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Random Thoughts/Things?
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Random Thoughts/Things?
Random Thoughts/Things?
I wasn’t really sure what to call this thread, but I’ve had this idea floating around in my head for awhile now. Basically, anyone can post anything here. Any random thought you have, any random thing that happens to you, any random question that pops into your mind. Have fun, and don’t be afraid to be random.
submitted by Leeli
(January 11, 2019 - 8:20 am)
(January 11, 2019 - 8:20 am)
Cough, rough, thought, through, and tough don't rhyme, but for some strange reason pony and balogna do o_O
(January 22, 2024 - 2:26 pm)
Your hands of finger tips, and your feet have toes, but how come you tip-toe, but not tip-finger?
(January 22, 2024 - 2:32 pm)
ACK love that word (Cattywampus)
(January 22, 2024 - 3:51 pm)
Okay.
I have a dramatic confession to make.
So y'all know about Taylor Swift, right? Well, I'd been hearing a lot about her not just here on the CB, but in magazines and stuff, so I decided to listen to some of her songs. Because, prior to today, I had NEVER HEARD A SINGLE TAYLOR SWIFT SONG (except for "Love Story" because it was background music in Letters to Juliet, one of my favorite movies).
So today I listened to "Karma," "Anti-Hero," "Bejeweled," and "Cruel Summer."
And I did not like any of them.
:/
And this is even though I've been getting a lot more into contemporary music this year. I used to hate contemporary country, but now there are a lot of country songs that I absolutely love ("Buy Dirt," for instance - please go listen to it, it's so peaceful and soothing and just overall amazing). I also like some slightly older rock music, which I never thought I would do. All in all, I've been stepping a lot out of my music comfort zone this year (I used to prefer just folk, older country, and ethnic.) But I just... didn't really like Taylor Swift's music. It felt sort of too artificial? Like it was too shiny and plastic-y and spiky and metallic. There was nothing there that sounded harmonious or pretty.
I also thought the lyrics were often kind of wishy-washy and/or negative at the same time...
Oh, and just a small aside, even though she's worked for some good causes, how responsible is it, in a world where people are dying of heat, to go and have massive tours like the Eras one? I mean, if you take into account all her traveling and all the traveling/driving/tourism of the people who go to see her... :( Especially since she's a celebrity with so much influence and popularity, she could so easily get people to do something about climate change. People listen to her, and I wish she would use that more for good, or at least not make climate change even worse than it actually is. (This goes for all celebrities, by the way, not just Taylor Swift.)
I totally understand if you like her songs, though! I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, I just wanted to share my thoughts since she seems so popular.
(January 22, 2024 - 8:17 pm)
oh hey it's always cool to hear other people's opinions on stuff like this :D
so here's the thing with taylor swift's music: each album (or "era") has a kind of different music style, kind of? so the ones you listened to - lover and midnights - definitely feel kind of pop-y and shiny like how you mentioned, and i wouldn't say they're my *favorite* albums. if you'd still like to give her music a go, i recommend folklore and evermore - those albums, to me, at least, are calmer and have a really pretty, harmonious sound to them. i especially like "ivy," "gold rush," "hoax," and "invisible string." and ik you like country music, so i think her albums red and fearless have more of a country feel to them? (i am terrible at classifying music into genres though so idrk)
(though, of course, it's totally cool and valid for you to not like her music at all! don't feel like you have to listen to those albums just because i said so :])
and yeah i definitely get what you said about the eras tour and how she's not necessarily using her fame to be making all the change she could be making, especially regarding climate change. i tend not to follow celebrities, so idrk the details of everything she's been doing, but i do know that she has such an influential presence, and she should use that to make change! (not to say that she hasn't advocated for lgbtq rights and other causes, but still.) and yeah, i feel like in general, celebrities - while many do do great things with their money - the causes they focus on rarely seem to be preventing climate change! obviously those other causes are important, but climate change just generally seems to be at the back of people's minds when um excuse me it's *kind of* a huge issue??
idk this is probably incoherent and i really need to try and get some sleep but yeah i just wanted to say something :D also i'll check out "buy dirt" when i get a chance! you always have good song recs :]
(January 22, 2024 - 9:20 pm)
Ohhhh my gosh - I'm listening to "ivy" right now and yes, it is really different! It's way prettier. I still wouldn't say it's my favorite song ever, but I can definitely enjoy listening to it! Thanks so much for pointing that out - I'll go listen to the other ones you mentioned too :)
yeah, I don't get how so many people are so unconcerned about climate change - I just agree with everything you said there
ooh cool! hope you like it :)
anyway, thanks again for mentioning that - good to know there's so much variety in her music. I will no longer be telling people I don't like her songs at all :)
(January 22, 2024 - 9:49 pm)
Dude this is why I tell you to listen to Fearless, folklore, evermore, and like maybe some of Speak Now lol /lighthearted But go listen to "seven" and see if your mind changes just a little! Please, then I'll stop bugging you but I really think you would like "seven."
Yes like pangolin said all her albums are very different. You listened to her pop stuff - definitely not the stuff that's your style. Though I have a counterpoint! Lover is not just a "shiny" "fake" or "pop" like a lot of people see it as. There's songs about women's rights and queer rights ("The Man" and "You Need To Calm Down" talk about challenges women and queer people face). And Midnights's "Karma" always makes me feel better about the fact that I get teased at school and have trouble making friends. The "pretty" you don't hear is found in the way I can put the song into my life, and the way it can make me feel better, and the memories it's part of for me. That's just my experience though.
I see your point on the climate change thing but although climate change is a HUGE deal I thought you should know she donated to a bunch of local food banks on her tour, openly supported queer people before gay marriage was even legal in all of the U.S. (her album 1989 which has a line essentially saying you can marry whoever you want to came out in 2014; in 2015 gay marriage became legal all over America and was not just a state by state thing), and generally seems to be trying her best. She does use her power, too. She got a bunch of young people to sign up to vote in America recently. Again, obviously climate change is a very big problem and I agree that it'd be great if she used her position to advocate for change there… but just because she isn't helping with that doesn't mean the things she does choose to help with are small.
But yeah now that I think about it imagine if Taylor Swift was like "what if we all took five minute showers because it's good for the environment?" Like that would cause such a huge change wow
Ultimately, I'm not actually that surprised you didn't like her? You seem to like stuff that's like essentially the opposite of her, especially the more popular stuff. But keep in mind you listened to… four songs? She has over 12 hours worth of songs total. So if you want to like her, you're probably going to find something in that XD and like I (and pangolin) said, her earlier albums are pretty country and I suspect you'd love the quiet, acoustic, deep meaning of folklore and evermore.
(January 22, 2024 - 9:55 pm)
yeah, you're totally right XD the thing is that I didn't really think of looking up specific albums - I just tried out a few songs whose titles I remembered, thinking that all Taylor Swift music would be the same. But when I saw what pangolin said right now, I listened to "ivy" and "invisible string" and yeah, they were pretty good! I was pleasantly surprised. I'll try "seven" too; I need to be getting off the computer now so I'll leave it for tomorrow, but I'll get back to you on it :)
I was referring more to the overall musical sound of those four songs rather than the lyrics... I didn't really like the lyrics either, tbh, but now I do see how the lyrics could hold great relevance to many people - thanks for pointing that out :) Oh wow, I had heard that Taylor told her fans to go vote but not about the other stuff, that's interesting.
anyway - huge thanks to both of you for telling me about her other albums!! and I promise I'll listen to "seven" :)
(January 22, 2024 - 10:13 pm)
oh and also I've just really enjoyed this conversation so much because since the admin's been on (thanks oodles, @admin!!) it feels almost like live-chatting and I really enjoy talking with both of you at any time but when it's semi-live-chatting it's even nicer :)
love you both sm /p, you're the best
aaand good night, because I've spent way too much time on here already and I am getting way too sentimental due to not going to bed at a reasonable hour >:D
(ps you're still the best though, as are all CBers :D)
(January 22, 2024 - 10:26 pm)
Listen I love Taylor's music as much as anyone on here and she sure has done her fair share of activism (if a bit superficially) but let's not forget that she put out 1,184 times more carbon emissions than the average person last year from her private jet alone. That's 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (!!) from only one of her vehicles. If she truly cared about climate change she would actually change her behaviors instead of just saying she supports it :/
(also I agree with what people have said so far, folklore is by far my favorite album and I think you'd definitely enjoy it :D)
(January 22, 2024 - 10:41 pm)
I try to stay out of Taylor Swift related things usually (cuz honestly she's just everywhere; I go to school and all my classmates are belting out karaoke and the teachers are playing the songs, then I go home and my mom and my brother are listening to her albums and playing exclusively Taylor Swift radio, and I'm like ARGH her music's pretty consistently good I think, but seriously, it's a bit too much sometimes? And there are lots of other amazing artists out there too who don't get half as much recognition as she does, so I try to balance things out the best I can whenever I can :/), but...
could I join in this conversation? :)
@Poinsettia, I do see where you're coming from. I honestly feel like Taylor Swift herself is sorta artificial. Like, everyone says that she's a good person, but I find it sorta hard to believe. Because no one can be entirely selfless, ofc. But also she just seems so... idk, flawless whenever I see her. Which, Ig there's nothing wrong with that. Idk. It's just sorta not believable for me. Like, she controls what parts of her we do and don't see, and hides herself under a mask of insecurities, and it just makes it hard for me to trust her. Or this is probably because I'm just a naturally untrusting and suspicious person in general XD. I can't explain this well. I respect her, I do! That whole eras tour... wow. That's impressive. And the way she can pour so much of herself into her song lyrics! It's just... she's just so knowledgeable, she knows how to play the crowd, and some part of me doesn't want to get played. She makes us feel like we know her, but how much of her do we really know?
but oh well, her music's good, so. :)
And I have to do homework, but basically yes I agree with everyone (yes that's possible) 100%!!
(January 23, 2024 - 12:23 am)
I agree with Silver Crystal. However, I also want to add some nuance/more info. In an article published in 2023, it was said she had $1.1 billion dollars. Even besides the fact that nobody needs that much money, what about all the things she could actually do? She could basically fix the world. Roughly 38 million people in the US live below the poverty line. In many other places, this number is way higher and shockingly, they make even less - on palm oil plantations, in extreme cases people earn as little as USD 2.50 a day. (I believe that’s per worker.) Not to mention the human rights abuses - in order for a worker to meet the quota for their job, they often have to take their children out of school and make them work. This is incredibly difficult work, and the punishments for not meeting the quota can be harsh. And the environmental impact from burning forests (even protected ones) to clear land for plantations alone is horrific. Taylor Swift could raise awareness about this, sponsor work on it - so many things.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would cost $20 billion to end homelessness in the United States. The U.S. government spent around $718 billion on its military in 2019 alone, and let’s not forget the environmental impact of the military. (It’s also one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gas; according to a report by CCP and UK think tank Common Wealth, it accounts for 5.5 percent of global emissions.) But Taylor Swift could sponsor a major chunk of that 20 billion, and even more importantly she could educate people about that and lead protests and far more.
There are so many more examples. But long story short, billionaires are not okay, and Taylor Swift is not an exception. (also admins please don't delete this. You can put a warning in front of it if necessary, and if you need to delete the names of the study writers I mentioned I get it, but nothing here is graphic or leads to links outside of the CB. Not to mention that covering these things up is only being compliant with the forces causing them.)
(January 23, 2024 - 12:47 am)
I totally agree/respect what ya'll are saying (BB, silver crystal, Celine,) and there are a lot of problems with that kind of stuff but... I'm never going to stop loving all of Taylor Swift's music. Like people have been saying, she has so many different albums that give you different genres of music. Speak now and red have kinda a country feel, 1989 and midnights are the bounciest pop, folklore and evermore are almost like pop-indie? Ik those are kinda opposites, but sometimes they're really sad, but at the same time have pop-y kind of melodies.
The eras tour is sooo cool, and she just has that way of making everyone love her. She has songs addressing issues with women and queer people, (for example, The Man) and even then she finds a way to make it fun.
Some of her albums I've hardly even listened too, like Lover and reputation. There's so many songs and albums and amazing content always there, whether you need sad music, happy music, love songs, (okAY finnne most of her songs are love songs haha) and pretty much anything you can think of.
Also, now I'm confused. Becuase I thought that I should listen to the 'Taylor's Version' of the albums so I can be supporting her, but what if that's not always the right thing, like Blackfooted Bobcat was talking about? Hmm.
(January 23, 2024 - 1:30 pm)
BB and Silver Crystal are both right, but I don't think anybody is wrong to listen to Taylor Swift's music. I would say "separate the art from the artist" but I suspect I could be called ignorant for this as she makes money when you listen to her music. I think it's okay to listen to her music. I don't really think they were saying it isn't, but I could have misunderstood.
Blackfooted Bobcat is correct that nobody needs as much money as she has and she should be advocating for things like this. From what I know, I see her as less selfish than billionaires such as Jeff Bezos because I have more information that supports the idea that while she should be doing more she isn't doing nothing (again, she's donated large sums to food banks from what I've heard, enough to feed people for a year, and advocated for queer rights). Even if what she's doing isn't enough, because she can even just encourage people to be kinder to our environment or be spending money to solve problems like homelessness.
Oh, and though slightly irrelevant, did you all know that we have way more food wasted each year than we do starving people (at least is America)? I'm angry that people of power don't work to solve these problems. Then, when people who aren't particularly rich or powerful work really hard to do whatever they can to help, they're made into heroes. Don't get me wrong, these people deserve this recognition - but why do the people who could make these problems so much smaller need these heroes to set the bar? I'm not really talking about Taylor Swift anymore, just people in general.
Still, I would argue that it might still be better to listen to "Taylor's Version." This is because she is the artist and although she obviously doesn't need money (she could retire now and be set for life!) if you listen to the other versions, someone's still getting paid - it's just the person who stole the rights to her music. But that's just me.
(January 23, 2024 - 4:07 pm)
Yeah, I pretty much agree...
I would say that even if you don't approve of Taylor Swift as a person, you can still enjoy her music. It's kinda like with movies - from what I've seen, a bunch of actors and directors are somewhat rotten people, but their work can be marvelous. It's kind of weird how you don't have to be a great person to produce something beautiful (although of course you should still be a good person anyway)
I would say that if you're uncomfortable with actually giving money to Taylor Swift, you could find money-free ways to enjoy her work? Maybe by getting albums of hers from the library, or by looking up her songs on YouTube. (CDs and YouTube are the only ways I ever listen to music, lol). I think that would be a good compromise between appreciating her songs, and not committing your money to a cause you don't feel is worthy of it.
(January 23, 2024 - 9:07 pm)