Is Taylor Swift talented??

Musical taste is subjective.

Singing ability mainly isn't.

I acknowledge that there's some subjectivity. Of course you are correct on that.
But it only goes so far.
Personally, OK, I don't think personally the number 1 is subjective. I think (apart from maybe Maria Callas), there's only one greatest singer.

I could respect other opinions on it though.

I could also most certainly respect an opinion that the 3 singers @Citizen Rules mentioned (Streisand, Garland and Fitzgerald) are the 2nd, 3rd and 4th greatest singers, in whatever order.
Hell I could even respect someone saying they were the best 3. Although god only knows what they must have heard of Houston. They are at least 3 great singers.

But Taylor Swift????? As the greatest singer, or one of the greatest singers????????
No, that is not @FilmBuff, with more respect to you than you gave to Whitney with your comment about her being unreachable, a matter of subjectivity. Taylor Swift is just patently objectively not anywhere near the greatest singers.
It's like comparing a Michelin starred chef, with someone who prepares burgers in Wendys.
In fact, having listened to those 2 vocals of hers I've posted on here, has made me realise more how limited she is. She is in my view, just barely credible as a vocalist. She is just adequate enough, to get away with it as a singer, and has the advantage of amazing technology in the studio to make her recording voice sound very good.
Fortunately she has lots of other (non musical) attributes, and has the most amazing people around her, which has self generated into a perfect marketing and business machine.

oh Sade. I'd put her in the top 10.
Patti Labelle was incredibly talented by as mad as a box of frogs to the extent that it severely impacted her vocal performances that I've seen.
There was a singer in the 70s/80s called Lisa Fisher although I'm sceptical about what of hers is really live.
Randy Crawford was also very gifted, although a bit one dimensional and arguably a bit weird.

Whitney Houston's talent

Taylor Swift's talent

you are not a fan??

Of Taylor?

yes

I am not a fan in particular but her music seems nice.

Not trying to fight the ideas about her levels on that matter or how they compare to other singers, but something on Taylor Swift's vocals that I do appreciate a lot as a non-native speaker is that, for how wordy and dense her songwriting style is, the lyrics are always very easy to follow. She has a very clear pronunciation.

She has made it to Toronto for six shows. They gave her a police escort

Someone posted a clip of Taylor after I'd been to the Whitney concert.
You wouldn't even call it 5th rate. You literally wouldn't even know they were in the same profession.

Sorry, I know it's not a contest and this is a Taylor Swift thread, but...



OK, in fairness it's not too bad. And she is young. It's better than Mariah Carey can do it.
But, THIS is a singer:

This is Taylor 'singing' Angels with Robbie Williams.
She sings at about the 2 minute mark.
You literally can not even hear her voice.


she isn't a singer. I wouldn't even say she's a stage performer. she's part of an elaborate stage production which is centred around her.

i don't think she has the voice for such an anthem type song

It reminds me now I think of it, of this (except it's worse):



Fair play to him for giving it a go in fairness.

SHE is a singer.

Actually in fairness I think something's got to be up with the audio there?

I picked this up at 6.25 (I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In) and followed it for about 4 minutes.
The coach is being really 'nice', but obviously she doesn't rate her as a singer:
?list=PLzVCCk58kavtXq8mZgjgsZbC64IGHB7Ze

"OK" "OK so she still went to the lower note, but it was in pitch...so definitely an improvement there"

"she's more known for her lyrics and the emotion that she puts into her songs"

"OK"

"Oh god, I love that outfit"

"OK" "OK, so there's a bit of struggle"

"...she had basically an eating disorder...that would make sense....going to make her more out of breath...she will not have the air control she needs"

"OK she went DOWN the scale this time...rather than staying up there..is it planned in advance? I don't know. It could have been that she's supposed to hit that high note"

She's not a really bad singer by any means, she's just not a particularly good singer.


This is what a coach is like for a great singer:


in fact, forget watching the Taylor farce, and watch/listen that instead! That's a singer.

I was waiting with a knowing smile for my brother from another mother here to get to 5.00. haha.
Not surprised at all by his comment,

"I knew she had a big voice, I did not know she can do that. This is...a one off thing that absolutely noone else on the planet could ever come close to".

He adds, "you could hear a pin drop because they're just like what is going on". Exactly that. That is Whitney Houston when she's on it. Everybody is transfixed by her talent.

I know these are only 2 reactions, but (other than deliberately searching for a reaction to that particular song by Whitney) they were just random.

She has left Toronto. Bye, bye. We hardly knew thee.

She's good at what she does.

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The last talented pop music stars were ABBA.