The music of female pop singers, not to mention the pop singers themselves, is so interchangeable these days that it’s difficult to tell them apart. Jessie J, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Rita Ora – unless you’re a 14 year old girl you’d be hard-pressed to identify which is which when played back to back. The last star we expected to fall into this crowd was Taylor Swift, but there she is, dumbed down like the rest of them with her latest release “Shake It Off.”
In a world where the music on the radio increasingly sounds the same, Taylor Swift stood out from the rest. She wrote her own songs, and was able to share the details and feelings of her life in a way that was overwhelmingly relatable to her audience. Not only that, she had a personal relationship with those fans that was fairly unique amongst pop stars today. She wrote about the things they cared about, but she was also reachable by social media, just like they were, and had the most amazing and enduring quality that any music star could hope for – she was her audience.
But teaming up with Swedish hit makers Max Martin and Shelback, as capable and as close to a sure thing that they are, has lead to something far too generic than what we’ve come to expect from her. “Shake It Off” will no doubt be a big hit, but it unfortunately falls into the category of the also-rans, since this particular genre has already been done to death.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbyows...-taylor-swift/