I’d say it’s a toss-up between her and Beyoncé, famewise, but that Taylor’s rising and Beyoncé is sliding - Swift just produces more material, for one thing, and is more PG for another.
Although full disclosure, I personally don’t like Beyoncé for her history of plagiarism, so my perception may be biased.
Rihanna was also in there but I feel has faded from the radar a bit as the “it” singer. The odd soundtrack song doesn’t keep you current. She still is the bestseller, though.
Well, my teen didn’t inherit my tastes because I don’t push my tastes on him. He likes some of what I like and he recommends things I sometimes like. Other stuff he doesn’t like. No big deal. He doesn’t “rebel” against my tastes. I’m certainly not disappointed that he’s not outright rejecting my likes because he needs to “challenge my worldview”.
I second listening to Folklore if you don’t like typical pop but if you really want to avoid overproduction check out the Long Pond Studio Sessions. I think the entire album/documentary is on Disney plus but most of the songs are on YouTube. I would recommend something like Illicit Affairs.
It’s pretty critical for teen development to rebel against their parents, I would say. I know some don’t. I tried constantly to please my parents though I did eventually rebel against being mistreated. So I wouldn’t say that every kid must rebel against their parents. But if the majority aren’t rebelling that’s weird and not consistent with previous generations. But it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s all bound up in the decrease in unsupervised play, helicopter parenting mental health crisis extended adolescence thing that’s going on now. I think a lot of parents are overcorrecting for their own bad childhoods and inadvertently making it more difficult for children to develop an autonomous sense of self. I’m not saying that’s true in every case, but at the population level there are marked differences between this generation and last, and they are mostly showing that gen Z is worse off than previous generations. So I am not inclined to think of lack of rebellion as a good thing.
This conversation reminds me of a progressive couple at church, whose son decided to rebel by becoming a hard core Republican (not sure if he went full Trumper, but if so the parents would have been appalled).
I mean, I’m just stating my opinion, but I’m curious so I looked into it. I’m certainly not wrong that rebellion has been considered by many developmental psychologists to be a natural stage in adolescence.
There has been some pushback on that idea though. Some claim it’s not universal. The thing to keep in mind here is that a lot of psychology is not firmly grounded in evidence, so I can’t even say, “A bunch of psychologists think this is true, therefore it’s true.” Unfortunately every scholarly article I’ve found that might help us sort through the facts is behind a paywall.
However on second thought I’ve seen a ton of rebellion in Zoomers. What else is Black Lives Matter? Rebellion for a good cause to be sure, but absolutely rebellion against authority. What is quiet quitting but rebellion against hustle culture? r/antiwork? The kids are certainly rebelling. They’ve rejected a lot of their parents’ views of the place work should have in their lives, they’ve rejected a lot of their parents’ enlightened centrism, they are significantly more progressive, I’m not sure how else to parse that.
I was just, out of curiousity, checking Taylor Swift ticket prices for her Toronto show and they range from $2000 to $16000, which just astonishes the crap out of me.
I spent a few hours today listening to Taylor Swift on some high quality headphones.
I will have to agree that it is really good pop music. It’s not something I would seek out, but I enjoy listening to it. It may just be my tastes, but I still find someone like Beyoncé and Rihanna more interesting, with more of an edge.
Comparing it to earlier pop music (like The Beatles, Madonna, Wham, Michael Jackson), it is in many ways more professional and has a higher production value. It is also more consistent. There are fewer really bad songs.
I think that is what my generation finds a bit boring. It just sounds a bit more bland, while the earlier music had its ups and downs. We remember the hits and forget the rest.
I also think it’s unfair to compare, as pop music has matured and it’s harder to innovate than before. It’s harder to become another Rolling Stones, because that has already been done.