What 'The Tortured Poets Department' Can Tell Us About Taylor Swift's Craft

Sylvia Plath (Asylum Doll), Susan Spangenberg, 2023.

Hello! You may recall that I famously love voice notes. I love talking things through, coming to conclusions mid-sentence, and flooding my friends’ phones with my thoughts, raps (lol), and juicy gossip that I don’t want committed to text.

I was voice noting a friend who lives in Vancouver some thoughts on Taylor Swift’s craft and he was like “Wait, this should be a LOOSEY.” I didn’t really think it was that deep but I thought it could be cool to share something timely. And so, I connected with the friendly folks at Substack for guidance and they suggested I try out an audio post — just for fun. Here is the first one, a loose voice note on the elements of craft, using Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department as a reference.

In this ten-minute voice note, I cover:

• Swift’s emphasis on writing/creating instead of other vital elements of craft such as editing and form

• SZA’s ‘stream of consciousness’ / flow state approach to songwriting

• The Jack Antonoff’s production discourse

The LOOSEY COWBOY CARTER review is also mentioned which you can read here:

Beyoncé's Map of America on COWBOY CARTER

Dead poets society, Konstantinos Patsios, 2023.

Similar to the LOOSEY mantra, this is supposed to be brief, perhaps biting, and then gone. Engagement pending, I may continue to do these voice note hits in between regularly scheduled posts. Listening back, it’s not lost on me that in a voice note about editing and concision, I say “um” repeatedly! I’ll get better, I promise! But this is also a post about ‘stream of consciousness’ and flowing ‘off the dome’ so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lastly, I keep saying “The Tortured Dead Poets Society” instead of the actual album name hehe forgive me, Swifties!

Let me know what you think!

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