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Taylor Swift: "The Man"

"The Man" has my favorite line in Taylor Swift's "Lover," the justly-celebrated Leo DiCaprio reference:

(If I was a man)
We would toast to me--Oh! Let the players play....
I'd be just like Leo....in Saint-Tropez....

This is like a calling card. This is Ms. Swift saying, "I'm still sharper than most other pop writers at work." The internal rhyme--"me Oh....Leo"--delightful! Followed by the "play/Tropez." Really surprising and witty and "not trying too hard."

But I have a hard time with other aspects of "The Man." Let's look at the first verse:

I would be COM-plex...
I would be cool...
They'd say I played the field before I found someone to commit to...
And that would be OH-kay...
For me to do....
EV-er-y conquest I had made would make me
More of a boss to you....

What drives me nuts is how screwed-up the syllable work is. People say, "Com-PLEX." Not "COM-plex." And "oKAY" rather than "OH-kay." And has "every" ever really been three syllables? Maybe in the days of John Milton?

Should we care about this? Yes. Yes, we should. Making your stress correct in a song is difficult. But when that stress is correct, you're giving the listener a gift. You're saying, "I really cared about this work."

They wouldn't question how much OF this I deserve.

I'm sorry. Why would OF be emphasized?

Sondheim says that lyrics should feel conversational. The sense of profundity and impact should come from the music/word pairing--not from the word alone. You're not writing poetry. Sondheim is deeply embarrassed by a certain line from "Tonight, Tonight": "Today, the world was just an address...." But the line Sondheim really loves, the line that makes him proud? "Maria. I just met a girl named Maria."

So: look: "What I was wearing....if I was rude....could all be separated from my good ideas and power moves...." It just doesn't work. Word vomit. Too much strenuousness. And Swift knows this. She is capable of operating on Sondheim's level.

We can blame age-bias and societal cruelty and many things for the Grammy show's lack of interest in Taylor Swift--and these aren't things Swift can control--but Swift CAN control the quality of her writing. And she knows that. Demand greatness from your artists. It's a sign of respect.
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