What "Artistic Improvement" do you hope Taylor prioritizes with her next release(s)?
Throughout Taylor’s career, one of the unspoken aspects of her longevity is her quiet “big picture” goals that each one of her projects aims to accomplish.
While each album is obviously designed to sell well & do something different either sonically or aesthetically, there are large-scale objectives Taylor puts into place to set her apart as an ARTIST rather than just another singer.
My rough analysis of these improvements would be:
| Album Era | "Big Picture" Goal(s) It Accomplished |
|---|---|
| Debut | Introduce Taylor to the music industry |
| Fearless | Achieve mainstream success in country (aka score major radio hits & awards) |
| Speak Now | MAJOR — Emphasize her strength as a songwriter (a self-written project) |
| Red | Build on mainstream success & begin to experiment more heavily with pop |
| 1989 | MAJOR — Successfully transition to pop, demonstrating sonic versatility, as well as taking vocal lessons to improve her range & singing techniques |
| reputation | Recover from media backlash & create the ability to operate without the need for said media/promotion (beginning of "Taylor-specific" branding beyond her label) |
| Lover | Address criticism of being “anti-political” & return to “mainstream pop” sound of 1989 after reputation fails to achieve Grammy success |
| folklore/evermore | MAJOR — Remind audiences of her songwriting talents & ability to genre shift after mixed reception to Lover & its rollout (ME! & YNTCD) |
| Midnights | MAJOR — Begin testing the commercialization & scale of her releases — vinyl variants with incentives, larger track lists, etc. |
| TTPD | MAJOR — Test the release of a double album, continued commercialization of records (in comparison to previous eras) |
There are of course other examples, but those were the first to come to mind.
So my question for this sub is: WHAT MAJOR ARTISTIC/CAREER DEVELOPMENT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE TAYLOR PURSUE WITH EITHER THE NEXT RE-RECORDINGS OR TS12?
I personally would love to see two things:
- Focus on Iconic Instrumentation -- In my opinion, Taylor only has a few songs that a member of the general public could recognize as hers from production alone. She has great lyrics & melodies, but I’d love to see some future songs/records really emphasize having music that you could jam to without the need for lyrics. Something like the guitar pieces on Speak Now or great percussion on some of the tracks on Red. Or more iconic intros like the Style riff or intro to Cruel Summer. (more instruments, less basic keyboard boops or same-sy piano ballads)
- Take Advantage of Visual Storytelling -- One of Taylor’s strengths is her world-building with her albums. But an aspect she underutilizes nowadays is the visual aspect. Of course, music videos aren’t as profitable anymore, but the ATW10M short film was a huge success. I’d love to see either a visual album or a 30 minute short film with 5-6 songs attached to a future project to really aid in creating a visual identity beyond the music. It would also let Taylor test out the waters on what works and what doesn’t before she takes off to direct something for the big screen.
TLDR; If you were advising Taylor on some large scale priorities for her to tackle to help build her artistic brand, where does she fall short and how could she improve with a focused goal on a new project?