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Musings on Taylor Swift

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kevin_daoust
kevin_daoust|150
GEAR:
  • Fender Telecaster
  • Universal Audio Dream '65 Reverb Amplifier
  • Norman ST40

There's a headline making the rounds on my Facebook feed. An older article (2016) with the headline "Is Taylor Swift The New Eddie Van Halen?"

Now, at first glance, this may seem absurd. We all know that Eddie's playing is light-years ahead of what she can do. However, I do agree with this headline in some ways.

Does she have the technique? No. But let's not forget that Van Halen I was also the album that likely had kids rushing to the music shop to buy an instrument and learn to shred. Much like Taylor Swift, who has probably influenced a lot of people to pick up the guitar as well and learn to play songs.

So is she the new Eddie? In some ways, yes.

GEAR:
  • Fender Telecaster
  • Universal Audio Dream '65 Reverb Amplifier
  • Norman ST40
clifford_bao_777
clifford_bao_777|7287
GEAR:
  • Washburn T-24 Taurus Bass
  • Gibson EB-3
  • Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro Koa - Limited Edition
In reply to kevin_daoust:

I'm just going to pretend insted of "EVH" you said "The Beatles" (whom I'm not a fan of personally).

This video pretty much sums up how I feel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxrwjJHXPlQ

GEAR:
  • Washburn T-24 Taurus Bass
  • Gibson EB-3
  • Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro Koa - Limited Edition
nickgrooves
nickgrooves|2155

Hot take no.1 — This belongs on the Synth board instead of this guitar/bass board. If we're discussing her catalog from "1989"—present (which, we are).

Hot take no.2 — She is not comparable to Beatles or EVH simply because they wrote all their own material whereas she co-writes. She has some heavily-involved co-writers / producers on most of her hit songs since the early albums, which was not nearly as timeless and transcendent as those more recent mega-works. There's zero shame in co-writing but let's give them some credit for her success rather than say that she alone is equivalent as a solo individual to a Paul McCartney.

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