Swift draws criticism from older crowd on ‘garbage’ music

Taylor Swift has been a celebrity since the mid 2000s, when many of us were very young. She has been a part of our pop culture since Miley Cyrus was still Hannah Montana. I’m sure many Gen Xs and even Baby Boomers can relate to a celebrity that has been in their life since what seems like the beginning. I’m also sure they can relate to musical trends like boy bands and grunge or electronica and vaporwave. But then I look in the comments section of every popular song and I always see the same thing: “Rock is dead” and “Music these days suck,” most likely written by middle aged adults.
Every generation is so similar but those similarities are the things we hate each other for. Gen Xs seemingly hatred about our music is for its words and lyrics. They constantly hate on songs like Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” or anything from Swift, citing her lyrics are bad and don’t mean anything. And honestly, even though Taylor Swift’s music bores me and isn’t something I’d personally want to listen to, I don’t think it makes you look smart or ‘cultured’ if you insult something that is considered mainstream. If somebody wants to listen to Taylor Swift or Katy Perry or whoever, let them do it! If I’m not getting on your back about your music tastes, than chill out about ours.
It’s easy to complain about today’s music when it talks about ego and self image, but as Nitsuh Abebe of the New York Times states, “If we can defend rock lyrics about violence on the grounds that music is a safe space to talk about antisocial feelings, shouldn’t pop be a safe space to talk through odd ideas about, say, ego or beauty?”
Everywhere I look, there are comments like “Kids these days are listening to garbage and calling it gold. We need good music again!” or something equally annoying. The general attitude is that modern pop songs today are vapid and aren’t ‘deep’. To which I respond, so what? Does it need to have a ‘deep’ meaning to be a good song? Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ stayed on Billboard’s Top100 charts for 50 weeks, and that song is what could be defined as ‘vapid and self-centered.’ ‘Closer’ by The Chainsmokers is the definition of ‘millennial pop’ and yet, we all know the lyrics, don’t we? So to those who yell about ‘music nowadays,’ in the comment sections of ‘Despacito’ I ask: why are you listening?