That’s another fun one even though it has a serious message. And a great video.
Sure, I can do that.
With respect to her fans, I’ll comment on a few things. One thing I like is that she rewards her more lyrically observant fans with a fair number of callbacks and references in her lyrics, which creates a connection when people recognize them. It’s no different from slipping an easter egg into a movie, and how that makes (say Avengers) fans feel. There’s probably a whole subreddit for this stuff.
She also used to do a lot of meet & greets with fans, and I think that went over well, though my sense is that the fans got a little weird and there are fewer of those (but I think she still occasionally does them).
Finally, Jack Antonoff is a genius producer - now more famous for his work with Taylor Swift than his actual band, Bleachers - and he definitely elevated her songs to make them, well, a little Swift-ier.
If anyone is interested in trying something different, just put folklore or evermore on in the background for a few plays, you don’t even have to read along with the lyrics. Great stuff.
This is a parody video that I remembered from long ago, but it does speak to her popularity: someone went to the trouble of parodying a song of hers.
I mean, she’s been parodying herself for years now.
And then there’s the banana incident.
When else do you get to hear “narcissism” rhymed with “altruism ” in a pop song?
I suspect the lyrics are a big reason for her success and they resonate with her audience. The first time I heard “Bad Blood,” it made me think of my sister and her friends when she was in high school. I swear, the girls she was good friends with one weeks could be bitter enemies a few weeks down the road. And a lot of her songs are pretty good. I’m not going to be buying any Swift albums any time soon, but I’ve liked a lot of the songs I’ve heard.
I had not been paying any attention to Taylor Swift.
So I just did that. The question in the title of the thread has been quite sufficiently answered for me, at least.
Thank you for posting that link.
– I don’t think it’s just the lyrics. I think it’s also the ability at getting the sense of them across; which is in the lyrics, and in the phrasing, and in the music.
If you really want to learn the weather, you have to go out in it.
– will watch some of the other videos tomorrow. Ought to go to bed now.
This makes no sense. If I were to ask someone why some people really like snakes, linking me a video of snakes would not in any way answer my question. Examples alone can’t answer why something is liked.
I’d get it if you linked the video and then explained what you thought was good about it. Examples can help explanations. But they aren’t explanations in and of themselves.
It’s not like any song can be objectively amazing. I may not like it, and thus not get an answer. But even if I do like it, I won’t know if the reason I like it is the same reason that others do.
You’re being given an opportunity to gush about something you like. It seems bizarre to respond to that with hostility.
I don’t understand The Beatles. I listened to “Help” and “A Hard Day’s Night” (well, not the lyrics of course) and they were basically the same mundane pop songs.
I hope it’s not threadshitting to say that, IMO, this is the sort of question that cannot be answered. Music is extremely subjective, perhaps the most subjective thing there is. There are many cases where I love a song, but my wife hates it. Why? There is no possible rational explanation. It just is.
Wow, how hostile!
I asked the Lil’wrekker. She’s been a ‘Swifty’ since day one.
It’s the lyrics.
I have to say some of her newer stuff is not for the teeny-bopper girls.
Taylor has grown up.
I’m not at all in Swift’s target demographic and haven’t followed her career particularly closely, but I hear enough pop music to be familiar with her bigger hits. The idea that “her songs are very similar to each other, mundane, absolutely no musical innovation or originality” is entirely incorrect. There are swathes of very similar-sounding female pop artists at any given time, and Swift pretty consistently has a sound that’s distinct from most other Top 40 fare, has more stylistic variety than most other pop artists, and has more originality than the vast majority of other pop.
I just find the OP’s characterization of Swift extremely odd. I presume the question has been triggered by the publicity around the just-launched new tour, but Swift’s big hit at the moment, Antihero, is utterly unlike anything else in the pop charts at the moment, and also not at all similar to Swift’s biggest early hits like Love Story or Shake it Off.
Note, it’s fine to dislike pop generally and Swift in particular, but the idea that she’s not among the best pop artists of the last decade is not borne out by the evidence.
“Why do people like her?”
“Here’s an example of why I like her. Check it out.”
“No.”
That’s what we’re dealing with here.
No, it is stating the obvious. If trying something (which the OP refuses to do) isn’t enough to make you “get” why somebody likes something, then saying words about it isn’t going to, either. If you don’t get it, you can’t get it.
Heh. 
(Note the OP’s username.)
I think this is a cop-out. It is perfectly possible to say things like “I like her music because ____” or “One thing she does particularly well is ____” or “I think she has the same sort of appeal as ____.”
To dismiss it as completely subjective is the sign of someone with no critical faculties. I’ve read plenty of record reviews over the years that have more substantial and objective things to say than just “I like it.”
That’s not why they like it, that’s how they consciously rationalize liking it after the fact.
I don’t deny that some people do this—not just about music but about practically everything, like which presidential candidate they like. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t objective differences between candidates that can be articulated. It just means that the person who can’t go beyond saying “I like my guy; your guy sucks” has little knowledge or critical faculties, at least when it comes to politics.
I’m more impressed that the Bonzo Dog Band rhymed “way” with “auto-da-fé” and “tourniquet” in their inspired love song, “Tent”.*
**also “paranoia” and “show-biz lawyer”.