The Off Topic Topic

[Valmy]

I like Taylor and I think she is good.

I like her but I have a hard time thinking of any good songs she has released in the last decade. But then I am old and out of touch.

[Caliga]

I like her but I have a hard time thinking of any good songs she has released in the last decade. But then I am old and out of touch.

Bro you serious?  Shake It Off, Style, Look What You Made Me Do, Lover, You Need To Calm Down, Cruel Summer, The Last Great American Dynasty, Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero...

[Caliga]

I should add that my wife listens to Taylor Swift nonstop, by far more than any other artist's music, so I hear her stuff all the time.  She used to listen to Lizzo even more than Taylor, but then the whole lawsuit thing with her Big Grrls happened, and my wife won't listen to Lizzo anymore.

[HVC]

I like her but I have a hard time thinking of any good songs she has released in the last decade. But then I am old and out of touch.

Bro you serious?  Shake It Off, Style, Look What You Made Me Do, Lover, You Need To Calm Down, Cruel Summer, The Last Great American Dynasty, Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero...

slay girl!

[Valmy]

I like her but I have a hard time thinking of any good songs she has released in the last decade. But then I am old and out of touch.

Bro you serious?  Shake It Off, Style, Look What You Made Me Do, Lover, You Need To Calm Down, Cruel Summer, The Last Great American Dynasty, Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero...

All the songs on that list I am familiar with are from 2014 so yeah 

I presume she has continued to release more music, it just hasn't filtered down to me like it used to.

[Caliga]

I like her but I have a hard time thinking of any good songs she has released in the last decade. But then I am old and out of touch.

Bro you serious?  Shake It Off, Style, Look What You Made Me Do, Lover, You Need To Calm Down, Cruel Summer, The Last Great American Dynasty, Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero...

slay girl!

DIVA!

[Admiral Yi]

Down at the old gay rainbow karaoke joint maybe a third of the requests are for Taylor Swift songs.  Half of them by guys.  And not just obviously gay dudes, but straight bros as well.  I can't tell one song from another.  None has stuck in my head.  I can't hum the chorus to any of them.

She's cute, she seems very nice, nice figure, managed her career brilliantly, but her music is just not for me.

[The Brain]

She's never interested me personally, but I have no reason to doubt her talent.

[grumbler]

As I said I am not doubting that, just mentioning the shadow writer thing because I am assuming that means you are free to claim credit for what the shadow-writer wrote, meaning what's on the credits isn't a guarantee. But I could be wrong, I have never really cared about this stuff.

I'm thinking that the whole "shadow songwriter" thing is likely an urban legend.  If a writer has the talent to write top-end lyrics or music, they are going to insist on getting songwriting credit because it gets their name out in font of others looking for songwriting talent.  If they are not good enough to demand that credit, what use are they to some songwriter like TS?  Plus, even if they get paid for their contributions, they can always come back later and demand credit, so for it if not given freely, and get the credit that way.

I could, of course, be convinced by credible evidence that such ghost songwriters actually exist.

[Jacob]

Quick google on ghostwriting in the music industry, from the POV of "how to become a ghostwriter": https://imusician.pro/en/resources/blog/ghostwriting-in-music - it mentions a few known artists as using ghostwriters.

Here's a podcast on "the world of ghostwriting and ghost producing": https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/twenty-thousand-hertz-uncovers-the-secretive-world-of-ghostwriting-and-ghost-producing

[Josquius]

In other news my bathroom scales are developing a sycophantic mind of their own.
Every time I step on them they tell me a weight.
I step off and step back on.... They tell me a new weight that's at least a kilogram less.
Like they thought I wasn't happy with the first and this would please me more.

[Razgovory]

Quick google on ghostwriting in the music industry, from the POV of "how to become a ghostwriter": https://imusician.pro/en/resources/blog/ghostwriting-in-music - it mentions a few known artists as using ghostwriters.

Here's a podcast on "the world of ghostwriting and ghost producing": https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/twenty-thousand-hertz-uncovers-the-secretive-world-of-ghostwriting-and-ghost-producing

I don't know, seems like writing music through a Ouija board would be cumbersome.  

[grumbler]

Quick google on ghostwriting in the music industry, from the POV of "how to become a ghostwriter": https://imusician.pro/en/resources/blog/ghostwriting-in-music - it mentions a few known artists as using ghostwriters.

Lots of "allegedly" and "reportedly" in that piece, with only one solid bit of evidence (and it was about producing, not writing - two very different things). 

[Tamas]

As I said I am not doubting that, just mentioning the shadow writer thing because I am assuming that means you are free to claim credit for what the shadow-writer wrote, meaning what's on the credits isn't a guarantee. But I could be wrong, I have never really cared about this stuff.

I'm thinking that the whole "shadow songwriter" thing is likely an urban legend.  If a writer has the talent to write top-end lyrics or music, they are going to insist on getting songwriting credit because it gets their name out in font of others looking for songwriting talent.  If they are not good enough to demand that credit, what use are they to some songwriter like TS?  Plus, even if they get paid for their contributions, they can always come back later and demand credit, so for it if not given freely, and get the credit that way.

I could, of course, be convinced by credible evidence that such ghost songwriters actually exist.

Fair, but this assumes that top end pop songs have tunes and lyrics which are top-end difficult to create, which I think is some miles off from being a universal truth.

[Savonarola]

All fair - still think it's weird how a paper of record published a piece speculating about her sexuality. Especially one based on her art. Which contains "signals"/something she is communicating rather than something we are reading/interpreting.

Feels like a fair bit going on there which I find a bit weird. Have a bit of a theory that art kind of swings between content and form. 18th and 20th century big on form, 19th on content and that we're in a bit of a swing to content again and this all seems of a piece with that - almost certainly nonsense though

Edit: Also again just the weird parasocial thing that the NYT thought this was okay to publish blows my mind

My first job out of college was with Nextel Wireless.  At the time our chief investor was Craig McCaw (founder of McCaw Cellular, the precursor to AT&T Wireless.)  While I was there Craig and his wife divorced and that was front page news on The Wall Street Journal.  I remember thinking "You know you're a success in business when your divorce is a front page story on The Wall Street Journal."  In a similar manner, you're a success at something if your sexuality is being discussed in the New York Times.