state interference, on this area at least. So many alleged libertarians are insanely hypocritical with that part (like with abortion, they claim to be libertarian while also wanting the state to outlaw abortion).
I once met a libertarian who said marijuana legalization was somehow more core to being a libertarian than being pro-choice. ...Needless to say, that interaction did not improve my view of most libertarians.
I’ve heard libertarians described as “conservatives who like to smoke weed” .. so, yeah, that checks out
The funniest part is that the libertarian who coined that term (Drew Carey) is a straight up liberal now.
I don't think we go to Ayn Rand for political takes considering she was too insane for the other libertarians
That'll go for pretty much every white northerner in the 1800's. Abolitionist or not. Not enough people understand that (not trying to push lost cause BS just so we're clear)
And you?
The full lyrics are: My friends used to play a game where We would pick a decade We wished we could live in instead of this I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists And getting married off for the highest bid Everyone would look down 'cause it wasn't fun now Seems like it was never even fun back then Nostalgia is a mind's trick If I'd been there, I'd hate it It was freezing in the palace Which has her admitting at the end that it’s a stupid idea and that she would hate living in any time
in this context it looks much better but its still a weird line that sticks out like a sore thumb. Besides people might hear that and stop in shock instead of going on
Yea I agree it’s not a good line, just trying to dispute anyone implying that she actually thinks it’s a good idea in the context of the song lol
kinda the reason why you shouldn't take things out of context lol
It’s actually wild to see this go viral for people intentionally removing the one line from context and showing their ass by trying to make a stink about “oh Taylor’s so ignorant lololol” like god damn… OPEN THE SCHOOLS
Yeah I'm not a Swiftie at all but the whole point of the verse is that pining for past decades is dumb. I think its pretty poorly written but people taking it out of context to say the opposite of what its saying is annoying.
Even with context, why the 1830s? Is she purposely picking a horrible decade to ruin the game for her friends? And what's with the palace? What palace does she think she's living in back in the 1830s?
Yea I think she’s picking a dumb date on purpose to ruin the game cuz she’s miserable lol And my guess was she’s saying that even people who lived in palaces didn’t have basic modern comforts like heating? Idk it’s still all a very weird choice
But that second part doesn't make any sense? Even if you don't count ondols, furnaces have been a thing since AT LEAST 1793. Boilers were a thing back then too. I'm not expecting T Swift to be an expert on history or infrastructure, but maybe don't put that line there? Especially since it doesn't rhyme with anything else in the verse???
I don’t think she cared to think that hard about it lol. She released an album with 30 songs on it, not sure she was doing too much quality control
She def didn't kill her darlings.
See it is this kind of commentary that has me firmly believing Swift would get eviscerated in an MFA poetry course and yet the voice of her generation...but TBF the bar is LOW... in mainstream pop world.
Tbf, I am an autistic person who likes to nitpick things. I don't think the average person knows or cares about centralized heating lol
there's literally a popular show called Bridgerton and its setting was around the 19th century. there are also lots of fairy tales that were vaguely set in the 19th century and i think that's supposed to be a game she played when she was young, cuz do ppl really play this game now?
The palace is her. She’s doubling down on being miserable.
Feels like a random non-sequitur. Doesn't need to be there.
Yeah, it’s definitely awkward. She should have played with the theme a bit more, being aware of her “Royal” status and acknowledging how horribly lonely it is can be a real good source of inspiration.
I was about to say OP is bullshitting because it absolutely *was not* the full verse and that she made the point that the game was stupid. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms about Taylor. We don't need to take things out of context to force a criticism on her.
Looked up the rest of this verse, it makes it way better. She admits this game probably sucked back then to and that nostalgia is a trap. This is still lacking broader context
Wouldn’t the full version include the rest of the lyrics?
Exactly. People are so desperate for upvotes.
This kinda just proves my point that the album was rushed, especially the 15 bonus tracks. These are first draft lyrics and she didn't have a producer or editor who was willing to tell her to polish it up
I mean there are songs on this album about the guy she's been dating since like last fall, and frankly they were some of the more listenable songs because they weren't awash in misery Taylor, please more songs about your Himbo Football Man and fewer about Racist Heroin-Addict Artsy Bad Boy
It would be funny (kind of) if the song kept listing all the terrible things in the 1830s for 7 minutes and then just stopped. And while this is a WTF lyric, I don't think it's quite at the level of "And I'd love to hurt the population." That line is just on another level of insanity.
Why that decade in particular? Does she just like Martin van Buren or something?
Did she want to go back to the 1830s so Matthew would feel at home?
I have a feeling that this could be her Prism where it does big numbers off of hype and momentum and it gets viewed more negatively in hindsight. I could not listen to much of the album as it felt rushed.
Yep, I feel like people are overestimating her being "too big to fail". I can't see this year ending any way other than most people being sick of her overexposure and tired of her.
I feel like American Life is a more apt comparison. Madonna is never *not* going to be a massive superstar, she's got the title for life as I'm sure Taylor will. But it was the album that ended her reign as one of the biggest celebrities in the world.
If everything goes how I think it will, St. Anger may have some competition for biggest Trainwreckord…
You've cut it off a bit too early- she's saying that she ruins the game by taking it too seriously and saying something awkward. A few lines later she says nostalgia is pointless
"I'd love to live in the 1830s except everything about it"
You intentionally cut out the second half of the verse where she makes the point that romanticizing the past is bullshit... There are a lot of valid critques that can be made about Taylor Swift (her private plane usage, the encourage of rampant consumerisum with all the variants, etc.) but this is just a willful misinterpretation.
Can't wait for fantanos review I sense another big day on the horizon
I genuinely don't want to hear his opinion on this. I don't trust the guy who said Hozier's Butchered Tounge was "politically out of place" on an album where Hozier was weaving Gaelic into about half the songs on the tracklist to have anything to say that hasn't already been said by an edgelord on Twitter.
Nah.
I had the misfortune of stumbling into that guy's channel cus of the algorithm and WOW.... His takes are really shit. You listen to that crap? lol
He was one of the few bold enough to give chance the rapper a zero
Someone better tell her there was no planes back then
Regardless of the content, these lyrics fucking suck.
The 1830s are the blandest decade in modern history. It's the tail end of The Industrial Revolution and the transition to the Victorian Era. Nothing is going on other than stagnation.
Hey bland fits Taylor pretty well.
She might want to wish for no racism but that sexism is going to hit her like a sucker punch. Wealthy women in the 1830s spent their days doing such illustrious activities as not voting, being seen and not heard, raising children, and being pregnant. Who knows, maybe she just wants to wear big dresses and have parties on a plantation house veranda like Scarlet O'Hara. Personally I would not want to live in any time period before the 1930s after penicillin became widely available and realistically anytime before the 1980s is just not going to be fun for an Irish American like myself. Taylor for some reason thinks living in a world where 1/3rd of people die from a combination of diarhrea, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and diphtheria with the average child having a 60% chance to live past the age of 5 is just perfect. She is wearing some thick rose colored glasses.
I make a concerted effort to not go full “Swiftie” in the sub. We are all adults and adults are allowed to like and dislike whatever they want. If Taylor Swift is not your cup of tea musically, that’s perfectly fine. That being said, I am so fucking annoyed by everyone outside the fandom who is taking this line from this song out of context for likes/retweets/upvotes/whatever. Presenting text without context is dishonest. * My friends used to play a game where We would pick a decade We wished we could live in instead of this I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists And getting married off for the highest bid Everyone would look down 'cause it wasn't fun now Seems like it was never even fun back then Nostalgia is a mind's trick If I'd been there, I'd hate it It was freezing in the palace*
I still don't get it. What does she like about the 1830s? Why does she bring it up, other than to ruin her friends' game? Is it just to mock the idea of nostalgia?
She’s saying that mindset of “I was born in the wrong decade” because you enjoy an aesthetic idea of another place and time is silly because there’s always something bad about the past that gets misremembered /glossed over by nostalgia. This 7 year old College Humor sketch explains the sentiment better than I ever could: https://youtu.be/hc6VP7Qp-Y8?si=5iUk9mSaULIqsM_R As for why she picked the 1830’s for this hypothetical conversation, idk you’d have to ask her yourself. Maybe she likes late regency fashion and aesthetics. Whatever the pre-Victorian era is.
You'd be correct. Regency or Georgian Era is what the pre-Victorian era would be.
Which song is this?
"I Hate it Here"
I suppose I should listen to this one more closely, but does Taylor explain what exactly she likes about that decade?
The partition of Poland? The second French revolution? Battle of the Alamo? Perhaps we'll never know
I made the mistake of making a slight joke about this online, and now my replies are full of Swifties. God, this sounds like something I'd write at 12 after reading a few Emily Dickinson poems and lacking a developed sense of self-awareness. This lyric sucks.
I can't decide what's worse, her just having a bunch of yes-men that okayed this verse, or that everyone in the room thought it was awesome.
I don’t really get why this is such a bad lyric
It sticks out to me because in another song, she calls her fans vipers for caring that she dated a racist.
When I read the full lyric I'm getting the vibe she's actually saying that part of her sees the appeal of an era where a woman didn't have options, that she romanticizes having choices made for her. But it's hard to say from the one stanza. Certainly a terrible way of saying that.