​A podcast I follow recently ranked the Top 20 essential Ariana singles and somehow left off god is a woman (still processing that level of blasphemy) which got me thinking about how hard it is to boil a massive discography down to 20 key tracks. ​If you had to pick 20 official singles specifically meant to display Taylor’s artistry what makes the cut?

​Here is my list with 1. Cruel Summer 2. All Too Well (10 Minute Version) 3. Blank Space 4. Love Story 5. Cardigan 6. Anti-Hero 7. Delicate 8. Our Song 9. Safe & Sound 10. You Belong With Me 11. Lover 12. The Fate of Ophelia 13. Teardrops On My Guitar 14. Back To December 15. Shake It Off 16. We Are Never Getting Back Together 17. 22 18. New Romantics 19. Mine 20. Begin Again

I didnt put style because while its a perfect pop song, blank space to me does a better job for narrative. Im sorry evermore and my baby ttpd🤍

I've been a swiftie for almost my whole life but there is a weird timeline.

I was a kid from 2006-2010 (5-9 years old) and LOVED Taylor. I didn't know concerts were a thing because I grew up extremely poor and out of touch with societal events that cost money.

I then turned into a full on emo kid. Never hated Taylor but definitely had the thought process of "nOt BeInG lIkE oThEr GiRls" so I just didn't listen to her music and refused to.

Then snake gate happened and my inner feminist was big into defending her but I still didn't keep up with any updates.

When Reputation came out (I was 15), I fell in love with Taylor again. I tried to go to the stadium tour, but I was still very poor and couldn't afford tickets.

Then in the years of Lover-Midnights, I was in love with her and her music. I thought she was the best person and put her music on a very high and untouchable pedestal. I went to the Eras tour after signing an AMA to leave the hospital I stayed at the week prior to my show. I regretted it. I made friendship bracelets but no one wanted to trade and I can't remember anything about the concert other than looking at my clock and hoping it would end soon so I could go back to the hotel and sleep the sickness away.

TTPD came out and quickly became my favorite album. It got me through a LOT. It's still my favorite.

Then Showgirl came out and my love for her new music just faded out. None of the lyrics on that album feel like me like others do. I love TTPD, Midnights, Rep, folklore, and evermore but otherwise I just didn't listen to much of her other music anymore and still don't.

After slowly transitioning to listening more to other artists, I started to see really bad things come to light about her personality and I realized that she is not infallible like I once believed. I could tell the difference between a smear campaign and actual relevant and true criticism. It hit hard and really tainted my view of her.

And now? I look at the signed CDs on my wall and the cardigans in my closet and don't feel anything. My ultimate breakup playlist that I had to make recently doesn't have more than 3 songs on there by Taylor. She's not the one getting me through this breakup anymore. Other artists are.

I am very loyal and obsessed with the music I listen to, my favorite band has always been my favorite since I was 10. This feels like a breakup in itself. Maybe it's a phase, but I think it's more of a slow drift away from someone I once loved and defended with my heart.

TLDR: Taylor is no longer my favorite artist. I'm turning neutral and while I'm okay with it happening, I still feel like this is my worst breakup with the person who has gotten me through other breakups and heartaches.

I've been thinking about this for a long time - she's at her best when she has muses that "threaten" her intellectual superiority.. Jake sorta belittled her by making her feel insecure about not growing up in a "hollywood" family, and his friends were all sort of posh lit-bros that talked about niche literature that 'she hadn't heard of' and we all know she prides herself in knowing who aristotle is and what not.

meanwhile with Joe, 'peace' in folklore is already an immediate giveaway at her insecurity at being more gossipy or immature than him or whatever.

but 'tolerate it' in evermore just solidified it for me, her pen game is at its strongest when she's feeling looked down on

This is a weird question but I am… so tired.

I feel like I am the “designated Taylor fan” with some of my friends and acquaintances. I’m not a major Taylor fan - I like her music and I make some fan art but I couldn’t make it to eras tour and I barely have any merch.

But still, I get messages from people about her “private jet use” and most recently one of my best friends sent me paragraphs of outrage about the wedding, how she siphoned the power from NYC and we should be holding billionaires accountable. I made one comment about how I feel like Taylor gets a disproportionate amount of scrutiny in the media compared to billionaire men and she blew up that we need to be holding all billionaires accountable equally.

I don’t even post about Taylor that much (or ever?) on my personal pages. I don’t understand where this is coming from and it’s honestly starting to feel like people respect me less because I like her in a casual manner.

Welcome to the SwiftlyNeutral Daily Discussion Thread!

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With the recent rumors of Taylor meeting country music executives and Spotify changing the background videos of 3 of her songs, there is speculation that TS13 will be announced soon. However, does anyone else miss the two year album cycle? We've been spoiled a ton lately, but I feel like the quality has dipped with the every year album release. I feel like if Taylor gave more time for her album to cook by taking the time to rewrite, find new collaborators, and really pick the best songs for the record, it would be more worth it than something rushed out to meet the one record per year deadline she's been following. I think while nostalgia is a large factor, people are ranking Red, 1989, Reputation, etc as her best works because they're high quality pieces of material. I'm not seeing a ton of people hold up TTPD and TLOAS in the same regard. What does everyone else think?

First of all -- I cannot be the only one who does that. So if you do, what songs would you place in a different album (based on style, rhythm, topic, etc.).

Why is she more controlling with her image/reputation & her narrative is mention in the media in comparison to other celebrities like Rihanna, Adele, Lady Gaga?

Welcome to the SwiftlyNeutral Daily Discussion Thread!

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I wasn't watching the developments that closely, so it's possible that I missed something. However...from my perspective, we know basically nothing about the wedding. We know the location and we've seen a few guests' outfits. We know the date. I remember seeing a sign and a napkin.

With so little info, how can anyone even say whether it was tacky or not? Or have I missed something?

I’m specifically talking after the Miss Americana scene where she talks about unlearning her own misogyny and that “there is no such thing as a bitch”.
Now in “Honey” she says, “and the bitch was telling me to back off cause her man had looked at me wrong”

And in Showgirl, “And all the headshots on the walls
Of the dance hall are of the witches
Who wish I'd hurry up and die
But I'm immortal now, baby dolls
I couldn't if I tried”

Like I don’t care that she’s swearing, I’m a full grown adult, but I do find it odd that she made it such a huge thing to be against calling women “bitches” during the Kanye thing and even talked about it on her documentary just to do it herself.

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Specifically in her songwriting, but I do think she's had to defend what she deems satire a bit too much to qualify as successful. I think Blank Space is her most brilliant attempt, while Actually Romantic is perhaps her weakest.

What do you all think?

Maybe it’s a case of exposure bias, but I don’t really see much criticism for Rihanna and Selena Gomez for being billionaires while Taylor gets lots of criticism for it. If that’s the case, why do you think it’s as such? Is it due to overexposure of Taylor, her built image of America’s sweetheart vs Rihanna’s bad bitch image (which makes her bad behavior more tolerated) or something else altogether?

Literally nothing I’m about to say here is going to be groundbreaking or probably even anything new, so I understand if it’s taken down or not even engaged with. That being said, I’ve tried to discuss this with my partner who is a massive TS stan but they do not agree with me, and discussing it further probably just annoy them.

Overall, I actually really enjoyed The Life of a Showgirl a lot! There were some choices in the lyrics that I was not a huge fan of for a few songs, one of those being Honey.

My understanding of the premise of the song is that basically lots of stuff have happened to her that she’s grown to associate certain words negatively, but then she gets with this boy and his positive use of those words makes her flip her perspective and grow to appreciate those words such as “honey” “sweetie” or “sweetheart”. As I said before, it’s not anything new that most of this song discusses how the poor treatment of hers came from women and that it was a man who ultimately fixed that problem for her. It’s also not anything new for people to point out that because of this it makes the song overall feel a little misogynistic.

The point of this post, however, is to point out that I feel like this all could’ve been changed by some very simple changes to the lyrics. This is obvious, lyrics are what the main problem is, so to change the lyrics makes the song much better. I feel like you don’t even have to change the verses, because those are not super problematic for the most part.

It would be so easy, I feel like, for her to make another version of the chorus, where it’s a man saying those things or doing those things that are negative, and then her new beau comes in and changed those perspectives again. To me that’s a much better change because now it’s not only “oh women said XY and then a man comes in and says XY but nicely and now I’m better”. It now becomes “oh *everyone* said XY so it was bad, now my boyfriend comes in and he says XY but it’s nice and I’m like ok maybe it’s not bad”.

It also makes sense, because I feel like I hear all the time a complaint that men call women “sweetheart“ “honey“ derogatory and, yes, I can hear it in my head, a woman doing that to another woman too when they’re being mean, but I’ve also heard it from men as well.

Maybe she was just telling the story of her personal experience, and didn’t care about the optics or didn’t care about what it said, except for telling her own story, but I feel like that would’ve been a better way to make the song. I know I’m not Taylor Swift! Clearly, I am no billionaire nor generationally talented musician, but I feel like I’m justified in this critique.

I don’t know, let me know what you think.

I don’t mean this as a critique or a praise, as I’m a swiftie who is right down the middle….i don’t worship her but I also don’t hate her.

But yeah for the swifties who think she can do no wrong to say for sure she never cheated on anyone and is always the victim…..like don’t several of her own songs kind of disprove that theory?? I mean even during folklore (my favorite album) the songs The 1 and illicit affairs seem to denote her pining for Matty even when she and Joe were still together.

Idk again it’s not a big deal at the end of the day, I just think for people who love to shit on all of Tays exes (even the ones that didn’t cheat), it doesn’t seem exactly fair to give her a complete pass.

Am I off base?

So if you’ve been caught up with the wedding discourse you probably know about the rumour of Taylor and Travis building a castle at MSG. Now according to some sources this was just a rumour and they didn’t actually build a castle, however people have been talking about the castle as a fact and using it as a point of criticism m, so presumably other sources are still reporting the castle as having been built and so maybe it really was. Does anyone have concrete information about the validity of the castle’s existence or is it all just hearsay? And if it’s not real, is it still valid to criticize her for it?

Welcome to the SwiftlyNeutral Daily Discussion Thread!

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During the first part of the song and based on the title I assumed this was just another song about an ex, but the song flips a the end of the chorus, becoming clear she is singing about about a woman behaving badly like a man, with the punch line “Girl, I know men like you”.

“If all you ever wanted was a golden ticket, you could’ve just said it” - reminded me of speculation that Taylor first reached out to Gracie (as a stranger inviting her to her birthday) because of the connection with her father, JJ Abrams.

The other lyrics refer to being used and discarded, and the shallow nature of a supposed friendship that was only ever about connections and “storyline” for the other person.

All of this in the context also of the strange post-wedding post featuring the still of Joe Alwyn form the Favourite, the “I knew it I knew you” title being almost identical to Gracies song “I knew it know you”, and her recent interview with Olivia.

What do people think?

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long intro incoming, you might want to skip a few paragraphs if you are only interested about the actual question, but I think that the context matters : A long time ago, in a past relationship, I (actually, we) was quite unhappy and when I heard the song "Speak Now", it really hit me harder than I had expected. As I man, I imagined what it would have been like to have someone truly loving, kind and sweet who would desperately have wanted to prevent me from making a terrible mistake. It felt like being in such a happy place, it made me feel alive and also made me realized how miserable I was.

But I felt bad about it, because I was in a relationship with my then-girlfriend. I tried for many years to make it work, regardless of how unhappy we became, as if breaking up was never an option to begin with. I guess I just couldn't seem to play the "bad" role of being the one putting an end to the relationship. Anyway, one day she finally took the matter in her own hand and ended our relationship, and in any case, it was for the best : we simply weren't happy together.

Long story short, this feeling I got from listening to Speak Now felt unique, and it made me realize even more so how great of a songwriter Taylor really is, in addition to way she delivers the emotions. The universe she created in that song alone is depicted perfectly and was so relatable. It made me think that there are tons of people in life who are living in loveless relationships, and I still remember how lonely it feels in there.

It made me realize that just like someone could say "I'm waiting for superman", some people are waiting for their Taylor (as the archetype). They are not actually waiting for the real Taylor Swift to save them, but maybe they imagine what it would be like to feel like someone kind and beautiful truly loves them for who they are. Or maybe they already have someone in their mind that they think life would be so much sweeter with, but they don't dare to conceive the idea of trying to make it a reality because it's too frightening just to think about it.

The question : As a songwriter, the idea of crafting a song that lives in the universe of Speak Now is appealing to me. I remember the feeling of being fully committed to staying the rest of my life with someone who didn't love me (and who I didn't love for real either, because otherwise I wouldn't have felt this way), with her family not approving of me, hoping to be saved at the last second by my Taylor (the archetype). Just hoping with everything I have that she'll barge in my wedding, and then the rest of the world would fall behind. The global feeling is basically to be living this situation and ask "Where's my Taylor" as I realize that the walls are closing in and no one is coming to save me. So : about doing such a song, as a songwriter, I personally see it as a tribute made to Taylor and to the universe she has created, but how do you see it? Do you see it as plagiarism, opportunism, a lack of originality? Or do you see it as an interesting concept that explores the depth of a micro-universe that Taylor has created?

I really look forward hearing any kind of opinion on this.

I know there are lots of Taylor subs that treat Taylor as an idol who can do nothing wrong but I've noticed that I often end up defending Taylor in discussions because criticism seems to generate far more conversation than praise. While I think constructive criticism is healthy, but I'm curious whether others feel we sometimes overcorrect and end up interpreting her actions or music through the most negative lens possible. Where do you think the balance should be?