Printable version of thread

Click here to view this topic in its original format

BuzzJack Music Forum _ Taylor Swift _ Pop or country Taylor?

Posted by: Liаm 31st August 2017, 01:40 PM

Of course one of the biggest things around Taylor lately is her transition from country fairytale princess to full on pop icon and one of the biggest stars in the world, but which side are you on? I was gonna add in an "in between" option as Red was kinda the bridge between both but no cop outs

Personally I find it so hard to choose as Speak Now, Red and Fearless are among my all time fave albums as is 1989, she absolutely nails country conventions on so many songs without trying too hard to be different whilst still staying true to herself, and All Too Well and Love Story are both in my top 10 songs ever with others high up in my rankings too. Her lyrics on Speak Now especially I feel are so clever, they take simple things like someone giving you butterflies or taking your boyfriend and absolutely nails how these things would make you feel, but she keeps the songs and melodies largely very simple. She wrote about everything from unrequited school crushes, cheating partners, doing wrong in a relationship, school, childhood, god knows what else and it always felt honest and hit the nail on the head whatever the subject was, whether she was playing a character or writing about her own life experiences.

But I had to go with pop overall, of course 1989 is so different to the others it's almost impossible to compare, with Red converging the two styles. But on the whole, she's gone stratospheric with it and it's easy to see why. Her songwriting style translates so well to pop bangers, perhaps because even in the debut era you could tell she had that pop sensibility and that's why she crossed over so successfully even before going fully pop. I feel so excited by where she might go as an artist and she has so much room to grow, honestly I have no idea what to expect from Reputation and I absolutely love that! As much I adore country Taylor and a lot of the songs remain among my all time faves, I feel that she had to move and grow as there's only so far you can go with country. By Red I think she started exhausting country but that era worked as a great transition so we weren't suddenly going from heart on her sleeve Speak Now Taylor to sleek and intricate 1989 Taylor

Posted by: Jade 31st August 2017, 02:06 PM

Pop for sure. Her lyrics have come on tenfold since her first couple of albums and I always found her country accent a little off-putting. '1989' is one of the best pop albums in recent years and my favourite song of hers is 'I Knew You Were Trouble' so it's a no brainer really!

Posted by: Separate 31st August 2017, 02:52 PM

Pop 90% of the time but her country era can be a real bit of fresh air occasionally

Posted by: Jay ☆ 31st August 2017, 08:53 PM

Definitely pop, by a country mile!

Posted by: Neil 31st August 2017, 09:04 PM

I voted Country but only because if I were to think of say.... my top 5 Taylor songs, 3 of them are from Country eras. (Breathe, If This Was a Movie, You're Not Sorry)

Other than her debut which for my tastes only has a few decent tracks (with a couple more if you include the remakes for Fearless) she has been consistently strong with no filler on her albums at all, so it's sort of six of one half a dozen of the other.

Posted by: JosephStyles 1st September 2017, 05:58 PM

Pop wins for me, but I'm not against country Taylor. My favourite album was pretty much slap bang in the middle of the two - Speak Now! The two country albums are definitely my least favourites though.

Posted by: Ryan. 1st September 2017, 08:19 PM

So difficult to choose! Taylor's special in that she has such a large input in her songwriting so it works out that a Taylor song is defined by her songwriting style rather than by a certain genre. When most acts switch genre they would get accused of selling out, but Taylor puts her stamp on every single song.

1989 is my favourite Taylor album so I suppose I go with pop, but I also credit Taylor with introducing me to country - which is easily my second favourite genre of music now. Basically, I know that the next Taylor album or the next one after that could be my favourite whether it is pop or country because she just has that unique ability to write amazing songs in any genre.