ta-ra*el~la

In an effort to promote storytelling, or 'singer-songwriter style' music, from this month onwards, these charts will be divided into a 'storytelling' section and an 'others' section. Both sections can contain a mix of new and catalog music (even though it's all new stuff for this month). Storytelling Music 1. Olivia Marsh ft. Yiruma - 42 2. Claude - C'est La Vie 3. FINNEAS & Kacey Musgraves - Giver / Taker 4. Ailee - Meaning 5. Yuval Raphael - New Day Will Rise 6. Louane - Maman 7. Zoë Më - Voyage 8. Kelly Clarkson - Where Have You Been 9. JJ - Wasted Love 10. Rachel Zegler - Waiting On A Wish Other Music 1. Zara Larsson - Pretty Ugly 2. EMMY - Laika Party 3. Remember Monday - What The Hell Just Happened? 4. Morgan Seatree x Florence + The Machine - Say My Name 5. UNIS - SWICY Originally posted at TaraElla Post: Music

1. Ailee - Meaning 2. Olivia Marsh - 42 3. Olivia Marsh - Waterworks 4. FINNEAS & Kacey Musgraves - Giver / Taker 5. Rachel Zegler - Waiting On A Wish 6. Dasha - Not At This Party 7. MINNIE - HER 8. Olivia Marsh - Strategy 9. ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT. 10. Jenna Davis - Luckier Originally posted at TaraElla Post: Music

Interesting one. I voted Love Story simply because it went #1 in my own personal chart (in October 2008) while My Life Would Suck Without You peaked at #2 (in February 2009). Some other interesting facts: 1) Love Story was Taylor Swift's first #1 in my chart. She would go on to have more than 40! By comparison, while My Life Would Suck Without You missed out, Kelly Clarkson already had multiple #1s by that time, her first #1 being A Moment Like This way back in 2002. So Kelly was way more established back then. 2) While Love Story and My Love Would Suck Without You didn't have a chart battle in my chart, because they peaked at different times (in fact in different years), My Life Would Suck Without You actually battled White Horse, Taylor Swift's second #1, for the top spot, and lost. So My Life Would Suck Without You actually lost out to a Taylor Swift song in my chart, and this is the reason why it was never #1.

1. MINNIE - HER 2. Olivia Marsh - Waterworks 3. Lady Gaga - Abracadabra 4. Olivia Marsh - Strategy 5. Rachel Zegler - Waiting On A Wish 6. Dasha - Not At This Party 7. ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT. 8. Jenna Davis - Luckier 9. Emma Bunton - 2 Become 1 10. Miley Cyrus - Beautiful That Way Originally posted at TaraElla Post: Music

Top 5 1. Jenna Davis - Luckier 2. Rose and Bruno Mars - APT. 3. Kelly Clarkson - All By Myself 4. Lanie Gardner - Cry 5. Rose - Number One Girl Blog of the Month Carly Rae Jepsen Isn't a One Hit Wonder But how many people out there know that? Read here Rest of the Entries 6. Meghan Trainor ft. Kim Petras - Made You Look (remix) 7. Addison Rae - Aquamarine 8. Slimane - Mon Amour 9. Haven Madison - Obsessed 10. Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Never Too Late 11. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars - Die With A Smile 12. Kelsea Ballerini - Baggage 13. Boogie Pimps - Sunny 14. Emily Tressa - Don't Call Me 15. Ella Langley - Weren't For The Wind 16. Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso 17. Gracie Abrams - Close To You 18. Meghan Trainor and T-Pain - Been Like This 19. Carrie Underwood and Cody Johnson - I'm Gonna Love You 20. Ella Langley and Riley Green - You Look Like You Love Me

This is great! Any chance for #1?

I must be in the minority here, but my favorite version was Band Aid 30. Plus I think they should have made a Band Aid 36 for the pandemic (i.e. in 2020).

I guess I just want her to go back to her old style, which she is moving further and further away from all the time.

I used to be a really big fan of Taylor. But I feel her work has been getting worse over time. Tracking the number of chart toppers she had with each album (on my chart) this is what I got: 1. Taylor Swift - 0 2. Fearless - 7 3. Speak Now - 8 4. Red - 3 5. 1989 - 3 6. Reputation - 2 7. Lover - 4 8. Folklore - 2 9. Evermore - 1 10. Midnights - 1 11. TTPD - 0 Why is she seemingly getting more popular all the time?

Round 2 - 27 Sep 2023 1(8) Olivia Rodrigo - Vampire (2023) 2(7) Katharine McPhee - Beatiful Stranger (2013) 3(1) HSMTMTS Cast - High School Musical (2023) 4(3) Gabrielle Aplin - Be Yourself (2022) 5(2) Taylor Swift - Sweeter Than Fiction (2013) 6(4) Noa Kirel - Unicorn (2023) 7(5) Diana Vickers - Cinderella (2013) 8(-) Olivia Rodrigo - Bad Idea Right? (2013) 9(19) Anne-Marie & Minnie - Expectations (2023) 10(13) Samantha Jade - Firestarter (2013) 11(9) Carly Rae Jepsen - Part of your World (2013) 12(6) Demi Lovato - Tell Me You Love Me (Rock Version) (2023) 13(10) Halle Bailey - Part of your World (2023) 14(11) Hailey Rowe - My Boyfriend Is Gay (2013) 15(12) Miley Cyrus - Used to be Young (2023) 16(14) Megan Nicole - What Dreams Are Made Of (2023) 17(15) Meghan Trainor - Mother (2023) 18(16) Britney Spears - Perfume (2013) 19(17) Taylor Swift - I Can See You (2023) 20(-) Olivia Rodrigo - Get Him Back! (2023)

The rules: Every month, the current hits go up against a chosen 'retro year' in the 21st century, in a retro hits vs current hits chart battle. There are four rounds each month, one round per week. After all four rounds, another retro year is chosen. This month's retro year is 2013. Round 1 - 20 Sep 2023 1. HSMTMTS Cast - High School Musical (2023) 2. Taylor Swift - Sweeter Than Fiction (2013) 3. Gabrielle Aplin - Be Yourself (2022) 4. Noa Kirel - Unicorn (2023) 5. Diana Vickers - Cinderella (2013) 6. Demi Lovato - Tell Me You Love Me (Rock Version) (2023) 7. Katharine McPhee - Beatiful Stranger (2013) 8. Olivia Rodrigo - Vampire (2023) 9. Carly Rae Jepsen - Part of your World (2013) 10. Halle Bailey - Part of your World (2023) 11. Hailey Rowe - My Boyfriend Is Gay (2013) 12. Miley Cyrus - Used to be Young (2023) 13. Samantha Jade - Firestarter (2013) 14. Megan Nicole - What Dreams Are Made Of (2023) 15. Meghan Trainor - Mother (2023) 16. Britney Spears - Perfume (2013) 17. Taylor Swift - I Can See You (2023) 18. Taylor Swift - 22 (2013) 19. Anne-Marie & Minnie - Expectations (2023) 20. Pink - Just Give Me A Reason (2013)

I actually agree with your observation, to a large extent. But this is also a problem for us to fix. We, the ones who want reform, need to encourage a healthy and productive dialogue, and we need to find a way to achieve that urgently. Too many activists are just happy to say that we're right and they're wrong, and we're not changing anything, while LGBT rights are being taken away as a result of the failure of such activism. This is not good enough!

This is the problem that many won't acknowledge. And it is helping people like Trump and DeSantis win. Which is why we need to fix this problem.

Cancel culture type activism actively harms the causes it supposedly supports. This is why it should be rejected. Remember, marriage equality was not won this way. Seriously, the past decade has been a disaster from the view of progressive political strategy. It has produced nothing but support for Trump, DeSantis and people like them. Let's just rewind 7-10 years and begin again from there.

I support a UBI in principle, but momentum seems to have stalled and fizzled out since 2020.

Serious question: why do people hate Starmer? He seems decent. And you'll get a Tory government if he doesn't win.

Twitter really feels more biased towards the right overall these days. I guess the problem is that too many left and center people quit when Elon Musk took over. I think that was a mistake.

Gay marriage was at 25% around 2000. Trans rights are certainly past 25% now. The theory is obviously wrong for politics. In fact, the magic number for politics seems to be 60%, rather than the 51% normally assumed, because of the inertia for change. Gay marriage only started to pass in many countries when the general level of support was around 60% in the West (which was around the mid 2010s). The goal therefore is to get trans rights to 60%. Which tells us what kind of people need to be convinced, i.e. moderate conservatives. It won't be easy, and it will require a massive change in strategy. We're certainly far from 60% on trans rights. So it's time to work hard to change people's minds. We can't afford to just preach to the converted.

Perhaps look at Australia, where anti-trans forces have developed a bad reputation since April last year, when they forced the trans issue into an election where it had no relevance. Letting the transphobes destroy themselves could be a good strategy indeed.

Don't believe the 'progressive' media hype. Things have only gone downhill for trans people since ten years ago.

Basically these are the problems with trans activism as it currently exists: 1) too much philosophy, too little practical reality (and this is an issue with what I call the 'theory left' in general too) 2) too much cancel culture, too little negotiation 3) too little focus on actually educating people about trans issues 4) failure to represent the whole spectrum of views within the trans community 5) too much weird jargon, too few attempts to find common ground with regular people 6) too often represented by radicals who are trying to sell something more unpopular alongside trans rights This might sound harsh, but change is certainly needed. (Just imagine if Labour or the Democrats lost an election, and this was the post-election review)

How long have you been following this issue, and how closely? (Also, while I respect your socialist politics, please don't lump this issue in with capitalism. It has nothing to do with capitalism, and this distraction is not needed.)

As someone who actually fought for marriage equality (in the US and Australia it was a very hard fight unlike in the UK), and now wants to advance trans rights, my concern is the activists are doing it very wrong at the moment. The trans rights narrative looks nothing like the gay marriage narrative did, and I'm concerned that it is harming the cause. We have a proven successful model (almost every Western country has gay marriage now) but we are not following it. If Keir Starmer is right about something, it's that trans rights needs a reset. The whole movement probably needs to be rebuilt, from the ground up. The leadership probably needs to be completely changed too. I'm increasingly convinced that things went very wrong ever since the so-called trans tipping point (2014). Whoever is actually pro-trans, but said no to the current model back in 2015-18 or so (and there are many trans people in this category actually), should be given a chance to lead the movement out of its current wilderness. I think it would be best if the new leadership was solely made up of people who were already involved in trans issues in some way before 2013, to get rid of the recent baggage.

I'm still not convinced that Starmer isn't pro-trans (or that Corbyn or anyone else would be any better). The problem here is this is a Times interview, and the Times is a transphobic paper.

I don't use 'postmodern' to attack the left like right-wing people do. I differentiate between postmodern leftists and economic (class focused) leftists, for example. I tend to call the former postmodernists and the latter socialists. In the context of the 21st century West, socialists generally aren't involved in cancel culture, but postmodernists are, for example. I don't dismiss ideas because the right will attack them. Postmodernism is uniquely bad because its anti-science and anti-objectivity (which are bad things anyway) makes it an easy target for the right. Therefore if advocacy for a minority group is sometimes wrapped in postmodernist rhetoric, it is essentially an own goal. The marriage equality example wasn't specifically meant to refer to the UK. The movement was also led by liberals in America, Canada and Australia. Indeed, the far left almost put it in danger towards the end in Australia (which didn't get it done until late 2017). As for why there are so many TERFs across the political spectrum in Britain, I don't know. It doesn't appear to be that way in America, Canada or Australia. Keep in mind that most Blairites didn't turn out like JKR, though. And many Corbynites are really transphobic too, meaning it's not a left vs centrist thing. Perhaps it means that trans rights must be achieved through a broad coalition across the political spectrum in the UK (rather than relying on one party as in the US). This means the British trans rights movement actually has to be more moderate than their American counterparts in practice, as a result. A change of tactics is certainly needed for trans rights in the British context, given the recent failures.