By Aayana Anand, Blog Staff
The community has been in a drought since reputation era when Taylor Swift brought us a stadium tour that left a mark (a golden tattoo) on all of us. For years, swifties have been found in the depths of the night in their bedrooms watching the Netflix tour documentary and secretly skipping over “Dancing with our Hands Tied” acoustic. Finally, however, after years of anticipation, the “Eras Tour” begins today. Celebrating and culminating 10 albums worth of songs spanning multiple genres, Taylor is embarking on what will likely be one of the biggest events in music history.
The internet is already filled with (mostly hostile) debate and discourse about the length of the show, possible setlists, and whether she’ll actually sing “Nothing New” with Phoebe Bridgers on one of the nights that she opens. If I may, I’d like to *respectfully* add to this conversation with some of my Taylor Swift discography opinions. And, since many of us here at What the F also have strong opinions on the matter, we’ll be taking a look at what the greater org has to say!
Aayana’s Favorite Album: 1989
Honorable Mentions: Red, folklore, evermore
There are several reasons why 1989 outperforms the rest for me. It happens to be the first physical album I’ve ever owned – I got it as a Christmas gift the year it came out. It’s also the first Taylor Swift album I listened to in full – it’s definitely the album that made me a fan in the first place. I’m also a pop girl at my core. My music taste has always been rooted in pop music, so what could’ve been better for 2014 me than an album full of quintessential pop bangers that also happen to subtly expose my favorite of Taylor Swift’s exes?
There’s something about this album that always takes me back to a simpler time, and I’m a sucker for nostalgia. Even when I’m not thinking about it in an emotional sense, I always find myself banging my head to every. single. song. I cannot emphasize enough how much every single track is pop perfection (yes, even Shake it Off and Bad Blood). I highly doubt that anything she releases will ever touch this gem of a record for me.
Aayana’s Favorite Song: Begin Again
Honorable Mentions: willow, Fifteen, Clean, All Too Well (10 min version), Treacherous, Daylight, august, Style
If I’m being honest, I really don’t know why I’m particularly fixating on this song in particular. If anything I honestly hate that my favorite Taylor Swift song happens to be a single with a music video mainly because it makes me seem like a local. With that being said I’m obsessed. Part of my obsession might also be attached to how I implicitly associate this song with Jim and Pam from The Office which is kind of embarrassing to admit but whatever-
What the F’s Favorite Album: Red
This one shocked me if I’m being honest…I’ve always felt like Red was one of Taylor’s more underrated albums, so I’m happy that following the “Taylor’s Version” release it’s gotten more attention!!!!!
I do still feel like 1989 is Taylor’s most underrated album besides Debut so I was very happy to see it tied for 2nd.
*RIP Lover and evermore though*
What the F’s Favorite Song: You’re on your own Kid
This one was also a pleasant surprise! Considering how much hype we’ve built up around Track 5’s, it’s interesting to see that the newest song in that category got the most love. I still hate those TikTok edits of this song with people and their friends though (I mean seriously were you LISTENING or just HEARING the lyrics). Of course, there was a wide range of songs that our members picked as their favorites. Most of the responses are shown:
*can i please get some appreciation for actually taking the answers from the survey and coding this*
Eras Tour Attendance and Final Comments
As excited as I am for Eras Tour to kick off, I am unfortunately one of many waiting until she comes to my city (s/o June 9th show attendees w/ Gracie Abrams and Girl in Red), and most of our members are doing the same with over half of us attending at some point!
As for final comments on tour and Taylor Swift in general, we got a great mix of hostile and wholesome:
Whether you agree or disagree with these opinions, here’s to hoping that the songs on your playlist get put on the final setlist for your respective show (except those of you who are looking forward to Debut or evermore…y’all simply don’t exist to Taylor OR What the F).
PS: https://twitter.com/TheErasTourHQ/status/1635710495951814678
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