Taylor Swift, Racism, and Authentic Anger

Call me a snake, would you? Taylor gives us all a lesson in PR turnarounds

When Taylor Swift emerged as a twirly-haired "country" singer I wasn’t a fan. She was a bit reedy-voiced and bland for me, and I was a country music purist at the time, so if it wasn't slide guitar in a barn, I wasn't interested. I liked her a bit more when she switched to catchy pop choruses, but in a suitably self-loathing, post-ironic kind of way, obviously.

Then a few years ago  I was idly reading gossip sites about the bad blood (geddit) between Swifty, Katy Perry and John Mayer, and was inspired to check out Dear John, the song she had written about him. Opening with sly, Mayer-esque guitar notes, it was poignant, relatable; it told a story. Then I listened to Paper Doll (Mayer's attempt at revenge) and I felt embarrassed for him, because it was rubbish. Although he was meant to be the respected musician and Taylor the teeny bopper, her lyric-writing skills were effortlessly superior.

From that moment on, I knew she was a master of songwriting, but it wasn’t until her big comeback video that I noticed she’s also a bloody genius at PR. For those of you who are way too cool to know about this, her good-girl image was shattered last year when she was apparently exposed as a liar. Kanye West wrote offensive lyrics about her, she made a big fuss about it, but was later revealed to have OK'd at least some of it. Kanye's wifey Kim Kardashian called Taylor a snake, Katy Perry and Calvin Harris rubbed their hands in glee, and Swift crawled away in disgrace. UNTIL NOW.

My favourite shot... WHO has a Grammy? Who is it? No, not Katy....

Katy Perry HAD seemed quite daring for letting it be known that Swish Swish was about Taylor, even though the song was lyrically her usual checklist of well-worn cliches, and has a video so boring it demanded only one curiosity viewing. The line "Funny my name keeps comin' outcho mouth" was also ironic, as Taylor has never actually named Katy Perry as her nemesis – she just upstaged Perry's album launch by suddenly reinstating her Spotify back catalogue, in a move so petty it's a delight to watch. ("My OLD songs can get more attention that your new ones. Swish swish that, bitch.") Not to mention the fact that she has blown Katy's youtube views out of the water and smashed several records in the process. 

Despite the glorious bitchiness of Taylor reclaiming the "snake" label as a sign of slippery strength, mercilessly taking the piss out of both Kim and Katy Perry with her reference to those edited karmic “receipts” and spawning some rather fascinating fan theories about her multiple personas and what they all mean, the #LWYMMD video is of course in line for heavy criticism. Firstly, that it's a "colossal bummer".  Because when Taylor sings “The world moves on, another day, another drama drama, But not for me, not for me—all I think about is karma" it's assumed that she's being 100% serious. According to Slate: "While others forgive, forget, and move on to more fulfilling relationships, Swift is consumed by resentment, unable to see past those who’ve wronged her until they suffer." 

Um, you're not getting it, are you? I've no doubt that Taylor was royally pissed off that Kimye etc ruined her reputation (more on that later) but the vengeful snakewoman is a character. For those who didn't get this, she spells it out at the end of the video with a line-up of all the past personas that she has played or been portrayed as by the media. The real Taylor is probably NOT that obsessed with her rivals. (Let's be realistic, she has more important things to think about, what with pumpkin spice latte season just around the corner.) The trouble is, Taylor has a sense of humour, and her critics don't.

Also, for all Katy Perry's breezy playground insistence that "she started it" and "it's so CRAZY" ,from these pictures I'm going to guess that there was a LEETLE bit of hostility brewing in Camp Perry long before the rest of the world (including Taylor) knew about it. 

The second criticism is that by titling her song "look what you made me do", Taylor is aligning herself with perpetrators of domestic violence. Oh come on, music journos. You can do better than that.

But why does Swifty attract so much criticism? Cast your mind back to August 2013; when she released her video for Shake it Off, the retribution was immediate. Coming not long after the internet pointed and laughed at her awkward dance moves, she obviously thought it would be a cute and self-deprecating joke to show that she can't dance in ANY style, whether it's ballet, street dance or cheerleading. However, attempting to twerk (and crawling through the dancers' legs with a gaze of awe at their jjggling bottoms) was considered racially insensitive, and nobody was shy about telling her so. 

However, in the same month, One Direction released their video for Steal My Girl. It featured Sumo wrestlers (at one point having a tin of yellow paint thrown at them (?!) and Maasai tribesmen. One of the singers (I'm sorry, I only know the names of the hot ones) dressed up in costume and joined them in their tribal dance. Were there screams of "Racist?" at this? Um, no, there was barely a peep. The one article I found which even vaguely criticised the "problematic" scenes decided that on the whole it was OK, because One Direction have done some charity work in Africa. 

So why the disparate reactions? It seems that "One Direction are racist" is not a narrative we've adopted, while "Taylor Swift is racist" pops up regularly. Next was her Wildest Dreams video, which drew criticism for being shot in Africa but not featuring any black people. (Which is weird because other artists, such as Snow Patrol and Lily Allen) also shot videos there, didn't show any black people, and nobody gave a crap.)

The video is centred on a film set of yesteryear, but there are some black guys playing off-duty actors in the background, which suggests there was a conscious decision to AVOID accusations of racism. But despite this, and the fact that 90% of the video is Taylor snogging Clint Eastwood's son against a back drop of lightning, giraffes, and lions, it was still universally slammed.  

                   

Race is a hot topic in the music industry; Queen of the world Beyoncé lost out on many of the Grammys she was nominated for when she released Lemonade (generally considered the pinnacle of human achievement thus far). She did win Best Urban Contemporary Album, a category "coded black" according to music scholar John Vilanova.

She literally bent over backwards and still didn't get all the prizes she deserved.

But although the Grammy President insisted the awards were non-racist and "peer-voted", you have to wonder why any sane person would have voted for Adele's one-note shoutiness over Beyonce's nuanced story of heartbreak and forgiveness. (I'm still baffled by Adele's popularity in general – she sounds all right on some songs, but I suspect she will go the way of the Dido.... if anyone remembers her?)

Bey took her experience of infidelity and turned it into the album of her career; as well as the variety of musical styles from gospel and country to punk-tinged rock, the songs run through the emotional cycle from sadness to rage to eventual acceptance. Following in the footsteps of many artists before her, Beyonce created a lasting body of work out of her pain, because that’s better than just wallowing in it. Meanwhile, Adele is STILL indulging in melancholy navel-gazing and warbling about lost love. (Is anything more likely to make you want to drill your head open than a distant ex calling up to "go over everything"?) As we know she’s now married with a baby, the fiction of these lyrics feel fraudulent – and when you've lost your authenticity, you've lost everything. 

Maybe that's why Taylor's comeback has been so satisfying to watch; while she obviously relishes playing with the media's perception of her, celebrities are still real people with real weaknesses. Taylor was caught out because she wanted to distance herself from the vulgarity of the Kardashian / West clan, but she underestimated Kim's sneakiness. However, Swifty has taken that public humiliation and turned her weakness into strength: when she says "Maybe I got mine, but you'll all get yours" you know that, no matter how much she enjoys playing the media, there's genuine anger being channeled in the most constructive possible way. 

2016 was humiliating for her; not only was she forced to climb down from her stance on Kanye’s lyrics, but he then depicted her naked body in his Famous video, alongside similar waxworks of Bill Cosby, Donald Trump and Chris Brown; possibly not her favourite people. After her recent court victory in a sexual assault case (that symbolic dollar note featuring in the LWYMMD video) she has managed to (yet again) find a way to turn the bad points of her life into the biggest comeback in recent history. Taylor didn't start the public feuds with Katy, Kim et al, but she sure knows how to finish them.

Taylor Swift is dead. Long live Taylor Swift. 

"Female remains famous without knicker flashing" Shock report

 Read this and other reviews of mine over at 
Dooyoo.co.uk  – look out for Charliewhippet

After internet leaks and a delayed launch, it's Kelly's long awaited new album! And there's barely a non-single track among them. 

By now we've all heard the first single Mr Know it All which, in typical Kelly style, admonishes a guy for thinking he knows her when he actually has no clue. (We've all known guys like this, right? I had one tell me that I didn't like children. When I had been running an after-school club and was preparing for a month working in an African orphanage.) While the lyrics are Kelly personified, the melody and musical stylings are strongly reminiscent of the Bruno Mars hit Just the Way You Are (a fact which hasn't escaped the critics' notice). 

While the song would appear to be aimed at an individual, the video twists this into an attack on the media, with Kelly singing in front of a wall of headlines – which apparently are genuine newspaper articles. 

This blow at the media continues in You Can't Win as Kelly lampoons pretty much every criticism ever levelled at her – and everyone else in the public eye."If you're thin, poor little walking disease; if you're not, they're all screaming obese," and "If you're down; so ungrateful, and if you're happy, why so selfish?"

The second track on the listing carries the oft-repeated message that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Now we're back in familiar Clarkson territory – a pounding beat, singalong chorus, and "Let's get on that treadmill and work out our aggression against the boy who dumped us," feeling. Kelly has hinted that this will be the second single, which both pleases and disappoints me. It’s a cool, catchy pop record which has a positive message and will surely get lots of airplay. However, haven’t we had an awful lot of those songs from Kelly? Wise as it is to stick to the formula that works, it would be nice if the non-album-buying public could hear some of her more thoughtful and multilayered songs. 

One of which is Dark Side – it has a pseudo-spooky beginning like a child's music box, and a downbeat vibe. The lyrics plead that everyone has a dark side; "Can you love mine?" It's Kelly being all heart-rending at her best, and her voice soars effortlessly over the wide vocal range – she truly makes it sound easy. 

This theme continues with Honestly, which has beautiful, gentle opening bars and rises into a somewhat melancholy anthem; "Make me listen to the truth even if it breaks me..... you can judge me, love me, if you’re hating me, do it honestly..." Kelly apparently expects bad news, but is determined to know anyway, as she crashes into a desperate-sounding wave of "You can tell me... you can tell me....you can tell me...." (Say what you like about Kelly, but it’s nice to find a "pop" singer who isn’t afraid to be a bit angsty and raw emotionally.)

Kelly's songwriters drop the ball somewhat on Einstein.. It has a promising start, with a cute first verse:

Simple math
Our love divided by the square root of pride
Multiply your lies plus time
I'm going out of my mind
It was heavy when I finally figured it out alone

You’d be forgiven for thinking "Ah, how clever. A cute, playground style song with in-jokes about Einstein!" But it's almost as if the writer exhausted his / her brain power, turned to the nearest eight-year-old, and said "Hey, I'm all out of ideas. You write the chorus." Seriously? "Dumb plus dumb equals you?" That doesn’t even make sense! OK, so it might be fun for little girl to sing, but for such a quirky idea, this song really falls short of its potential. Luckily it is saved by Kelly's vocals which are dynamic as always.

(It's also worth noting that Directlyrics.com, despite claiming to "guarantee" accuracy in their lists  of lyrics, have misheard this song with bizarre results. "I may not be unstopped"? You’re not exactly Einstein yourself, are you?)

Standing in Front of You is a song about taking the risk of throwing yourself into love rather than staying alone out of fear. Kelly turns it into an etheral, filmic sounding epic which will no doubt make it onto a rom-com soundtrack at some point.

I Forgive You, a bouncy song about the pointlessness of holding the past against someone ("If I hate you, what does that do?") is a little monotonous but is saved by a catchy, 80s-sounding chorus. I have been trying to work out what it reminds me of and have finally settled on Kim Wildes's classic, Kids in America. The retro disco feel continues on You Love Me, which has an electropop sound that brings La Roux to mind. (Which is logical when you consider that they are influenced by Eurythmics, and Kelly has declared herself a big fan of Annie Lennox.  Don’t be fooled by the optimistic title – this is another song about poor Kelly being let down by someone who only claims to love her.

KC has said herself that sonically this is her best album and that it sounds closer to the way she does when singing live. I can attest to this – the vocals sound so rich and textured on this album that after listening to it for a while and then switching to a previous album of hers, her previous (excellent) vocals sounded almost tinny in comparison.

She even sounds a little bit throaty and sexy on Hello, a song which lacks the huge sweeping chorus of some of her other hits but has a nice line in handclaps and a twangy bassline.

Likewise Kelly turns in a rather sultry performance on Let Me Down, yet another song about a man failing her.  With lyrics such as "I think I might be a fortune teller, I read your face just like a letter..." she is soon wailing the chorus as only she can.

Kelly's vocals are never stronger than on The War is Over, a haunting track on which she harmonises with herself, the somewhat low-key verses rising to an empowering finale. 

Crossing genre boundaries as always, the powerful yet silky vocals on Breaking Your Own Heart are as close to country as Kelly gets on the main album. (Please Kelly, release that blues and country album you keep promising us! Forget the teenyboppers who love your pop rock! Your grown-up fans demand Patsy Cline and Black Keys covers!)

If you’ve bought the plain old regular album, this is your lot. However, I recommend that you invest in the deluxe version for some extra treats....

Unfortunately still no duet with Miranda Lambert. Maybe next time? Pretty please?

In the US, country music is big business (although we Brits don’t really have a fanbase for songs about trucks, catfish, and mama, unfortunately. ) On Don’t You Wanna Stay, Kelly teams up with Jason Aldean. (Who? I hear you ask. Well, he has four albumus and plenty of CMA trophies to his name, so if you like a bit of twang in your guitar, Spotify him up right now!) 

Unfortunately if you’re a cynical Brit, this song may be just a touch too glurgy for you. But if you are a secret fan of Magic.fm, you will find plenty to admire in the wistful, minor-key tune and  incredible vocals in this shamelessly romantic song.

Alone is another pop-rocky showcase for Kelly’s throaty vocals and for once, a song with a happy ending! And while the feminist in me rankles at the word "girl" being used pejoratively, the track Don’t Be a Girl About It also made me chuckle to myself. Featuring lines such as "I chose the high road and you chose... to be a girl," it’s tongue-in-cheek enough to get away with it. I actually wish this was on the main album and thus eligible to be released as a single, because it has a ridiculously catchy chorus and is generally a fun, audacious track. 

The Sun Will Rise features Kara DioGuardi, who is a songwriter, singer, ex-judge on American Idol, and record producer. Despite her impressive credentials, I find that her voice detracts from the song rather than improving it – she's just a touch whiny, especially teamed with Miss Clarkson’s clear-as-a-bell efforts. However, it’s nice to end the album on a rare cheerful note (especially if you have been listening to the album in a post-break-up haze of tears). 

All in all, it’s probably KC’s best album yet. However, it’s a travesty that some of her best work doesn’t make the cut. Check out youtube for Why Don’t You Try, an Aretha-esque bluesy number which ONLY appears on the US version of the itunes album. (Which sucks for those of us who have already bought the CD.)  However,  I comfort myself with the knowledge that Kelly is one of those artists who is actually better live than she is when she is overproduced, so the youtube versions are actually superior to the album track. Go figure. 

I leave you with proof that Kelly must not be allowed to do covers of popular artist’s work, because it’s just embarrassing for everyone when her version is the best by about a million miles. Sorry Carrie.