by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department” is…meh. It is clearly meant for existing Tay-Tay fans. What I’ve noticed about Tay-Tay is she just doesn’t take any risks.
She’s found a musical sweetspot that she knows appeals to her fans and she just keeps churning out that type of music. Swift never challenges her fanbase in anyway. She rarely — if ever — randomly goes in a strange, creative direction just for the hell of it.
I mean, wouldn’t be cool if Swift did a remake of the KLF -Tammy Wynette song “Justified And Ancient?” Or maybe she could hire a well known rock or hip-hop producer to inject some unexpected energy to her otherwise….meh…discography.
Swift is on track to be a 21 Century Neil Diamon or Barbra Streisand. Decades from now, she will be still churning out popular music but will grow less and less culturally relevant.
Compare Swift to someone like Madonna or Prince. Both of those performers took a lot of risks and were willing to fail.
But Swift has found a formula that is works for her, so I guess there’s only so much I can say. Yet I do think the culture would be better served if someone was popular and influential as Swift would do something unexpected every once in a while.
