When somebody posts:
X is mediocre, why do people like X? Do they just have bad taste or are they hypnotized?
It’s not like they’re looking for a critical analysis, they’re just looking for people to agree with them that X is bad.
I’m saying all people do this all the time about everything. “Like” happens in the subconscious. “Why” is the conscious mind trying to rationalize it.
There decent evidence that all of consciousness is constructed after the fact. But that doesn’t imply that our unconscious mind isn’t doing/liking things for good reasons that we may be able to articulate.
Any successful pop idol has more than just good songs going for them. Taylor Swift is an attractive, smart, and charismatic personality that a large segment of the country’s (world’s?) youth not only admire but many also desire to emulate. Most of us aren’t in that demographic. As they say, you don’t have to get it; you just have to get out of the way.
But the thing is, I can’t. If someone were to ask my why I like a particular song, I would not be able to give a reasonable answer. It would be something like “uh, I like the melody and uh, I like the rhythm”. Not very useful.
Maybe so, but when a question can be answered, I’d prefer that people do so (if only for the benefit of others reading the thread) than just question the good faith and sincerity of the person asking.
I’m not a Taylor Swift fan but I’ll readily admit that she’s put out a lot of catchy pop numbers and written some strong, clever or emotional lyrics. The other day my wife informed me that the song I was playing the car was a Swift cover (of course, I had to jokingly say I was un-liking it now) and I’ve heard a number of her songs that were fun little bops – just not something I’d need to hear on the regular. I respect the niche she’s carved out for herself in the industry, seen her assist other upcoming women artists with collaborations and was impressed with how well she was able to handle the issue with the producer holding all of her early recordings by re-releasing them successfully.
Even if her songs aren’t necessarily something I need on my Spotify list, she’s obviously a talented artist and seems like a pretty decent person as far as celebrities go. It’s easy enough for me to get why she’s so popular despite not being my thing.
I answered the question. “Why do hyuuumons…” questions have the same answer.
One other thing. Those critics might be able to explain why they like it, but that has no correlation with whether or why I like it.
It turns out that there’s a definitive answer as to why people like bad music - brainwashing!
I kind of like the term “musical Stockholm syndrome”. 
But how do you know, if you don’t know why you like it?
If you paid attention to those critics, you might, over time, develop a better understanding about why you like what you like and don’t like what you don’t like, and why other people like and don’t like certain things, and the qualities present in different music that make different people appreciate it.
If you don’t want to, that’s fine, as long as you don’t assume that nobody else can or wants to either.
Her stuff doesn’t do anything for me but I do think she’s a gifted singer/songwriter/entertainer. I’ve watched a few clips of the tour that just started and all I can say is WOW!
I mean in terms of a top 40 act. I can find all sorts of fun rhymes in the music I typically listen to, as well. I was surprised to hear that vocabulary in a hit song. They’re not English major words, but they’re of a higher diction you normally hear in Top 40. (Though hip-hop can get quite playful in its vocabulary.)
I like her a lot. Never have heard her music though.
Someday the world will acknowledge the cold, hard, inescapable truth: that what I don’t like is objectively bad.
It’s just taking longer than I thought.
I suspect a lot of it has to do with whether or not you’re a member of her fan demographic, which I think is young women around the same age as TS. There is a huge appetite among that group for personal songs & Swift writes a lot of those, & phrases it well. Her fans relate to what she’s saying, and how she’s saying it because even now, she seems to have the same life issues everyone has. And they’ve grown up together so it’s a long-term relationship at this point. Music is so important to young people, but many (most?) sort of age out of that intensity so it will be really interesting to see what her music is like in 20 years & whether those fans are still there.
Getting back to Taylor Swift, this article just came up on my Facebook:
I didn’t read the article because it’s behind a paywall, but the part I could see gave at least one or two objective factors that may help to explain her popularity: she puts on a long show (44 songs over more than three hours), so presumably she has a lot of material and works hard to give her fans their money’s worth.
ETA: Thanks, @Ziberian, for that post (directly above). It’s really helpful.
I played a lot of her songs on the radio over the years. I was never too fond of her rather sophomoric Country-ish recordings, but her ability to completely reinvent herself as a Pop singer and do it without alienating her earlier fans, and gaining new ones, completely surprised me. Even Dolly Parton didn’t accomplish that so deftly.
I liked a few of her Pop songs, others not so much. “Style” was a great song, one that I always turned up when I played it. I’m 70 years old and way out of her demographic, but she is quite skilled at writing lyrics that ring true with her audience, and I do understand her popularity.
She also seems like a “real person” in interviews. And I know a guy who worked on the technical crew for one of her tours and he said she was courteous and pleasant to everyone and never behaved like a diva. (Other people may say otherwise but that was his experience.)
229 songs last year.