There's no particularly straightforward answer here because her sound has intentionally shifted a lot throughout the years. From country to various pop subgenres to indie folk, with some hints of...
Exemplary
There's no particularly straightforward answer here because her sound has intentionally shifted a lot throughout the years. From country to various pop subgenres to indie folk, with some hints of rock, r&b, and electro sprinkled in-between, it does kind of vary. It's also been part of Taylor's marketing strategy to frame every album as a distinct "era", as more of a distinct "chapter of her life" rather than just a catalogue of songs.
That aside, a personal observation is that her songwriting has always been really mature, but in earlier eras she was also intentionally writing a lot of singles that were intentially written just to become viral hits, rather than be particularly meaningful. For instance "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", "I Knew You Were Trouble", We Are Never Getting Back Together" were absolutely all written to be mainstream hits and be catchy, rather than have meaningful songwriting. Still, songs showing her mature songwriting existed even back in her first two albums. In recent years her focus has especially shifted into intricate songwriting rather than producing hits, especially for anything produced from 2020 onwards.
That said, here's a definitely biased list of my personal recommendations. I'm going to try to stick with 2 examples for each era, except for The Tortured Poets Department because it's a double album:
So Long London (The Tortured Poets Department)
Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me? (The Tortured Poets Department)
Cassandra (The Tortured Poets Department)
How Did It End (The Tortured Poets Department)
Would've, Could've, Should've (Midnights)
Anti-Hero (Midnights)
tolerate it (evermore)
willow (evermore)
cardigan (folklore)
seven (folklore)
Paper Rings (Lover)
Cruel Summer (Lover)
Don't Blame Me (Reputation)
Delicate (Reputation)
Wildest Dreams (1989)
Blank Space (1989)
Ronan (Red)
All Too Well (Red)
Dear John (Speak Now)
Long Live (Speak Now)
Fearless (Fearless)
Love Story (Fearless)
Picture to Burn (Taylor Swift)
Cold As You (Taylor Swift)
Only The Young ()
You're Losing me ()
That's by no means an objective list, but I believe it:
(a) represents the sound of each of her album
(b.1) is a lyrically meaningful example of each album, or
(b.2) is a culturally meaningful example of each album
well, this is far more than I expected. Thanks for this! if I become a swiftie (swifter? is it like trekkers vs trekkies?) -- I'll tuck into this and see where it takes me. I don't listen to any...
well, this is far more than I expected. Thanks for this! if I become a swiftie (swifter? is it like trekkers vs trekkies?) -- I'll tuck into this and see where it takes me. I don't listen to any pop at all, but I got into Brat from Charli XCX when I was all stoned... I'll give this the same shot.
Are you secretly one of my children? They were tortured with having to hear my music from before birth. I even have an old video of my cranky infant daughter being soothed back to sleep thanks to...
Are you secretly one of my children? They were tortured with having to hear my music from before birth. I even have an old video of my cranky infant daughter being soothed back to sleep thanks to the dulcet tones of Mastodon.
for someone who has never heard a taylor swift song, which cuts are the best representation of her sound?
There's no particularly straightforward answer here because her sound has intentionally shifted a lot throughout the years. From country to various pop subgenres to indie folk, with some hints of rock, r&b, and electro sprinkled in-between, it does kind of vary. It's also been part of Taylor's marketing strategy to frame every album as a distinct "era", as more of a distinct "chapter of her life" rather than just a catalogue of songs.
That aside, a personal observation is that her songwriting has always been really mature, but in earlier eras she was also intentionally writing a lot of singles that were intentially written just to become viral hits, rather than be particularly meaningful. For instance "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", "I Knew You Were Trouble", We Are Never Getting Back Together" were absolutely all written to be mainstream hits and be catchy, rather than have meaningful songwriting. Still, songs showing her mature songwriting existed even back in her first two albums. In recent years her focus has especially shifted into intricate songwriting rather than producing hits, especially for anything produced from 2020 onwards.
That said, here's a definitely biased list of my personal recommendations. I'm going to try to stick with 2 examples for each era, except for The Tortured Poets Department because it's a double album:
That's by no means an objective list, but I believe it:
(a) represents the sound of each of her album
(b.1) is a lyrically meaningful example of each album, or
(b.2) is a culturally meaningful example of each album
well, this is far more than I expected. Thanks for this! if I become a swiftie (swifter? is it like trekkers vs trekkies?) -- I'll tuck into this and see where it takes me. I don't listen to any pop at all, but I got into Brat from Charli XCX when I was all stoned... I'll give this the same shot.
that’s awesome. it seems like there are a lot of people with similar exceptions — specifically metal heads.
Are you secretly one of my children? They were tortured with having to hear my music from before birth. I even have an old video of my cranky infant daughter being soothed back to sleep thanks to the dulcet tones of Mastodon.
My partner excitedly announced this album on Tuesday. She got a preorder in for the vinyl and we’ll have a listening party on the ol’ Marantz 1060!
i used to have a 1060! great little amp
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