On Pretty Much Pop, a philosopher, an actor, and a sci-fi writer (often with entertainment industry guests) talk about media and how we consume it: TV, film, music, novels, games, comics, comedy, theater, podcasts, and more. Most of what (other) people like is pretty weird when you think about it, so thinking about it is what we do.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:06 — 44.4MB)
Prompted by the release of new album Folklore and the 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Mark, Erica, and Brian speak with guest Amber Padgett about her love of Taylor, ranking the albums/eras, Taylor as songwriter/puppetmaster, why the hate, weird levels of fan engagement, double standards in expectations for female artists, and more. Like all of our discussions, this one is should be interesting to fans, haters, and folks who’re just curious as to what all the fuss is about.
A few of the sources we scanned to prepare:
- “Taylor Swift: Every Single Album Ranked and Rated” by Hannah Myrlea
- “All of Taylor Swift’s Albums, Ranked from Least to Most Iconic” by Abigail Abesamis
- “Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Is The Fastest Album Of 2020 To Sell 1 Million Units In The U.S.” by Bryan Rolli
- “Taylor Swift: I Was Literally About to Break” by Laura Snapes
- “The Rolling Stone Interview: Taylor Swift” by Erik Madigan Heck
- “Looking Back At Taylor Swift’s 10 Greatest Accomplishments Of Her Career” by Paris Close
- “When Did the Media Turn Against Taylor Swift?” by Nate Jones
Amber recommends Taylor’s Tiny Desk Concert. Watch Erica and Drew cover “Exile.” Here’s that album of Ryan Adams’ 1989 covers that Erica mentions. And yes, we’re open to a comparable Beyoncé episode if we can find a guest super-fan and listeners want more of this kind of thing.
This episode includes bonus discussion that you can hear now by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.
I enjoyed learning what all of the fuss is about, and while I have enjoyed her songs that happen my way I don’t think I’ll ever be a Swiftie. Every time someone said Swiftie I couldn’t help thinking of “get schwifty” from Rick and Morty.