Taylor Swift is the problem

I love Taylor Swift’s new song - The Tormented Poets Department.

"You're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith. This ain't the Chelsea Hotel. We are modern idiots"
                                     - The Tormented Poets Department

Taylor Swift is a legend. She is THE biggest music star to ever walk this earth. She also happens to walk into relationships hoping they fall apart so that she can flip an album out of it.

Her songs might suggest that it is always the guy who is the problem but I am beginning to think, maybe just maybe, She is THE problem. C’mon, read the room or in this case, hear her albums!

All I am saying is that Taylor Swift's songs are great to give meaning to your feelings but do not take relationship advice from her.

We all know, Taylor Swift’s career will be over the day she finds a stable relationship.

Am I trolling her? Absolutely not!

She is an artist who figured out what works and then had the talent to scale it! In art, it is not easy to crack this code. It is almost rare! She perfected it.

Every artist is playing some card or the other. Think of the artists you are fans of:

• Some play the ‘I’m anti-elite’ card

• Some play the ‘I represent hope’ card.

• Some play the ‘I’m the tormented artist’ card.

• Most play (or try to play) the ‘I’m controversial’ card. The easiest route to stardom!

"And, at last, she knew what the agony had been for."
                                    —"The Manuscript"

In a world that is constantly swiping, only a drama can pause the swipe

Normalcy is dead. Normal is boring. The reality is that if your game’s survival depends on people’s attention and you don’t play the right card, you will be forgotten. Normalcy doesn’t drive art. It is modern psychology at play.

The world needs negativity

Psychologists call it the negativity bias. It is a cognitive bias that results in adverse events having a more significant impact on our psychological state than positive events. Humans tend to migrate towards negative news as a way to protect themselves.

Everybody loves to be a victim

That explains the rather irritating rise of motivational speakers or Swami babas! (same difference) constantly telling you how you can fix yourself! Are you really that broken?

The world needs drama

Anything to distract us from our daily lives. Admit it, we would never want Kohli to turn into a saint on a cricket field. We love the drama as much as we love his talent!

Dhoni doesn’t do drama Anshu, what about that? I am talking about humans here. Not God.

We are fascinated by Crazy

I have one word to prove this point - ORRY! (WTF man! Somebody explain the rise of this nincompoop!)

When I was a kid, there used to be this crazy man in our colony - long dirty hair, beard, torn clothes. He would sit on the side of the road and whoever passed by, he would shout “Asli Kohinoor mere pass hai”. Even as a kid, I had the intelligence to ignore him. In today’s world, I would be very interested to discuss the merits of the case with him.

"You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me."
                              —"Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?"

Taylor Swift found her angle

She gave an entire generation a reason to blame the other person for a relationship gone wrong. She perfected the ‘victim & resurgence’ game. This is what the world needed. She delivered. Hence the superstardom. Hence the voice of a generation.

"I cry a lot, but I am so productive. It's an art. You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart."
                                      —"I Can Do It With a Broken Heart"

The fandom of Taylor Swift is well deserved - both for her talent and her smartness to deliver what the world needs. She is the problem but she is also the solution.

Art is now a delicate balance between creating from a true inner place and (unfortunately) finding the right card to play. Every artist out there is dealing with this new world dynamics.

As I write this (while listening to Taylor Swift on my pods) I am wondering:

“What is the card YOU are playing Anshu?”

Leave a comment with what card you think I am playing.