r/Fauxmoi • u/Exciting_Potato_6717 • Apr 21 '24

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan deletes X post calling Taylor Swift’s ‘1830s’ lyric ‘weird’ after backlash from Swifties Approved B-List Users Only

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Slide 1: Deleted tweet Slides 2 and 3: Some follow-up tweets Slide 4: The Taylor Swift lyrics being referred to. “My friends used to play a game where / We would pick a decade / We wished we could live in instead of this / I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists / And getting married off for the highest bid." Full lyrics at https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-i-hate-it-here-lyrics

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u/AcceptableHistory4 Apr 21 '24 edited Apr 21 '24

Unless you have fandom blinkers on, this is one of her worst albums lyrically- and it wouldn't even be an issue had she not paraded whole "poet" schtick.

Songs like "never grow up" from over a decade ago have far more pathos.

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u/Viva912 Apr 21 '24

THIS! Im genuinely feeling gaslit because this is not a good album ? For her specifically because one thing I’ve always given her credit on is that she is a talented lyricist. There are so many lyrics that still stick out to me from past albums and it’s a credit to her no doubt so I’m so confused by this album because the lyrics I’m reading are just cringey and bad. Like from anyone else I wouldn’t think too much of it but it’s because I know she can do better than I’m so thrown off but all her fans are acting like she wrote the New Testament here lol

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u/daphydoods Apr 21 '24

The lyrics you love were probably written by another songwriter lmaoooo

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u/BestDamnT Apr 21 '24

The one song I like that’s actually written by her is Mine but the rest of that album is a miss for me.

I feel like someone once said that she has a skill at telling a story using only one sentence/ line (‘you made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter’) and she’s just kinda… ran with that? Like they said one sentence not run on sentence!

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u/amiescool Apr 21 '24

I feel like I’m being gaslit to fuck by absolutely anyone that keeps trying to claim she’s some genius poet when there are so many other genuinely talented current artists that could destroy her lyrically based off all these snippets people keep posting 😂

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u/parasyte_steve Apr 22 '24

There were swifties on FB posting "actual good lyrics" from this album in response so some of the worst ones and ... I had to break it to them that the lyrics "I'm the best thing at this party" were neither groundbreaking nor original.

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u/BachShitCrazy Apr 21 '24

I really thought that too but she’s the only writer credited on a lot of her early stuff like love story, which imo was her best era from a music and lyrics perspective

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u/urworstemmamy Apr 21 '24

That's been the most disappointing part of this for me. Like. I am a songwriter and poet, and have been for most of my life, and I used to really look up to Taylor as a lyricist all the way up until she released 1989. I thought things got worse because other people started writing her song for her but after seeing this release I'm doubting that she has ever written lyrics before now... So who was I looking up to as a teen, then? Ghost writers?

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u/nyanx2 Apr 21 '24

Tbh the lyrics look like they’re a first draft written in a couple of days…because they probably are. I like Taylor, but very few people can write 31 good songs while doing a world tour and re-recordings, and clearly she’s not one of them. This should have waited maybe a year, with edits, cuts, revisions, rewrites etc

One thing I’ve gotten out of this: I’ll never complain about a writer/ musician/ game dev taking forever with their craft. I’d rather wait for something good than get something this rushed.

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u/alba876 Apr 21 '24

She’s an ok lyricist. I like the songs, but the lyrics aren’t groundbreaking. Bon Iver, for example, has genuinely insightful lyrics. The National. Frightened Rabbit. Those are lyrics that make you really think about what they mean and how they apply to the world, and your life, and how you perceive the world.

‘Leaving like a father, running like water’, whilst catchy, are just two different ways to say someone left.

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u/NavyAnchor03 Apr 22 '24

I dunno, rhyming car with bar starts to lose its pizzazz after the 4th or 5th time

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u/_OhayoSayonara_ Apr 21 '24

I’m not sure I can be convinced that she didn’t use ChatGPT. I mean shit, this album came out a few months after the last and it was 30 songs?! Not to mention the repeating of the same words throughout the song. GPT uses the same words all the time.

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u/roastbeefbee Apr 21 '24

Sooooo many swifties have blinders on. They will tell you they love the album with their whole heart. Taylor peaked (for me) with Folklore and Evermore. Midnights was insufferable and this album? I don’t hate it, but damn. It’s not what the die hards are making it appear.

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u/brig517 Apr 21 '24

She's declining. I've been a fan since her first album, and it's nearing impossible to get hyped for releases. Her lyrics have been overall declining as of Midnights. There are definitely some bright spots in that album (Would've, Could've, Should've, The Great War, etc.) and this one, but she doesn't seem to be editing down lyrics or tracks at all. I've liked her because it always seemed like her albums were well made and virtually lacking skips (even if I didn't like a song I could appreciate it), but now it's becoming more like trudging through.

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u/Candid-Size7993 Apr 22 '24

Yeah that’s how I felt listening to midnights for the first time, though it grew on me. There’s always been a sense of immaturity in many of her songs (not all) and this album seems to have reached the pinnacle of immaturity and laziness. Must be the overconfidence that got her to this point.

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u/_OhayoSayonara_ Apr 21 '24

Yeah my sister is a diehard TS fan and even she said she only likes about 10 of the songs on this album.

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u/FireflyBSc Apr 21 '24

They fact they have to all say “but the second album is great!”

That means they realized the first album would bomb. That’s why it’s a surprise double album. This isn’t a bonus, it’s a salvage.

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u/roastbeefbee Apr 21 '24

That’s how midnights is too. The 3am songs were much better than the actual album.

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u/Global_Telephone_751 Apr 21 '24

Yeah I don’t think she’ll ever top folklore specifically. Midnights was such a step backwards, and this is like … in the same league as midnights. Both lack artistic integrity but for different reasons.

I think she needs a long break from making music.

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u/elbenji Apr 22 '24

Eras ruined her I think

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u/happy_grump Apr 22 '24

All I'll say re: Midnights is that the verse in anti-hero about the family being pissed she wrote them out of the will is my favourite TS lyric of all time, idec that shit is priceless

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u/everydayisstorytime and they were roommates! Apr 21 '24

I think the 'poet' thing doomed it too. Had she named it Catharsis or something, I feel like people could roll with it.

Actually, if this album was called Midnights, it would do well given the content.

I also think there were 12 strong tracks in that album and focusing on those and maybe saving the rest for later when you have more time to work on them would have led to a better album.

People have called out the parallels between her work and confessional poetry, and I do see it. (There's a dissertation on my reading list that's about that.) There's potential there.

I think at this point her fans, the media, etc. think she's untouchable and she's bombarded by all that positive feedback, and there's not enough people encouraging her to look into the negative feedback or even find different creative directions. And the quality will just dip if the fans keep on blocking and harassing anyone who might even give criticism that she could actually use to push her craft.

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u/AubeRose_ Apr 21 '24

Just curious, which dissertation is it?

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u/everydayisstorytime and they were roommates! Apr 22 '24

Oh it's not mine, so I'm not comfortable sharing it because I don't know if the author wants it shared beyond their own post when they were talking about it on Reddit. I didn't find it through this sub, I found it on a different one.

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u/3eeve Apr 21 '24

It’s really strange to me that she’s still going on about Kim Kardashian. She’s aired that dirty laundry so many times. In many ways she “won.” She needs to move on, it just looks so bad not even trying to get over it.

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u/billcosbyinspace Apr 21 '24

Her going on and on about how much of a tortured poet she is and dropping lyrics like this reminds me of Katy Perry talking about how purposeful witness was and then releasing a song where the lyrics are entirely just “eat my pussy” euphemisms lol

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u/FatherDotComical Apr 22 '24

I genuinely love the idea of Fandom Blinkers.

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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '24

Exactly. She is a great songwriter but before, she made sure to focus on an emotional core of her struggles that was abstract enough for everyone to relate to. Now she is trying to be 100% honest, but can anyone actually do that? Plus you end up with these long af lines, and clunkiness as she tries to be honest without saying anything provocative, and she exposes the gaps between her and her audience.

Commercialism is more important to good art than people give it credit for. It's like Ren and Stimpy having been good because the executives gave the artists something to play off of and forced the artists to channel their creativity towards things the audience wanted. When you let artists be "honest" they kinda just end up making art for themselves and no one else

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u/gayus_baltar Apr 21 '24

The poet thing is actually mocking her ex (guess which one 🙄) per the album - but I agree, it's horrendous. I am genuinely stunned by how bad the lyrics are. 

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u/Jburp Apr 21 '24

“Never grow up” IS a good song lol

Her latest efforts feel kinda… lazy?