Taylor Swift is one of the hottest young music stars around right now and she is known for putting her relationships out into the world through her music. She writes her own songs and she has won seven Grammy awards. With hits such as Red and I Knew You Were Trouble, she has had plenty of hits on her hands.
As someone who makes music for her adoring fans, Swift knows all too well how music is distributed and how fans get music through online piracy and file sharing. However, she has her own view about how important albums are to artists and the meaning that comes through for the relationships between artists and their fanbase.
Swift wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal where she discussed her own views on whether or not the music industry was in trouble due to streaming and piracy. In Swift’s view, no matter where the music industry goes in the future, fans and artists will still figure out ways to bond through their music in ways that will continue to change.
She makes many good points in the article and TheCelebrityCafe.com is taking a look at the top ten key points she made through her writing.
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10. Optimism
Throughout her article, Swift makes predictions of possible changes that could come through the music industry based on how genres are changing, and how the number of fans can affect your music sales. She does all this by expressing her hopes for the future and what she would like to see happen with artists as they continue to work on their music to reach a wide audience. At the end, she mentions that she will continue to keep an eye on what goes on in the music industry while maintaining the optimism she has always held.
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9. Music industry is coming alive
Swift opens her article by mentioning that she felt the music industry was coming alive. As you read her views, she mentions how artists make music that capture the listener’s heart and soul, and they will often do a mix of genres in order to explore themselves as an artist. She puts a value on albums based on the artists who make them and how their financial value is chosen. In her view, the work of the artists will continue to flourish.
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8. Fans
Swift talks about how it seems like the more fans you have, the more likely you are to get a deal whether it is in a movie or an album. She notices that just because you may be good at singing or acting, you are clearly more likely to generate sales depending on the number of fans you have.
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7. Motivation as an artist
Swift mentions that despite album sales still occurring, fans are not buying as many albums as they used to. They are focusing on the albums that reach out to their heart and soul. In writing this portion of her article, Swift is making the point that in order to reach their fans, it should provide a challenge for artists and motivate them to make every piece of music they make reach into the heart and soul of the fan who is listening.
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6. Artists’ worth
One of her first points made is that in today’s world, many artists practically give their music away, and she doesn’t want this to happen for them. She wants them to realize they and their music are worth it, and they should ask that their worth be recognized. She doesn’t say this to just musicians, but to every young girl, that she hopes they will see this in their future.
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5. Taking a risk
Another point Swift brings up is the idea that genres are no longer separate, but now blend together to sound like one another, such as country may sound like rock and folk could sound like country. She suggests that as genres blending together could be considered an organizational tool, and that when it comes to creativity, artists can explore different ranges of music and take risks when it comes to trying out something new they may not have done before. Being an artist is taking a big risk and so is taking a stab at different genres.
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4. Element of surprise
Swift mentioned in her article how she would go on stage on her tour knowing fans had already watched video performances on YouTube. She would surprise her fans in order to make the show feel surprising, to give the special relationship between her as an artist and the fans more meaning. She spoke about the hope that future artists would think of ways to surprise their audience so they don’t get bored with the same thing.
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3. Love between artists and fans
Swift also discussed the different types of relationships fans and artists had. Some were just passing ones, as fans would hear a song at a club or on the radio and then forget about it. Other music may just hold memories things that happened in the past and how the music played a part in our lives. What Swift really felt was most important relationship was when an artist became “the one,” meaning their fans would have a special bond with them that would always last, such as when our parents still listen to the same band they loved as a teenager.
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2. Don’t underestimate album’s art
In Swift’s opinion, music is a type of art and when it comes to art pieces, they are very important, but also rare. The album is very valuable is the essence of what Swift is saying and she feels music should be paid for so that artists won’t undervalue the work they have created.
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[new page= Album’s value]
1. Album’s value
As she began the article, Swift discussed what she felt the value of an album truly was. She spoke about how most people were under the impression that albums would become irrelevant all because of some economic entity. In her value, however, an album is worth more than that because its value comes from the heart and soul that the album’s artist put into when they made their work, as well as the financial value that is put onto the album.
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