To a certain degree, Taylor Swift got screwed by her own success. After winning the 2010 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, people expect her to create music worthy of an award-winning artist. They want her to experiment with different genres, develop a new sound and flourish as a young musician with nothing to lose.
Therein lies the problem. Taylor Swift has everything to lose by changing her sound. Country-pop fans are known for their intense loyalty, but they don’t deal too well with anything beyond their comfort zone. In order to maintain her career, she has to continue riding an aural wave of “safe”.
Without any doubt, fans of Taylor Swift will love Speak Now. It’s the natural follow-up to Fearless, taking on a slightly more mature approach to themes of broken hearts (“Dear John”), storybook romance (“Sparks Fly”) and reminiscing on days of youth (“Mean”).
Unfortunately, Swift’s critics and detractors won’t have the patience to listen to the lyrics of each song, so they’re quick to point out the lack of musical variety. Technically, these folks aren’t entirely wrong. On the surface level, this does sound like more of the same. But when you dig a little deeper? You can hear that Swift’s slowly gaining strength as a songwriter.
– Dewitt
To listen to select tracks from this album, follow the JUMP:
Listen to additional tracks over here.
I LOVE TAYLOR AND THIS ALBUM.
Garbage.
I cannot stand this ugly, talentless, immature, bitch. Describing her music as “country” is offensive to all the real country artist… and that dear John song, really bitch? It takes two to tango, did she think his reputation was bs? Stupid broad. Continue spreading your vagina around hollywood so you can have material for your next piece of shit (album)
She is the perfect example of the difference between a performer and a singer. She can perform and has a huge following, but I have to agree with number of folks that continue to question her singing ability. Does anyone else remember the Stevie Nicks duet fiasco at the Grammy’s. I felt so sorry for Stevie!
Back to December is pretty good
Need to listen to the whole album…
Her new album is more of the same stuff she’s done before. Of course, it’s gonna sell. I predict at least half a million copies in the first week. The music industry still needs big sellers like Lil’ Wayne, Coldplay, Jay Z and Taylor Swift.
Waste of blog space
i wish she would go away. all her “confrontational” songs….grow up already
More teen pop than country. Hate her, hate her music, envy her income. She should be dating Justin Bieber, not Jake Gyllanhall, if that rumor is true (which I doubt).
I love how ready people are to bash Taylor Swift. Yes she may not be the greatest singer, and her music is most definitely perfected in the studio, but do you all honestly think that any other artist is different? I’ve worked in recording studios, you sing the same song at least 10 times and then programs select the best parts and mix it together. No artist ever just goes into the studio, sings once, and is done a song. As well, you can’t honestly tell me that you think that Lady Gaga or Katy Perry or even Britney Spears (who all seem to be hugely popular on this site for some reason) are good stage performers, I mean, have you heard them perform live?! But my point is, I think she deserves some credit, she writes her own music, which is more than most artists can say, and she’s not going around acting like a slut like every other girl in the industry her age. So let people like the music they want and stop complaining. There are always going to be people who like bad music as much as there are people who like good music.
haha its funny how alot of people say its garbage because theyre favortie artista arent number one lol and another thing if it were garbage it wouldnt be selling so much and if u say that the majority of people have no taste then ur arguing with alot of people and another thing thats your opinion and if u look at it the majority of people think u have no taste in music lol so maybe its actually u that has no taste in music lol