Mastermind Taylor Swift: The latest double album is deeper than it seems

 

Taylor Swift's Double album

The latest Taylor Swift double album is deeper than it seems

Taylor Swift dares to release an album of intimate confessions of rare authenticity before her appearance on the big stage of Groupama Stadium in Décines.

At first listen, everything seems cool in The Tortured poets department, barely released and already a new raid on the platforms breaking all records. Listening to it closely, the emotion continues to grow and the first track Fortnight with its soaring melody already evokes alcohol, drugs and separation like a laying bare.

This is the Taylor Swift miracle: being an interplanetary superstar capable of being herself in her own words in a double album of beauty evoking her own ills. The title The Tortured poets department evokes the club of his ex, the superb Joe Alwyn, a magnetic actor seen in Claire Denis whose evocation here never turns into a settling of scores.

Taylor Swift, confessions on the dancefloor

In her confessions in the form of a sentimental talk over, Taylor Swift never spares herself to evoke her past love: “You are not Dylan Thomas and I am not Patti Smith, you are just in self-sabotage mode, we were modern idiots , but who will hug you like me? ". The most famous artist on the planet keeps a cool head and all her lucidity. It's been a long time since we've heard such authentic confessions on the dancefloor, until So Long London to say goodbye to the city of its handsome British actor.

The Tortured Poets department, an ironic title?

The first beach of Fortnight already announces the departure for Florida!!! sung a few tracks later (in a duet with Florence and the Machine) and who should find an even more rock energy on stage... to “bury the regrets”. Just like I can do it with a broken heart, the most “Pet Shop boys” track of the opus. Superbly constructed, without affectation or ease, this breakup double album highlights the whispered voice of Taylor Swift like never before to tell her truth according to: "I am the queen of the sandcastles that you destroy, you sacrificed us on the altar of your saddest days. »

TAYLOR SWIFT: I'm so depressed it seems like it's my birthday every day »

The showwoman who will soon fill the Groupama Stadium in Décines for two evenings, dares her intimate confessions, like an American Mylène Farmer. Always with irony as a witness to her personality: “I'm so depressed that it seems like it's my birthday every day” she sings on a kid's disco on I can do it with a broken heart. We can already imagine him walking around the stadium's main stage in a sequin bodysuit to dust off his sadness. She's really pumped up and intelligent to still be able to be so much herself under the mask of notoriety.

Taylor Swift's double album album explodes the counters on Spotify, less than a week after its release

On April 22, 2024, Taylor Swift’s THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single week. The album has surpassed 1 Billion streams since release.

• 300 million streams in just 24 hours and more than a billion in less than a week, Taylor Swift's latest album is already breaking all records.
• “A historic date” that Spotify did not fail to highlight.
• The success of this new album is partly linked to the title “Fortnight”, a duet with the artist Post Malone.

As usual, pop star Taylor Swift is breaking records. Released on Friday April 19, his eleventh opus, The Tortured Poets Department, accumulated more than 300 million listens during the first 24 hours of its broadcast. “A historic date,” summarized Sportif sur X.

But the record didn't stop there. Less than a week after the release of his album, on April 22, it became the most listened to on Spotify by exceeding one billion listens, the platform announced on X. This success is linked in large part to its title “Fortnight” duet with Post Malone which has accumulated nearly 40 million streams. The single broke the record for the most streamed song in a single day, burying the one previously held by Adele with "Easy on Me".

Promposal poet - Taylor Swift didn't wait for "The Tortured Poets Department" to prove she is (II)

Poetic pop

Her albums folklore and evermore, released by surprise in the middle of the Covid pandemic, delighted critics and non-followers of the singer, thanks to their folk instrumentalization and their very poetic lyrics. These also inspired the game “Shakespeare or Taylor Swift” on TikTok, where students have to guess whether a sentence comes from the pen of William Shakespeare or Taylor Swift.

But even in her more pop and “simple” songs, Taylor Swift works meticulously on her lyrics. “She's good at taking idiomatic expressions or common concepts and playing with them,” explains Elly McCausland, citing the song Out of the Woods from the 1989 album.

In English, the expression “we are out of the woods” means to be safe, that the hardest part is over. “She explores this metaphor from a literal point of view. She talks about the woods, in the first sense. She sings “the monsters turned out to be just trees” and in the clip she runs through a dark forest which attacks her and the branches wrap around her,” explains the teacher.

“She takes a phrase that we use a lot in English and she explores its roots, no pun intended, and what happens when we literalize an idiomatic expression,” continues the expert. To the untrained listener, and even more so to non-English speakers, Taylor Swift's music may appear on the surface to be "just catchy songs about love, relationships, life," but according to Elly McCausland, " they deserve a more in-depth reading.”

The Tortured Poets Department, the most poetic album?

With The Tortured Poets Department, no need to dig far: she embraces her image as a poet and no longer hides her literary references. One of the bonus songs is for example called The Albatross, a direct reference to the poem The Old Sailor's Lament by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or even to The Albatross by Charles Baudelaire.

Before discovering it this April 19, fans and academics imagined an even more poetic album, in the continuity of folkore and evermore. Elly McCausland also expects a "very meta" work with songs in which Taylor Swift writes about writing.

“I wonder if she hasn't seen all the interest she's aroused academically over the last two years and if she isn't making fun of us in a certain way, saying to herself 'I'm going to give these teachers what to talk about”,” asks the literature teacher, laughing. The singer, and promotion queen, seems to be well aware of her image as a modern-day poet.

She has been playing it voluntarily since the announcement of her new album, as evidenced by the library full of books and manuscripts that she had installed in the middle of Los Angeles. With The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift seeks to show her talents as a writer as much as to have them listened to. As she writes so well: “Anything goes in love and poetry.” And in communication too.

Promposal Double Album - Taylor Swift didn't wait for "The Tortured Poets Department" to prove she is (I)

With a name like that - The Department of Tortured Poets in the language of Molière - the tone is set. Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated new album, The Tortured Poets Department, this Friday, April 19. The opportunity for the American singer to remind us that she is more than a pop star: she is a poet.

For her new album, Taylor Swift sets up a library in Los Angeles (and hides clues there)

Taylor Swift has always identified herself as a songwriter first, before being a singer. She now calls herself a poet by signing the promotional messages for her album “the president of the Department of Tortured Poets”. But she didn’t wait for her new album to write songs comparable to poems in verse or prose. From the start of her career in 2005, Taylor Swift was noted for her talents as a lyricist.

So much so that today, several universities, including the prestigious Harvard and Stanford, offer courses in analyzing the lyrics of his songs, in the same way as great texts of literature.

Taylor Swift, star of literary studies

Elly McCausland, professor of English literature at Ghent University in Belgium, and creator of the site Swifterature, is the first to give a course on Taylor Swift in Europe. For her, calling the star a poet is not surprising. “If we go back several centuries, poetry was an oral medium, spoken before being written, and often set to music. In a way, Taylor Swift returns to the roots of poetry,” she told HuffPost in the video at the top of the article.

Although all songwriters can, in some sense, be considered poets, Taylor Swift is a particularly relevant subject of study for literature teachers. Already, because she gives them a lot of material with her 243 songs (according to Rolling Stone counts), all of which she wrote or co-wrote.

But it is above all his refined writing style, without seeming to be so, which is well suited to analysis. Elly McCausland, for example, highlights her use of complex English vocabulary and literary techniques that are often associated with classical poetry. “She uses a lot of metaphors and comparisons, what we call figurative language,” notes the professor. But she does it in a way that we don't even think about it. It's subtle. His songs are made of layers, and when you peel them back, you find lots of interesting ideas. »

(to be continued)

Taylor Swift workout routine: Apparently references to her love story with Fernando Alonso

Every time the American pop star releases a new song or album, everyone wonders who the lyrics are about.

Taylor's  fans have interpreted  new album 'The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology' asrelated to  the love story between the pop star and Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin driver

 Since the release of Taylor Swift's 11th album, many fans have wondered who it is dedicated to, with some inferring that one of the 31 tracks is dedicated to Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso , who is rumored to have had a relationship with Taylor Swift in the past.

About a year ago, many rumors spread that there was a love relationship between Taylor Swift and Fernando Alonso.

The story between Taylor Swift and the sports star, exposed by the artist's new track? "I'm an Aston Martin that you drove straight into the abyss, then ran and hid"

Although the rumors were denied by both parties, suspicions among fans always remained.

An answer for those who still believed that despite the fact that there was nothing official, the relationship between the two world stars was still consummated, came with the release of the new album of the pop star from the United States of America.

The reference to the two-time Formula 1 world champion, fans believe, is in the following lyrics: "Little talk, long walks, I pretend I don't care what you've done / I'm an Aston Martin you drove straight into the abyss, then you ran and hid," writes Corriere Dello Sport.

Alonso has now joked about the situation by featuring in a TikTok video on the official AstonMartinF1 page in which he is seen listening to the song and putting his finger to his lips.

US presidential election 2024: why Taylor Swift worries Donald Trump supporters

Donald Trump's entourage fears that singer Taylor Swift and her companion, at the height of their fame, will support Joe Biden. And they see with anguish the arrival of February 11, the date of the Super Bowl final, the biggest television event of the year across the Atlantic, where the couple has arranged to meet.

Taylor Swift delighted millions of Americans on Sunday, January 28, when she went down to the pitch at the Baltimore stadium to kiss her darling Travis Kelce. The bearded receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs had just propelled his team to the final of the NFL championship, the professional American football league.

On February 11, in Las Vegas, the Chiefs will play their sixth Super Bowl, the fourth since 2019, against the San Francisco 49ers. The global pop star — 29 billion streams on Spotify in 2023 — has promised to attend the sporting event of the year. To join her champion, the defending champion, she will skip her mega world tour and return home from Japan.

Assailed by conservative channel Fox News

All the spotlight will then be on the most glamorous couple of the moment. And this gives fear to those around Donald Trump. Since the start of the week, the former President's zealots, seeking revenge on Joe Biden in the November 5 presidential election, have been firing on all cylinders. Don't get involved in politics, Jeanine Pirro, one of the star hosts of Fox News, said on air on Monday. Sean Hannity, another top conservative and Trump confidant, suggested he think twice.

This is because in 2020, Swift had thrown her already considerable weight behind Joe Biden, born like her – but 47 years earlier – in Pennsylvania. Last September, registrations of new voters more than doubled after the singer with 279 million followers on Instagram launched a call to do so on the Vote.org platform. Kelce stood out during Covid by resolutely committing to vaccination.

Swift and Kelce accused of being agents on mission

Above all, Trump fears that the couple – who never say a word – will invest in the campaign, which is what Democratic strategists dream of. Because they can move voters: football and country music – from which the singer-songwriter comes straight – particularly resonate with the popular electorate, who have united behind the populist billionaire.

So much so that Jesse Waters, yet another Fox host never behind on a plot, insinuated that Swift and Kelce are government and Pfizer agents engaged in psychological warfare, and that their romance is a fabrication of the Democratic Party .

Volunteer lawyers: 5 THINGS TAYLOR SWIFT CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT MANAGING YOUR CAREER (II)

Defend your own interests

In 2014, Taylor Swift removed her songs from Spotify to protest the almost non-existent remuneration of artists on the platform. Ten years later, she won her fight and is the most listened to artist on Spotify.

It just goes to show that it’s not by letting yourself eat the wool off your back that you build your fortune. Online music streaming services had immense power over the music industry, but Taylor certainly wasn't going to wait for his due.

DISTURB, TAKE RISKS, SAVE YOURSELF: THE SAD TRUTH IS THAT YOUR BOSS IS NOT GOING TO DO IT FOR YOU.

What would Taylor Swift do in your place? She would openly discuss her salary and working conditions with her colleagues, so that they can give themselves the means to defend their rights if necessary. She would also not hesitate to speak with her managers if something did not suit her or did not respect her collective agreement.

Vulnerability (assumed) pays off

Taylor doesn't have Whitney Houston's voice and she dances about as well as me. Her strength is rather in being an outstanding melodist and transforming her moods into powerful song lyrics, which give everyone the impression of being the heroes of a romantic comedy. Casually, she’s a unique talent and Taylor Swift knows how to sell herself as “the singer-songwriter we can relate to”.

Yes Madam! Tay-tay has a completely jet-set social life, and yet she goes through the same heartaches as us. Like us, she sometimes cries in bed, hates her ex and feels inadequate.

What would Taylor Swift do in your place? She would fully embrace her emotions at work while kindly replacing anyone who labels her as an emotional woman. She would also show empathy towards her colleagues, would know the power of humor at work and would not hesitate to use it.

And privilege… it helps

You'll tell me that if there's anything that helps you become a #girlboss, it's being born on an idyllic Christmas tree farm, with a father who has the means to invest in our first record label and a mother who can dedicate herself full-time to supporting our dream career. Being thin, blonde with blue eyes and perfectly matching American beauty standards can't hurt either.

BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT? NOT BEING A 1% FIREWORKER SHOULD NEVER PREVENT US FROM CONDUCTING OUR CAREERS AS IF WE WERE ONE.

The best lesson to learn from the way Taylor Swift conducts her career is that the best place to invest all our energy and our rage to win is, in a very selfish way, in ourselves.

Volunteer lawyers: 5 THINGS TAYLOR SWIFT CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT MANAGING YOUR CAREER (I)

AT 34, TAYLOR SWIFT DOMINATES THE MUSIC INDUSTRY,  SHE IS A BILLIONAIRE, AND HER TOURS HAVE MORE IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY OF AMERICAN CITIES THAN THE SUPER BOWL.

Probably helped by her privileged childhood, surrounded by her devoted parents (I'll come back to that), Taylor Swift has developed a self-confidence that is disturbing and... which we should all draw inspiration from!

From her pre-adolescence, she knocked on the doors of record companies, she took to all the stages and composed her own songs. The idea of waiting to perfect his art before starting out, or that of giving up after a refusal, does not seem to have crossed his mind.

It’s an attitude that many people find difficult to adopt for themselves (and to appreciate without cringing in others!) and yet, self-esteem always pays off. If, as a child, you ever sang in your room, with the window open, hoping that the head of Universal records would pass by by chance, be captivated by your talent and come ring your parents' doorbell to get you to sign a management contract , Do you see what I'm talking about.

YOUR HUMILITY, ALTHOUGH IT IS A GREAT QUALITY, COULD ALSO LEAD YOU TO UNDERESTIMATE YOURSELF.

What would Taylor Swift do in your place? Taylor would apply for this position that appeals to her, even if she does not have all the required qualifications. And after getting the job, she would dare to negotiate a raise – because she deserves it. Are we refusing it to him? She would consider new professional opportunities in an environment that recognizes the value of her work.

Social networks: the crux of the matter

You could say that Taylor Swift got lucky, timing-wise. Myspace, then Tumblr, appeared exactly when she needed them. She was lucky, of course, but she also sensed from the start the great opportunity that social networks offered, even before we understood where it was all going.

In her early days, she spent hours online every day responding to every post and comment. She made each admirer feel like she was their friend and sharing their vulnerability. Little by little, she opened accounts on all platforms and did not lack creativity to establish her presence on the web.

While avoiding talking about her private life in interviews, she hid clues about her networks and the covers of her albums, arousing the curiosity of Internet users. Genius. By establishing direct communication between herself and her customers, she has created an audience with unfailing loyalty.

What would Taylor Swift do in your place? She would maintain connections with her former colleagues and classmates on social media (just the less heavy ones), where she would also talk about her career progression and projects. She would keep her LinkedIn account up to date with her latest accomplishments and interact with the companies and professionals that interest her. In short, yes, “flexing” online is “cringe”, but you may be one step away from the opportunity of your dreams.

(to be continued)

 

No Allergy Popstar… How Taylor Swift became a global icon

Thanks to a keen sense of timing and artistic transformation, the 34-year-old American singer has established herself as one of the biggest musical stars of the last twenty years. From country to pop, from indie folk to slick business, its growing popularity owes nothing to chance.

It’s a snowball that never stops growing. Taylor Swift ended 2023 as the biggest music star in the world, named Person Of The Year by Time magazine, and the most streamed artist of the year on Spotify streaming platforms. and Apple Music, having broken the historic record for the number of number one albums sold by a singer... The native of Reading, Pennsylvania, becomes at 34 the juggernaut she always wanted to be, after twenty years of career and of gradual ascension.

A revenge for the one who had difficulty overcoming her image as a purely American superstar and who found many pitfalls on her path. Thanks to a formidable sense of timing and, all the same, a talent for writing songs, here she is attacking the year 2024 with a new costume built to last.

Massive and sincere support from the public

Such success cannot be built from scratch. To remain so high for so long, massive and sincere support from the public is necessary, because promotion, radio hype and presence on social networks can hardly compensate for artistic failure.

Its first asset is therefore its songs. Then, it's her ability to change gear quickly, to be able to identify what aesthetic is requested by the public, as when she abandoned her early country with the album Red, released in 2012, to embrace less divisive pop. . In doing so, she gradually put aside her image as the darling of conservative white America to expand her territory, confirming this shift with the following album, 1989, released in 2014.

For years, she navigated between the need to satisfy her less progressive base, while making herself a generational icon, in fact walling herself in a political silence which served her commercially. After being reluctant to condemn Donald Trump in 2016, she decided to call for Democratic votes in 2018 in the midterm elections. There, his audience exploded.

Control everything

Taylor Swift is a singer, of course, but also a businesswoman. She knows how to capture the times, she understood that the overflow of danceable electronic music from the early 2010s frustrated a public lacking more pop artists capable of making them dance.

In 2020, during successive confinements, she released two albums almost in quick succession, Folklore and Evermore, more anchored in indie pop and folk sounds, softer, more in line with the global need to dress up the long days spent at home.

Sweep away the humiliations

In 2023, Taylor Swift has struck a very big blow. She, who had lost part of the rights to two of her old albums, simply re-recorded them identically, legally re-appropriating their content and at the same time putting the spotlight back on her back catalog. An extremely clever and lucrative strategy which has considerably increased its listening scores.

WATCH MASTERS PORTRAIT : Taylor Swift - “America’s little girl” who became a worldwide star (III)

 this is a follow-up of a previous post

In 2020, she committed to Joe Biden, without however participating in his campaign events. She also posted various messages to call for a vote. These prompted thousands of registrations on the electoral lists. Michael Francis Taylor, author of the book Taylor Swift: The Life, Loves and Music of a Global Sensation, published by New Haven Publishing, considers it “possible” that it will influence the 2024 presidential election.

Taylor Swift has also shown herself to be committed to gender equality, demanding better justice for women victims of sexual violence. In 2017, she obtained the conviction of a DJ who had sexually assaulted her. "I'm sorry to everyone who wasn't believed, because I don't know what would have happened to me if people hadn't believed my story when I revealed what happened to me." , she says during a concert in 2018.

A real business woman

But whether for his music or his image, his success also (and above all?) owes to his business and marketing acumen. As her biographer, Michael Francis Taylor, explains: “She runs everything she does and she has a marketing genius unparalleled in the music industry. » “She owns her titles and controls her songs from writing to production and marketing. She controls the entire chain, which is very rare,” adds Gaël Sanquer of NRJ.

A unique situation which allows her to go to war with entertainment giants such as Spotify (which she boycotted for years deploring remuneration considered too low for artists), Apple Music or Ticketmaster (she said she was "out of control"). her” concerning the failures of the platform to sell tickets for her concerts).

In 2019, she entered into conflict with her ex-producer, Scooter Braun, denouncing his “tyrannical control”. Since then, Taylor Swift has had her first albums re-recorded, in order to recover the rights. A “Taylor’s Version” notice is added to the titles she has republished. Three years earlier, she was already ironic by answering “have a good lawyer” to the question asked by Vogue “what advice would you give to someone wanting to become a singer?” ".

An omnipresent control, observed by the head of NRJ Gaël Sanquer on the occasion of his upcoming tour in France in May and June 2024. While the radio launched a competition in February to offer tickets for the Parisian concerts of the star, “Taylor Swift's team wanted to validate everything, from the poster campaigns to the comments made on the air to announce the competition, to the word,” he says. “It was unprecedented to see such a level of control. »

His Eras tour, which has already gone down in history as one of the most lucrative ever, is no exception to the rule. Months of rehearsals took place and everything was fine-tuned. Taylor Swift even produced a film about this tour which will be broadcast around the world at the end of 2023.

A feature film that became the highest-grossing concert film of all time and broke Justin Bieber's record. One again.

WATCH MASTERS PORTRAIT : Taylor Swift - “America’s little girl” who became a worldwide star (II)

 this is a lollow-up of a previous post

A strong bond with his fans

The latter formed themselves into a true community. They call themselves the Swifties. “It’s a very big and very caring community,” says Sandra, herself a Swiftie, who for example sends Christmas cards to other fans with whom she communicates on Instagram. “Friendship bracelets” are an example of these exchanges between “Swifties”. Mentioned in a Taylor Swift song in 2022, they have become a symbol of fans who give them to each other during the star's concerts.

While her media appearances have become rarer, Taylor Swift has built a whole strategy to appear close to her fans, going as far as sending Christmas gifts to admirers, for example, or going to a store with customers shopping. buy his album.

She uses Instagram a lot, where she is followed by 280 million people, making her one of the most followed artists on the platform. Photos of her cats, of her birthday… She appears as a “girl next door”, that is to say the one who could be your neighbor. Far from the superstar that she is, however. Taylor Swift is also very present on Twitter, where she comments and likes certain posts from her fans. Enough to maintain their loyalty despite the artist's changes in musical registers.

A musical shift

Between the artist's first album and his latest songs, the difference is obvious. In 2008, Taylor Swift released her second album, and still mixes pop and country sounds. The song Love Story, the album's main single, has already established itself as one of its main international hits.

Country is still at the center of his music, with a banjo omnipresent throughout the song. She won an MTV award the following year and became the first country artist to receive an award at this ceremony. However, we especially remember Kanye West, who cut her off in the middle of her speech to say that Beyoncé “made one of the best music videos of all time”.

But little by little, over the course of the albums, country fades to give way to pop. The transition took place in 2012, with his album RED, and was confirmed in 2014, with his fifth album, 1989. The pop title Shake it off, whose clip has been seen more than 3 billion times on YouTube, became a planetary tube.

This winning pop turn allowed him to establish himself internationally, and particularly in Europe. “Taylor Swift already had a lot of success in the United States in the country register. But this genre is not at all suited to France or Europe. She had a fierce desire to conquer this international audience, hence this musical shift from country to pop music,” rewinds Gaël Sanquer, from NRJ, when the radio began to broadcast it in 2012.

From “little girl of America” to committed artist

Another shift beyond his music, that of his image. For a long time, Taylor Swift was perceived as “America’s little girl”. A smooth image of a good girl that has stuck to her for a long time, she who has been widely criticized for her love life and her multiple boyfriends. “I became the person everyone wanted me to be,” she confides during the documentary Miss Americana, broadcast on Netflix.

“I’m just a 22-year-old singer. People don’t want to know my political opinions, they just want to hear me sing about breakups and feelings,” she said when the media asked her about her political opinions.

Until she decided to break this image and get involved in politics. In 2018, she posted a long message on Instagram, where she committed to LGBT+ rights and where she supported the Democratic candidates in her state for the midterm elections. A hard blow for the Republicans who made him a symbol of conservative America, country music being a traditionally conservative environment.

(to be continued)