Taylor Swift has 229 songs?
November 1, 2022 10:53 AM   Subscribe

When you get tired of debating U2's catalog in Bondcliff's post, Rolling Stone has all of Taylor Swift's songs ranked for your consideration.
posted by COD (51 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
How does she have only five fewer songs than a band who had five albums before she was even born?
posted by bondcliff at 10:56 AM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


Spotify playlist

Since her best song ("The Last Great American Dynasty") is in the top 20, I proclaim this ranking legit.
posted by chavenet at 11:01 AM on November 1, 2022


Also Taylor Swift currently holds all ten of the top ten positions on the Billboard Hot 100 list, something nobody has ever done before. That's pretty good.
posted by aubilenon at 11:02 AM on November 1, 2022 [7 favorites]


She also sold over 1 million traditional album copies of her current record (CD/album/MP3 downloads) in the first week, which has not been done since she did it back in 2016.
posted by COD at 11:09 AM on November 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


How is her cover of Fuck the Pain Away not on there?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:18 AM on November 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


Or her cover of 'Pour Some Sugar on Me'?
posted by box at 11:20 AM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


@Bondcliff — Taylor Swift is fucking prolific. She writes constantly and has stated that she has a backlog of hundreds of songs. Her albums don't contain only ten or twelve songs — well, the official tracklist might, but with bonus tracks and other random tracks they don't — they contain 20 songs (or more). And she doesn't release only one album every three years. She's released five albums in the past five years plus she's re-recorded two of her earlier albums plus she's released various soundtrack songs.

Taylor Swift is a fucking beast. She is a machine. She was born to do this. I know that not everyone likes her music, and that's fine. But you cannot deny her work ethic. And I think history will remember her as one of the truly great songwriters. As much as I'm a Swiftie myself, I think her songwriting skillz are best seen when other people perform her songs: Shoshana Bean and Cynthia Erivo performing "I Did Something Bad", Vance Joy performing "I Know Places", Yungblud performing "Cardigan" (and some Avril Lavigne), James Bay performing "Delicate", Halocene performing "You Need to Calm Down", Imagine Dragons performing "Blank Space" (which isn't as good as it should be), Jonah Baker performing "Willow".

Here's a sixteen-minute compilation featuring clips of other artists performing Swift songs.

Anyhow, TSwift is prolific and she maintains a high level of quality. She's a legend.
posted by jdroth at 11:29 AM on November 1, 2022 [29 favorites]


I think it's just songs that were recorded and released. The Pour Some Sugar From Me on that CMT show was pretty damn hot, but was never recorded by her for release, as far as I know.
posted by COD at 11:30 AM on November 1, 2022


More covers of Swift songs by other artists: Bastille performing "Exile", Meghan Trainor performing "Shake It Off", Nichola Connell performing "This Love", Kygo performing "Wildest Dreams".

Also, I forgot to mention in my earlier comment that I find it funny that both of these lists were posted to MeFi today. Growing up, U2 was the soundtrack of my life. High school and college, I was deep into them. The only time I skipped school was to buy "The Joshua Tree". Saved up money to see them perform on that tour. Was totally obsessed with them for years.

Now, as a middle-aged man, Taylor Swift is the soundtrack of my life. That might sound stupid, but it's true. As much as I loved U2 when I was younger, I love Swift's music even more today.
posted by jdroth at 11:37 AM on November 1, 2022 [7 favorites]


She should try writing a 4-chord song. I bet that would get her noticed.
posted by mrgoat at 11:39 AM on November 1, 2022


More covers of Swift songs by other artists

Many thanks for ignoring that asswipe who did a whole album.
posted by chavenet at 11:48 AM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


Taylor Swift reminds me of Dolly Parton, in terms of work ethic and song writing prolificness. Grateful for their work, but I'm exhausted just thinking about their catalogues.
posted by the primroses were over at 11:49 AM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


> Or her cover of 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' ?

It's #181 on the list.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:10 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


And if we're allowing some diversions into TS covers, The Heimatdamisch doing Shake It Off.
posted by foonly at 12:11 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


Or her cover of 'Pour Some Sugar on Me'?

Whoa. Had not seen this. Very cool.

Kind of makes me wonder just what kind of album she’d turn out if she just said “fuck it” and made something decidedly unpretty and loud-as-hell?
posted by Thorzdad at 12:14 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


The metre in the "New Romantics" chorus is too clunky and rushed for that song to be #2, come on. It wrecks what's otherwise a pretty great tune.
posted by The Notorious SRD at 12:18 PM on November 1, 2022


I don’t have much to say about the rankings — a fella can think that — but the blurb of each song is really weak; he doesn’t really make a case for any of them, just says some nice things, quotes a line, and moves on. Yes, putting more work into it defeats the point of a near-endless listacle, but, come on, make your case!

I’ll shed a tear for the engagingly stupid “Bad Blood” being dead last, though. I won’t say it’s good, but it makes me laugh, especially the way overdone video. *shrug* I guess everyone gets the Taylor Swift they deserve.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:22 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


From poking through the list, it astounds me that someone can be photogenic enough to have 220+ photos which all show them looking great. She is definitely a musical prodigy.
posted by maxwelton at 12:30 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


I’ll shed a tear for the engagingly stupid “Bad Blood” being dead last, though. I won’t say it’s good, but it makes me laugh, especially the way overdone video.

Bad Blood is 1000X times better than "We are Never Getting Back Together" at #25. I'd put that up as one of the worst songs of all time, and thought she was a bad songwriter, and if she wrote that, she wrote a horrible character too. I'd rather listen to Nickelback. Bad Blood at least is really fun, and the "heys" are well done.

And "band aids don't fix bulletholes" is a heavy metal-style dumb line, but again, at least it's fun.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:32 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Kind of makes me wonder just what kind of album she’d turn out if she just said “fuck it” and made something decidedly unpretty and loud-as-hell?

Oh, look. My bookmarked Taylor Swift covers go the other direction too. Here she is singing other people's songs. And I can't believe I forgot one of my favorite covers of a Swift song: Sara Bareilles performing "Clean".
posted by jdroth at 12:34 PM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


I can't believe there were 15 songs ranked lower than the John Clayton Meyer monstrosity. Initially I thought "Breathe" might have been the worst thing she ever did (since she was enabling the writer who penned the deathless line "I get the tingles in a silly place"), but somehow "Half of My Heart" is worse.
posted by pxe2000 at 12:49 PM on November 1, 2022


I didn't realize how many Taylor Swift songs I knew, until this thread. I've heard so many of them in the background but didn't realize they were all the same person. Turns out it isn't a genre; it's one woman.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:49 PM on November 1, 2022 [10 favorites]


Also Taylor Swift currently holds all ten of the top ten positions on the Billboard Hot 100 list, something nobody has ever done before. That's pretty good.
posted by aubilenon at 14:02 on November 1 [3 favorites +] [!]

That is pretty good but it's also something that can only really happen in the current era where they count streams as opposed to released singles so if you drop a new album and everyone keeps listening to it for a week then you can get all the positions in the top ten.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:09 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I love Taylor Swift and as a 48 year old white dude I'm clearly not her target audience. Sadly the Rolling Stone website is a monster to navigate but State of Grace on number 44 is way to low... That is easily a top 5 song for me.
posted by Pendragon at 1:15 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


it's also something that can only really happen in the current era where they count streams as opposed to released singles

Yeah, the Beatles really depended on all those streams when they occupied the Billboard Hot 100 top five in April 1964....
posted by Pendragon at 1:18 PM on November 1, 2022


Yeah the Hot 100 includes radio play as well as sales.

What I just learned, that seems really nutty, is that Billboard's first chart was from 1913 and listed best-selling sheet music. It's pretty impressive that they managed to stay even remotely relevant through to today.
posted by aubilenon at 1:32 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


There is a huge opportunity here for someone to combine this with Vulture's 234 U2 Songs and create one mega list: 463 best songs by U2 or Taylor Swift.
posted by Lanark at 1:44 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


There is a huge opportunity here for someone to combine this with Vulture's 234 U2 Songs and create one mega list: 463 best songs by U2 or Taylor Swift.

All covered by Negativland
posted by chavenet at 1:57 PM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


How about a playlist with the top 100 songs from 100 artists, all sorted worst to best? Then you have about 3 weeks of listening that starts out really shitty and then gets really kickass by the end?
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:03 PM on November 1, 2022


Oh, look. My bookmarked Taylor Swift covers go the other direction too. Here she is singing other people's songs.

I was more hoping for a TS cover of The Stooges’ Search and Destroy.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:06 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


No it has to be U2 or Taylor Swift only, adding other artists would just lead to disagreements.
posted by Lanark at 2:07 PM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


Hot damn happy to read this thread I love TS I can’t help it, I’m not all up in decoding any secret messages or anything but I’ve been listening to this album for a week “Will they won’t they” style on YouTube can’t bring myself to buy it yet but can’t stop listening to it so just buy the damn thing already.

That song Karma is SO GOOD y’all.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 2:08 PM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


Taylor Tomlinson on Taylor Swift and God.
posted by clawsoon at 2:10 PM on November 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


And lavender haze. I mean she’s a pop star for a reason. Girl did not come just to play.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 2:11 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


I do not know Taylor Swift's music really, but I do like Blank Space and Delicate, so afaik this list looks credible. All Too Well is new to me and quite good.

Aside from identifying songs worth the listen, there is enough info here to look for songs ones that're not love songs, which helps. I just tried Marjorie and Long Live, not bad, but not my thing really.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:23 PM on November 1, 2022


I was more hoping for a TS cover of The Stooges’ Search and Destroy.

The Miley Cyrus Black Mirror episode might be as close as we get.
posted by LionIndex at 2:53 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I do not know Taylor Swift's music really, but I do like Blank Space and Delicate, so afaik this list looks credible. All Too Well is new to me and quite good.

Yeah I'm not a Swiftie by any means, I've listened to the new album a couple of times but I don't think it's going to stick, but Delicate showed up on a stream a couple of years back and it got a "like" and a whole lot of plays from me ever since.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:56 PM on November 1, 2022


First: I think Taylor Swift is very talented. Last time I listened to an album of hers (title of album was "1989," I think) I enjoyed some of the music. But the production just grated on my nerves. It seemed like every song from beginning to end was put together to be a stadium anthem. When everything is an anthemic show-closer song, then nothing is a show-closer song.

I'm an old guy and I'm not her target audience. I just don't get her overwhelming, staggering, nearly cosmic popularity. She's a good musician. She's a great singer—and I mean that she has excellent control of her voice as an instrument— not just a throwaway compliment. She's had some very catchy tunes! But I gotta I wonder how much of her almost unimaginable success comes from being very, very pretty in a White, marketable and corporate-commercial sense?
posted by SoberHighland at 3:22 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


I am not mad about "All Too Well" being on top at all because that's a masterpiece (especially the 10-minute version, which is just amazing and epic and I love it) but I do wish "Would've Could've Should've" ranked a bit higher than #30 because I think that's one of the most complex and mature songs she's written. It's clearly looking back on an experience that she thought was OK but an adult perspective changed it. It's complicated and dark and "I regret you all the time" is just savage. It's fine to speculate about who this song is about and all of that (I mean, we know) but I also think we know what she's saying here. She knows what she's saying, anyway.

(I also felt that way when she had Dita Von Teese in her recent music video. She knows what she's saying and so do we.)

After the Miss Americana documentary, I thought I was more interested in the woman Swift would become than the woman she'd been and I was not a particular fan before but I am absolutely now. I want her to be weirder and messier and I think she'll get there. She's successful and rich enough she can do what she wants.
posted by edencosmic at 5:06 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


Taylor Swift Accused Of Releasing 'Midnights' On Carly Rae Jepsen's Debut Date To Burn Archenemy Scooter Braun   lol
posted by jeffburdges at 5:19 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Also Taylor Swift currently holds all ten of the top ten positions on the Billboard Hot 100 list

Pretty soon she'll also hold 10 positions on Metafilter's main page as well.
posted by Metro Gnome at 5:37 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


I couldn't find it on the list but my favorite Swift song is her song about caregiver fatigue, Soon You'll Get Better.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:09 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I think Swift's production team is awesome. I don't know who all she's worked with since, but her work with Max Martin and Shellback (eg Blank Space) is why I noticed her in the first place. I'd heard her name, whatever, not my thing, never would have looked into it.

But that song was so (rightfully) popular it was everywhere. I remember the third or fourth time I heard it at a bodega and the super slick production tricks like the blank audio space before "and I'll write your name" hit me hard enough that I wanted to know who did that.

(Swift is amazing for sure. I think Max Martin sold his soul to the devil in exchange for mastery of the dark art of printing money in the form of pop music that he also enjoys listening to. He probably took on Shellback as a protege in hopes of using his body as a vessel à la Being John Malkovich, and Swift somehow served as an arcane pop catalyst to seal the transfer. (Yes I am available for working on that script hmu))
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:47 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


I'm a 67 year old guy, further out than most from her demographic, and I adore her. I'm really happy they put this list together (I tend to not listen to live albums, so I had no idea she'd done Drops Of Jupiter, a great song from a band I can't otherwise stand). But You Belong With Me is only at 128? I must question the legitimacy of every other choice on the list.
posted by lhauser at 9:29 PM on November 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


This list is totally ruined if she ever releases a song better than "Fifteen."
posted by straight at 9:32 PM on November 1, 2022


I only recently realized how much she's put out over the years after I came across the taylor swift/mountain goats truther playlist on spotify a little while back which posits that each taylor swift song has an "equal and equivalent" mountain goats song.
posted by tealNoise at 11:23 PM on November 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Switched on Pop's episode about Midnights makes the point of how much Swift identifies first and foremost as a song writer, and how deliberate and sophisticated her compositions are, in terms of lyrics, melody, harmony, etc. Well worth a listen, if only so you can add references to 't-drops' to your daily discourse.
posted by signal at 6:02 AM on November 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


Okay, I'm going to contradict myself here. I'm still completely over the Antonoff sound but y'all, this song is crushing.

“Bigger Than The Whole Sky (Official Lyric Video)”—Taylor Swift, 21 October 2022
posted by ob1quixote at 7:20 AM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


ob1quixote [Bigger Than The Whole Sky] is crushing

That song is going to be on millions "broken crush" playlists- just a straight up big feelings banger. I'm currently in the demographic of parent of a pre-pre-teen, and Little Purr's friendgroup is all in on Taylor Swift. We listened to some of Midnights together, and I'm interested to see how Little Purr finds music as they get older. I imprinted on the pop & alt rock of the 80s and 90s, but it was all from radio. I guess it'll be a music service and a personal device in the future, but right now it's finding requests on youtube music when we are at home.

Little Purr is always making up songs with interesting lyrics with new tunes, and seems to have a pretty good voice, so while I've never been super into Taylor Swift, she's an excellent singer/songwriter role model, and truly is a music machine.
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 12:21 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


I'm currently in the demographic of parent of a pre-pre-teen, and Little Purr's friendgroup is all in on Taylor Swift.

I think that is a huge portion of her fan group - my kids became Swift fans at like 5 years old. However, they don't seem to be particularly interested in Midnight, and didn't like the last one much either as they have moved on to mostly showtunes from various school plays and Disney shows. They describe all rock songs as 'emo' and have no interest in the pop/rock music that my wife and I listen to. I'm assuming they will roll back around to Swift and pop music in general as they get older and more 'emo'.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:22 AM on November 3, 2022


I found this on quora regarding the song delicate; imo it explains exactly why Taylor is so successful (not to mention how she functions as her own manager with *cheffs kiss* marketing savvy)

It sums up the entire sticky situation of me having a crush on someone. I believe that's in essence what makes Taylor so successful; her ability to write relatble music. Sure, I could enjoy a Cardi B song, or a Calvin Harris beat, or Eminem's heaven of lyrical abilities, or Drake's adorable dorkiness and romantic misfortunes, but at the end of the day, only Taylor is able to describe my life like she's writing music from inside my room. That's an unprecedented talent in my opinion

I completely agree. Her lyrics get at the feelings really well and ya they border on cliche at times but life is kinda cliche; if you or I tried to write on similar emotions it’d come out terribly banal. I mean seriously do it, write some lyrics about the beginning of a relationship and you’re not sure if you can stick your neck out but you’re really into them, and see how it turns out. Hitting the right turn of phrase in a way that is catchy but with minimal wording that paints a picture is actually really hard.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:33 PM on November 3, 2022


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