Are You a Swifty?

@tylermunns 

I'm able to appreciate songcraft without always being interested in what the writing is about (and I'm far from literate with Taylor's full catalog). There are many pop artists that I've sampled where I would never buy an album because I just don't like what I've heard at all-- Brittany Spears, Lizza, Kate Perry, Miley Cyrus, Beyonce' all come to mind. A lot of that stuff feels like it came more out of a corporate boardroom than an artist's or a band's imagination.

You have to try new things all the time if you're really into music IMO, or you just silo yourself into a comfortable, but eventually boring and too safe little world. I've been buying a lot of music since I was a small kid. There has always been great music being released, but at present far too much of it is just a weak hack on better stuff, really boing loops and samples based stuff, bad singing coated with equally bad excess auto-tune, lazy writing, lazy of fully absent melody, ect. That's most of today's pop/rock/hip-hop -- yet truly amazing stuff still happens-- just not as frequently as when I was a kid. I think that's pretty obvious to anyone that been listening to the musical and genre arcs of the last 60 years or so.

We live in strange and objectively sad times-- this often triggers waves of intense artistic creativity and shines some light into that darkness-- so I never give up on music despite the dullness, narcissism, and laziness of what tends to make the charts today.

I tried to listen but I can't.  Just not my thing.  But more power to her for doing what she does and the success she has achieved. 

A singer will never influence me politically. I will never make decision based on the opinions of thespians, musicians, or the talking heads in the MSM. I am a free thinker with deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills.

No I am not a swifty nor will I ever be.

@wesheadley Again, this is very interesting stuff.  
You’re describing current popular music as, “boring,” “lazy writing,” “absent of melody,”  “dull,” “narcissistic,” “lazy,” and “sounding like it came more out of a corporate boardroom than an artist’s imagination” while also saying you “you have to try new popular music all the time,” and that you’ll “never give up” on the stuff. 
 

Why?

If modern popular music is all of these very negative things, then why would you “have to” “keep trying?”  
“Have to”?  
Why?  
Where is the net gain in subjecting yourself to some cumulative 10-20 hours/year or whatever undertaking self-punishment for such little gain?
There’s waaaaaay too much good music as it is from, say, the early 18th century (as just one example of one period of music) to deeply engage with in a single lifetime, let alone the 19th century, the early 20th century, the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘90s, etc., etc., etc….

If I consider an experience to not only be so dreadfully inefficient but also so incredibly punishing (personally, not I’m merely non-plussed by 21 Savage, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Morgan Wallen, I feel almost violently assaulted by the awfulness of that music), then I would not undertake such a task.  It would yield a very disadvantageous cost-benefit ratio.  

@wesheadley Perhaps what you’re saying is, “there is great potential for personal growth in exposing oneself to stuff they typically assume to be crap, as one may surprise oneself and avoid a certain stagnation of musical awareness,” or, as Werner Herzog likes to say, “the poet must not close his eyes.”  
These things I can appreciate.