Haters Gonna Hate (a.k.a. An Unsolicited Music Review That 'Rolling Stone' Didn't Wanna Pick Up?) or, My Favorite Album. (Patreon)

I realized something somewhat recently.

Something that interfered... at the crux of my lust for individuality, and at my want to find something greater than what I could contribute (at this point):

At the intersection of what is popular, and what I can adapt for myself as an individual.

I want to make this clear. I have an almost *fervent* hatred for that which is popular culture. I always have, since my earliest conscious days, when I eschewed bell-bottomed jeans (yay, early 2000s), no boots-with-the-fur, because apple bottoms weren't a part of it.

I hate the very idea that something attractive can be perverted into something that is so outrageously profitable, simply because it resonates so well. Pop culture? Be damned.

That being said. I think her most recent video (the one that went viral because businesses and rainbows, and profit, like the gnomes in South Park) is a pandering piece of waahmp-waahmp. "Reputation" was... ugh, dare I say it?

I will. Derivative.

But... dammit, man. "1989."

You are each entitled to your perceptions. That's totally cool. I will certainly not foul you for any of that.

But damn. People who are asleep, I've seen them wake up. I have seen people who have been trying to figure out where they stand, since someone left them, stand up. I have seen people pull proverbial knives out of their chest, and move on. And I've watched that moment when some lyric hit them, like a sucker-punch to the cheek, out of the blue, and put everything into context. Bravery, or sacrifice, or loss, or perspective. It's not a life-altering thing. And it shouldn't be! But it's a weird moment of realization. When something actually touches you. And then, your bearing is no longer 320°… But it's 325°. And then you end up somewhere different then you would have before.

I know the effect that the cheapness of popular culture can have on our perceptions. I really do. And I'm not going to say that Taylor Swift occupies some magical place outside of this zeitgeist.

What I will say is that, at some point, you'll be sitting somewhere...

Maybe you will have experienced the greatest happiness of your life, or the greatest sadness. Maybe you'll have found true love, or the depths of disparity... or both! You could be lying in the grass, gazing at the stars as if they were your last hope, or hovering your maw three inches above a plate of hashbrowns at Waffle House.

But you will, in the background, at some instance, hear a song from "1989." And it will change you.

When that happens, just let it happen. That's what art is supposed to do. Don't be a dick about how she is just some consumerist pawn, or how she is selling ham-fistedness to the masses, and dear sweet Jesus, don't get political about it.

Just hug it. And listen. And take in what the meaning should be, for you, in that moment.

I've never been prescriptive, so you all know there's no rush.

But that's how it'll happen. And that's how it'll go.

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(An exceptional piece of art by the amazing @pinup_graphix (on IG), again, because the guy is on a roll /on fire!)