Taylor Swift and her music

[Jaxcat]

Disclaimer: I don't begrudge anything TS has accomplished and I think she genuinely treats her fans very respectfully and appreciates them. I acknowledge that, originally, she did write much/all of her music and was successful doing so, well before she became an international phenomenon and a billionaire. She is talented without a doubt. I, personally, do not enjoy her music but I don't ever say it's 'bad' or 'trash' or worse. It's not my cup of tea but many, many people across the globe LOVE her music and her. So, more power to her.

However, just recently I've viewed a couple of videos that dispel some of the 'common knowledge' about her. First, Rick Beato made a video about why so much of current pop music sounds alike. His answer was that it's due to the fact that most of the music is created by the same 10-12 songwriters. He even said that, even though EVERYONE knows TS writes all of her own music, it's just not true. He singled out one of the several songwriters, Jack Antonoff, who have penned multiple songs for TS (and others on the pop charts). He mentioned a couple of other very prominent songwriters who've written songs for her and I looked them up and, sure enough, they're credited as the songwriter for several of her most popular (by streaming counts) songs. Digging into a few of these writers and I found they have written songs for pop queens, Ed Sheeran, hip-hop and rap artists, etc. It makes sense that the bulk of music being written by a few individuals would tend to sound the same. He did say that one big exception is Billie Eilish (sp?) who writes all of her stuff with her brother, who also plays a lot of the instruments on her songs. Beato pointed out that, many times, a performer (he used Sabrina Carpenter but said it's been this way forever) will require being credited with co-writing a song to share in the revenue. He pointed out that Carpenter does not play any instrument credited on her CDs nor is she credited with producing/arranging. So, he asked, how much did she ACTUALLY co-write? Probably very little, in his opinion.

A second video I viewed, the presenter had audio tapes of a few (3 or 4, IIRC) of TS's live show during the recent Eras tour from different venues. He put them through ProTools and the vocal of all 4 shows matched EXACTLY - same cadence, the exact same pitch, the same pause, the same ending on every phrase, etc. Which means that her vocals were backing tracks and she lip synced as there is no possible way a live performance from 4 different shows would be identical. Statistically impossible. Now, her shows lasted 3 hours many times and her fans don't care one way or the other. But, shouldn't she disclose to those fans, some of whom paid thousands of dollars for tickets, that her vocals are NOT live but are prerecorded? I don't go to live concerts to hear a perfect rendition of a song, note for note, perfectly in time/pitch, etc. night after night after night. If I wanted to listen to the recorded version, I would do so. At the very least, I would appreciate being told before I shell out however many dollars that the show I'm considering attending will include prerecorded tracks/vocals so I can make an informed decision.

Unfortunately, it seems that more and more 'live' concerts are, in fact, filled with prerecorded tracks while the performers dance, mug, lip sync, etc. Milli Vanilli and Ashley Simpson basically got run out of the music business for lip syncing - why is it OK now?

[BlueHeaven]

I try to stay away from mainstream music FTMP. Like you said, it all sounds the same. As time goes on, I've grown to have a lot more respect and admiration for even the bands I never got into. There was some originality/ creativity at least.

[Jaxcat]

^Me, too.

[Majoga]

Most modern pop music (I include a good portion of many genres as most of it sounds the same to me, as you alluded to) is inauthentic and soulless to my ear. TS is at the top of that heap and therefore draws more of such criticism. A dead giveaway of such "music" is an act that always requires a dozen or two dancers constantly distracting from the music. I suppose a lot of people like that, but if I see a lot of dancers, I turn away.

There is some good stuff out there, but these days it is a little work to find it.

[TrueblueCATfan]

Im not a fan of her so I don't listen to her music

[Helix]

I try to stay away from mainstream music FTMP. Like you said, it all sounds the same. As time goes on, I've grown to have a lot more respect and admiration for even the bands I never got into. There was some originality/ creativity at least.

Couldn't fake it nearly as easily when I came of age in the 1970's. From the horns of Chicago, to the jazz-inflected music of Steely Dan, to the progressive rock of Rush, to the cello and violin of Electric Light Orchestra, it was a incredible time to be alive, a golden era of rock 'n roll. Yes, hands in the air, I'm an old guy now, but so much of today's music sounds like it was stamped out on plastic molds -- perfect and bland. Sigh

[blueheretic]

Wasn't a huge fan when she started out in country and never really dug her after she became the drag queen party gal either.

[Trueblujr]

I think the lip Synching is pretty commonplace among those artists who are up there doing mostly a high energy dance routine. There's no possible way you could sing flawlessly like that doing those dance routines. It's more of a dance show with somebody pretending to sing. TS sold out when she stopped doing country and went to mainstream pop. Like most of you, I prefer concerts where the music is sang live, real instruments are making the music instead of computers, and the singer isn't doing some choreographed dance routine.

[Jaxcat]

I think the lip Synching is pretty commonplace among those artists who are up there doing mostly a high energy dance routine. There's no possible way you could sing flawlessly like that doing those dance routines. It's more of a dance show with somebody pretending to sing. TS sold out when she stopped doing country and went to mainstream pop. Like most of you, I prefer concerts where the music is sang live, real instruments are making the music instead of computers, and the singer isn't doing some choreographed dance routine.

Agree 100%. But, just yesterday I saw the same 'analyst' post vidoes of both Alter Bridge and The Eagles miming to backing tracks. Myles Kennedy has an incredible voice and, yes, he won't hit every single note every night perfectly, but so what? And, The Eagles basically just stand in place and sing (quite well, as you might have noticed). If they're just going to mime (or use pitch correcting software), then what is the purpose of attending a concert of theirs as there is no show to speak of and you're there to hear them sing not lip sync. Certainly, Motley Crue has been accused of using backing tracks. So, unfortunately, it isn't just the dancer/singer type of pop shows that use them anymore.

Since when did live performances HAVE to be perfect? Every single gig I've played as a guitarist, I and every one of my bandmates made errors. But, it's LIVE. It's never going to be perfect or note-for-note repetition of the record (nor, as a musician, would I want to play every song, every night exactly the way it was recorded). There's a YT video of SRV playing live somewhere and he breaks a string. He's burning up a solo at the time, a roadie races out to switch guitars, SRV grabs the replacement guitar (maybe misses 4 beats while doing so) and then continues playing a helluva solo. That's the way it's supposed to be. Not prerecorded tracks and choreographed dance routines with 2 dozen dancers.

[South jones]

I don't care for swift or her.music.

Lately I've been listening to a brother/sister group Life in 3D. If you like harmony, they are awesome.

[Trueblujr]

Agree 100%. But, just yesterday I saw the same 'analyst' post vidoes of both Alter Bridge and The Eagles miming to backing tracks. Myles Kennedy has an incredible voice and, yes, he won't hit every single note every night perfectly, but so what? And, The Eagles basically just stand in place and sing (quite well, as you might have noticed). If they're just going to mime (or use pitch correcting software), then what is the purpose of attending a concert of theirs as there is no show to speak of and you're there to hear them sing not lip sync. Certainly, Motley Crue has been accused of using backing tracks. So, unfortunately, it isn't just the dancer/singer type of pop shows that use them anymore.

Since when did live performances HAVE to be perfect? Every single gig I've played as a guitarist, I and every one of my bandmates made errors. But, it's LIVE. It's never going to be perfect or note-for-note repetition of the record (nor, as a musician, would I want to play every song, every night exactly the way it was recorded). There's a YT video of SRV playing live somewhere and he breaks a string. He's burning up a solo at the time, a roadie races out to switch guitars, SRV grabs the replacement guitar (maybe misses 4 beats while doing so) and then continues playing a helluva solo. That's the way it's supposed to be. Not prerecorded tracks and choreographed dance routines with 2 dozen dancers.

Never knew that about the Eagles, was that from their more recent tour before Glen Frey died or when He and Henley were feuding? I know Vince Gill had or has been touring with them for a while filling in on the vocals. I can't imagine him Lip Syncing it, but I've never seen them live. I did see Motley Crue when they did the stadium tour with Poison, Def Leppard, and Joan Jett. And while it was fun, I don't think they were using backing tracks because Vince Neal sounds awful these days. You could hardly understand a word he was singing. It was literally gibberish that rhymed with the old lyrics at times.

[Helix]

I don't care for swift or her.music.

Lately I've been listening to a brother/sister group Life in 3D. If you like harmony, they are awesome.

They do a cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You” that’s pretty awesome.

[blueheretic]

there's nothing particularly great or original about taylor swift's music, why is she so popular




ChatGPT said:



Thought for 19s



Totally fair take—taste is taste. But her outsized popularity is less about any one song and more about the machine she’s built around the music. In short:

• #Relatability-at-scale: She writes diaristic, plainly told stories that lots of people can map onto their own lives. That clarity travels well across ages and countries, and she releases a lot—keeping a constant presence in feeds and playlists.
• #Event-making: She turns every release into a season (cryptic clues, variant editions, surprise drops), so the process of being a fan is fun. That creates rituals and FOMO that pull in casual listeners.
• #Touring as a cultural product: The Eras Tour wasn’t just concerts; it was a three-and-a-half-hour retrospective with cosplay, friendship bracelets, and travel weekends. It became the highest-grossing tour in history, clearing ~$2B from 149 shows—fueling a global news cycle and huge network effects. The Guardian+1
• #Film + streaming flywheel: The concert film topped ~$261M worldwide—the biggest concert movie ever—and then fed streaming discovery when it hit platforms. Wikipedia+1
• #Owning the narrative (literally): The masters dispute made her an underdog in a story about artist rights. Re-recorded “(Taylor’s Version)” albums taught fans how to support her, shifting licensing and streams toward her versions—and, in 2025, she even bought back the original masters, cementing that arc. Vox+2Vox+2
• #Algorithm mastery: She’s a fixture on streaming homepages and user playlists; by 2024–2025 she was either the most-streamed or among the top globally, which compounds discovery and keeps her in the “default” rotation for millions. ChartMasters+1
• #Business scale: Think of “Taylor Swift, Inc.” Her ecosystem (records, tours, film, merch) is run with unusual direct control and savvy; in 2023 Bloomberg pegged her net worth at ~$1.1B and even estimated her U.S. shows added billions to GDP—evidence of the economic weight behind the fandom. Bloomberg.com+1

So even if the songs feel conventional to you, the combination of relentless storytelling, community rituals, smart rights strategy, and massive live/film moments makes her hard to ignore. Popularity here is the outcome of a well-run cultural engine, not just melodies and chords.

[blueheretic]

for the heck of it, I asked ChatGPT your question:




Two separate threads here—(1) “How much does she actually write?” and (2) “Are those Eras vocals live?”—and they’re easy to tangle. Here’s the clean version. 1) Songwriting: “writes all her own music” vs. how pop really works

• Taylor does write, but she also co-writes a lot, especially since 2014. Her albums credit recurring collaborators like Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, Aaron Dessner, etc.—which is normal for mainstream pop. You can see that straight in album credit rundowns (e.g., Midnights credits Antonoff and others). Pitchfork+1
• At the same time, she has dozens of songs she wrote entirely solo; trade press has kept running lists over the years, and NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) literally named her Songwriter-Artist of the Decade, which is the Nashville industry judging her on writing output, not just celebrity. Billboard+2NSAI+2
• Why a lot of pop “sounds the same”: a small cohort of hitmakers shape melody/rhythm/production across many stars (Antonoff, Max Martin, etc.). That’s a real dynamic, and it’s the thrust of Rick Beato’s argument—even if individual details vary video-to-video. YouTube

Bottom line: the “TS writes everything alone” isn’t accurate—but “TS is a working songwriter who often co-writes and sometimes writes alone” is. 2) “Live” at the Eras Tour: lip-sync, backing tracks, or both?


There are a few different things people hear and then label “lip-sync”:

• Backing tracks (common): pre-recorded harmonies, doubles, spoken bits, sound-design layers, or even guide vocals that run while the lead mic is still live. These are standard tools at arena scale and are not the same as fully miming. YouTube+1
• Full miming: the live mic is effectively out; the voice you hear is a recording. Some analysts online argue certain Eras segments are mimed by aligning audio from different shows and finding near-perfect matches. Others counter that tight synchronization can also come from click tracks, choreography cues, and partial stems. The debate exists; it’s not settled by a single viral clip. Newsweek+2YouTube+2

What we can say with confidence:

• Large pop tours routinely use clicks + stems to keep a three-hour production in sync with lighting, video, and costume changes. That’s industry-standard and contractually accounted for—AFM (musicians’ union) agreements even spell out how musicians on those tracks must be paid when their recordings are used on tour. None of these agreements require consumer-facing disclosure that “backing tracks will be used.” afm47.org+1
• Ticketing terms (e.g., Ticketmaster/Live Nation) don’t promise purely acoustic or fully live-only vocal shows; they focus on refunds/cancellations and general conditions, not performance methods. So there’s no default right today to a “disclosure label.” Ticketmaster Terms and Conditions+1

Is nondisclosure “okay”? (Your fairness question)


You’re not wrong to want transparency. Ethically, there’s a difference between:

• “We enhance the sound with backing vocals/effects while the artist sings live,” versus
• “The lead vocal you hear is mostly pre-recorded.”

Because there’s no clear disclosure norm, the market sorts it by expectation: rock/country crowds often expect warts-and-all live; arena-pop crowds often expect show perfection (dance, visuals, costume changes) and tolerate more tech. Media occasionally calls out suspected miming; fans debate it; but legally it’s mostly unregulated unless advertising claims say otherwise. Newsweek A practical, non-tribal way to look at it

• On the writing: Give credit both ways. She’s a legitimate songwriter and a heavy co-writer in a hit-factory ecosystem—both can be true. Pitchfork+1
• On the live question: It’s reasonable to ask for policy clarity from promoters: a simple icon system (“live-only / enhanced / fully track-based segments”) would let buyers choose. Right now, that labeling doesn’t exist in big-ticket terms. Ticketmaster Terms and Conditions

[Jaxcat]

^Blue, that's some good stuff. I would imagine that when TS co-writes with some of these 'factory' writers, she has a bit more input than, let's say Sabrina Carpenter, and doesn't just insist on writing credit for the money even though she contributes almost nothing. That's my guess, of course. As I said initially, she wrote pretty much everything early in her career. It appears that, once she moved from country to pop, she ceded at least some percentage of songwriting duties to others who write for just about everyone on the pop charts.

As to the live/backing tracks/lip syncing issue, personally I want to know if the performer is live or what is prerecorded. It just seems the honest thing to do. Many fans wouldn't care and would still attend and pay through the nose, but at least they know up front what they're paying for. What is completely unacceptable is publicly denying it's going on when the performer is using Autotune/prerecorded vocals/etc.

A friend of a friend worked at Rupp a long time ago and he had a theory: the more paraphernalia/fireworks/dancers/light show/etc. a performer/group traveled with, the less actual talent they had as they required a lot of 'extras' to distract/entertain the audience versus just relying on their musicianship and songs (see: KISS and many others). Pop music may be somewhat of an exception but there are plenty of pop 'stars' who don't have 1/10 of talent of Aretha Franklin or Barbra Streisand or Simon & Garfunkel (you get the idea) that HAVE to have dancers and choreography and explosions and all sorts of distractions to divert the concertgoers attention from the fact that they're just not that good (imo, of course).