“Ew, you like Taylor Swift?” is the automatic reaction whenever I tell my friends about my top Spotify artists. Those two words seem to burn the mouths of those who utter them, causing their face to screw up in disgust. Taylor Swift and other artists similar to her are constantly ridiculed for being “basic.” My music taste has been described as basic countless times with varying degrees of contempt. With top artists like Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, and Billie Eilish this year, my Spotify Wrapped invited infinite teasing and mean jokes, but I started to wonder. Why do fans of certain artists get ridiculed when others are accepted? Is there really a “basic” music taste, and if so, why is that a bad thing?
Music is one thing that a majority of the world has in common. Everyone’s music taste is different, catered to their personality and specific desires. For some reason, society has decided to judge people based on their favorite artists and songs, especially teenage girls. Artists like Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, and Gracie Abrams are particularly ridiculed. I assume people don’t take these artists seriously because they only listen to artists’ most popular songs, such as “Shake it Off,” and “Blank Space,” without giving the other, deeper songs a listen. Lyrics like “so casually cruel in the name of being honest,” and “now you hang from my lips like the gardens of Babylon” are disappointingly overlooked by society. The generalization of artists like Taylor Swift are particularly disappointing because of the complete disregard for the actual work and incredible lyrical skill of these artists, as society looks only at the surface level instead of diving deeper.