The release of a new Taylor Swift record — and she has given us 31 new songs this day — is an occasion for many conversations. One of those is a discussion of the ways in which popularity and quality intersect.
My father was many wonderful things, and one of them was an amateur cellist. While I got my love of folk music from mama, my delight in rock n’ roll from my peers, and my passion for country from the ranch hands on my grandmother’s place, it was daddy taught me to love classical music.
Two papa anecdotes that are maybe relevant to the debate about Taylor:
One:
I am twelve or so, sitting with my father in his Santa Barbara living room on a lazy summer afternoon. I have a grape soda, he has a beer, and we listen to his records.
Dad puts on the Glück Trio Sonatas, and sighs with happiness. "This is marvelous," he says.
I am at that age where some boys like to rank things."Is Glück the best?" I ask.
Daddy shakes his head. "He is not the best. Bach is surely the best."
We listen a few moments more. Daddy adds something important.
"But Glück is my favorite."
Two:
It is the summer of 1982, and I am fifteen, visiting Santa Barbara on summer vacation. I'm riding in papa’s Volkswagen bus, listening to KUSC — the classical station. Pachelbel's Canon comes on.
I groan, reach to switch the radio off.
"Why are you doing that, Huggle?”
"Ugh. It's so popular,” I reply. “You hear it everywhere."
(A year earlier, the acclaimed Robert Redford movie Ordinary People had brought the Canon to a new audience, and in 1982, it was as ubiquitous as a piece of ancient music could be.)
"Is popular bad?" Daddy’s voice is gentle, but he’s a philosophy professor. It’s a Socratic question.
"Yes! It's like this and Beethoven's Fifth are the only pieces of classical musical anyone knows."
I am insufferably pedantic at fifteen, as boys who are both smart and unathletic tend to be at that age.
My father takes me seriously. And then, he says,"Perhaps some things are popular because they're good. Taste isn't about only liking the difficult and the obscure."
I sit with that a moment. A lot of my early adolescent self-image is about trying to become an expert on things that others find bizarre or boring. I secretly like Crystal Gayle and Styx, but would never admit it to my punk rock friends.
Daddy pats my knee. "Art isn't a device for demonstrating your superiority. It's a tool to take you deeper, and to bring joy. Please turn the radio back on. And if you want something difficult, old boy, I suppose we can go home and listen to Hindemith."
My issue is that the music industry "machine" of which Taylor is an integral cog, plays a part in guiding the public's taste. And the public's taste has deteriorated in the last 2-3 decades. Melodic variety, texture, and other qualities are all simplified in modern pop compared to pop from the 70s and 80s. There's a study on it I'll try to find later. Anyway, it's harder than ever for a quality indie band to make it mainstream, meanwhile we're spoon fed more and more musical pablum like Taylor Swift all the time.
As the timeless refrain goes, “I liked R.E.M. before they were cool.”