Who's Afraid of Taylor Swift? (5 Lessons for Underground Bands)
Who’s Afraid of Taylor Swift?
(5 Tips for Bands from the World of Pop)
One of the more rustic expressions in the English language is that: ‘Opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one.’ Bearing that in mind, it will hardly surprise you that Taylor Swift is not my own personal cup of tea, but even as a fan of heavy rock genres and ‘underground’ music more generally it’s very important that people don’t fall into the trap of casually dismissing ‘pop artists’ and other performers from other genres completely out of hand, even if they tend to look down on them musically or artistically etc. I went along to Taylor Swift’s closing show at Wembley last night and actually I’m glad that I did, because you can learn a lot from these shows (or really, any show), if you take the time to look carefully.
Before we dive in, I want to place a caveat to say that I don’t know TS personally, of course, I’m not a fan, I don’t know her back catalogue and I didn’t buy my ticket, but I write the following as a life-long music fan and performer, and some of the info is based on what a mega-fan friend has told me in recent years, and at last night’s show.
SO LET’S GET INTO IT…
Now, in my own opinion TS is not a great singer. Breathe, please, Taylor fans. She’s good, perhaps very good, but not *exceptional* in the way that you might look at Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Adele etc. I think that’s fair. Large swathes of her performance were clearly lip-synced with backing tracks, as is sadly the standard at many large pop concerts today, but it’s still disappointing. She is also not a naturally talented dancer, in the way that you might consider Beyonce (again), Shakira, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, and others, although she has mastered proper stage-movement and works well with her other dancers who help to do the heavy lifting in that area while she constantly power-walks and prances around the stage with relentless energy. She has a few key moves in her locker though, which she makes the most of, and she co-ordinates with her team of dancers in order to create an overall impression that she could probably do the complicated bits, too, but chooses not to, if you know what I mean.
This is genuinely not to criticize her considerable talents, but rather to emphasize that even without these raw natural skills, she has clearly worked on them extremely hard *anyway* to make up ground against other’s who do, and is – right now at least – perhaps the biggest global pop star on earth – ahead of all of the others in sales and reach I suspect. Her songwriting is also relatively simplistic, even with help from a wide range of co-writers and co-producers (even bordering on plagiarism at times – sorry – ‘All Too Well’ is simply a rehashed and less effective take on classic U2 track ‘With or Without You’ - see this magnificent comparison video: https://bit.ly/3AzNS3R). Incidentally, you can also sing WOWY over ‘Champagne Problems’ and ‘Down Bad’ too, and I did last night in my own head, but there is no doubt about it that the her songs are EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE.
So, here are my five takeaways for all performing artists from last night’s show (in bold):
1) SPECTACLE – TS’s concert last night was the definition of a ‘show’ or ‘performance’ in the truest sense, with multiple costume changes, impressive stage movement, story & themes in abundance, amazing crowd engagement & positive vibe, special guest appearances (last night it was Florence Welch), fireworks, LED interactive wristbands, clever set-design, a ‘live band’ onstage (albeit tucked away almost out of sight), and crucially, she took time to show her ability & talents to play both guitar and piano ‘live’ in deliberately exposed acoustic contexts where she could showcase what she can really do (although most of time there was another guitar playing beside her when she plays guitar, making you question which of these is actually mic’d up). TS also, I am told, allocates two or more ‘Surprise Songs’ towards the end of every show to add uniqueness and spontaneity, as she did last night. Most underground bands could not even begin to conceive the amount of planning, rehearsal, fitness, sheer hard work and attention-to-detail required to put this all together for a 3 hour + show of this magnitude at Wembley Stadium. The age-old adage to ‘Mach Schau!’ going all the way back to the Beatles in Hamburg, still applies today, that’s for sure.
My takeaway from this, is that bands should always consider ways to make each and every show special, unique and different, in some way or another, rather than just trotting out the same set show after show and expecting people to be excited and engaged.
2) ARTIST IDENTITY – whichever way you look at it – either deliberately (as I suspect) or accidentally/authentically (others might argue), she has absolutely nailed her artist identity and ‘character’ as put across to the general public. So masterful is her ‘rootsy-intelligent-outsider-geek-sassy-but-never-arrogant-slightly-kooky-acceptably-sexual-but-still-wholesome-and-kind-down-to-earth-real-american-girl’ persona that her overwhelmingly female fanbase could not even countenance that she might be – I’m not saying that she is - but might possibly be: self-obsessed, success-driven, fame-hungry and single-minded to the point of psychopathy, as a lifelong ‘pop star’ (as many male counterparts and equivalent performers are seen, and sometimes are, actually, for example), or even intimidatingly beautiful – and don’t get me wrong, she is obviously a beautiful woman – but her fans consider her somehow to be a ‘normal person’ despite all this and her celebrity roll call of famous actor & sports star boyfriends. She is still seen as their personal friend and ‘one of them’ even though the reality is that TS’s own life (and her exceptionally wealthy & privileged background), at least as far as we can tell, bears absolutely no resemblance to that of ‘average Jane’ for want of a better word, say, living in Bracknell or Swindon, but they love her anyway. She plays a character of coy shyness and reluctant stardom despite blatantly committing her whole life to show-business, and to the pursuit of selling albums and seats on world tours. It’s an incredible feat of double-think to have achieved.
Looking back again to the underground scene, many bands have only a very basic identity, if any at all beyond the initial musical style of their songs, and most [including my own, too] need to do real work at identifying what they represent, what they look like, and who they are ‘as a package’. TS goes beyond just having ‘one identity’ and crafts an identity, ‘look’ and ‘mood’ for every single album (almost like Bowie did long ago). It’s impressive in its way.
3) LYRICS – now the lyrics, again, are not really to my personal taste, but I think this is an area in which TS excels. I must admit I don’t know them all, or even many, but the ones I have heard seem to channel and expertly craft much of the ‘artist identity’ that I mentioned in the last point, spinning yarns about her background of hardship and struggle (note: google ‘Taylor Swift Childhood Home’), unrequited/problematic/romantic love, self-belief, sadness, quirkiness, dating, classic scenes and imagery of modern America, high-school life, fashion trends and clothing etc. These themes aside, the lyrics themselves are very visual, deceptively poetic, easy to imagine and visualise in your own mind’s eye, and are *extremely relatable*, each painting a scene and making every audience member feel like they are part of the song or have been through the same moment or emotion in their own lives. This, my friends, is exactly what it means to write good lyrics. Sorry! You might not have expected that but it’s true. The way she ‘tracks’ and delivers these lyrics over her songs is also quite unique and very well suited to modern pop tastes – making her songs – and especially her choruses – superbly catchy. It’s extremely effective and I get the impression, somehow, that this is her main songwriting outlet and that the music part is probably heavily supported by her team. Just my impression and could well be wrong.
Going back to the heavy scene, lyrics (and even, vocals) can often take a backseat to the primary ‘big riffs’ and the overall power of the general vocal delivery & heavy percussion, to such an extent that the words to the songs can often become unintelligible (a friend recently described hardcore screamed vocals as ‘Cookie Monster singing’), extremely basic, or at risk of falling completely into the deep hole of cliché rock n roll tropes. On that basis, bands in our scene could look more closely at putting real work and polish into the lyrics and poetry of their songs to enhance and elevate their art, as well as their identity / crowd engagement / relatability etc.
4) FAN ENGAGEMENT / COMMUNITY – the level of fan engagement was absolutely off the chart at last night’s show, and so ardent are her fans that there are occasional accusations made of cultism among dedicated ‘Swifties’. Average tickets were changing hands for silly money (£1000+), and the overall demand to experience the show was unreal, even on the night, with lots of people seeking tickets outside the venue. Even before the shows, TS’s fans plan their entire gig outfits far in advance, and according to previously established album themes and fashion trends, and they make and exchange bracelets in a surprisingly heart-warming tradition (but all with TS, her songs, and ‘the brand’ absolutely at its centre – see next point!). In many songs there are pre-arranged gaps or key moments where her fans know (or have been taught) to step in with a particular backing line or shout (seemingly out of the blue to the uninitiated), and TS engages and addresses her crowd throughout each show, making everyone feel special and included. She has a point in every show, or so I am told, where a small child is summoned forth to the front of the stage for a ‘wholesome hug’ and hi-five for extra relatability and kindness points amongst the other kids, teenagers, and ‘moms’ in the crowd (i.e. her primary target audience). She also did various huddles with her dancers or gave thanks to musicians and gave off ‘team’ vibes throughout. You know, truly, this might all be real and genuine and she may in fact be the most perfect example of a human being walking around on God’s green earth, and if so I applaud it, but actually (and more cynically) the intention behind it DOES NOT MATTER or affect the outcome. The EFFECT is that the crowd are engaged and ‘on her side’ not only from the start of the show, but from days and weeks before the show. The crowd dance and sing throughout, and in a sense, the crowd go just as mad almost, for her recordings alone (as they did after the show, and on the walk down towards the tube) leaving her very little to actually ‘prove’ onstage, to the extent that she can easily get away with lip-syncing or dropping add-ons over backing tracks.
Coming back to bands and the underground scene - which traditionally has been very strong in the engagement/community aspect - being able to tap into and then secure the backing of your community is absolutely essential to expanding your value and reach as a band, and if our kinds of bands can create crowd engagement of anywhere near this level (but obviously, with a very different kind of audience in mind) then it would help to create many times more fans and would greatly enhance a live show. Eddie Vedder came out saying that he saw similarities with TS fans and the old punk community (something which I can’t really see myself – as punk was all about ultra-authenticity, especially in terms of musical performance), but it’s an interesting point.
5) MARKETING & BRAND – The ‘brand’ and marketing machine behind TS is an absolute monster. She (let’s say ‘she’, rather than her label, as she or her people must sign off on the decisions) releases multiple versions of her albums in order to increase sales beyond all imagination. In some ways this is quite cynical, but it’s also very commercial. Beyond that she has, to her credit actually, re-recorded six of her old albums in order to retain the rights to her own material (which had been unscrupulously sold on to music mogul Scooter Braun), thereby creating entirely new versions of her older back catalogue of albums that people can buy (and thereby doubling her back catalogue of albums in one stroke). This is all to say that not only do her records sell in the millions outright, but she sells numerous variants of these same albums in order to create and stimulate demand – sometimes even for the same newly-released material. Her image as a ‘pop star’ is now established and recognisable, and while I do not know the details, I know that she has a fan club which grants access to preferential ticket availability and special merch. This all feeds back into her ‘community’ focus and ‘artist identity’ while continuing to drive sales. It’s a fearsome combination of marketing, brand, music and image.
Underground and DIY bands can sometimes be afraid of such dirty concepts as ‘sales’ and ‘marketing’ ‘image’ and ‘brand’, and rightly so in some cases, as it can threaten authenticity or credibility, but having different merch options and album issues in limited availability is a great way to satisfy demand amongst loyal fans and niche merch collectors (cassettes, vinyl, clothing etc). Having a powerful brand and fanbase can also increase your reach and negotiating power, when seeking to play better slots at shows, on tours or at festivals, and even when seeking to get record deals etc. For underground bands, this stuff is too important to ignore and is worthy of serious thought and consideration.
Right, that’s probably the enough, but it goes to show that we musicians and performers can always find new ideas and inspiration to improve our own shows and to promote our own art – even by looking at acts which we do not appear to share much in common with artistically. I enjoyed the spectacle, I enjoyed seeing members of my family have a total blast at the show without inhibition, and I proved - to myself at least - that I’m not so up myself that I can’t even countenance seeing an historic pop artist at the peak of her powers playing a huge live show in my own home city. We true music fans should be better than that.
DK 21/08/24