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The B-Sides
a newsletter and playlist on pop music and pop culture
ISSUE 13 | AUGUST 28, 2017
🎵 Song of the day: New Rules by Dua Lipa 🎵
The B-Sides Letter
Here is your link to The B-Sides Playlist #13 on Spotify! Click and enjoy.
The B-Sides Playlist of the Week Love the playlist, hate it, have a comment? Let me know here.
See past issues of The B-Sides on the blog and find the playlists by following this composite playlist: Composite B-Sides Playlist






Shoutout to friend and every-word-reader Hannah B for asking for this coverage and also being the best person. For those of you new to the B-Sides this week — welcome! This email is longer that they usually are, I just have a lot of feelings rn.
Ok friends — I hope you will all join me in asking, earnestly, HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT TAYLOR SWIFT RIGHT NOW?!
Even if you are SICK of all the #TaylorTalk of the last week, I believe that we can learn a lot from the way Taylor acts and how we process her celebrity.
Shall we do a quick timeline recap before we dive in? Let’s start, tbh arbitrarily, from last summer and skipping over a lot:
- Summer 2016: Taylor and her bf of over a year, Calvin Harris break up. She claims credit for writing on his song “This is What you Came For” and he bites back with an intense, all-too-real rant on twitter. The snake emoji emergesfrom pissed off internet ppl as a way to shame her.
- Also in Summer 2016 (on National Snake Day, July 17th): Kim Kardashian and Kanye West prove Taylor is a liar. It’s a huge moment for many casual fans of Taylor who feel they can no longer support her. In previous feuds, she’s been able to get the benefit of the doubt, but never has a scandal so clearly proven how tone-deaf and self-serving she can be.
- Fall 2016: Taylor usually releases an album every other fall since 2006. Fall 2016 goes by with no Taylor album, and many realize it might take another year or more.
- November 2016: She weighs in on the election and, save for a post on the day of the election, is noticeably quiet about taking a position in any way about the present and future of our country.
- Most of 2017 so far: Taylor is relatively quiet and off-the-radar, save from some Drake-dating rumors.
- Spring 2017: Katy Perry releases her album and, in the press leading up to it, talks a sht ton about her feud with Taylor and releases a diss track about her. The track features Nicki Minaj, who had a (thought-to-be-buried) feud with Taylor a few years ago. The music video released last week is atrocious.
- Summer 2017: Taylor Swift is sued by a stupid fcking fckboi who grabbed her ass years ago. He claims that, by telling on him to his boss, she committed libel. Or something like that. Her composed and relentless answers while being cross-examined show just how #fearless she really is. People publicly show her support, including with the cutest post-it project ever, and she’s incredibly grateful. She wins the case, and is awarded the symbolic $1 that her side requested in damages. I cry with joy. The internet likes her again. It doesn’t last.
- Friday, August 18th: She deletes her twitter, fb, insta, website, and even TUMBLR! Exactly 3 years after she announced her first single, “Shake it Off,” from her last album 1989.
- Monday, August 21st: She releases a cryptic video on her social media of reptilian tail situation.
- Wednesday, August 23rd: She announces her new album title (Reputation), release date (November 10), first single (out the next day), and album art (tbh not awesome). I fall on the floor, the internet freaks out.
- Thursday, August 24th just before midnight: THE SINGLE IS OUT! “LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO” LIVES! It’s awesome and/but is bizarre. The internet has too much fun talking about it.
- Sunday, August 27th: The video comes out, but tbh I am writing this before Sunday so I am not sure how it goes and what happens with it (although I am predicting that I will be talking about it here)
“The Old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now…Why? Oh, because she’s dead.”
Taylor, I love you so much, but not only has the Old Taylor not died, she is more present than ever. And frankly, she needs to take a back seat.
Taylor Swift has crafted one of most intentional public personas of celebrity history. But it just might crumble with this new era. Here’s why Taylor Swift is exactly like every Taylor Swift song. We’ll start slow.
She’s deceptively simple
Have you listened to her song “You Are In Love”? The melody and lyrics are so simple it’s almost painful. It’s only after listening a few times that you realize: the simplicity is the point, and it’s smarter than it seems. It’s meditative, it’s sweet, it’s eager — like the good, healthy relationship she wants you to consider as you listen. The simple chorus opens into a deeper exploration of how love is an absolutely indescribable sensation:
You can hear it in the silence, silence, you
You can feel it on the way home, way home, you
You can see it with the lights out, lights out
You are in love
And because love is impossible to describe using our five senses, Taylor has, in her own words, “spent my whole life trying to put it into words” through love song after love song. This song is brilliantly self-aware, but not necessarily upon first listen.
Taylor presents a simplistic image of herself and her celebrity. But it’s not simple: it’s multi-layered, complicated, and frustrating. It’s smart.
She is the queen of bridges
As you know from last week’s #SideDish, I love a great bridge in a song. If I had put some Taylor songs on that playlist to highlight her bridge-crafting prowess, I would have put:
“Wildest Dreams” from 1989
“I Wish You Would” from 1989
“Out of the Woods” from 1989
“New Romantics” from 1989
“Sad Beautiful Tragic” from Red
“Treacherous” from Red
Uch literally every song, this is an impossible task I need to stop.
Taylor has always been about bridges. She tells a story of who she is in a first verse, she gets you excited and comfortable in a chorus you enjoy, she brings you to a second verse where things get more complicated, but then brings you back to the chorus you love, and just when you feel comfortable — she pulls out a bridge that takes everything to the next level. But it all feels natural, safe.
This is where we are currently in her career. She had a steady ascent into pop superstardom from being a country star, bringing elements of her country roots through each album less and less to ease us along the trajectory. 1989 was the bridge. The pop sound wasn’t out of nowhere — it belonged. We had been given enough clues to know it was coming. And yet it somehow changed everything up. So now I have to wonder — what does the next chorus sound like? Does it sound like “Look What You Made Me Do”?
Even though she claims Old Taylor is dead, her new song “Look What You Made Me Do” is exactly the follow up to the bridge of 1989. It belongs in the song. Unfortunately, this means two things. #1: It fits too easily into the song of her career. It does not offer anything new; it’s a key change or another layer of vocals at best. So, #2: Does that mean this is the last chorus of her career???
She’s a storyteller
Taylor’s roots are in country, a genre famous for painting evocative portraits with just a few words. Country songs often have beginning, middles, and ends. They are incredibly visual. It’s what makes them work. For example:
How many times does she describe what dress she’s wearing in a song? Without googling, here’s what comes to mind:
“Standing there in my party dress” from “The Moment I Knew”
“The girl in the dress/ cried the whole way home” from “Dear John”
“Say you’ll remember me/ standing in a nice dress” from “Wildest Dreams”
Omg and there’s a whole article with more of them here.
And all the examples of her telling you what time it is:
“The lingering question kept me up, 2AM, who do you love?” from “Enchanted”
“I remember that fight/ 2:30AM” from “Mine”
“It’s 2AM/ feeling like I just lost a friend” from “Breathe”
“It’s 2AM/ in your car” from “I Wish you Would”
(Yes you can play a sporcle quiz to get all of them) (yes I got 100%)
And yes, these are boring and unoriginal song-writing tropes. But they work. They are incredibly evocative of all five senses, of all the emotions. As a listener, you feel grounded in a very specific experience, one she has curated for you.
This is just like Taylor. In her public persona, she can be a bit unoriginal. But she works. This is a double edged sword: Taylor is falling into the easy traps that have served her so well — up to this point, at least.
She builds cohesive, evocative narratives around herself just like she does in her songs. Right now, this narrative is of being the victim.
But it’s starting to fall apart as people see through it. An amazing buzzfeed piececame out awhile ago about this incredibly well-crafted victim narrative and how it was unraveling. Why didn’t her publicist read it?? How many times can we hear the complaints of the most powerful woman in the world? Taylor — we’re not buying it anymore.
Her carefully crafted persona is part of what gets her into trouble, although I’m sure, from her publicist’s perspective, this narrative has saved her from more drama than it’s created. Why does it hurt so much when she stabs other women in the back? Because she has sold us a narrative of female solidarity. Why does it hurt so much when an ex like Calvin Harris tweets about how awful she is? Because she has sold us a narrative of being in strong, sometimes fickle, but always precious relationships. Why does it hurt so much when she doesn’t take a side in politics? Well, this one we should have seen coming.
This is why she was so smart to go off the grid for so much of this year. A while ago she told an interviewer that she was going to take a break when her tour was over because “I think people might need a break from me.” She is incredibly self-aware. She knew that the bigger she got, the more her narrative became out of her control. And storyteller Taylor can’t have that.
She should have taken another year.
And it’s why it is absolutely RIDICULOUS to me that “Look what you made me do” is her lead single. 4 specific reasons:
- You can’t take back a narrative that you created but got out of (your) hand(s). You are now using your opponents’ frames. You will not win with them. You should have just blown up the frames and made your own.
- You can’t STILL not have any public opinion about our fcked up country and #45 and then ALSO criticize the media for how it treated you — this sounds like a dog whistle for your Trump-supporting fans, Taylor.
- You say the Old Taylor is dead, as if Old Taylor was nice and sweet. But do you not think that we remember? That FOUR of your songs from your album Speak Now were EXPLICITLY shtting on people you felt had done wronged you? “Dear John” about John Mayer, “Better than Revenge” about Camilla Belle, “Mean” about a music critic. OH RIGHT! And “Innocent” about Kanye West. So tell me, how have you grown in the SEVEN years since that album came out?
- And then just another annoying thing: this is the 3rd lead single in a row to all have a stupid breakdown (“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” — stupid phone call) (“Shake it Off” — stupid ex-man thing). Sooooo, sonically, it seems like the Old Taylor is still very much here.
Taylor’s trends are getting tired. The ONLY one I hope she DOESN’T break? Each lead single of her album has been the worst, almost by far, of each album. (“Mine” from Speak Now, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” from Red, “Shake it Off” from 1989). I hope this is the case this year, too. You can do better Tay.
How are you feeling about Taylor? What do you think Kanye will do next? Let me know, and enjoy this week’s playlist.

The B-Sides Playlist of the Week

Most of my favorite Taylor #bsides were on this #SideDish from a few months ago — so check ’em out here. And, of course, I broke my 10-song rule so that I can include “Look What You Made Me Do” in case you haven’t listened yet.
“Let ’Em Talk,” Kesha — I had this song on the playlist before LWYMMD came out because it’s so good, but it feels more relevant now. It’s an example of what Taylor COULD have created if she really did, well, shake it off. In fact, Kesha’s whole new album is an example. Taylor could have come back with a new sound that was still so quintessentially her, and with an accompanying persona that was stronger and more badass than ever. Taylor — just let ’em talk.
“I Know Places,” Taylor Swift — For anyone surprised at the dark, Lorde-like sound of LWYMMD, this one’s for you. She’s always been good at this eerie-ness.
“Higher,” Brian Fresco, Chance the Rapper, Blue Hawaii — Just wanted to include some Chance to remind myself of celebs whose personas inspire nothing but hope in me. Also the chorus kind of sounds like Charli XCX, who you know I’m obsessed with right now.
“Pawn it All,” Alicia Keys — See above re: celebs who don’t stress me out.
“Be The One,” Dua Lipa — YOU GUIZE WE NEED TO GET ON THE DUA LIPA TRAIN. She is sososo good. Spend time with her eponymous EP and you won’t be disappointed. It’s incredibly special. It’s pop gold. She and Betty Who (also featured) are part of the new pop era that, I believe, Carly Rae opened up.

You know what? You’ll have to like the facebook page to see more…
Keep up the conversation by liking the page. It would really mean a lot ❤

After sending last week’s Side Dish, David W. replied with:
“Forgive me if this is like common knowledge at this point, but did you know that Prince wrote ‘Manic Monday’? My head exploded when I learned that a while back.”
Thank you David for telling me this HUGE PIECE of information. How have I lived 25 years without knowing this??

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Hannah Zoe // The B-Sides





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