Yesterday, I went to Impression City, four kilometers away, to watch Swift's concert documentary "Taylor Swift: The Age of Concert Tour". The last time I traveled that far was because of "Callas: For Love." At that time, there were very few movie theaters scheduled, and only the theaters signed by Yilian had more movie schedules. The closest Yilian Cinema to my home is in Heda City, the center of Laoxiasha, Hangzhou, which is four kilometers away from my home. This makes us lament that the speed of cultural spread is far less than the speed of modern urban development. In the new town where I live, everything is in order, except for the lack of culture. From this incident, we can see that the spirit cannot run faster just because it is an abstract thing. In terms of urban construction, culture is actually more difficult than changing the material world.
But this time it was different. The reason why I went so far to see Swift's concert was not because there were few movies scheduled, but simply because the giant screen theater in Impression City was the most famous. You can also go shopping by the way.
A huge sense of happiness
I finally ended my viewing with a huge sense of happiness. If readers read this article because they saw Swift's name, I think they might be relieved that this is not an article prepared to criticize. Here is a fun thing to share with you. I found that in an era when praise is the main discourse system in society, everyone likes critical things, but in this era when criticism is everywhere in the world, praise seems a bit precious. Especially for such a pop music concert, it already has sufficient reasons to be criticized. Since it is popular, it is for the masses. Since it is for the masses, it is replicable. Since it is replicable, it is to regard culture as industrial production. Following this critical path proposed by the Frankfurt School, we will try our best to It’s okay to criticize this concert. Swift's music does have such traces, such as her themes about love, notes that jump rather than slide, and obvious beats, which are all general. As for the feelings in those love chants, they are more like a finger with temperature. When it touches the skin, it will bring warmth and throbbing, but once the finger leaves the body, the feeling disappears. In other words, this emotion is fleeting and not intense and lasting enough.
But I can't criticize this concert documentary like this. The reason is that I felt a huge sense of happiness when I watched this concert. Moreover, this sense of happiness is still at the end. Even when there are only vague signs at the end, I can't let go. Therefore, even though Swift's pop music may have many shortcomings, I still want to praise it with the greatest enthusiasm. Because it is indeed very beautiful. This kind of beauty is filled with the kindest, most traditional and very tolerant public characteristics. This reminds me of an ordinary American movie I once watched, "Jerry and Maggie Live Well" - the name alone is ordinary enough, and its plot is even more ordinary, about an old couple who discovered a loophole in the lottery. And took the opportunity to make a fortune. But instead of keeping the money for themselves, they used it to revitalize their small town that was on the verge of decline. Watching this kind of movie, you know that it is destined not to be the best kind of movie in the eyes of academics. Its story is too dramatic and its subject matter is too ordinary. Good movies are the opposite. They often have simple stories but quite sophisticated themes. They should have an attempt at style and concept innovation, just like the roughness of the new wave, which can sting people's hearts and reflect on society.
Popular movies cannot have style, but you can't say it is bad, because it instinctively arouses the most basic emotions in your heart. Just like you can't criticize a simple person, you should contribute to your own town based on emotion and sense of belonging. And, you will be moved by it. Therefore, this is not a judgment based on art, but is based on a kind desire for beauty, just like a utopian ideal, expecting everyone to live together in love with each other and live happily. The failure of utopia does not lie in its concept, but in its encounter with reality. Once one encounters the limitations of things, generosity will quickly lead to lack of things and eventually lead to the disillusionment of dreams.That's why fairy tales are always so beautiful, because they are spiritual. To some extent, Taylor's success was also utopian. She maintains a peaceful, tolerant, and loving world. In an online world where mutual defiance is common, abuse and blame are the norm, but Taylor's concert was created based on the goodness of human nature. This explains the overwhelming feeling of happiness I felt after watching it.
In her singing, she brings the audience into a certain plot, where a small town girl leads a happy life. Then starting from a certain moment, she also had to experience various setbacks and finally matured into a strong person. However, even though she has changed, she is still full of fighting spirit from beginning to end, and her smile is so gentle, as gentle as a girl next door. The tone of her voice was one of humility. The content of the conversation is the content of heart-to-heart conversations with friends. This is different from the Jesus Christ Superstar we've seen before. Many people are born idols, such as Michael Jackson, who is famous for his flamboyant personality in his performance, some kind of superpower and the control of dark forces. Taylor is healthy, and her physical strength allows her to sing three-hour concerts every night for several consecutive nights, and her mood is always high. And she didn't become a star in this concert, but she became the mortal closest to you.
Darkest Hour
However, the success of this concert began in the first ten minutes. As we often say, you can judge a good work just by watching the first few minutes of it. Taylor's concerts have this quality.
Let me describe these ten minutes. First, there’s Taylor’s appearance. She was so famous that her appearance brought the atmosphere to a climax. I don't know how many people understand orgasm. Even Nietzsche compared the highlight moments in life to the streetlights on a dark road. There is only one after a while. They are dazzling and are the hope that supports people to go on. But orgasms are dangerous. Within it lurks insurmountable possibilities. Many stars have been ruined by the pressure of such expectations. Some people are depressed, some commit suicide, or take drugs - bearing a huge expectation is not as pleasant as we imagined. One of the most obvious examples is home field advantage. Athletes will perform abnormally because of their aura. During this concert, I heard that the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles can accommodate up to 100,000 spectators, and the performance that night was full of seats. Everyone rushed to Los Angeles from all over the world with expectations, but there was only one focus - Taylor Swift.
This is not so much a bright moment as it is a darkest moment. In the movie "Darkest Hour", Churchill relied on his own will to win the trust of the public and led the British people to resist the indiscriminate bombing of Nazi Germany. What Taylor has to do, I think, is more difficult because she and the audience do not have a common goal similar to Churchill and the people. However, Taylor completed her resignation by returning to ordinary ways. It can be said that a kind of idol worship was first broken before a concert started. As soon as she opened her mouth, the first song she sang was "miss americana & the heartbreak prince", a story about a tired star who returns to the town of her birth and reunites with old acquaintances. The music is country and the scene is a high school homecoming marching band. The entire first half hour is called "The Era of Lovers". Taylor used "I am your lover" to dissolve the distance between idols and fans, allowing himself to become an ordinary person like the audience again. This is a method similar to philosophy, turning a concrete and special "I" into a generalized abstract "I". When a superstar is no longer a body named Taylor Swift, but an ordinary person, a movement that expects to use idols to complete myth construction becomes a concern for itself. She is me, and my expectations for myself are not intoxicating expectations, but calm and tolerant expectations. In this moment, Taylor became one with everyone.
It can be said that for the entire first thirty minutes, every song implies a kind of endorsement, implying the equality between the singer and the audience.She is a girl next door, she is cheerful, kind, and healthy. She comes from a small town like you, has the same graduation party, has the same trivial worries, and longs for sweet love. In the last song of the first thirty minutes, "Lover", this ordinary girl gets her love. This slightly rough American small town life is presented in the story of country music, but it is not the empty, lonely and cruel American wilderness like "Nowhere". Taylor's small town is a peaceful town where everyone lives and works in peace and contentment. My own little world. No one will be jealous of such happiness, because it is so ordinary that you can achieve it with almost no effort. This is happiness at your fingertips.
From musical to real life
After Taylor became a girl next door like "me", this concert finally began to be truly exciting. The whole concert was like a musical with one person playing multiple roles. The first thirty minutes is the story of an ordinary girl. The next few themes bring a theme about growth. The protagonist first experienced various setbacks in life, and then, like many leading female protagonists, embarked on the road to darkness. The blackened Swift appeared in the visual effect of a giant python. She put on a half-sexy black suit with snake-shaped elements, and sang songs of provocation, temptation and evil against a black-based electronic background.
However, in the blink of an eye, she became a 22-year-old girl in the so-called "red" era, full of youth. Not to mention, in the "folklore" era, Taylor transformed into a creator. She lived in a wooden house in the woods. She was a female writer in the Victorian era and created those impressive stories about men and women.
I have to say that in these era-themed music sections composed of Taylor’s albums over the years, her image has almost never been defined. She may have loved someone else and received equal love. But she may have been abandoned and abandoned others. Because in the song, she is just a 17-year-old girl who knows nothing, just like Byron's Don Juan, who only follows the feeling of love and does not understand what love is. She can also be a talented female writer, or a seductive slut with fatal temptation, all following her own heart. Because she succeeded in making herself an ordinary person in front of the audience, her stage became a psychological analysis demonstration site, where anything from the dazzling to the obscure could be discussed.
But then, after two-thirds of the entire concert had passed, and everyone may not have noticed it, but they may have been a little tired, Taylor brought a dynamic album called "1989". This is a powerful climax. Every song here has a strong rhythm and makes people excited. You will suddenly feel that this female singer is really full of energy. When you are depressed or not climaxing, she uses her passion to give you a climax. She put on the aura of superstar that she had taken off at the very beginning of the concert and put it back on, raising the heat. From the youthful "red" to the rhythmic "1989", you simply can't go back to the beginning of the concert. It seemed like a long time ago. The tone has completely changed now. This time It's a real carnival.
Finally, after night falls, the "midnights" come. Wearing a sexy black tights, she is seductive and deadly, exuding the light of a perfect individual called a powerful self. But this light tries to be close to your skin, belonging to the most private world of two people. At the end of this story, you finally get her. A complete her. Belongs to you and to herself. This is the most perfect ending. I immediately thought of the song "I" that Leslie Cheung once sang, or Eason Chan's "Fashionable". These songs, like Taylor's songs and beliefs, all praise himself. In other words, they praise every self with flaws. Every ordinary me is a shining me.
I went to see Swift's concert yesterday.As a forty-year-old man, I can't immediately fall in love with this pop musician with diverse styles and younger self, but I can no longer say as easily as I did at first that I don't know who Taylor Swift is. Because she showed herself so truly. If you admit an imperfect you, you will admit the existence of an equally imperfect Taylor. She became a superstar and a Rousseau-like figure because she dared to speak out about her imperfections.
Author: Liu Zheng
Text: Liu Zheng Editor: Qian Yutong Editor: Shu Ming
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