Forbes: Taylor Swift Is No Longer Relatable, And Her Ticket Sales Prove It

Taylor Swift Is No Longer Relatable, And Her Ticket Sales Prove It

Not really a fan, but I saw this article and thought some here might find it interesting. Did she alienate her fans or just release a so-so album, or both?

 

I wouldn't say I'm a fan but I don't mind her music. My wife is a fan so I've looked into tickets. You can get an upper level seat in the $100 -200 range but a decent seat will cost you $500 plus. These are actual Ticketmaster prices. Not VIP. Just regular seats in the lower level or floor. It's insane.

 

High ticket prices keep fans from buying tickets. I stopped going to Coldplay concerts or McCartney concerts because of ticket prices. I can support local music and be just as happy.

 

Interesting article. I’m not sure I buy the premise of inflated ticket prices that ward off scalpers.

What I’m sure that I won’t buy? Taylor Swift concert tickets...

 

She alienated this fan. I loved Taylor Swift's work since her second album. She wrote songs you could watch like a movie in your mind's eye full of emotional insight involving relationships between people, songs with events in them, beginnings and middles and ends where things happened to characters, songs full of great visually evocative scenes. But this album is like a celebrity feud, celebrity shade album full of some of the clunkiest lyrics ever written ("You're so gorgeous/I can't say anything to your face/'Cause look at your face")....those virtues that made her work both "relatable" and something one could really live inside, both are almost entirely missing on Reputation.

I don't know if that's why her tour is not selling, or if it's even true that her tour is not selling -- Pollstar reports it is, Forbes reports it isn't. The album sold fine.

 

Taylor Swift's 'Reputation' tour is on course to be one of the highest-grossing tours of all time - NME

 

I think, in her world, nothing can stop her. She has never had a real setback in her rise to fame. She must be confident that this latest way of selling tickets will please her fans. But really, it just makes her out to be like a greedy pop star.

I didn’t buy the cd, did not like the tracks I heard on YouTube. Did not like her holding out from streaming, might be why sales got jacked up. When she releases vinyl, that is jacked up. I’m not paying close to $60 for a Fye orange vinyl exclusive.

I haven’t heard people being happy with their seat locations when buying tickets. It’s like the better seats are being held back. Then, you pay one price tier if you bought or promoted Tay’s gear. Or, get slammed with a higher ticket tier if you did not. I’m waiting for ticket prices to get slashed- if I care to go by that point.

This just feels like a total cash grab this time from Taylor rather than a celebration of her new record. I think this will be her first fail, something she probably needs to face at some point. Her four songs she threw out there to promote - it’s not like they are getting much airplay on radio stations. I don’t hear her at all compared to the 1989 singles.

 

I agree with this. There's no joy in Reputation at all. Before Reputation, even if the subject of a song was something negative or sad, you got the sense that she had some joy in being able to work it through with music. Now, even with the "positive" songs, it all feels very mechanical. The work lost the feeling that there's a person behind it.

I don't know if this makes sense or not.

When you charge three times the price for tickets, you can sell half as many and still have good gross. She should enjoy it. She's doing significant damage to her career in the long run and, as much as Reputation and the tour is benefiting from the 1989 tailwinds, whatever she does next will suffer as a result of the moves she's making now. I think.

 

Artists cannot release a so-so followup to a huge smash hit without their reputation falling. Sure, they'll still sell 4 million albums, but they won't retain their status.

 

She's upset a lot of Aussie fans on her up coming tour, her ticket prices are nearly double to what
they were before. Wouldn't you be pissed off?

 

In all fun, with a streak of not-so-mean-spirit-ness, to paraphrase the title of this thread and the article:
I’d think “Taylor Swift is Not Relatable” to the main demographic of most members here...

 

Now if only that translated to hits.

 

I'm 100 percent sure that relating to me is not anywhere near Ms. Swift's radar.

 

Well, it is NOT just tween girls (the second poster can, referring to his wife, verify that.)

I'm a big fan and have her latest.

That album, reputation, (sic, no caps), became one of the biggest in Nov.-Dec.-till now, and before that there was the advance single (just like the old days of 45-then-LP) #1, "Look What you Made Me DO" and a follow-up "....ready for it". I enjoy her Coca-Cola ads in the theatre, drank Coke, and plan to see Taylor.

I Have all her important albums..(well, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and reputation. Somehow I kept forgetting about Speak Now.. )

 

I wasn't implying that her only fans were tween girls. I'm a fan. My wife is a fan and considered going this time around. Sorry if it came off that way. Wasn't my intent.

Rather, I was saying that, where adults can make a rational decision on whether to purchase exorbitantly priced tickets, tweens are structurally less able to resist their impulses than adults are and, therefore, are the ones being fleeced by the ticket prices.

 

The AC station we have on at work won't touch Reputation, this after saturating their playlist with all the 1989 singles from the moment they dropped.

 

But only if these tween girls can convince their parents to pay the freight. Not a lot of tweens running around with $500 ready to drop!

 

She's selling out football stadiums and adding second nights. The album is her 4th to sell a million copies in one week. Yup, what a failure!

 

Exactly, it's not like we middle-aged dudes don't know what's good! Don't judge us on our looks! By the way Taylor, you are kind of hot.

 

I tend to agree with this..

There was nowhere to go but down after the success of 1989. The album, the singles, the tour were all about as big as it gets.

Reputation has sold very well but it’s more of an album than a collection of singles, something that’s probably hard to process for the typical Swifty.

The ticket prices and selection process need to be addressed. This is not sustainable.

Her next album should be called 1990 and could feature Ed Sheeran on every track, go on a co-headlining World Tour with less spectacle and more musicianship. Good Will, recaptured

 

It's a darker, more personal record. Yeah less "Joy". But whatever. She is finally moving to be able to do what she wants and she has a catalog to do whatever she wants now too. Think Neil Young or Bob Dylan. She doesn't have to chase hits. But yeah those seats were expensive. $85 for crappy ones when I used to get great ones for just a little more than that!

 

Taylor Swift is a gem.

 

Think Neil Young or Bob Dylan, mid career.

Probably not what Taylor has in mind...

 

When Bob was Taylor's age he was doing Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. Not that different a move...

 

Pop culture is fickle, just ask peter Frampton