Taylor Swift is Untalented and Overrated

Renae Townsend | Opinion Editor

Crowd Enjoying a Concert with Blue Stage Lights. / Photo by 'champzy', licensed by Envato.com.

We live in an odd era of music, to say the least. To hear the armies of “Swifties” on social media or at the box office returns of the Eras Tour, hear so many people say that Taylor Swift is a once-in-a-generation musical god. If we strip away the stadium lights, the friendship bracelets, and the relentless media hype, what’s left? 

To put my opinion plainly, there is nothing special about Taylor Swift’s music. Don’t get me wrong, when I was six and ‘Blank Space’ used to come on I used to get down to it (I mean I also enjoyed sniffing glue). But now, I honestly just don't understand the hype.

I could spend the rest of this article listing individuals who have more musical talent in their little toe than Taylor Swift has in her entire body. Icons like—Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Stevie Wonder. Stevie Nicks, Etta James, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Beyonce, Rihanna, Adele—to name a few. These artists have a better technical range, more power, and ability. And yet, many Taylor Swift fans believe that she transcends the musical game.

She is one of the best-selling and most awarded music artists in the world. Taylor Swift has been performing for several years now, and her performances are still wildly unimpressive. Compared to other musical artists, her skills are pedestrians. While she sings a majority of her music live at her multi-hour shows, the vocals underwhelm me—and doing something for as long as she has does not make it masterful. 

So, Taylor Swift is not the best singer out there by a long shot, which is generally fine. Many singers have made it big without having a great voice.  

Many of her fans believe that her storytelling and songwriting are her bread and butter, and her lyrics relate to a lot of her fans. Upon closer inspection, Swift’s discography reads like a plate of reheated nachos. To me, every song sounds the same. Love song, breakup, love song, breakup, love song, breakup. Her songs are so repetitive, so constantly focused on past relationships that I completely forgot that this woman was thirty-six years old. Writing songs based on pages in your diary does not make it a high-quality art and if it was, I fear when I was in fourth grade, maybe I could have been a pop star.

Now, there is one thing that Taylor Swift is a genius at. There’s one thing that can take someone so bland and unexceptional and make her the biggest star in the world; marketing. Swift is a Master of Marketing herself, and she has successfully molded the illusion of intimacy. Taylor has worked consistently to build (and keep) a massive fanbase. Her community building with fans makes her appear like this fearless businesswoman. She has literally re-released many of her songs under disguise as artistic reclamation.

Taylor Swift is a brilliant capitalist and a branding savant—and it’s alright to be a fan of her. But we need to stop confusing billionaire marketing with profound artistic merit. Taylor Swift is not the powerhouse her fans think she is.