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Why Taylor Swift? Why?

So Taylor Swift's just put out the title track from her upcoming album Red.  It's a generic dance pop number that sounds like a limp version of Mariah Carey's Obsessed.  It makes the cute but ultimately mediocre We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together Again sound like a masterstroke.  Why would she resort to doing songs like this? She clearly hasn't lost her touch. Ronan, which she put out a few weeks ago, is absolutely brilliant. Hiring outside writers to make dance pop songs is just wrong for so many reasons.
  1. She's already one of the greatest songwriters of our time.  Sure, she's not the best, but I can count on one hand the number of people better than her (Drake, Kanye West, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon, and Matt Berninger of The National). There's no reason to hire help when you're already so damn good at what you do.
  2. Dance pop is completely saturated. There's Kesha, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, Carly Rae Jepsen, Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Rita Ora, Justin Bieber, Usher, and probably another dozen that I've forgotten. Country, on the other hand, is a wasteland. Last year, I think the entire genre produced two good song: Eric Church's Springsteen and Pistol Annies' Hell on Heels. Why leave a genre where you have virtually no competition for the most saturated genre in popular music?
  3. Dance pop doesn't play at all to her strengths.  The melodies she's good at writing are too subtle for dance pop, as are her lyrics. Also, her voice is too soft and sweet to carry the tracks.
Basically, if you're Nelly Furtado and you're a one hit wonder who's just released a dud album, I can totally understand hooking up with Timbaland, completely changing your sound, and going for a hit.  On the other hand, if you're a superstar whose last single was Ours, a brilliant, sweet, charming, successful, self-written country-pop song, don't rock the boat.

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