Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison

September 5, 2023 1:41 PM

Our only source of music was a borrowed pocket radio, hooked up to earbuds that cost three dollars at the commissary. At night, we’d crank up the volume and lay the earbuds on the desk in our cell. Those tiny speakers radiated crickety renditions of Top Forty hits. During that time, I heard tracks from “Red,” Swift’s fourth studio album, virtually every hour. I was starting to enjoy them. [The New Yorker]
posted by DarlingBri (13 comments total)

Good god but that brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for posting.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:27 PM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

More Joe Garcia, at the Prison Journalism Project. I recommend 'How Love Gets Me Through Solitary Confinement.'
posted by box at 3:36 PM on September 5, 2023 [6 favorites]

This year, my favorite genre of article/blog entry/reddit post has become: unlikely Taylor Swift fans admitting their appreciation of her music. This piece is a prime example.

I'm a 54-year-old white dude who somehow connected with her songwriting from the first time I heard her during the summer of 2009. I've had a hell of a lot of fun following her career through the years. Not everything she does resonates with me (Midnights, Reputation), but I always appreciate her dedication and craft. That woman is a machine!

And when her music does resonate with me (1989, folklore), boy howdy. I play that stuff on repeat for months and years on end. Seeing her on the Eras tour was one of the highlights of my life. Not kidding. I would not be surprised if she goes down as one of the greatest songwriters in history. (One of my favorite YouTube rabbit holes is "other artists covering Taylor Swift songs". Swift is a fine performer, but her songs truly shine when better artists perform them.)

Swift is only 33 years old. If she keeps at this — and all signs seem to indicate that she will — she's going to leave behind an unparalleled body of work. I hope I live long enough to watch her mature and grow further as an artist. I wonder what kind of songs she'll be writing when she reaches the age I am now.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go prep dinner while singing along to 1989...
posted by jdroth at 4:17 PM on September 5, 2023 [12 favorites]

I wanted to share this because it's one of the best pieces I've read in 2023 and because even though I'm not a huge Swifty I am unbelievably excited to go to Eras. Here I am sat on my 51 year old ass, already making friendship bracelets for June of 2024, and I'm not even embarrassed about it.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:41 PM on September 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

Paywall free link to the article
posted by signsofrain at 5:33 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

A few weeks ago, I found All 237 of Taylor Swift’s Songs, Ranked, by Rob Sheffield, & The 25 Best Taylor Swift Songs, Ranked, by Victoria Edel (both July 2023), helpful.
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:36 PM on September 5, 2023

I just watched the 2019 Netflix swift documentary with my family. The intended theme of “teenage artist gets control over her own story” came through loud and clear but what was more interesting to me was how dedicated and ruthless a songwriter she is. I agree, jdroth, we’re less than 10 years away from some young phenom doing a tribute album that makes this apparent to everyone. Hell, she’s doing it herself with the re-releases, which make extra sense because the worst thing about the earliest albums is the production. I cans see why this artist in particular could be a lifeline, because it sounds just as good over tinny earbuds as in 5.1, because all of the greatness is underneath.
posted by q*ben at 8:01 PM on September 5, 2023

Ok I know that most of this thread will be discussion of Taylor Swift - people like to talk about Taylor Swift.

But the writing in that essay though! Wowwww holy shit
posted by medusa at 8:34 PM on September 5, 2023 [9 favorites]

Yeah medusa, I came in to say the same thing! What a great writer he is.
posted by misozaki at 1:37 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have never been a Swifty, but listening to the 10 minute version of “All Too Well” like the author recommends while reading the piece made me really, actually get it. As many have said before me: what a writer. I did not expect to cry as much as I did.
posted by laikagogogo at 4:17 AM on September 6, 2023

I get why her music would appeal to dudes in prison: Besides the fact that she literally has a song called Innocent which could easily apply to prison-worthy acts, she also has plenty of songs reveling in drama (at the expense of stability) and retribution which I'm sure plenty of people experienced on the way to prison. And also songs about living a jetset life, which is the opposite of prison. It's easy to see the appeal.



I'm actually not a huge fan of her writing - individual lines sure, but I've listened to her enough where I can pinpoint the songs she repeats lines and song concepts from her earlier songs, think she spends way too many songs inventing thoughts and personas for other people and getting angry at them (which I find slightly dangerous given her appeal with young kids), find her endless break up songs tiring and repetitive, and can identify the songs where she copied another popular song by another artist directly to make a hit, but find the ones where she breaks out of those molds and writes about something different much more interesting. IMO she could be a great writer when she finally gets famous and rich enough to give up on the 'queen of pop' thing.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:21 AM on September 6, 2023

individual lines sure, but I've listened to her enough where I can pinpoint the songs she repeats lines and song concepts from her earlier songs, think she spends way too many songs inventing thoughts and personas for other people and getting angry at them (which I find slightly dangerous given her appeal with young kids), find her endless break up songs tiring and repetitive,

I mean, this is John Irving in a nutshell and he's considered on of our greatest living novelists. He has four narrative shticks and she has three and a half songwriting schticks and I'm just not seeing the issue.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:17 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

More Joe Garcia, at the Prison Journalism Project. I recommend 'How Love Gets Me Through Solitary Confinement.'

I read everything on that site and then found some more. I've been a fan of the Marshall Project forever, and a family member was a prison chaplain and I still read things about the US prison system that absolutely blow my mind.

I hope he'll write a book that goes way back into the causes of all this. He reminds me a little of Piper Kerman, whose book I devoured. I went to the same college as Kerman and there were so many of us who could have gone in that same direction. The fact that she is middle-class of course gave her a voice, as the title of her book sort of acknowledges, but she ended up opening that world to a lot of people. I'd love to see something like that from Garcia. (I didn't see any details about his crime or even his background, and assume there are reasons he is not being forthcoming right now.)
posted by BibiRose at 5:41 AM on September 7, 2023