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Experiencing Taylor Swift from a different musical genre

Yanicel Martinez
Connector Contributor

Ryan Adams’ “1989” can change your mind about Taylor Swift’s music. Following the success of Swift’s fifth studio album, the announcement that American musician Ryan Adams—not to be confused with Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams—would cover Swift’s whole album was one of the year’s most anticipated music projects. Adams is no stranger to the music industry; he was the frontman to alternative country band Whiskeytown from 1994 to 2000 and has since then had a successful solo career in the indie rock scene.

Staying true to Swift’s inspiration of the 1980s style of music, Adams’ overall sound is reminiscent of the decade except that he has changed the genre from pop to rock. Replacing the use of synthesizers and computer generated sounds for real instruments, Adams achieves in creating a completely different sound from Swift. From adding a guitar riff during the hook of “Welcome to New York” to the rock ballad that Adams turned “Wildest Dreams” into, we are riveted by this world that Adams has created.

In his rendition of “All You Had To Do Was Stay,” Adams gives new meaning to the lyrics by changing the backstory of Swift’s experience with heartbreak into a confrontation between two lovers: “Here you are now, calling me up, but I don’t know what to say / I’ve been picking up the pieces of the mess you made / People like you always want back the love they pushed aside / But people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye.” Adams also continues to surprise us by sticking to most of the original lyrics, but changes certain pronouns to fit his gender and sexual orientation better.

Cutting down on some of the repetitive lyrics of Swift’s original version allows Adams to add riffs and solos of different instruments. This is the case in “Shake it Off,” where he removed the computerized, generic sounding pop beat and repetitive lyrics and instead added a keyboard solo aided by an acoustic guitar. He also begins some of Swift’s more upbeat songs such as “Blank Space” with the use of the acoustic guitar and transitioning to an electric guitar, which sets the tone of the overall sound he is going for in this album.

Adams also manages to make some songs sound original. His rendition of “Out of the Woods” sounds like it could have been out of any of his previous albums and at first listen, could be attributed to being his and not related to Swift at all. In fact, most of the songs in Adams’ album could be mistaken for being written and composed as his if we did not know Swift’s version existed. Adams’ ability to make all the songs sound like his own is what makes this album worth a listen and listening to “Bad Blood” for the umpteenth time bearable.

Adams’ target audience is clearly not the same as Swift’s. His album is collectively a lot more mature sounding and although the lyrics are the same, the majority of Swift’s fans do not appeal to the signature sound that Adams is known for. The album in itself is an innovative take on one of the most popular records of the year, but his intention does not seem to be on pleasing the “Swifties,” as Swift’s die-hard fans refer to themselves. Instead it focuses on introducing his audience to a different way of interpreting music before judging it based on genre.

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