When I wrote my reviews for both of her albums, I didn't realize the influence she has and probably will still have in the future on the music industry. I knew she wrote her own songs and she was really good at it but she really does have a pull on the music today.
She's done extremely well figures-wise, number one singles, number one albums and millions of records sold but it just hit me a few days ago that she's signed to an independent label. Not a big four, not a subsidiary of a big four, an independent label. So tell me, if all these Disney artists were on independent labels without their huge promo blitzes and TV shows on Disney Channel, their cross-marketing and their nice studios with auto-tuning and pre-recorded stuff, would they come close, let alone match what Taylor has done? I think not.
Taylor Swift is incredibly good at what she does, but she's incredibly good at giving people what they want as well. You can have all the good songs in the world but not have anyone notice you because it doesn't appeal to them but you see, Taylor Swift wants us to think that she's just like you and me.
It's she's having a conversation with us, all five million or so and she makes us think that we're the only ones she's talking to. It's like getting a glimpse of her life and finding out that she's not some record company robot, she's a girl with real feelings and a brain, a brain that she actually picks up and uses.
Have you noticed, you don't see her in gossip columns, you don't hear about her stumbling out of a club at an ungodly hour and you don't see her doing what everyone else her age is doing. Heck, I don't think I've seen even five sets of paparazzi shots from her. I think that's part of why she sells so much.
We listeners are smart, and we don't like it when record executives think we're stupid. Taylor knows that, and she knows that we have morals and non-celebrities may do some really stupid things but we don't do it out in the streets, do we? I'm not saying that celebrities don't have morals but you get my point, right?
This is going nowhere, I've got to be up at five tomorrow! ugh.
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I agree, she handles herself well, and carries herself nicely. However, she is not except to the celebrity fire. There are tons of paparazzi shots of her, but its of her doing normal things, like going shopping or hanging out, not going to clubs (but lest you forget, she is underage...still I don't think she's that "type").
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd say the whole thing with Joe Jonas was a pretty big media firestorm, and it's arguable that without that happening, people wouldn't be paying attention like they are now. I definitely think their breakup was used as leverage by her label -- using Taylor's hurt to fuel more and more hysteria, because she talked about it on SO MANY shows.
It's kind of a misconception that she's on an independent label. While it was originally funded independently it distributes it's records through Universal which technically makes it not independent(which is why none of Taylor's albums show up on the Billboard indy charts). I agree with you about her getting where she is on her own, because even though she got press from the whole Jonas thing she still had sold over 3 million copies of her first album before she went public. I just don't want you putting her in the same rank actual indie artists who barely ever go gold.
ReplyDeleteEx: Elliot Yamin's 90,000+ in his first week was the highest indie debut ever. Hanson's Underneath was also one of the highest selling indie records of all time but only sold around 37,000 in its first week and a little over 200,000 to date.
She's NOT on an idie label? Thanks for the info.. So she's on something like Hollywood that gets EMI to distribute? ok.. that changes a lot..
ReplyDeleteElliot's on an independent label? I never knew that..