I'm not a real fan of Miss Swift. I think hers is at best a modest talent. But what she is, is an ICON; an utterly charismatic leader of taste for those who are into pop music today. What is interesting, in this regard, is that she -along with her sister canaries Lorde and Lana Del Rey, are all nudging pop in a slightly new direction. It's my perception that Pop since the Beatles has generally slid downhill in the direction on one hand of children's playground music (remember "Bouncy, Bouncy bally, or "My mother gave me fifty cents") and on the other toward the preliterate chants of societies on the order or the Melanesian Island music. Neither of these branches, however interesting to the musicologist, possesses any musical or lyric complexity. That is in keeping with the ever descending age level of the listener-consumers, and the general suspicion of sophistication that began with the counter culture. If your motto is "Don't listen to anybody over 30" you have cast off the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and their kin.
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