Guest Post: A Ranking of Taylor Swift’s Best Songs, Part 2

My friend Jon asked to guest post at Accidental Shelf-Browsing as his own blog is basically defunct; what he wanted to publish was his Top 10 ranking of Taylor Swift songs. This is considerably off-brand for this space (perhaps I am a fool for worrying about such things, but I do), so I said I would be interested in something that was very reflective about the aesthetic standards by which he made his judgements; I keep meaning to write a post about aesthetic standards and choosing between them, which his piece would then complement. The following is what he gave me. The usual disclaimers apply: Jon’s opinions do not represent my own, nor do I take responsibility for them. The only changes I have made are in converting formatting to something compatible with WordPress and in light copy editing.

“Taylor Swift Speak Now – Pittsburgh,” by Ronald Woan. Source: flic.kr/p/9UX1U1

Because of its length, his post will come in two parts, which I have split arbitrarily in the approximate middle. This is Part 2. Part 1 can be found here (link).

If I recall correctly, I am the one mentioned below who observed Jon has strong deontological instincts.

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An Objective and Unbiased Ranking of Taylor Swift’s Best Songs

Jon Wong

[continued]

7. Mine

Song Catchiness: 60

Show-stopping Capabilities: 65

Lyrical Content: 70

Lyrical Quality: 75

Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi: 60

I admit that when I first drafted this list, I was inclined to leave Mine, the opening track to Speak Now, off the top 10 entirely. Then I listened to all the songs again in order to be fair to them. It only took one listen for me to realize I had erred in my original supposition that this song was not among her 10 best. My guess is that it has to do with Mine not standing out on a musical level, which speaks again to how important it is for *songs* to sound good. That seems like it would be self evident, but my years spent among indie-music elitists have shown me otherwise.

Mine is plenty catchy enough to listen to, but the standout qualities of this song lie in its lyrics. Taylor Swift is particularly good at writing ballads—an art that is perhaps a little rarer in pop music than in other genres, and this story of two partners taking on the world together is both cute and clever. It contains one of Taylor Swift’s very best lines: “You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter,” as well as a chorus that changes with the context of the song with each revisit, which is something that artists frankly do not do often enough.

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Guest Post: A Ranking of Taylor Swift’s Best Songs, Part 1

My friend Jon asked to guest post at Accidental Shelf-Browsing as his own blog is basically defunct; what he wanted to publish was his Top 10 ranking of Taylor Swift songs. This is considerably off-brand for this space (perhaps I am a fool for worrying about such things, but I do), so I said I would be interested in something that was very reflective about the aesthetic standards by which he made his judgements; I keep meaning to write a post about aesthetic standards and choosing between them, which his piece would then complement. The following is what he gave me. The usual disclaimers apply: Jon’s opinions do not represent my own, nor do I take responsibility for them. The only changes I have made are in converting formatting to something compatible with WordPress and in light copy editing.

“Taylor Swift Speak Now – Pittsburgh,” by Ronald Woan. Source: flic.kr/p/9UUwwX

Because of its length, his post will come in two parts, which I have split arbitrarily in the approximate middle. This is Part 1.

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An Objective and Unbiased Ranking of Taylor Swift’s Best Songs

Jon Wong

A Primer:

In 2009, when I first began listening to Taylor Swift (to the extent that listened to all pop music), I felt a certain reluctance towards calling myself a “fan” of hers. Part of this was, I admit, due to my own musical bias/elitism regarding pop music—I enjoyed pop music as a collective, but I believed that pop music, by nature of its appeal to the masses, was inherently vapid, certainly in production and delivery, if not in actual content. Taylor Swift, along with Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and the rest of the biggest and best of the late 2000s, felt very much like guilty pleasures. They were guilty pleasures I embraced and talked about openly, but guilty pleasures nonetheless. I felt the same way about Sum 41, Green Day, Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan, Linkin Park, and the rest of the pop-punk bands that came before them in the mid-2000s. I was also an idiot.