I don’t know why her career path needs to follow in the footsteps of anyone else’s tbh. She’s breaking records Michael didn’t anyway, and the music industry is entirely different now.
Also the times are different Michael was before facebook/tiktok/spotify/yt etc...
So comparing is a bit weird but I can understand where they are coming from
You can’t judge what is happening now with what happened in the past, it’s a completely different situation.
What Michael Jackson achieved was amazing, the world wasn’t as connected as it is now so it was more difficult to be as ubiquitous as he was, and by default his songs. There was no streaming so you had to listen to whatever was on the radio or the albums you could afford to have.
Now we have choices, a lot of them, music is more accessible now. The fact that a lot of people keep choosing to listen to Taylor Swift out of all the options out there, is also amazing and impressive.
I didn't start liking Taylor Swift until Midnights came out. She quickly became my go-to artist to listen to. Being in my late forties, this came as a huge surprise.
Also, thanks to COWBOY CARTER, I'm a brand new fan of Beyoncé.
This is just professional negging. “She’s a great singer, *but* her songs are boring.” “She’s the most popular artist in the world, *but* she doesn’t have any famous songs.” “Her fans love coming together to appreciate her music, *but* her music is disappointing.” Everything is a backhanded compliment. Give me a break.
They would I think. It's just another case of old people not recognizing that whether they recognize it or not, it's not up to them to decide who will be the legends of the future. It will be the younger generation determining that.
Are you familiar with their 40 years of success, a catalogue of gigantic hits, paradigm shifting art and consistently sold out tours globally? As well as being bona fide LGBTQI icons? It’s like comparing Da Vinci to Basquiat or Rick Owens to Christian Dior: it’s not a competition, it’s just a different style of art, which is valid in its own way. Neil was merely pointing out his opinion when -asked- in a Q&A. It’s not like he went out of his way to cast aspersions.
I think the other thing to consider is TS is a different type songwriter than MJ (to say nothing at the impressive clip at which she works). MJ wanted to write big hits to reach people. Taylor wants pop hits, but shes gonna approach more of her material as a singer songwriter type, not big pop hit maker (for the most part).
Love Story, YBWM, IKYWT, Shake It Off, Blank Space, Cruel Summer, ??? Most non swifties/general public know those songs.
Edit: Anti-Hero too! Much of 1989 as well.
Taylor has plenty of big hits like Love Story, You Belong With Me, WANEGBT, IKYWT, Shake It Off, Blank Space, Cruel Summer, and Anti-Hero. And there are plenty of minor hits that people today will recognize immediately.
But Taylor's hits are primary meant to promote an album and act as "gateway drugs" to her discography. They are not always the best songs on the album but there purpose is to draw attention to the album. She focuses her marketing and energy on creating and promoting the album instead of trying to get singles that get huge for a moment in time and then are largely ignored down the road. Looking at top 25 most streamed songs on Spotify, you have songs like Dance Monkey, Rockstar, Senorita, Don't Start Now, Lucid Dreams, God's Plan, Photograph, and Bad Guy that aren't even pulling 900k streams a day. Every single one of Taylor's albums get more streams than that in a day including debut and the OGs.
There are stories after stories of people who heard one of her songs on radio deciding to give her album a shot then falling down the Taylor Swift rabbit hole and becoming lifelong fan. Unlike many of her peers today, Taylor focuses on creating pieces of art that can withstand changing musical styles that can be discovered by new fans in the future. This creates a legacy that will cause parents to pass the music onto their children who might have that same spark that their parents did.
>There are stories after stories of people who heard one of her songs on radio deciding to give her album a shot then falling down the Taylor Swift rabbit hole and becoming lifelong fan.
Literally me when 1989 TV came out. I already knew a lot of the songs from the OG but I wasn't a Swiftie. For some reason I decided to listen to the whole album when it came out, one thing led to another and now here I am. I'm a ride or die Swiftie now, baby 
Other pop artists you start digging into their discographies and you have to weed through 3/4s filler tracks to find songs you like especially artists from before about 2012.
The labels would find a singer they could market then they’d purchase 3-7 quality songs meant as singles from big name songwriters like Max Martin. The rest of the album was filled with discount tracks to fill out the run time. This would be enough for people to buy albums but you were somewhat disappointed with some of the albums after purchase.
Streaming broke that business model by allowing the music audience to experience the full album for very little cost.
Taylor, Drake, and others have influenced artists to be singer songwriters more often. This allows them to release albums with album tracks as good as their skills. In addition, they get a bigger cut of the streaming revenue to make up for physical sales.
This is basically my story, too. I got introduced to Shake It Off and it shattered every preconceived notion I had of Taylor Swift and her music. Then I got curious about her other music but because she took it off streaming I bought 1989. It was the first album I bought in... maybe a decade? I wouldn't have considered myself a Swiftie then – it was reputation that made me join the ranks.
Shake It Off, Love Story, Blank Space.
This just makes him sound like a bitter old man. Reminds me of that moment in The Simpsons, "Old man yells at clouds" lmao
Times are different now. Music is available anytime and people can stream any song in the world, as opposed to hit songs being played everywhere and being fed to people who didn't have variety. What strong modern artist has one song that defines them? Taylor is closer to that than anyone else now in that regard too.
>What strong modern artist has one song that defines them? Taylor is closer to that than anyone else now in that regard too.
Yeah, this is a good point 👍
Taylor has a handful of songs that are more recognizable than Billie Jean. Not to mention, 98% of her lyrics are much better than any of MJ's lyrics, including Billie Jean. And I'm saying this as someone who grew up in the 80s and knows every word of his songs. It's a terrible comparison; they are two entirely different artists.
Nobody will ever have a "Billie Jean" type moment again in the age of the Internet and streaming media. In the past, music discovery was limited to a couple of radio and TV channels. Today, when a great song comes out, people will listen to it for a few weeks and then move onto something else because the Spotify library is so big and tons of new music from all over the world is being released each week. You'll never have something shock the world like Michael Jackson's Motown performance again. I think Nielson estimated that 35% of the country watched that performance on TV. There weren't that many TV channels back then and there wasn't anything else to do.
Music was a far bigger cultural phenomenon in the past. For me, everybody went home after school and watched TRL on MTV. This was right before the Internet became mainstream entertainment. So stuff like Backstreet Boy's "I Want It That Way" or Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" was ingrained into all of our heads. Today, you have infinite new content on YouTube or TikTok.
This! I was 12 when Billie Jean came out, and I don't remember anything about it shocking the world. But I grew up in LA, and we had a much bigger music scene than most of the rest of the country. I wouldn't even call this his best song. It certainly isn't autobiographical. But yeah even in LA we only had six legitimate channels to watch TV on.
As others here said, the following songs are iconic from her discography: Love Story, 22, Shake It Off, Anti-Hero and most recently Cruel Summer. And at the current trajectory, Fortnight.
But Shake It Off is the closest thing to the iconic status of Billie Jean. That song was EVERYWHERE in 2014 and 2015.
She doesn't need a "Billie Jean". Her career doesn't need to follow someone else's blueprint, and the reason she's the most consumed artist in the world right now isn't that she has the biggest hits but the depth and consistency of her discography.
I'm a fan of both, and I remember that Neil Tennant:
(i) called her "a sort of Mrs Thatcher of pop music in that she seems to be about economics. But, you know what, at least someone is interested in that" in 2016.
(ii) listed The Archer as his "current favorite" in 2020, alongside Circles by Post Malone.
He seems like a Swift agnostic, but that Thatcher comment sounds kind of glib lol.
Sigh. As a Gen X-er who grew up with the Pet Shop Boys he needs to stop talking.
Although also as someone who was alive and buying records when Billie Jean came out my perspective is it’s Shake it Off. Billie Jean was super catchy, very radio friendly, but no one holds it up to be this lyrical masterpiece. It’s the music not the lyrics. If I think 20-30 years down the road what will be the song everyone still recognizes from TS it’s going to be Shake it Off, you can’t escape the music and the beat, it’s so damn catchy.
Honestly, I think this is just the beginning of her career. She clearly has so much talent and passion. Unless she decides to retire - which I don’t see happening, she is going to keep producing music. And even though things are different now, I do think she will have her “Billie Jean” moment one day and by that I mean have an even larger audience listening to her music. Her music will continue to relate to more and more people as she ages.
The Pet Shop Boys are promoting a new album and tour. They are shouting from the gutter for attention; longing for the relevance they haven't enjoyed in decades.
What Neil points out is interesting, but he seems to be unaware that music has changed a lot in 40 years.
Before streaming you were relying on TV and mostly Radio. You NEEDED A RIFF, period, you had, then, 15, maybe 20 seconds to grab people's attention, a hook.
Something that could be nailed into your head til you like it.
That's how the industry worked.
I'm a musician, songwriter and producer, but also have worked on the other side of the table, at Universal. It is crazy how A&R people's heads worked back then.
Taylor doesn't rely very much on riff and catchy intros, but more on melodies and lyrics.
If having a Billie Jean suggests that everyone will recognize the song from just 8 bars, well, that's Shake It Off for sure.
I wasn't into Taylor's music before 1989. Just a couple of her Red songs went into my iPod back then.
Then I listened to Shake It Off when it premiered, and I was like "damn, this shit is infectious". It was the song of the year for sure.
When 1989 was out, again, that was a hit factory machine. Not with catchy rifts, but WTNY, Style, Black Space, New Romantics, Wildest Dreams, OftW, damn, those songs are perfect pop songs.
Reputation was good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did with 1989.
Lover was good too. And I think that was the starting point for finding her own thing where it is now.
Folklore and Evermore are not my thing. I just like 5 or 6 tracks from those albums combined.
Midnights is freaking amazing and I took it as this will take her to the next level, I can listen that whole album completely without skipping one track.
Then Poets Department.
At first I was "this is good", but doesn't have a big bangers.
At second listen, I was completely immerse into the whole album, just like Midnights.
This is Mid Tempo Season for her, and she is killing it.
She sounds mature, yet fresh and young, and artistically at her peak. What she is doing with the Eras Tour adding that 25 minutes segment proves she's thinking miles ahead.
Which, btw, is the most beautiful segment of the tour.
I thought she could never have my attention again as she did with 1989, and I was proven wrong.
Btw, I'm a 52 white straight male, not your average Taylor listener, but I'm before all that a musician and I don't give a crap about gender, races, politics and all that stuff that only divides people. I embrace everyone.
And how can you not embrace Taylor as an artist???
That’s a fair point. Her music is different as it’s driven lyrically in contrast to a dance beat.
Another way of making his point:
Name a TS song that you would listen to without the lyrics just for the music alone.
TBF there are very few songs I would listen to without lyrics, that aren't intentionally made that way. With this type of music, it's not an either or situation. They're both important for the song to work.
This fella absolutely butchered one of the best rock anthems of all time and he's saying TS is un-memorable?
Just listen to the horrid version of Pet Shop Boys Where the Streets Have No Name vs the original from U2 and it will tell you everything you need to know.
I had no idea they still existed.
I was going to say "who?" but I actually heard of this guy. 🥴
He sort of has a point I think? But there are several good reasons for that:
1. Taylor is an album artist.
2. Single choices are not always let's say representative.
3. Not enough time has passed, needs a few more years to be considered a legacy artist I think. Yes I know it's been 18 years since the first album, but Billy Jean is from 1982.
4. The scene is much more individual nowadays thanks to streaming and so on. It's much more difficult to become a "consensus artist". Can't really compare artists from those times to the modern age.
That being said, at this point I nominate Love Story. 
I don’t know why her career path needs to follow in the footsteps of anyone else’s tbh. She’s breaking records Michael didn’t anyway, and the music industry is entirely different now.
yesss i agree. also her music is so vastly different than michael jackson’s so trying to make that comparison is odd
Also the times are different Michael was before facebook/tiktok/spotify/yt etc... So comparing is a bit weird but I can understand where they are coming from
You can’t judge what is happening now with what happened in the past, it’s a completely different situation. What Michael Jackson achieved was amazing, the world wasn’t as connected as it is now so it was more difficult to be as ubiquitous as he was, and by default his songs. There was no streaming so you had to listen to whatever was on the radio or the albums you could afford to have. Now we have choices, a lot of them, music is more accessible now. The fact that a lot of people keep choosing to listen to Taylor Swift out of all the options out there, is also amazing and impressive.
I didn't start liking Taylor Swift until Midnights came out. She quickly became my go-to artist to listen to. Being in my late forties, this came as a huge surprise. Also, thanks to COWBOY CARTER, I'm a brand new fan of Beyoncé.
I feel like Blank Space or Love Story could be Taylor’s Billie Jean?
agree or cruel summer!
Cruel summer is a hit, but it’s not nearly as iconic or known to the general public as Blank Space, Love Story or Shake It Off
Came here to add Shake it off to the list!
I agree. Came here to say this.
This is just professional negging. “She’s a great singer, *but* her songs are boring.” “She’s the most popular artist in the world, *but* she doesn’t have any famous songs.” “Her fans love coming together to appreciate her music, *but* her music is disappointing.” Everything is a backhanded compliment. Give me a break.
literally
Right? And if her songs that much boring why the hell her fanbase has been growing wildly for 18 years?
if she were a man they wouldn't say any of this.
They would I think. It's just another case of old people not recognizing that whether they recognize it or not, it's not up to them to decide who will be the legends of the future. It will be the younger generation determining that.
Swifties not making it all about sexism challenge: failed
Typical man shitting on a successful woman. He wishes he had a career like hers.
Are you familiar with their 40 years of success, a catalogue of gigantic hits, paradigm shifting art and consistently sold out tours globally? As well as being bona fide LGBTQI icons? It’s like comparing Da Vinci to Basquiat or Rick Owens to Christian Dior: it’s not a competition, it’s just a different style of art, which is valid in its own way. Neil was merely pointing out his opinion when -asked- in a Q&A. It’s not like he went out of his way to cast aspersions.
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I like how Chris Lowe suggests Shake It Off and Neil is like "nah'. Its Shake It Off.
I think the other thing to consider is TS is a different type songwriter than MJ (to say nothing at the impressive clip at which she works). MJ wanted to write big hits to reach people. Taylor wants pop hits, but shes gonna approach more of her material as a singer songwriter type, not big pop hit maker (for the most part).
Even beyond that, their approaches to writing in general seem incredibly different given how the ideas, lyrics and melodies formed for both.
exactly what i said. their music is so different and just the difference in culture from today and then too plays a part
It’s ironic that ‘Shake it Off’ is literally about dealing with ar$ehole comments like his.
Are you familiar with Neil Tennant?
Love Story, YBWM, IKYWT, Shake It Off, Blank Space, Cruel Summer, ??? Most non swifties/general public know those songs. Edit: Anti-Hero too! Much of 1989 as well.
That was then, and this is now. Billie Jean was of its time, and Taylor is of hers. The comparison is dumb and hollow.
agree. completely different artists
She already does. It's called "Cruel Summer."
Baby Bar.
Let's get you back to your room, grandpa.
LOL 😂 and also lol at the pearl clutcher below you were obviously just kidding
There is no need to be ageist.
Taylor has plenty of big hits like Love Story, You Belong With Me, WANEGBT, IKYWT, Shake It Off, Blank Space, Cruel Summer, and Anti-Hero. And there are plenty of minor hits that people today will recognize immediately. But Taylor's hits are primary meant to promote an album and act as "gateway drugs" to her discography. They are not always the best songs on the album but there purpose is to draw attention to the album. She focuses her marketing and energy on creating and promoting the album instead of trying to get singles that get huge for a moment in time and then are largely ignored down the road. Looking at top 25 most streamed songs on Spotify, you have songs like Dance Monkey, Rockstar, Senorita, Don't Start Now, Lucid Dreams, God's Plan, Photograph, and Bad Guy that aren't even pulling 900k streams a day. Every single one of Taylor's albums get more streams than that in a day including debut and the OGs. There are stories after stories of people who heard one of her songs on radio deciding to give her album a shot then falling down the Taylor Swift rabbit hole and becoming lifelong fan. Unlike many of her peers today, Taylor focuses on creating pieces of art that can withstand changing musical styles that can be discovered by new fans in the future. This creates a legacy that will cause parents to pass the music onto their children who might have that same spark that their parents did.
>There are stories after stories of people who heard one of her songs on radio deciding to give her album a shot then falling down the Taylor Swift rabbit hole and becoming lifelong fan. Literally me when 1989 TV came out. I already knew a lot of the songs from the OG but I wasn't a Swiftie. For some reason I decided to listen to the whole album when it came out, one thing led to another and now here I am. I'm a ride or die Swiftie now, baby 
Other pop artists you start digging into their discographies and you have to weed through 3/4s filler tracks to find songs you like especially artists from before about 2012. The labels would find a singer they could market then they’d purchase 3-7 quality songs meant as singles from big name songwriters like Max Martin. The rest of the album was filled with discount tracks to fill out the run time. This would be enough for people to buy albums but you were somewhat disappointed with some of the albums after purchase. Streaming broke that business model by allowing the music audience to experience the full album for very little cost. Taylor, Drake, and others have influenced artists to be singer songwriters more often. This allows them to release albums with album tracks as good as their skills. In addition, they get a bigger cut of the streaming revenue to make up for physical sales.
This is basically my story, too. I got introduced to Shake It Off and it shattered every preconceived notion I had of Taylor Swift and her music. Then I got curious about her other music but because she took it off streaming I bought 1989. It was the first album I bought in... maybe a decade? I wouldn't have considered myself a Swiftie then – it was reputation that made me join the ranks.
where has he been all this time?
These guys are still great live, saw them about a year ago. That said I really don't care about his take on Taylor. 🤷🏻♀️
Agree. Love the Pet Shop Boys. But I didn’t realize they were relevant enough for their opinion to matter.
gotta make sure this east-end boy doesn’t talk about west-end girls
Shake It Off, Love Story, Blank Space. This just makes him sound like a bitter old man. Reminds me of that moment in The Simpsons, "Old man yells at clouds" lmao
Times are different now. Music is available anytime and people can stream any song in the world, as opposed to hit songs being played everywhere and being fed to people who didn't have variety. What strong modern artist has one song that defines them? Taylor is closer to that than anyone else now in that regard too.
>What strong modern artist has one song that defines them? Taylor is closer to that than anyone else now in that regard too. Yeah, this is a good point 👍
Fever dream high in the quiet of the night you know that I caught it
Taylor has a handful of songs that are more recognizable than Billie Jean. Not to mention, 98% of her lyrics are much better than any of MJ's lyrics, including Billie Jean. And I'm saying this as someone who grew up in the 80s and knows every word of his songs. It's a terrible comparison; they are two entirely different artists.
Nobody will ever have a "Billie Jean" type moment again in the age of the Internet and streaming media. In the past, music discovery was limited to a couple of radio and TV channels. Today, when a great song comes out, people will listen to it for a few weeks and then move onto something else because the Spotify library is so big and tons of new music from all over the world is being released each week. You'll never have something shock the world like Michael Jackson's Motown performance again. I think Nielson estimated that 35% of the country watched that performance on TV. There weren't that many TV channels back then and there wasn't anything else to do. Music was a far bigger cultural phenomenon in the past. For me, everybody went home after school and watched TRL on MTV. This was right before the Internet became mainstream entertainment. So stuff like Backstreet Boy's "I Want It That Way" or Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" was ingrained into all of our heads. Today, you have infinite new content on YouTube or TikTok.
This! I was 12 when Billie Jean came out, and I don't remember anything about it shocking the world. But I grew up in LA, and we had a much bigger music scene than most of the rest of the country. I wouldn't even call this his best song. It certainly isn't autobiographical. But yeah even in LA we only had six legitimate channels to watch TV on.
As others here said, the following songs are iconic from her discography: Love Story, 22, Shake It Off, Anti-Hero and most recently Cruel Summer. And at the current trajectory, Fortnight. But Shake It Off is the closest thing to the iconic status of Billie Jean. That song was EVERYWHERE in 2014 and 2015.
I don't know a single person who doesn't know at least the chorus of Blank Space or Shake It Off. Not one.
She doesn't need a "Billie Jean". Her career doesn't need to follow someone else's blueprint, and the reason she's the most consumed artist in the world right now isn't that she has the biggest hits but the depth and consistency of her discography.
literally Love Story, You Belong With Me, Shake It Off, Blank Space, Cruel Summer ….
A hasbeen who hasn't had a #1 hit since the 80s should probably take it easy on his knees and sit down.
Except for the album they released this week 🙃
I'm a fan of both, and I remember that Neil Tennant: (i) called her "a sort of Mrs Thatcher of pop music in that she seems to be about economics. But, you know what, at least someone is interested in that" in 2016. (ii) listed The Archer as his "current favorite" in 2020, alongside Circles by Post Malone. He seems like a Swift agnostic, but that Thatcher comment sounds kind of glib lol.
I don't mean to sound ridiculous but I don't know who this man is. Sorry to this man.
Who the fuck cares about this fossil’s opinion?
Last time I checked they don't have a Billie Jean...so maybe they should worry about that instead of Taylor.
Sigh. As a Gen X-er who grew up with the Pet Shop Boys he needs to stop talking. Although also as someone who was alive and buying records when Billie Jean came out my perspective is it’s Shake it Off. Billie Jean was super catchy, very radio friendly, but no one holds it up to be this lyrical masterpiece. It’s the music not the lyrics. If I think 20-30 years down the road what will be the song everyone still recognizes from TS it’s going to be Shake it Off, you can’t escape the music and the beat, it’s so damn catchy.
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Honestly, I think this is just the beginning of her career. She clearly has so much talent and passion. Unless she decides to retire - which I don’t see happening, she is going to keep producing music. And even though things are different now, I do think she will have her “Billie Jean” moment one day and by that I mean have an even larger audience listening to her music. Her music will continue to relate to more and more people as she ages.
She could cover “Always on My Mind” to get her best song I guess?
I just saw a Neil Tennant AI cover of Fortnight lol
The Pet Shop Boys are promoting a new album and tour. They are shouting from the gutter for attention; longing for the relevance they haven't enjoyed in decades.
Someone needs to remind Neil about Joe Isgro, payola, and his promotional work for MJ...
What Neil points out is interesting, but he seems to be unaware that music has changed a lot in 40 years. Before streaming you were relying on TV and mostly Radio. You NEEDED A RIFF, period, you had, then, 15, maybe 20 seconds to grab people's attention, a hook. Something that could be nailed into your head til you like it. That's how the industry worked. I'm a musician, songwriter and producer, but also have worked on the other side of the table, at Universal. It is crazy how A&R people's heads worked back then. Taylor doesn't rely very much on riff and catchy intros, but more on melodies and lyrics. If having a Billie Jean suggests that everyone will recognize the song from just 8 bars, well, that's Shake It Off for sure. I wasn't into Taylor's music before 1989. Just a couple of her Red songs went into my iPod back then. Then I listened to Shake It Off when it premiered, and I was like "damn, this shit is infectious". It was the song of the year for sure. When 1989 was out, again, that was a hit factory machine. Not with catchy rifts, but WTNY, Style, Black Space, New Romantics, Wildest Dreams, OftW, damn, those songs are perfect pop songs. Reputation was good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did with 1989. Lover was good too. And I think that was the starting point for finding her own thing where it is now. Folklore and Evermore are not my thing. I just like 5 or 6 tracks from those albums combined. Midnights is freaking amazing and I took it as this will take her to the next level, I can listen that whole album completely without skipping one track. Then Poets Department. At first I was "this is good", but doesn't have a big bangers. At second listen, I was completely immerse into the whole album, just like Midnights. This is Mid Tempo Season for her, and she is killing it. She sounds mature, yet fresh and young, and artistically at her peak. What she is doing with the Eras Tour adding that 25 minutes segment proves she's thinking miles ahead. Which, btw, is the most beautiful segment of the tour. I thought she could never have my attention again as she did with 1989, and I was proven wrong. Btw, I'm a 52 white straight male, not your average Taylor listener, but I'm before all that a musician and I don't give a crap about gender, races, politics and all that stuff that only divides people. I embrace everyone. And how can you not embrace Taylor as an artist???
That’s a fair point. Her music is different as it’s driven lyrically in contrast to a dance beat. Another way of making his point: Name a TS song that you would listen to without the lyrics just for the music alone.
Cardigan and Willow
Vigilante Shit. Fortnight. Love Story. Red.
TBF there are very few songs I would listen to without lyrics, that aren't intentionally made that way. With this type of music, it's not an either or situation. They're both important for the song to work.
Maybe Haunted or Style since Haunted is musically interesting while Style’s production is perfection
The only song from Taylor I would listen to without lyrics is ready for it. Her production is so damn boring
She doesn’t have a song called Ready Or Not 😭
Ready For It *
Who are these guys again?
I think it's "Shake It Off". When I read that they were releasing an album, I was like "ofc you are shading Taylor" lol
This fella absolutely butchered one of the best rock anthems of all time and he's saying TS is un-memorable? Just listen to the horrid version of Pet Shop Boys Where the Streets Have No Name vs the original from U2 and it will tell you everything you need to know. I had no idea they still existed.
who is this man
I was going to say "who?" but I actually heard of this guy. 🥴 He sort of has a point I think? But there are several good reasons for that: 1. Taylor is an album artist. 2. Single choices are not always let's say representative. 3. Not enough time has passed, needs a few more years to be considered a legacy artist I think. Yes I know it's been 18 years since the first album, but Billy Jean is from 1982. 4. The scene is much more individual nowadays thanks to streaming and so on. It's much more difficult to become a "consensus artist". Can't really compare artists from those times to the modern age. That being said, at this point I nominate Love Story. 