Taylor Swift’s first new music in a couple of years doesn’t show off her writing chops. It shows she’s lazy. I’m a little surprised that all she and Jack Antonoff could come up with is ripping of a 25 year old novelty song, “I’m Too Sexy,” by Right Said Fred.
That’s all they’ve got to say? Imagine Carly Simon and James Taylor doing that back in the day. Or Carole King or Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. We’d have laughed ourselves silly. But this is what pop music has become– a marketing tool. On Taylor’s website she’s already sold out ‘snake’ rings for $60 a pop. The music is secondary.
The two guys from Right Said Fred are thrilled, of course. They get a royalty and songwriting credit. They were pretty much forgotten. Now, for a nanosecond, they’re back. On Twitter, which didn’t exist when “I’m Too Sexy” was released (neither did smartphones) they wrote: “We’re very pleased to hear Taylor Swift’s interpolation of our 1991 hit ‘I’m Too Sexy’. Taylor and her team reached out to us about the track, we like what she does and we were very honoured to have her interpolation feature on her new single ‘Look What You Made Me Do.’ Thanks to Taylor and her team for being absolutely wonderful. We’re very happy that our debut single will potentially be reaching new fans 26 years after its release.”
So all this hype about Taylor’s new single was for naught. How can you even compare it to Kesha, or even Katy Perry? Or half a dozen other singers who are better than Taylor but don’t have the Big Machine behind her?
As Donald Trump would say: “Sad!”
The “Reputation” album had better be a huge improvement over this. Otherwise, Taylor’s actual reputation may slither away like the snake she’s chosen for her logo.
Taylor
Right Said Fred
