• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Taylor Swift: Shake It Off (Album: 1989, Releasing 28th October)

Status
Not open for further replies.

ezekial45

Banned
This video is in no way racist at all. I don't watch or listen to Taylor Swift, but after watching the video, I see that it's completely harmless. It's clear that the point of the dancers and twerking, along with the other forms of dancing shown in the video, was to illustrate how this singer in particular was trying to be turned into something that she's not. Or rather, doesn't know what she should do next for her career.

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with this video. And anything who thinks it's racist is dense, or just looking to be offended.
 

Vinci

Danish
The song is catchy but ultimately forgettable. However, I like the video and how she appears to not take herself too seriously.
 
Bad news for those fans who were hoping for "Dear John Part 2" on Taylor Swift's upcoming pop album, 1989: The lyrics won't be so boyfriend-centric this time around.

In an interview with Fusion, Swift details the difference between her upcoming album and her last. "[Red] was a devastating record. It was about dealing with an intense heartbreak." On the other hand, Swift says 1989 is about “the phase after that where you brush yourself off and you’re okay... [Writing Red] I was very enamored by romance and the idea of that."

Hear that? Red is all about crying into your ice cream, and 1989 is about putting on a cute dress and drinking with your girlfriends. That certainly fits with the public perception of Swift's life in the past year: She's hasn't publicly dated anyone in a while, and her instagram is littered with photos of her famous gal pals, including Lena Dunham and sometimes-roommate Karlie Kloss.

One less 'reason' for the hipsters to scramble to hate her for
ibvdLADhDxh0dc.gif

But lbr, when the album releases there'll be a ton of people who clearly haven't being paying attention throwing out the same old weak-ass shade
 

trh

Nifty AND saffron-colored!
One less 'reason' for the hipsters to scramble to hate her for
http://i.minus.com/ibvdLADhDxh0dc.gif[/IMG
But lbr, when the album releases there'll be a ton of people who clearly haven't being paying attention throwing out the same old weak-ass shade[/QUOTE]
I'm still hopeful Swift and Kloss are... grinding
each other in secret, despite Kloss having a boyfriend
 

Kibbles

Member

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RHPNXHFWc0&t=3m5s



I liked her songs with deep meaningful lyrics. Can't get this song out of my head and I really like it too, but a bit bummed to hear we might just be getting an album full of these style. Will wait for final judgement of course. I hope the Jack Antonoff collabs are better than Sweeter than Fiction too.
 

see5harp

Member
What do we think about Earl Sweatshirt's accusations of racism?

I think this is stupid. The same sort of backlash happened with Miley's We Can't Stop and Lily Allen's Hard Out Here, but I disagree. There are way worse example of videos perpetuating black stereotypes.

He even admitted that he didn't even watch the video. It's a shame because what he's saying is pretty smart actually. I just think he's throwing the wrong person under the bus.

Snap judgment on twitter without watching the video. Everybody says dumb shit when they get emotional. Apparently shaking your ass on you tube is part of black culture? Besides it's one sequence among like 6. She's playing with stereotypes that's the whole point of the video.
 

Kibbles

Member
Eh, last album she was still trying it with Country. Very lightly, but it was there. This time she outright abandoned them, and they've already clocked it:

tumblr_naizl8xlsY1qd3quqo1_500.jpg


I wonder how much her comment about being "officially pop" is going to bite her in the ass. I do think it might hurt her, even if it's just marginally.

This is sad. They deleted that tweet and put this one up lol. Guess they still want her viewers.
tumblr_nakjjwNhGr1qewjrdo1_1280.jpg
 

freshair

Member
is the deluxe not on itunes? lame

is the swiftstakes for everyone who buys a copy or deluxe only? and physical only too i imagine?

It says the unique code also comes in the "digital packaging", which I assume is for digital purchases, so we should be good to go.
 
Taylor Swift is the sole reason why I've yet to off myself. Her sepulchral voice and lyrical superiority to other mainstream tragedies in plaid pajama jeans, have kept me in the black night after empty night. I have little to live for, but the blonde angel resting on my shoulder.
The queen. <3
 
LOVED Taylor Swift's last album. I Knew You Were Trouble, 22, and We Are Never Getting Back Together are all so good. Also really like Safe and Sound. So, I was excited for Taylor's new song.

Holy shit, I hate it. This song is TOTAL garbage IMO. Very disappointed.
 
She did an incredible interview in The Guardian.

She explains: “In the last couple of years I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that anyone can say anything about me and call TMZ or Radar Online or something, and it will be an international headline. You can either go crazy and let it make you bitter and make you not trust people, and become really secluded or rebellious against the whole system. Or you can just shake it off and figure that as long as you’re having more fun than anyone else, what does it matter what anyone else thinks? Because I’ve wanted this life since I was a kid.”

All Too Well was taken from 2012’s Red, an album defined by widescreen, wind-machined renderings of heartache, which confirmed that “country” could finally be dropped from her tag of “country-pop” singer. But 1989, as she explains, is shorter on the “jilted, sad, pining”. Instead, “it’s the phase after that, when you go out into the world and make changes in your life on your own terms, make friends on your own terms, without [literally] saying ‘C’mon girls, we can do it on our own!’”

As for the endless “is Taylor Swift a feminist?” pieces – well, they can die now. “As a teenager, I didn’t understand that saying you’re a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men. And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they understand what the word means. For so long it’s been made to seem like something where you’d picket against the opposite sex, whereas it’s not about that at all. Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realise that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.”
The way she sees it, there’s a gender element to such scrutiny. “I really resent the idea that if a woman writes about her feelings, she has too many feelings,” she says. “And I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do. It makes it seem like creating art is something you do as a cheap weapon rather than an artistic process. They can say whatever they want about my personal life because I know what my personal life is, and it involves a lot of TV and cats and girlfriends. But I don’t like it when they start to make cheap shots at my songwriting. Because there’s no joke to be made there.”

Please can she give lectures to all those people who are scared of self-labelling as feminists. And her clapping back at all the sexist criticisms of her lyrics is brilliant.
 

Oozer3993

Member
Shake It Off debuts at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Taylor Swift rockets onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 1 with "Shake It Off." As expected, her new self-empowerment anthem debuts at the top following its first week of availability.

The explosion of "Shake" also spurs Swift to vault to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (which measures song and album sales, radio airplay, streaming and social activity), up from No. 69 last week. (A deeper story covering the latest Artist 100 to follow on Billboard.com.)

The lead single from Swift's Oct. 27 Big Machine Records album 1989 soars in at the Hot 100's summit fueled by a combination of immense sales, radio airplay and streaming (the chart's three measurement components). Swift released the song for digital purchase and to radio, and premiered its official video, last Monday (Aug. 18, just after 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET), the same day that she hosted a Yahoo! live stream announcing the new set's release.

...

As previously reported, "Shake" shattered a radio record, launching at an all-time-best No. 9 on Adult Pop Songs. It also scores a record-matching No. 12 start on Pop Songs this week.

"Shake" is just the 22nd of the Hot 100's 1,038 No. 1s all-time to debut at the pinnacle. (Cue up a celebratory chorus of Swift's "22.")

...

"Shake" arrives with 544,000 first-week downloads sold in the week ending Aug. 24, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The sum marks the greatest weekly total this year and the fourth-best bow all-time, two of which now belong to Swift. Flo Rida's "Right Round" began with 636,000 (Feb. 28, 2009), followed by Swift's "Together" (623,000, Sept. 1, 2012). Katy Perry's "Roar" ranks third with 557,000 sold in its first week (Aug. 31, 2013).

...

Also, dating to her arrival on Sept. 23, 2006, with "Tim McGraw," Swift swipes her 60th Hot 100 hit, a threshold that only 13 other acts (to reference Swift's favorite number …) have reached in the chart's 56-year history. Only one female act has made more Hot 100 visits: Aretha Franklin, with 73. (The cast of Fox's Glee leads all acts with 207 Hot 100 entries.)

Billboard.

ibob61zw3Y0UXI.gif
 

Cat

Member
My baby girl still isn't walking yet, but I watched this video on the day of the premiere. She got really into it and took two steps on her own. She hasn't been interested in walking since then, but now I'm going to be partial to this song for that alone.
 

Wiktor

Member
I must say that was one of the nicest and most fun pop videos I've seen in a long time. And the song is ridiculously catchy
 

Oozer3993

Member
KVhAmRI.png





The article is glorious.

So my brother comes home the other day," Taylor Swift says, "and he goes, 'Oh, my God – I just saw a guy walking down the street with a cat on his head.'"

As an ardent fan of ready-made metaphors, as well as of cats, Swift was excited by this. "My first reaction was, 'Did you take a picture?'" she says. "And then I thought about it. Half of my brain was going, 'We should be able to take a picture if we want to. That guy is asking for it – he's got a cat on his head!' But the other half was going, 'What if he just wants to walk around with a cat on his head, and not have his picture taken all day?'"

For Swift – four-time multiplatinum-album-maker, seven-time Grammy winner and billion-time gossip-blog subject – being famous is a lot like walking around with a cat on your head. "I can have issues with it," she says. "But at the end of the day, I can't be ungrateful, because I chose this. But sometimes – sometimes – you don't want to have a camera pointed at you. Sometimes it would be nice if someone just said, 'Hey, I think it's really cool that you have that cat on your head. I think that's interesting.'"

Heading back downstairs, she passes an antique lamp with the inscription CALADIUM SEGUINUM on it. Swift took Latin in high school, but says she isn't sure what it means. (Later, I look it up. It turns out it's a homeopathic remedy for male impotence.)

Swift won't say much about her relationship with Styles, other than that they're now friends. But talking to her, it seems clear that many of the songs on 1989 that are about a guy are about him. There's "I Wish You Would," about an ex who bought a house two blocks from hers (whom she implies was Styles). And "All You Had to Do Was Stay," about a guy who was never willing to commit (ditto). Then there's the song that sets a new high-water mark for Swiftian faux secrecy – a sexy Miami Vice-sounding throwback about a guy with slicked-back hair and a white T-shirt and a girl in a tight little skirt that is called – no joke – "Style." (She allows herself a satisfied grin. "We should have just called it 'I'm Not Even Sorry.'")

But Swift is unfazed. "You want to know a trick to immediately go from feeling victimized to feeling awesome?" she says. She pulls out her phone and hands me the earbuds: "This is my go-to." She presses play, and Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle" fills the speakers. As Swift bobs her head, Lamar raps:

All my life I want money and power
Respect my mind or die from lead shower
I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower
So I can fuck the world for 72 hours
Goddamn, I feel amazing
Damn, I'm in the Matrix . . .

Swift smiles wide. "I know every word."

The article reveals several song titles:

I Wish You Would
Style
Bad Blood
Out of the Woods
All You Had to Do Was Stay
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
Not that I was a huge fan of what she did in the past or that I even know her material well, but damn... Shake it off is an incredible pop song, can't resist, it has a hold on me.
 

RoKKeR

Member
New Song: Out Of The Woods (Produced by Jack Antonoff)

This is very much 80s flavored. #TwoWeeksTil1989

Ehrrrmmm..... not feeling this yet. Key is too low or something? I can't quite put my finger on it. Harmonics need to be higher up in the mix on the chorus vocals? I think that would make the chorus sound even bigger/more imposing. Hmm. Echoes are way too obvious.

Chord progression in the chorus is solid. I like the idea but maybe I'm missing something. Will revisit tomorrow.
 

BTM

Member
I've never been a huge fan of Taylor Swift, but damn, I'm really digging these 2 songs for some reason.
 

RoKKeR

Member
Swift-GAF I just need to know whether or not she will ever write a song that even sniffs the level of State of Grace...

I must know. I figured if I was posting in a Swift thread I had to bring this up.

Edit: I just realized I brought this up on the previous page, haha, whatever, it's a damn good song.
 

Dr. Malik

FlatAss_
Swift-GAF I just need to know whether or not she will ever write a song that even sniffs the level of State of Grace...

I must know. I figured if I was posting in a Swift thread I had to bring this up.

No, just like she will never top Enchanted either
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom