MissLlanviewPA

I probably haven't posted or even been here in over a year, but when I heard this news, I just HAD to come back and check in with everyone. Even knowing about his son's death, it's still such a shock. RIP.  

For those who haven't heard: Jaelynn Willey, the girl shot on Tuesday at Great Mills High School, was taken off life support last night; she had been declared brain dead before that.

Just as a reminder: This was my high school, and where I'm from.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/life-support-ending-brain-dead-school-shooting-victim-53953508

So far three students have been confirmed to be injured. There are also--at the moment unconfirmed--reports that no one is dead. I hope that's true. 

So that high school that has had a shooting today? 

That was MY high school, in MY home county. I LIVE here.  

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I'd think there's still legal stuff involving Kesha.

 

Not really sure why Taylor or Megyn Kelly are there though...

For all her faults, Taylor's trial this year was a BIG deal. I definitely have an issue with her bullying that blogger with a potential lawsuit for daring to talk about the alt-right following she has acquired but refuses to publicly denounce, but abuse is abuse no matter who the woman is (ditto Megyn Kelly, although Gretchen Carlson deserves equal if not more attention for her role in Roger Ailes' downfall). We can challenge them on their faults, but if we try to fight back with a "perfect victim" narrative every time  someone comes forward who we may either have issues with or outright don't like, we ALL lose. My feeling, as a woman, is that I may disagree on certain things certain women believe, but I will fight with everything I have to make sure those same women have the same rights I do. 

This is how I feel about Leeann Tweeden, too. Yes, she's a Trump supporter, but what Al Franken did to her was wrong, full stop. 

TIME made a statement that they wanted to focus their cover on women who impacted this movement this year in particular, hence (at least part of) the reason Kesha wasn't on the cover (although her album coming out this year might have been reason enough to include her, I don't know). 

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

Believe it or not, this cover has generated some clapback.

 

No, I've seen it on Twitter all day. I don't agree with all the criticism, but as a white woman, I feel a responsibility to shut up and listen to black women/women of color and their criticism (the people who are just trolling/being angry for no reason? not so much). 

2 hours ago, Juliajms said:

^It represents the women who haven't come forward yet.

Oh no, I know about the arm on the cover, I meant the Tweet I linked of the cover in this thread. It shows up cut in half here, with the half of the cover with Taylor/the arm missing entirely. I guess the embedding was weird or something. 

I'm STUNNED no one has posted this yet. This made me so happy.  (ETA: I don't know why the cover got cut off like that. Weird.)

I am honestly shocked she's doing this, especially after she made such a big point out of saying that none of 1989 was meant to be played on country radio. It was, ironically, a big thing more traditional country fans commended her for at the time: she was finally being honest about being a pop artist, rather than a country one. "New Year's Day" IS the most traditional sounding song on reputation in terms of using actual instruments, but country? Not so much. I am genuinely wondering if this song--by being the final song on the album--is a signal that she might return to a more country sound on her next album, or a last ditch attempt by Big Machine to get her some country airplay in a time when the genre could use some more star power. Judge for yourself.

http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/taylor-swifts-aggressive-country-move-with-new-years-day-poses-many-questions/

(BTW: This is a legitimate writer. He is active in the country music scene in and around Austin, Texas, and is THE guy to read in terms of finding out about the newest traditional-sounding/underground country musicians. I'm a huge fan.) 

And for the record, I know there are a lot of great people here who really like her and her music. I love all of you. But sometimes, as one of the only women who regularly posts on this thread, I worry about being mansplained when it comes to certain things about her and her problematic nature. And while this particular situation doesn't have as much to with anything women-specific as some of her other controversies have, at the end of the day, her core audience is still young women, and since I'm her age, it's something I'm sensitive to. I apologize in advance. 

Okay, I'm about to have my ass handed to me, but here it goes:

I'm on the side of the ACLU here. What Meghan wrote may have been somewhat over the top, but there are plenty of legitimate news outlets who have reported on this before, and yet Taylor chooses to go after what is essentially a no name blogger instead? Not to mention that she STILL hasn't denounced those in the white supermacy/neo-Nazi movement who hold her up as their Aryan Goddess? WTF, woman? Whenever anyone says "but no other pop star is asked about this"--NO DUH, THEY'RE NOT THE ONES BEING TARGETED AS AN ARYAN GODDESS ONLY TO COMPLETELY IGNORE IT!)

She is punching down here. Even if the argument exists that she could have maybe sued for libel, focusing on this woman when next to NOBODY had read this piece before now just blew up in her face, because now this is leading into her album release on Friday. What a mess. 

(And for the record: the ACLU only got involved after the blogger in question consulted THEM, so seeing some of her crazier fans on Twitter going after them--ugh.) 

2 hours ago, YRBB said:

OMG lmao

 

Taoboi been liking the songs and you've been hating nonstop and now you finally like one and Taoboi's like "meh"??? Too funny for words!

 

I'm not listening to the new one. At this rate, there will be hardly any new songs left.  I'll just wait for the album in 5 days.

Life's too short to hate. If anything, I'm expressing "concern over creativity", thank you.

I mean, I don't like the implication that her life is better just because she's with a guy, and the line about him reminding her of a brother is a BAD, BAD sign, but instrumentation wise it sounds the best and is the most pleasant to me. But I guess we both look for different things, lol.  

I'm calling it: the best song from Reputation so far. I can't defend "My baby's fly like a jet stream", or the lines about liars at the beginning, but yeah, this is great.

She has another promotional single coming out at midnight tonight, called "Call It What You Want." 

I guess I hate the implication that all famous musicians, especially women, can't do something more "meaningful" sounding (I know that's a loaded term, but it's the only word I could think of now) like folk rock until they're considered to be "too old" to be famous, relevant musicians. I'm her age, too, so I'm kind of sensitive to the "too old to be considered attractive" thing, especially since I haven't dated nearly as much as other women my age like her, so I'm worried it's too late for me.  

For someone who avoided any sort of nudity almost to a fault, and sounded somewhat slut-shamey in the past about it in some instances, this comes off as both VERY hypocritical, AND desperate for attention, ANY kind of attention. 

Yes, it's probably a body suit and/or part CGI (although it's PAINFULLY obvious she has implants now--she can deny it all she wants, but I'm not blind and I'm not stupid), but still. 

The music itself is fine, but some of the lyrics are so LAZY.

I don't know. I feel like she dumbs things down a lot when she's more pop. I feel like her REAL strong suit would've been a path towards singer-songwriter folk rock, in the vein of someone like Tom Petty. Those are the kinds of artists she clearly admires most.

But I realize I'm probably sounding like a stuck up music snob, so I'll quit while I'm ahead, I'm sorry.

No rapping, Thank GOD, but she has GIVEN UP on lyrical content. GIRL, YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS. STOP TRYING TO BE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

 This basic white girl trying to put more hip-hop into her sound. Just...no. 

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

If 227 had gotten another season and they'd needed a white friend of Regina King's to try to sing rap, Taylor would have fit right in. 

 

You have an effortless bitchiness and a knack for the most random pop culture references.

Combined, it's a beautiful thing to see. 

Stay in your lane, honey. This ain't it. 

The pre-choruses are fine, but the rest of it...Jesus, no. Ack. 

5 hours ago, Taoboi said:

Sorry to be in the minority, but I like it...and am curious to see what she has up her sleeve.

 

 

Some of the music is good, but the title is what a lot of abusers say to their victims, and add that in with the idea that she's implying that she's a villain who thinks she's still a heroine...it's a mixed bag for me, for sure. 

Her looks AWFUL, like a rat's nest. And is that a SEX SWING?

I'm curious to see how the parents who have always considered her to be a good role model, and a "safer" musical option for their kids, are going to react to this, because this stuff might be a dealbreaker.

I mean, she's my age (well, almost...she'll be 28 in December), so *I* don't care; she can do what she wants. But that persona was her bread and butter towards fame for YEARS. 

4 minutes ago, Toups said:

Also disappointed that it's available for streaming.  I was hoping she would hold off on that for maybe at least a month or so because it's certain to hurt sales.  No way it's going to be Shake It Off or WANEGBT's first week sales. 

I'm surprised by that, too--even with her putting all of her stuff back on Spotify, Big Machine is known for holding off albums by ALL of their artists for a certain period of time. 

4 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

 

 

As I said before, maybe she cares more about being an albums artist rather than a singles artist with this new album. Perhaps it's not going to be as radio friendly as we're used to from her, but maybe it's more about the overall concept of the album as opposed to a bunch of radio-friendly singles. 

 

I definitely think she should have focused on this WAY before now--Speak Now is the one album of hers that didn't do as well sales wise as the last (and the overall singles didn't chart as well as the ones from her other albums, either), but some of the best songwriting of her career is on it--and Red is actually a great singer-songwriter showcase when you take the three big singles out (although I'll admit "Girl At Home" on the deluxe version is a weak link).