Who among us has not wondered what conservative pundits think of Taylor Swift?
Wonder no more. Mark Hemingway, at The Federalist, has weighed in on the matter from his lofty perch on the political Right. Though he bears no animosity towards Ms. Swift, Hemingway does not approve of the mega-phenomenon she has become or the dire implications her popularity has for the state of American culture. His essay is titled “Taylor Swift’s Popularity Is a Sign of Societal Decline,” and Hemingway prefaces it by asking, “Audiences and elite tastemakers alike have decided Taylor Swift’s narcissistic lyrics and cliched music are a cultural triumph — but why would we celebrate this?”
Hemingway is no fuddy-duddy, mind you, no stuck-in-the-mud curmudgeon complaining that the kids are playing their hippity-hoppity music too darned loud. He is of an age to appreciate classic rock, i.e., back when it was good. He speaks highly of the Beatles, for instance; he compares Swift’s efforts unfavorably to the Fab Four’s “Eleanor Rigby,” and concludes that the latter is “a thousand times more sophisticated than anything Swift has ever done. More importantly, it is just two minutes and six seconds long and still one of the catchiest pop songs in history.” 1
I will spare you further details of Hemingway’s extensive tirade and cut right to his conclusion:
The over-the-top celebration of Swift’s success says volumes about the stagnation of pop culture. At some point, we have to recognize that even if you embrace the limits of pop music, the distance between middlebrow entertainment and the lowest common denominator is enormous. Our need for shared artistic connection cannot be allowed to overwhelm a duty to also collectively seek out music that takes us places and challenges us with insights into the human condition, revelations about ourselves we didn’t know (or maybe didn’t want to know), and otherwise produces insights into the problems of others. And I, for one, already know enough to know Taylor Swift just doesn’t have it in her to do that.
It’s a shame that Taylor Swift’s success has made it impossible for Mark Hemingway to listen to “Eleanor Rigby” in peace; or, worse, to enjoy the stylings of the late Burt Bacharach, whose music, Hemingway wrote back in February, “didn’t just span six decades, it transcended them.” Bacharach’s “contribution to popular music was incalculable,” enthused Hemingway. Taylor Swift is but a musical novice compared to the composer of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”! 2
Allow me to suggest that a more telling sign of societal decline than Taylor Swift’s popularity is the continued existence of The Federalist, for which both Mark Hemingway and his wife Mollie lie write on a regular basis. From Obama’s birth certificate to COVID conspiracies to 2020 election denialism, the Hemingway marital duo has helped The Federalist earn its reputation over the past decade as one of the nation’s leading purveyors of alternative facts, fearmongering, and demonization of those who have the temerity to disagree with it.
I think Taylor Swift will survive Hemingway’s disapproval.
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Taylor Swift's Popularity Is A Sign Of Societal Decline (thefederalist.com)
1 How Swift’s work measures up to “Yellow Submarine” or to the saccharine “She’s Leaving Home,” Hemingway does not say. While we’re on the topic of bad pop songs, however, let us not forget the execrable mess that was the 1968 pop hit “MacArthur Park”. Written by Jim Webb, who for a while was one of the best pop songwriters of his time, and recorded originally by Richard Harris, this crime against humanity topped the charts in Canada and Australia and rose to #2 in America. Unexpectedly, the song was later redeemed by Donna Summer’s (and Giorgio Moroder’s) brilliant 1978 disco version, perhaps the single best thing to emerge from the disco era.
2 I do not want to denigrate Burt Bachrach, even though “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” spoiled three minutes of the otherwise brilliant film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Bachrach wrote many fine songs: “The Look of Love,” for one, and “Always Something There to Remind Me,” for another. It is not his fault that Mark Hemingway has chosen to bash Taylor Swift for no reason I can discern. Requiescat in pace, Burt.
What Hath Taylor Swift Wrought?
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