Pour One Out For Country Music, It Got Dumped By Taylor Swift Last Night
CREDIT: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP
Taylor Swift is famous for writing killer breakup songs. But at her Yahoo livestream yesterday — teased in a trio of “mysterious” Instagrams — she barely spent three lines of her new single, “Shake It Off,” talking about an “ex-man.” That’s because her newest ex isn’t some boy. It’s country music.
Her new album, “1989,” will be her “first documented, official pop album,” she said, not-so-gently alerting the country music establishment that it was time to let go.
Even though the three best and most successful singles off “Red” were pop songs — “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” and “22,” — the album still landed the number one spot on the Billboard country charts and was nominated for Best Country Album (and Album of the Year) at the Grammys. Not that anyone is looking to the Grammys to provide any coherent narrative about what sound constitutes what kind of music, as the Awards are convoluted and confusing by design, but Swift’s placement in country for an album with, if we’re being generous here, one kinda-sorta-country song (“Stay Stay Stay”) is totally illogical. Unless you’re the country music establishment, that is, and you want to be able to say of Swift, “She’s one of ours.”
The weirdest display of country’s possessive attitude towards Swift was at last year’s Country Music Awards. Maybe because Swift’s not-actually-country album couldn’t snag CMA accolades away from the purer country likes of George Strait, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, and the show’s producers knew the only way Swift would make a cameo is if she could take home something as bright and shiny as her hair, Swift was gifted the “Pinnacle Award.” This sounds like a fake thing because it basically is. The only other artist to ever get it, in the history of the CMAs, is Garth Brooks, who took home the ambiguously-named trophy in 2005. During the series of very strange speeches given in honor of Swift — it was like watching her country music Bat Mitzvah — Brad Paisley complimented Swift by subtweeting Miley Cyrus, saying, “And I want to thank you from a grateful industry, for never once humping a teddy bear or gyrating with Beetlejuice. I really appreciate it. I know that’s not easy.”
“Swift was being used as the model example of how to become bigger than country without forgetting your roots. How to occasionally leave the family but never do wrong by the family. She’s the example of the kid who leaves home for college, goes off to work elsewhere, finds some level of success, has new friends, but still comes home for the holidays as if things haven’t changed. And most importantly, as if she hasn’t changed.”
As if she hasn’t changed. Except, well, she has. She likes to change the same way she likes to do everything else: right on schedule. Swift evolves according to a precise plan that can be accompanied with a coordinated shift in her beauty and fashion regimen, culminating in the announcement of an album every other August and the release of said album in October. So there’s really no reason for the country crowd to be too surprised that Swift explicitly said “1989″ will be her “first documented, official pop album.” Really, “Red” was her first documented, official pop album, but someone forgot to tell country music about it. In this scenario, country music is the equivalent of a guy who doesn’t know that you’ve broken up, even though you have made it inescapably clear that you are no longer dating. “Oh yeah, we’re just taking a break,” country music says, scrolling through photo after photo of you with another dude on Instagram. “We don’t need to put a label on it.”
Swift, master of PR management, frames all of her potentially offensive artistic choices as fan-driven, using her adoring masses as a shield against criticism. During the livestream, when a fan asked if Swift would keep hiding clues in her liner notes, she replied, “If you guys keep on liking that I do that, I’ll keep on doing it.” If Swift were the tattooing type, she’d probably have this mantra in a curlicue font looping around her ankle. More than maybe any other artist working right now, Swift is in the service industry.
As The Washington Post‘s Emily Yahr pointed out, the country music powers-that-be did their best damage control to make the break look mutual, tweeting this “couldn’t be prouder of you BUT REMEMBER WHERE YOU CAME FROM but really so happy for you though!” message after Swift’s livestream:
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