COLUMN: No more hate for Taylor Swift
I don't want to admit it, but I am a Taylor Swift fan.
Her classic “all-American girl” look and youthful innocence turned me off since I first heard her in “Teardrops on My Guitar.”
I tend to prefer raven-haired artists with a bit of spice to them. Not that I hate her specific genre; Colbie Caillat also chooses to be soft and sweet with a similar sound, and I love her.
My bias against Swift was for all the wrong reasons.
What really ignited my hate for her was the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards incident with Kanye West. I have always been a fan of Kanye and I definitely agreed with his declaration that Beyoncé should have won.
I felt like she did an awesome job of playing victim, which made her fans hate Kanye. I honestly would have liked to see her snatch the microphone from him and say something along the lines of, “Well it’s my time to shine now,” instead of just standing there looking stupid.
I shamefully realized I was a fan when I recently heard “Back to December” on VH1. Instead of actually giving the girl a chance I had passed her off as an overrated artist who made it big because of her agreeable bloned hair, blue eyes and pretty face
I often hate artists who seem to receive too much publicity, only to realize they have their popularity for a reason.
The exception in this case is Justin Bieber — my hate for him will never change and I have heard enough of him to back my decision.
Swift re-popularized and mainstreamed country music while adding her own pop twist. Her wavy locks even give her a signature look, another spin on the “all-American girl” image.
Not too many people can have a look that makes them familiar to everyone.
The two most important factors that determine whether I like an artist or not are his or her voice and lyrics; Taylor’s storytelling lyrics combined with her sweet voice makes her hard to hate.
In either case, she gets the last laugh with her most recent album "Speak Now," which sold over a million in its first week compared to Kanye’s "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," which sold a total of 496,000 copies.
