When You Think Taylor Swift I Hope You Think Of Me

Well it has been a very long journey, but this will be my last post of this music blog. For nine weeks, I have given insight about some of the most popular topics that are discussed in the world of pop music. I discussed some of the pros about pop music, including about how this type of music is fun to listen to and a great way to express oneself. Also since this is one of the most popular music genres, an artist who makes a pop record will more than likely achieve fame – as long as the song is good of course. Even though this is my favorite type of music, I did mention some of the cons of pop music. An example is how this music is played everywhere you go, and sometimes you may feel like you can’t escape from it. I also wrote that pop music today has become more sexualized and has created some awful trends that occur among the younger generation, such as twerking. My purpose of stating both pros and cons is to suggest that sometimes it’s possible to have too much of a good thing.

Although most people think that pop music today sucks, I’m still going to listen to it no matter what. I’ve been listening to pop for as long as I can remember, and it clearly shows what my personality is. If you have been reading my posts, I’m not like most guys out there. I think my music taste is very unique since guys don’t typically favor Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry over male rap singers or rock bands. I want to stress that whatever you’re interested in or whatever you want to become in life should be up to you. Don’t change yourself just because someone else might not like the same things or might not like who you are.

As I’ve stated numerous times, Taylor Swift will forever more be my favorite pop music artist. Hopefully someday I can meet her and tell her how much she means to me. I’d like to conclude with a lyric from her song called Tim McGraw: “When you think [Taylor Swift], I hope you think of me.

Music Is Art And Should Not Be Taken Advantage Of

For a moment, let’s put ourselves in a hypothetical scenario. Let’s say that you are the biggest sensation in the music industry and you produce your most successful album to date. You think that it’s a beautiful piece of art.  After making your album available to world, imagine if a person decides to put it on a website for anybody to access it for free. This person did not get your permission to do this, and you don’t get any compensation for having your album on this website. Also because of this, people don’t buy your album and just go to the website. Wouldn’t it make you upset if someone took your work, and you didn’t get anything for all the work you put into the album? This scenario is actually similar to Taylor Swift’s controversial issue with music sharing websites such as Spotify. 

Recently, Taylor Swift took a daring move and decided to take her entire discography off of Spotify. This means that people no longer had access to her music for free. Sounds pretty selfish, don’t you think? It may seem that way, but she actually has a good reason for doing this. She argues that music is a type of art and should not be free. All types of artists might feel that it wouldn’t be fair for someone to take their work without paying for it.  

First, it’s a fact that music can count as a type of art form. It has similar elements to a painting or a piece of poetry. According to an article that defines music as an art, music includes “levels of feeling, emotion, and meaning” and also “has language involving sound and notation that is a capable of communicating numerous.” That being said, a finished album is comparable to a painting hanging in a museum. Both artists worked very hard to convey their feels and share a message. Naturally, they would want to receive credit and earn what they deserve for making said work. The purpose of emphasizing that music is art is to show that you can’t just treat music like it’s something you can take advantage of. Just one song might not be as valuable as a million dollar painting, but it’s still worth as much to the artist who made the song. 

So going back to Taylor, she feels that all people should pay for their music. If people just take the songs she wrote, it’s not very fair to her and all the people who helped her produce her albums. I’m sure many other music artists feel the same way. 

In conclusion, I support Taylor for making this statement. I always buy her albums because I like supporting her. Even though we have access to music sharing websites like Spotify, we should still support our favorite artists by buying their artworks that they make.

Music Sharing Websites Are Killing Music Sales

Recently, an extremely controversial issue has swept across the world of pop music. I first read about this issue on Facebook, and shortly after, this topic appeared on many other online news articles. It appears that the world famous pop star Taylor Swift has decided to take her music off of Spotify; this is one of the largest free music sharing applications. I didn’t believe the article at first, so I decided to log into my Spotify account and check myself. After searching her name, the results appeared as though she never existed in the music industry. At first I was a little upset and thought that it was selfish of her to take her music away from her audience. However, after doing some research, I learned that withdrawing her music from Spotify is a way for her to go against music sharing websites and to try and save a sort of declining music industry. 

First, I want to briefly explain how Spotify works and how it could possibly hurt the music industry and its artists. Spotify is a free application – the only downside is that there are some ads that pop up after every couple songs. All you need to sign up is an email and an appropriate age. Once you have it, you can listen to an infinite amount of songs by your favorite artists. You don’t have to purchase any of these albums or songs in order to listen to them at the best quality! While all this is great, it leaves a problem for artists like Taylor. Here is a quote from Yahoo Music that discusses the issue about Spotify:

“Music streaming services and file sharing have sharply cut into music sales for artists over the past couple of years.”

This is relevant because if these music sharing websites have all these albums available for free access, people won’t actually buy the album in regular stores or on digital music stores like iTunes. According to a news article about decline in music sales, free music is challenging the music industry.  If there are no sales, the artists won’t make money for the work that they produced. Since they have to sell their music for a living, how can they do this if websites like Spotify have their music on it already? If someone knows they can listen to it for free, they wouldn’t waste their money to buy it. 

After doing some more reading from the Yahoo Music article, Taylor Swift is smart for making this rebellious move towards music sharing. If she allowed Spotify to stream her new 1989 album, obviously people wouldn’t actually buy it. By doing this, she sold about 1.3 million copies within the first week, which is a record in music sales since 2002. Her actions show a powerful statement: we can save the music industry and artists and increase sales if people actually buy music and stop using streaming websites. 

Do you agree with Taylor and think that music sharing websites are negatively affecting artists? Even if I like using Spotify, it’s true that people are taking advantage of the artists who made the songs. While all this is true, people won’t stop using Spotify, but hopefully we can get them to use it less.