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If you are currently working on the radio and want to hear Taylor Swift's new single before it's released at midnight, you need to follow a series of strict security measures. A representative of the label arrives at your station at a fixed time in advance. Before you hear the single, you must sign a confidentiality agreement. Then you are allowed to listen with a noise-canceling headphones when an excerpt of the song is reproduced from a device treated with the same care as nuclear football, according to the programmers who spoke. Rolling stone on the condition of anonymity.
White Knuckle's approach is logical when we know that Swift's new song is the first since the release of Reputation, which is both the least-sold album of his career, according to the RIAA, the least well received by critics, according to the aggregation site Metacritic, and the rare Swift album neglected almost entirely by Grammy voters , failing this, obtain an appointment to the year album.
For almost any other artist, Reputation would be considered a major victory, if not a triumphal high sea mark. But Swift has been betrayed by its own sales history: Reputation"The 3 million units were a breath of fresh air after the jab-cross of red (7 million) and 1989 (9 million), killing the upward momentum that Swift had built while she was making her dominant transition from one country to the next.
The most damaging aspect of Reputation was his inability to generate a sustainable single. "Delicate" came closer to us, seven months after the release of the album, thanks to heavy radio support that is only granted to the biggest pop stars. (This was not really fuel on Spotify – Ariana Grande's "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I Bored" has raised more feeds on the platform since February than "Delicate" since November 2017.) Pop is a hit game, and while red launched four simple Top 10 and 1989 had five Reputation There were only two of them, who both sank quickly.
It was not totally surprising. Between the exit of 1989 and Reputation, hip-hop cement its long-standing hold on young America – four months before Reputation came out, rap was officially crowned the country's biggest genre. It was therefore logical that Swift, along with many of her peers, felt compelled to move with time. Sure Reputation, she adapted her drumming patterns and bass lines to duel with hip-hop hits dominating the playlist, and she played more with rap vocals than her previous work.
But the precedent of this transformation was mediocre. Swift's past attempts to engage in hip-hop were often clumsy – few listeners return to the "Bad Blood" remix with Kendrick Lamar – or worse: rapper Earl Sweatshirt accused the video of "Shake It Off" "from"perpetuate black stereotypes. "
It is perhaps not surprising that ReputationSwift is found in a common ground that undermines energy. A song like "End Game", a collaboration with rapper Future, was not convincing enough to convince rap fans. At the same time, Swift's new style has also alienated some members of his main audience. "In 2008, [Swift] "Love Story", a radio programmer explained with nostalgia Rolling stone last year. "The 2017 versions are very different. Sometimes the mega-superstars move away from the formula that allowed them to succeed. They try to be interested in the flavor of the music that is doing well in the current environment. "
Doubters like this are probably the main targets of Republic's radio crew, as they carry Swift's new single from one city to another. Swift could also target Grammy voters: it's noShe can be expected to release her new single in the spring, rather than late summer or fall, as she traditionally began her previous cycles. By increasing its release date, the members of the Recording Academy have several additional months to live from their work. So they do not neglect him as they did with Reputation.
Swift's new single is his first in a direct contract with Republic Records, and two Post Malone and Ariana Grande, his new tagging companions, are currently absorbing most of the oxygen in pop, in part by selling a hip-hop form influenced by the mainstream.
Great borrowed at the rate of triplet, blitzkrieg battery programming, accelerate, release faster – better than anyone has gone to the pop side of the fence. The editing of Grande's sound was so effective, in fact, that she was accused of copying. two different rappers, Soulja Boy and Princess Nokia, when she released the tube "7 Rings".
However, another act of the Republic suggests that the path to commercial success is different. In the other corner of the pop you can find (and surprisingly) The Jonas Brothers. Their successful return, the musical equivalent of Hollywood's obsession with restart, avoids the delusional embarrassment between genres and totally ignores the existence of rap. On the two new successes of the Jonas Brothers, "Sucker" and "Cool", the trio delighted with their guitars, their applause in hand, their falsetto hooks and their return rhythms. It's a sound from an earlier era, but they rank at the top of the charts.
Which path will Swift choose?
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