folklore: taylor swift's quarantine dream

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2020

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Taylor Swift has released folklore, her unexpected eighth studio album. It is an understated work that firmly puts celebrity gossip behind her (there are no who's-dating-who easter eggs to be found). Instead we're gifted Swift's greatest strength: songwriting. The lyrics blur "fantasy and reality." There are imagined teenage love trysts, recreated dynasties and intimate reflections on modern love. We break down the sounds and lyrics that make up Swift's strongest album yet. SONGS DISCUSSED Taylor Swift - the 1, illicit affairs, my tears ricochet, august, epiphany, cruel summer, this is my trying, hoax, peace, you belong with me, mirrorball, epiphany, our song, cardigan, the last great american dynasty, betty The National - Light Years Bon Iver - 666 BONUS The correct term for the piano line is a "turn" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Nate last night, at midnight, the bat signal shined high in the sky.
0:04.3	The city needs us. What's the emergency?
0:06.8	Taylor Swift has dropped a new album.
0:08.8	Oh my gosh. To the pop-mobile!
0:17.2	Switched on and pop.
0:23.8	Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm a songwriter, Charlie Harding.
0:26.4	And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.
0:28.4	It's not every day that I drop everything to record a last minute episode with you.
0:33.6	But this is special.
0:34.8	Yeah. It's the first time we're recording in person through a window.
0:37.8	Hey buddy. It's really nice to see you.
0:39.4	You too.
0:40.4	But we're also here together because in our second episode,
0:44.6	we made a prediction about Taylor Swift's career that has finally come true.
0:50.0	Like many of the great composers, we can already see that Taylor's work falls into a
0:55.2	early middle late period.
0:57.7	The early is the immature, somewhat derivative, but still showing sparks of genius.
1:04.5	The middle is the transitionary state.
1:08.2	She's introducing new kinds of material in the genres.
1:10.7	And then the late period is traditionally the experimental and avant-garde phase of a musician's
1:19.1	career. The hint of what's to come.
1:20.9	So we're not there. We're not there yet.
	...

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