Do you prefer Creed, Blink-182 or Taylor Swift?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I'd prefer to be water boarded than choose one of these.

I agree.  I'd rather have Grumps water boarded than choose. 

What an odd place for a Grumps sighting.

I was just making my football picks on this board when I saw this thread.  Good to see you too, Dingo. 

[Wazza [INACTIVE]]

By process of elimination... Blink-182 I suppose. I'm not really a fan of any of these artists.

Taylor Swift is one of the best songwriters alive.

lol

[RI]

I listen to a couple Creed songs ("One Last Breath", primarily) more than anything from blink-182 (I much prefer Angels & Airwaves) or Swift. None of the three rank particularly highly.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Taylor Swift is one of the best songwriters alive.

lol

Swift is a fantastic lyricist and can write really good melodies too when she's not letting her obsession with playing to widespread acceptance (a literal mental pathology of hers that she's publicly admitted to) rule her artistic decisions.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Taylor Swift's albums are as follows:

Fearless -- really good country-pop

Speak Now -- really really good, like Fearless but more serious and more country-ish

Red -- shift to a more poppy sound, very experimental, throwing everything at the wall, some of it is pretty good, some bad, a lot of boring.

1989 -- this is probably the album you think of when you think of "Taylor Swift on the radio" because it had a lot of hits and it's very poppy, and really marks the moment when she was the biggest star in the world.  Very eclectic.  She's still experimenting but she's gotten better at it.  But some of the songs are trash including the biggest hit, "Bad Blood"

Reputation -- self-indulgent trash, this is the period when everyone decided they hated Taylor Swift and she decided she hated herself.  Lots of big synth and trap beats that sounds like all the worst stuff from 1989 and Red put together and made worse.

Lover -- going back to the Red/1989 stuff but more mediocre

folklore -- really long and minimalist, stripped-down basic sound.  Good listen if you really like Taylor's singing+lyrics on their own, surprisingly good background noise, but otherwise boring.


Good Taylor Swift = everything on Fearless, everything on Speak Now, about half of the radio hits from Red+1989

Her last two albums are respectable but not at all up to the standard of her earlier stuff.

[T'Chenka]

Best song-writer: Taylor Swift

Enjoy most: Blink-182

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Best song-writer: Taylor Swift

Enjoy most: Blink-182

You listen to both death metal and Blink-182?

[T'Chenka]

Best song-writer: Taylor Swift

Enjoy most: Blink-182

You listen to both death metal and Blink-182?

Yes, as well as Spice Girls, Mozart, Dream Theater and bollywood music.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Best song-writer: Taylor Swift

Enjoy most: Blink-182

You listen to both death metal and Blink-182?

Yes, as well as Spice Girls, Mozart, Dream Theater and bollywood music.

That's...weird.

(Before anyone says "But you listen to Blink-182 and all that weird screamy music!" Yes, but that's part of the same scene and related genres and thus shares a large overlapping fanbase. Most hardcore kids also Iike pop-punk of which Blink-182 is the most successful mainstream example.)

[T'Chenka]

Best song-writer: Taylor Swift

Enjoy most: Blink-182

You listen to both death metal and Blink-182?

Yes, as well as Spice Girls, Mozart, Dream Theater and bollywood music.

That's...weird.

(Before anyone says "But you listen to Blink-182 and all that weird screamy music!" Yes, but that's part of the same scene and related genres and thus shares a large overlapping fanbase. Most hardcore kids also Iike pop-punk of which Blink-182 is the most successful mainstream example.)

I'm a (mediocre and totally unsuccessful) sometimes-musician by hobby, and I'm open-minded. It saddens me that many people shy away from broadening their musical tastes as much as possible.

[Donerail]

Multiple lengthy MacArthur takes that I wholeheartedly agree with* in the last week. Something weird is happening.

*Except for the shameful omission of the self-titled album!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I find it a bit perplexing how many apparent Taylor Swift fans there are here on this insanely male dominated forum as back in my youngest years NO young males would ever admit to enjoying female pop stars (or for that matter the popular boy bands of the era, Backstreet Boys, NSync, etc.) In fact about half of young females (the ones who tried to be non-girly and listened to alternative rock) also made a big fuss about hating them.

[T'Chenka]

I find it a bit perplexing how many apparent Taylor Swift fans there are here on this insanely male dominated forum as back in my youngest years NO young males would ever admit to enjoying female pop stars (or for that matter the popular boy bands of the era, Backstreet Boys, NSync, etc.) In fact about half of young females (the ones who tried to be non-girly and listened to alternative rock) also made a big fuss about hating them.

It's all about virtue signalling and clashing subcultures within society. Basically identity politics for high school social life. As we get older and explore our individuality, many find that they either like or merely dislike the band they used to claim to passionately hate.

[Wazza [INACTIVE]]

Taylor Swift is one of the best songwriters alive.

lol

Swift is a fantastic lyricist and can write really good melodies too when she's not letting her obsession with playing to widespread acceptance (a literal mental pathology of hers that she's publicly admitted to) rule her artistic decisions.

I don’t think Swift is a terrible lyricist but to rate her as one of the best alive when her music is consistently centred around the same basic themes is a bit bold IMO. Songwriting can also mean more than just lyrics and whilst enjoyment of a song is largely subjective, there are attributes that certainly can be quantified such as instrumental technicality and compositional complexity and sophistication. In either case I think Swift falls short when compared to say... any of the better known Prog bands.

[DINGO Joe]

Is jamming screwdrivers into my ears the fourth option?

I believe that's actually option one

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Taylor Swift is one of the best songwriters alive.

lol

Swift is a fantastic lyricist and can write really good melodies too when she's not letting her obsession with playing to widespread acceptance (a literal mental pathology of hers that she's publicly admitted to) rule her artistic decisions.

I don’t think Swift is a terrible lyricist but to rate her as one of the best alive when her music is consistently centred around the same basic themes is a bit bold IMO. Songwriting can also mean more than just lyrics and whilst enjoyment of a song is largely subjective, there are attributes that certainly can be quantified such as instrumental technicality and compositional complexity and sophistication. In either case I think Swift falls short when compared to say... any of the better known Prog bands.

You had a point until the last sentence. Most prog is onanistic swill.

[Cassius]

Write in: Creedence

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

You had a point until the last sentence. Most prog is onanistic swill.

Even if that were true, just The Dark Side of the Moon and Selling England by the Pound would be already more than enough to redeem the entire genre.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

You had a point until the last sentence. Most prog is onanistic swill.

Even if that were true, just The Dark Side of the Moon and Selling England by the Pound would be already more than enough to redeem the entire genre.

I actually prefer Wish You Were Here to The Dark Side of the Moon. WYWH's title track has an emotional sincerity and intensity to it that I don't find in most of the rest of Pink Floyd's discography, even the parts of it that are plenty intense in other ways.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

You had a point until the last sentence. Most prog is onanistic swill.

Even if that were true, just The Dark Side of the Moon and Selling England by the Pound would be already more than enough to redeem the entire genre.

I actually prefer Wish You Were Here to The Dark Side of the Moon. WYWH's title track has an emotional sincerity and intensity to it that I don't find in most of the rest of Pink Floyd's discography, even the parts of it that are plenty intense in other ways.

I actually agree with this take regarding the title track. I still prefer The Dark Side of the Moon when talking about albums in their entirety though.