Taylor Swift's UK success

strictmachinestrictmachine Posts: 3,099
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I was in the US 3 years ago and Taylor was everywhere music wise with the attitude that she was a bit silly and to be ignored among my friends.

I am not a fan of country music so I basically ignored her.

Fast forward to now. 3 great singles and getting played on mainstream radio. I have to really applaud her. She has a critically acclaimed album. I have really enjoyed her songs. To write her off is stupid imo

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  • Hav_mor91Hav_mor91 Posts: 17,183
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    I was in the US 3 years ago and Taylor was everywhere music wise with the attitude that she was a bit silly and to be ignored among my friends.

    I am not a fan of country music so I basically ignored her.

    Fast forward to now. 3 great singles and getting played on mainstream radio. I have to really applaud her. She has a critically acclaimed album. I have really enjoyed her songs. To write her off is stupid imo

    She changed from ''Country Pop'' to ''pop'' added a dubstep beat to some songs and shed some clothes. No longer masquerading as a country aritst Radio will now play her. Also heavy marketing and selling songs for 59p on itunes. Now all she has to do is retain it which i personally think is unlikely. Red has only gon platinum and off the back off two hugely successful sngles. Congrats to herfor doing what she has done but she is still yet to match her US success in Europe.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 716
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    Fearless was a successful era for her in the UK, Love Story was huge but that's all she was really destined to be. That girl that sung that Romeo and Juliet song who Kanye West dissed at a award ceremony.

    Fast forward a few years, she released a massively influenced pop track (WANEGBT) followed by one that was highly critised among her original fans for it's use of dub step. Her relationship with Harry Styles, less clothes, more pop orinated video's proved easy to help her gain 3 hits in the UK. Red has sold well but her next album needs to show change, she's in a difficult situation where her old country fans are about to loose interest and her new pop fans will not like anything that strays to far away from the sounds of IKYWT and WANEGT.

    I think within the next 5 years, she will be yesterdays news in every country except the US.
    I was in the US 3 years ago and Taylor was everywhere music wise with the attitude that she was a bit silly and to be ignored among my friends.

    I am not a fan of country music so I basically ignored her.

    Fast forward to now. 3 great singles and getting played on mainstream radio. I have to really applaud her. She has a critically acclaimed album. I have really enjoyed her songs. To write her off is stupid imo

    I would hardly call 'Red' critically acclaimed.
  • iseloidiseloid Posts: 9,392
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    Hav_mor91 wrote: »
    She changed from ''Country Pop'' to ''pop'' added a dubstep beat to some songs and shed some clothes. No longer masquerading as a country aritst Radio will now play her. Also heavy marketing and selling songs for 59p on itunes. Now all she has to do is retain it which i personally think is unlikely. Red has only gon platinum and off the back off two hugely successful sngles. Congrats to herfor doing what she has done but she is still yet to match her US success in Europe.

    this pretty much. If she was doing country fair enough but she knew after Fearless as big as it was US wise it would never properly cross over. Although with some promotion (and I mean proper promo) it may do! She's always played in clubs, especially on student nights and so she becomes popular with the youth.
  • Hav_mor91Hav_mor91 Posts: 17,183
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    iseloid wrote: »
    this pretty much. If she was doing country fair enough but she knew after Fearless as big as it was US wise it would never properly cross over. Although with some promotion (and I mean proper promo) it may do! She's always played in clubs, especially on student nights and so she becomes popular with the youth.

    Exactly IKYW is the song that changed her career. But there she has created a problem for herself. Her core fanbase who love her more country folk stylings will grow tried of her increasing pop leanings and jump ship when the next TS comes along. She goes back to Country her new fanbase will jump ship and jump on to today's hottest trend. It's not like a Katy Perry turnaround in which she went from that girl who kissed a girl to Superstar Ts is nwo that girl with a few good songs and lots of exes still.
  • Eric_BlobEric_Blob Posts: 7,756
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    Firstly, Love Story was still a bigger hit than anything from her current album imo (I don't care what the charts/sales say, but that song was everywhere, and it's extremely well-known, more than her recent songs).

    I don't see what she's done as THAT impressive, because she releases such mainstream songs now. If she was having success with country-crossover songs (e.g. Love Story, etc.), then yes, that would be impressive. But having hits with bubblegum-pop songs? lol

    Also, I've been dozens of times the past 9 months and I've heard a Taylor Swift song probably once (it was I Knew You Were Trouble that I heard), so I don't know where this "she's big in clubs" thing comes from.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 16
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    HandsClean wrote: »
    I would hardly call 'Red' critically acclaimed.

    Why's that? It has a rating of 77 on Metacritic and made many critics best-of-the-year lists.

    I doubt Taylor will match her US success in the UK, but that's OK. Her success in the US is bloody phenomenal and most artists have a market where they are bigger. For a long time Pink was much bigger in Australia than she was in the US (although this may have changed with the success of Just Give Me a Reason), Rihanna is bigger here than in the US and Mariah has never matched her US #1's and album sales in the UK.

    Red is a diverse album with a lot of strong songs, but with the exception of the Max Martin-produced tracks and State of Grace, a number of the songs betray her country-pop - rather than just pop - roots, so I don't know how many more potential UK hits the album has left. She's had enough top tens in the UK to call Red a successful era here for her, but her future success here depends on her future music and since she hasn't written it yet, there's no way to know.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,143
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    HandsClean wrote: »
    I would hardly call 'Red' critically acclaimed.

    It was though. It got great reviews for a pop album.

    OP: I think she's quite smart. She realised going pop would guarantee her greater success outside the the US, so that's what she did. I know alot of people are saying she jeopardised her success in the US, but I don't think that's the case. If anything, I think sticking to the same old country sound would have been a worse decision. People would have eventually got tired of her.

    She could have played it safe and decided to become another moderately successful US country star, or she could have taken a risk. I'm personally glad she decided to take a risk. If the new music direction doesn't work out I'm sure she can always fall back on her old country sound.
  • LMLM Posts: 63,326
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    The sad thing is, she had to change her sound to pop to get her to be liked over here
    At least Shania Twain ( a great example) who still incorporated her country sound into her music when she hit the big time worldwide.

    I understand every artist needs to grown but i miss Country Taylor. Getting Back together, Trouble and 22 are lyrically childish with awful ear hurting productions. The dubstep breakdown in Trouble is quite cringey for Taylor. You expect it in a Rihanna song, but it doesn't work for Taylor swift.

    Although the song she is releasing with Ed, is very much a bit like old school Taylor and again reflects what a great vocalist she is and at times, what a good songwriter she is.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 16
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    The sad thing is, she had to change her sound to pop to get her to be liked over here
    At least Shania Twain ( a great example) who still incorporated her country sound into her music when she hit the big time worldwide.

    But remember, Shania was putting out 'pop' versions and 'country' versions of every single song in the end, trying to appeal to both markets.
    I understand every artist needs to grown but i miss Country Taylor.

    You don't have to miss Country Taylor. It's not as if artists release music single by single and you have to wait for each one to hear new stuff. Have a listen to Red the album. The majority of it is as country as Taylor has ever been (because she's always been country-pop). She didn't just come up with that song with Ed Sheeran last week, it's always been on the album and there are more songs on Red like Everything Has Changed than there are like We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Honestly, if you hate the Max Martin-produced pop songs so much you can delete them and still have a full album's worth of decent songs, as they are only 3 out of 16.
  • shelleyj89shelleyj89 Posts: 16,292
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    I like Taylor. She's not so much a guilty pleasure, as I'll happily admit I own all her albums and regularly listen to them! I just take her for what she is. She's not the best singer in the world, but she's an excellent song writer and I can relate to most of her songs.

    You don't have to miss Country Taylor. It's not as if artists release music single by single and you have to wait for each one to hear new stuff. Have a listen to Red the album. The majority of it is as country as Taylor has ever been (because she's always been country-pop). She didn't just come up with that song with Ed Sheeran last week, it's always been on the album and there are more songs on Red like Everything Has Changed than there are like We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Honestly, if you hate the Max Martin-produced pop songs so much you can delete them and still have a full album's worth of decent songs, as they are only 3 out of 16.

    There are plenty of songs on Red that sound like "old Taylor" or that aren't too much of stretch from her older stuff. I'm still shocked at the number of people who say she's completely changed. Like you say, aside from 3 or 4 songs, she really hasn't changed that much. State Of Grace, Red, Treacherous, All Too Well, Stay Stay Stay, Holy Ground, Sad Beautiful Tragic, The Lucky One and Begin Again are all great songs IMO.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,003
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    She removed the country barrier and popped up her act with a new look, new sound, new approach, new collaborators and reaped the rewards in international markets. She also happened to date one of the biggest stars of the year.

    Fair play to her and her team for knowing what to do, but it's not surprising or applause-worthy that the Red campaign rolled out like it did. To put on my cynical hat, you could argue that her team were trying VERY hard for her to have UK success with Ed Sheeran, the Snow Patrol dude, dubstep, europop, and being seen with Harry Styles.

    Still. I think she needed to make Red to change it up at album #4 and help determine where she should go next. Will she continue to straddle country and pop or will she side with one or the other? She has WW pop radio/fans attention now, so it'll be interesting to see if that taste (a la Nicki Minaj with Superbass) proves too tempting to leave or she returns to her routes after a brief flurry.
  • iseloidiseloid Posts: 9,392
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    Eric_Blob wrote: »
    Also, I've been dozens of times the past 9 months and I've heard a Taylor Swift song probably once (it was I Knew You Were Trouble that I heard), so I don't know where this "she's big in clubs" thing comes from.

    I was referring to students. I'm in Sheffield and I hear her several times a week.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7
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    I am so sad that non of the best songs on "Red" have gotten a single release. "Holy Ground" State Of Grace" "All Too Well" are all better than the stuff that has been put out.

    It will be interesting to see how country audience accepts her next single in their format. She does have country nr1 right now but this is more due to the combined starpower of Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and her. I have a feeling they may be a bit insulted how much more attention she has given pop this era.

    "Red" is an amazing album and deserves all the success, IMO. Strong contender for Grammy AOTY in 2014.
  • mriggsmriggs Posts: 242
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    I'm not one to get concerned with genres and stuff, so I'll give my opinion without referring to genres.

    I first heard Taylor Swift's 'Our Song' on the radio in the US back in '08 and loved it. Subsequently loved pretty much everything else I heard from her.

    The first I heard of her in the UK was 'Love Story' in '09, then I saw 'You Belong with Me', 'Mine' and 'The Story of Us' on UK TV, I really liked all these songs too.

    However about a year ago 'We Are Never Getting Back Together' came out followed by 'I Knew You Were Trouble' and '22'. I can't stand any of these, imo they are awful.

    Thats an unbiased view from a casual music fan who doesn't pay attention to genres and what album the songs came from.

    Also from a shallow pov I think she was more attractive in the pre-WANGBT era.
  • Hav_mor91Hav_mor91 Posts: 17,183
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    Alar_Truve wrote: »
    I am so sad that non of the best songs on "Red" have gotten a single release. "Holy Ground" State Of Grace" "All Too Well" are all better than the stuff that has been put out.

    It will be interesting to see how country audience accepts her next single in their format. She does have country nr1 right now but this is more due to the combined starpower of Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and her. I have a feeling they may be a bit insulted how much more attention she has given pop this era.

    "Red" is an amazing album and deserves all the success, IMO. Strong contender for Grammy AOTY in 2014.

    It would be an utter travesty if she got AOTY it's a good album far from the best in any category. Anyway she's always a soe in for a token grammy in a country category ;)
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