• A Blank Space Where You Write Your Name: Taylor Swift’s Early Late Voice

    Author(s):
    Richard Elliott (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    American Musicological Society, Cultural Studies, Music and Sound
    Subject(s):
    Popular music, Culture--Study and teaching, Age
    Item Type:
    Conference paper
    Conf. Title:
    EMP Pop Conference: From a Whisper to a Scream: The Voice in Music
    Conf. Org.:
    Experience Music Project
    Conf. Loc.:
    Seattle
    Conf. Date:
    14-17 April 2016
    Tag(s):
    pop culture, female voice, age, experience, Taylor Swift, Popular Music Studies, Cultural studies, Cultural studies of age, Voice
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6ZZ8H
    Abstract:
    Taylor Swift’s songs invite listeners to connect art and life in the tradition, if not always the style, of the ‘confessional’ singer-songwriter. From an early age, Swift has written and sung about ‘big topics’ like time and experience with a remarkable sense of self awareness. Her songs hymn youthful experience to great effect through references to specific ages or via more general depictions of girlishness, school, first loves, summer vacations and family. Through her lyrical preoccupations, Swift exemplifies many aspects of what I call ‘late voice’, a way of thinking about the writing and singing of time, age and experience. My conceptualisation of lateness considers artists and listeners not only in terms of conventional ‘late’ periods (i.e. old age), but as subjects who reflect on such issues throughout our lives. In the first part of this paper, I make the case for Swift as an exponent of ‘early late voice’. While a number of commentators have picked up on the maturity of Swift’s writing voice, comparatively little attention has been paid to her singing. I address this gap by looking at the conflation of writing/singing in the singer-songwriter’s voice. I examine tensions that have been noted between Swift’s art and her star persona. To what extent, I ask, is the denigration of Swift’s musical style (her singing as much as her move towards chart pop) a gendered attack on young women’s voices? At the same time, what strategies have been used to authenticate Swift as an artist by other critics? I conclude with a discussion of Ryan Adams’s cover of Swift’s 1989 album and the critical discourse surrounding it, arguing that the ‘blank space’ of Swift’s voice becomes legitimated and appropriated by a critical discourse focussed on roots, genre and masculinity.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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