As ever, Taylor Swift with a drink in her hand was cheering her on with glee written all over her face.
This was her area. This was where she shone. Revenge songs, petty vendetta, messy lyrics… Taylor is the Queen.
People like to hate on Taylor. It is very in. They want to dismiss her songwriting to revenge, adolescence and sneer away saying her songs ‘all sound the same’. This is my argument though: the woman has written over 200 songs. Some of her lyrics and the beats, the music itself is bound to be similar. In other artists, this is often called a niche, or their style. Think Dolly Parton, ABBA, Shania Twain, Max Martin, or even Meghan Trainor… their music is all called their “signature style” because it often is instantly recognizable. However, I am yet to see online critics call Taylor’s art such and show her this same grace.
A long time ago, in a Creative Writing class for English Lit., my teacher told me that if I wrote about what I knew, my writing would be many times more impactful. She told me: the more of yourself you can share with your readers and the rawer you can share your feelings – your passion, your pain, your happiness – the more others can connect to your art. Because ultimately, human beings are social beings. We are usually empathetic. We have the ability to find ourselves in other people’s lives. Sometimes, devoid of all the lived realities and the differences in our lives, our feelings and emotions tend to be universal. Especially devastation and love.
This is what is Taylor’s niche. She connects with people because her songwriting is based on her life. We will never go through an emotional affair with Jake Gyllenhaal or John Mayer, but a lot of us have gone through shit with someone that even with time, we remember. All too well. We might not have had a Scooter Braun steal our work, or a Kanye West stealing our spotlight at the Grammy’s or a Kim Kardashian who egged her millions of followers on to call us a snake, but we have known bullies. All of us. Her lyrics are cathartic for a good number of us. Her reflections have made us reflect as well.
This was what I thought about Miley Cyrus as well. I have not listened to a lot of her earlier works. I have never really been a Hannah Montana fan. Or a fan of when she was shedding her Disney girl image. But her recent songs that she’s written as an adult woman with real, raw emotions – Flowers, Used To Be Young, Rainbowland, Malibu, Younger Now, Plastic Hearts… I love them. Again, I do not need to have dated or been hurt by Liam Hemsworth to understand these emotions. These are very universal human emotions.
In the end, I believe art is defined by how it moves people. It lies in how it can evoke emotions in the observer. And I have come to believe that the point of art is to show other people that they aren’t alone in feeling these things. Doctor Who’s Vincent episode had been tremendously instrumental in me coming to this epiphany. But that’s a topic for another day.
When the Used To Be Young MV first came out with Miley walking out of the blank empty black canvas in her Mickey Mouse t-shirt, teary-eyed and enunciating her lyrics, I felt that. I didn’t have any problems with child stardom and its various evils, never abused drugs or alcohol, never really lived a life that raised eyebrows, and never grew up under public gaze. But I could understand her pain. I did my own growing up, and as tame as my wild days are in comparison, I had those too.
Anita ma’am was right. When you share your life in its raw form with people, it resonates. You create art. I hope to be brave enough to create art some day.
No comments:
Post a Comment