Taylor Swift - Midnights

i mean who cares, it is not even music writing really. i’m sure he was tapped into the pandemic era

so what is it exactly…?

Yeah, his fandom was the entire hook. Like when he mentioned arguing with another Swiftie about her best albums… like, tell me more. Those are the details I wanted; something to make it feel concrete from a “fan” perspective.

xxxxpost I think this is his actual case: https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/shots-fired-call-leads-officers-to-dead-body/

idk i think a guy in prison detailing the specific ways he obtained and engaged with the music he likes is not exactly "music writing" and it's probably way closer to something like idk the obscure genre of writing known as the "personal essay" (which, sure, can also be music writing)

xp Yeah, that's consistent with his brief account of the crime in a 2019 piece: https://archive.ph/UZ96g

Well it’s not a very interesting or illuminating personal essay (IMO), and almost perhaps seems to put the New Yorker (Online) reader in an uncomfortably condescending position of marveling that a person in prison has an inner life and can express it in a serviceably written but basic essay. Just IMO

*blinks* ok

i think you’ve projected a whole attitude onto this essay that literally no one will ever approach it with bc you’re angry he didn’t mention folklore

willing to drop this entire convo tho. i learned the specifics of how difficult it is to obtain music in prison, and how much more precious this can make like the experience of fandom itself. never encountered an essay that offered me that info before. it’s not beautifully written but it didn’t need to be. i’m not googling this guy also sorry

Well that’s all fair. If anything, I’m probably projecting a certain attitude toward The New Yorker. (My request for more Swift specificity just comes from the desire to actually understand why he connects so strongly to Swift, which is the whole reason they published it – let’s be honest, they would not have if it were about Maroon 5 – and which I don’t feel it conveyed.)

xp That's fair. I first heard about this essay from my dad, who has only heard one Taylor Swift song (the 10-minute All Too Well) but is sort of a Taylor Swift fan in theory - he thinks she's a wonderful human being and always lets me know whenever she does something nice for someone. What he got out of it was the part about starting out a closet Taylor Swift fan and then realizing that prison is full of Swifties, which he found surprising and endearing. And really I think this essay is aimed more at someone like my dad than at people writing about Taylor Swift on a music board.

yes! she’s got jams! loved that part

I understand the impulse to do so but I find googling the guy way more "distasteful" than the essay itself

sorry my curiosity got the best of me after the link to the wrong case was posted

yeah googling the thing he admitted to doing in detail in several articles and is actually public record is 'distasteful'

(in my case, it was mere curiosity since he hinted at it in the Swift article and my brain doesn't like loose ends)

I don't even think it's that distasteful in the grand scheme of things that are as such and I only pretty much said what I said because I still don't know what's so distasteful about the article but you do know that something being in the public sphere doesn't exclude it from being distasteful, right

I don't get this whole thing about not being able to figure out what he liked about Swift - I thought he made it pretty clear several times. He liked that she gave him a connection to the outside world. He liked how excited she was to talk about songwriting. He liked that it gave him a way to connect to his fellow inmates. He liked that her lyrics mirrored his own experiences with relationships and coming to terms with his own mistakes. 

sure it's not written in the most articulate way but surprise, writing about music is hard. and a lot harder for people who don't read pitchfork reviews and ilm posts regularly

and i'm personally glad that the new yorker is publishing and editing writing by prison inmates, they should do that more often instead of agnes callard or whoever

lol Gannett is hiring an actual "Taylor Swift Reporter" — https://us231.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/gannett/Posting/View/63544.

Taylor Swift Reporter

USA TODAY and The Tennessean/tennessean.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, seeking an experienced, video-forward journalist to capture the music and cultural impact of Taylor Swift. 

Swift's fanbase has grown to unprecedented heights, and so has the significance of her music and growing legacy. We are looking for an energetic writer, photographer and social media pro who can quench an undeniable thirst for all things Taylor Swift with a steady stream of content across multiple platforms. Seeing both the facts and the fury, the Taylor Swift reporter will identify why the pop star’s influence only expands, what her fanbase stands for in pop culture, and the effect she has across the music and business worlds. 

The successful candidate is a driven, creative and energetic journalist able to capture the excitement around Swift's ongoing tour and upcoming album release, while also providing thoughtful analysis of her music and career.

We are looking for a journalist with a voice — but not a bias — able to quickly cultivate a national audience through smart content designed to meet readers on their terms. This reporter will chronicle the biggest moments on the next portions of Taylor Swift’s tour, offering readers of USA TODAY, The Tennessean and more than 200 local news sources an inside view.

This journalist must be willing (and legally allowed) to travel internationally.

lol I came here to post that and hoo boy

Wake me once the New Yorker hires a Taylor Swift correspondent

what happens if she gets cancelled and becomes a pariah overnight

does the reporter lose their job too or gets transferred to another dept

"you were the Taylor Swift Reporter, now you are the City Hall Reporter"

Reassigned to Jason Aldean

“You’re on the Greta Van Fleet beat”

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*IyI3t6Ol93-ahdRN9nBQFw.jpeg

“I was at a party once, and, uh, Taylor put her hand over a candle, and she kept it there. she kept it right in the flame until her flesh was burned. Somebody said, "What's the trick?" And Taylor said, "The trick is not minding."

Imagine dealing with the Swifties, yowza.

They're predicting a $100-$125 million dollar opening for the movie. That's essentially just printing money.

Also, for voter registration day, which might have been Tuesday, a post by Swift drove some 13,000 users every 30 minutes to vote.org, reportedly netting (so far) 35,000 new voter registrations.

Everything helps, and 35k is a huge number, but you can’t help but wonder how many more she could have signed up (especially in TX, GA, TN, PA) if she had partnered with Headcount to set up booths at her concerts as other artists do. Not to cast shade on a good thing! But some folks are taking like she’s single-handedly leading a youth voter wave, and, well… hopefully she’ll do more over the next year!

If I had her power (but was still me) you better believe I'd be working to destroy the right / Republican party permanently.

Did you know these flags are apparently a popular thing(?) IMO, this is going a little far...

https://i.etsystatic.com/30929088/r/il/12f5e0/5010714171/il_794xN.5010714171_k4ou.jpg

Again?

she is the one who voted illegally in 50 states to get Biden the victory

Must be exhausting always writing-in the anti-hero

I've honestly wondered why more artists don't do this. A @taylorswift13 tour to swing states shortly before voter registration deadlines and/or prior to the election could honestly swing the election. Just need to limit ticket sales to people with an in-state zip code. https://t.co/DCSThbXyIP

— Secrets and Laws (@secretsandlaws) September 27, 2023

SwiftVote Veterans for Truth

Last time I remember anyone doing anything like this was the Vote for Change tour, with Springsteen, Fogerty, Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, REM, Death Cab, Bright Eyes, a few others. Didn't move the needle much, but the shows I saw were great! I stood next to Michael Stipe for some of the show, there was a mini set of Bruce et al. backing Fogerty ... and Kerry lost.

Anyway, I wish she did this, it could make a difference.

2004 was the first election I really followed from start-to-finish because at the time it seemed like the stakes were so much higher than anything else in my lifetime. I also remember not getting my hopes up that Bruce et al would change anything because quite a few articles suggested that the country was too polarized to have that many swing voters (i.e. it would be a close election, which it was) and that most people attending those shows were already likely to vote Kerry. Wish I had seen those shows, just to have seen some of them at a reasonable peak rather than wait until they were audibly much older. (Fogerty especially, also Mellencamp)

It is a little hard to imagine Swift going on a full-on pro-Biden tour, considering that she didn't even endorse a candidate in 2016.

Springsteen never endorsed a candidate until 2004.

My daughter told me that it's a running joke among Swift fans that her 1989 World Tour concert film features too much frenetic editing. So hilariously, someone posted on Tik Tok (I assume?) a version of "Blank Space" that accelerates every time there's a cut, starting normal before quickly careening out of control like a runaway merry go round.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR7rMHSV/

Snagged some of the just-announced early Eras tickets for tomorrow afternoon. Finally my procrastination pays off!

And having seen said film -- that was very good, I thought.

Has any other act released a big-budget tour film while the big-budget tour is still touring?

Justin Beiber: Never Say Never

Good for him. Bieber is one of those acts that may as well be touring all the time, I have no idea, lol.

Film was very good indeed. Had a really good time with my kid. Our showtime was during school hours, so we were maybe 12 in the entire theater? Judging by the tik toks, it was a much different experience than what most got this weekend, but it was still joyful and loads of fun to sing along and dance in our seats together.

As a film, I most appreciated its simplicity: it is literally just the show, in its near entirety, with some modest FX introducing each era. The show itself has been well documented, but despite knowing many people who went, none seemed aware of just how much performing the dancers were doing. One in particular stole a couple scenes and was a riot.

I wonder if the “concert film” is about to become A THING, the way super hero movies were.

I would think there are only a handful of artists who can bring in big enough crowds to make it profitable?