I chose this song because, it is extremely popular and every time I turn on the radio I hear the song. No matter which radio station channel I switch to I hear the song. It is funny because I am not a fan of Taylor Swift, I actually do not like her at all and I have fallen in love with this song. When I hear it, I have to blast it and belt it; and I have no talent for singing. I would compare my singing to nails on a chalk board, its not pretty. So every time my friends are with me in the car and I hear that song they are sinking in their seats and plugging their ears.
Describe
The artist is Taylor Swift. She has won seven Grammy Awards, eleven American Music Awards, six Academy of COuntry Music Awards, and was indicted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The song has been certified Triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The song is basically about how she dated a guy who was not a good guy and treated her badly, and she knew that he was bad news. Even though he put her through the ringer, she still loves him. She is telling herself throughout that all the things he did she knew he would do and saying shame on me. In the music video for the song you see the boyfriend cheat on Taylor, right in front of her and get in to fights in bars. The video is very different to how Taylor Swift is generally portrayed; she has very dark make up on and has short hair. She is a little more slutty, which I love. I love a good girl gone bad. Taylor Swift is generally a Girl Next Door personality, and you see more of a bad girl side in the video. I enjoy this, I like seeing a good girl be bad because its exciting to see a polar opposite personality. I prefer a bad girl compared to a good girl.
Analyze
This is very similar to Taylor Swift's work. Her niche is love songs. Taylor Swift has lately been dating a lot of different guys over the past couple of years, and usually when a relationship has ended she will right a song about the relationship and the song generally becomes a hit song. The song has the same kind of upbeat tempo but has more of a droll melody. Her songs have a happiness to them and you can tell in this song it has more of a sadness to it.
Interpretation
This part of culture is important because the song became an instant hit in a short amount of time. It became Triple platinum in two months after it was released that's how big it is. It matters because it may become one of the memorable songs in history. I am not saying it is as legendary as I Want To Hold Your Hand or Billy Jean, but no one knew how popular or iconic those songs would become when they first came out. I think the target audience are people who have been through relationships, that started out good then spiraled down the slippery slope of Hell. Anyone who has gone through a bad break-up can relate to this song, which is something that Taylor Swift is really good at is writing songs that people can relate to. I think the minimal stereotype is that the boy who breaks all the rules is the one who is going to break hearts and that is not the case. I have had guys in my that seemed and acted like nice, good guys and they were the ones to break hearts. So nice is not always safe and sound.
Evaluation
The strengths of the song is that it is a really catchy, easily recognizable song that anyone can relate to. A weakness is that it is another Taylor Swift break-up song. It is a great song, it's just the same kind of song we always hear from Taylor Swift; I am just waiting to hear something different from her. Something that annoys me about her is that she claims herself as a country singer, but all of her songs are pop song, she is a pop singer and she takes credit as a county singer. This falls between her usual standards, great song, a number of sales and downloads. I think this song is more memorable the forgettable; because the song is not about the lovey-dovey-ness of a relationship. It is about what happens when it goes sour. The reviews of the song were mostly positive. New York Times critic Jon Caramanica called one of the best pop songs of 2012. Lewis Corner from Digital Spy gave the song four out of five stars.
Engage
I don't think I would buy a CD by Taylor Swift, but I would buy her songs off of iTunes. I have seen her work on YouTube, her performances are generally good. As are her music videos for her songs. Some of my friends like her and some of her don't, there is a number of them like me who like her songs, but not her.
Summary
Overall I like this song and I think it is one of those songs that can be played multiple times and I am not going to get tired of it. I am the person to listen to half of a song on my iPod then switch to another song. My attention span is about four seconds long, and it takes a lot for a song to not only grab my attention, but hold on to it for the entire song. This song I could listen to it on repeat. What I have learned with this critique is that, it is ironic for me to be so in love with a song and still dislike the artist. Those two usually go hand in hand. A person can either like or love both or hate both. It is funny that I like a number of her songs, and just do not like her. It's weird, but again I have never been one to confirm to the social norm.
http://taylorswift.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Knew_You_Were_Trouble#Critical_reception
