What's your take on reputation as an album?
it’s my favourite Taylor Swift album, in terms of how high-concept it is. a star of her caliber completely disappearing from the public eye for nearly a year and then returning with an extremely camp, unapologetically grandiose pop album, in which she decides to lean into her bad press and play the villain? incredible, I’m sold already
but then there’s something about the flawless execution of it as well, the meticulous planning of it all. it didn’t play out melodramatic or cringe for her to get out on stage every night with sequins and a giant snake and it very well could have. despite what her fans love to say, it wasn’t really her ‘emo phase’.
it was the era in which she perfected the postmodern elements in her art; the constant self-referentialism; building a discography that functions as one colossal story, one single body of work that interplays with its various parts. the lyrics that add onto the lyrics in past albums, reworking old themes for the new age. the pastiche becomes clearer too - she’s being intertextual, intentionally building a story by pulling from other people’s stories and histories.
visually, we see her fighting her selves or her audience in all of the music videos of the reputation era. she’s in different cities simultaneously. she’s at a party but no one can see her. she’s fighting her shadow self in a dystopian wasteland. she’s in a giant gold cage. she’s in a glass box. she’s shown in all her old stage costumes, every past Taylor, splitting and fighting, lined up and arguing. HIGH. CONCEPT.
I’d argue that reputation era is when Taylor Swift singer-songwriter became Taylor Swift, artist. to an extent she’s outgrown most of her fanbase and from this point forward, her only competition is herself. no one else in the music industry has the resources needed to make art this interesting and well executed. it’s intentionally intense and intelligent and she’s asking us to analyse it, to recognise how far down everything goes. it’s layers on layers on layers. take reputation;
on the SURFACE, playing pretend and being all ‘haha aren’t I petty, aren’t I crazy, aren’t I a wicked witch like you say I am?’ with the eyeroll included is fun. and so ready to play the role the world wrote for her, is in and of itself a really good way to take the power away from her critics. plus I’m a sucker for the Fallen Woman archetype. but then! THEN!
UNDERNEATH all that, she was genuinely incredibly angry and deserved to be. the album as a whole comments a little on how we feel female rage must be filtered in order to be acceptable, because she could, at that point in her career, say ‘look what you made me do!’ all sarcastically with a wink, but she couldn’t say ‘what these men did was unforgivable and they deserve to rot for it’ you know? there had to be this high-camp Disney villain vibe to cover up the raw hurt or she would be ‘playing the victim’. interestingly, men rarely get accused of false victimhood. but then again, men get to be angry and vengeful when bad things happen to them. and men get believed. the album has this extremely gendered dynamic to it that is half of why it’s brilliant. it’s the most famous singer on the planet saying ‘you all treated me badly actually, and while I may get this career comeback, holy shit it wasn’t okay’
and then underneath THAT it’s a Taylor Swift album, it’s a lyrical, poetic, excruciatingly romantic love story! but it’s also THE FIRST (and some could argue, only) Taylor Swift album in which the love is sure and solid in the ending of the album. we literally had not had that from her before reputation. it’s the first happily ever after, and so hard fought, existing under the weight of all^ that^there are other Taylor Swift albums that are lyrically better or more emotionally evocative. but there is only ever going to be one reputation, and I think the true tragedy of her career is that, while she may be the most famous woman in music, very few people will ever understand the extent of the triumph of what she achieved with that album.
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vaporwave
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