Repetition: A Musical Analysis of Taylor Swift's Reputation 

This day... this day a king was born

Damn the camera quality has gotten much better since this

This is excellent. I'm a massive swiftie and enjoyed rep but completely agree with everything you said. Many swifties hoped she'd win Grammys and there's no way. Everything else in the pop vocal category was FAR more creative and well done. It's too polished, too perfect, and SAFE

You know the content is quality when the camera and audio is middling but the video is still RIVETING. Love this channel so much.

I wonder if the main key signature is C because thats what gives her the broadest or most comfortable vocal range. Would be worth listening through some of her catalogue to see. Either way, I think it would contribute to your point of "safety" if she's not willing to take creative and musical chances with her voice. Great video.

she used to write on guitar using simple chords and this album just feels like she bumped the same chords/key onto a piano and did the same thing.

to be perfectly honest, it is truly hard for me to take an objective look at this album, as an old super fan of Swift myself, yet, i have to say that i wholeheartedly agree with your comments on the album being pretty repetitive and all that. musical theory or such statements with knowledge-based depth is not something i can add to, since i am no familiar in most concepts you based your analysis on. however, that "thing" that makes people listen to her music, or that makes her the big fat matter of discussion for longer than a decade, is pretty much the interesting correlation over her music and the controversy or some type of confusion over her persona. in the decade full of political polarization, she insisted on not commenting over politics, while being one of the biggest superstars in the music industry in the meantime. that really is a bold move, and indeed a move that shaped her public persona, regardless of the music she made. i am personally still a fan of her music, ---although it never was my "main" genre, or she never was a big figure through the mainstream music of my country---, but it's because i basically admire how big of a music industry mastermind she actually is by herself. being the true "album artist" she is, she managed to keep up with the impact she still has, with no impact through singles whatsoever. despite being a trend that will eventually fail in the age of streaming and fast consumption, she successfully maintained her "album selling" policies through so many years of drastic changes through the music industry and mainstream music overall. my main point would be to say that, although it may seem unfair to most people when it comes to critical approach to pieces of art, taylor swift is definitely NOT the artist to ONLY tackle through the piece of music she makes. everything about her public persona is somehow in correlation with each other; and everything she has been through during the preparation process of reputation is embodied through the album, which is indeed a massive success with limited examples through the industry nowadays. all in all, i am a huge fan of your content, and i've been watching your videos in awe for longer than three hours now, so please excuse this random piece of long-ass comment :') i think about the current music industry a lot, because i pretty much grew up with an obsession over the industry, and i still try to follow up with how it evolves while i kinda get sick of it in the meantime. i would love to see what you think about Swift as an artist, or as a figure in pop culture in some other video, because i almost fully agree on your commentary on the development of pop culture and how everything about music is shifted through politics and social changes; and i believe she is, to some extent, an intriguing case in the mainstream music, through each and every move she makes when it comes to business. please keep up with this wonderful content!

dancing with our hands tied is pop perfection imo

Awesome video but it’s funny how you mentioned Some Nights with Imagine and Let It Be as notable examples. It’s kinda weird how Some Nights is now suddenly considered a classic. But it deserves it 100%

This video was so interesting! Rep is one of (if not) my favorite Taylor albums, but I never really thought about the theory of the music behind it. Love your channel!

Reputation works great as a live show but as an album you have to care about her life/drama to enjoy the album which is never a good sign. it can be a very monotone listen at times. also they could have picked better singles cause delicate is all the GP remembers from the album

I spent all of my work day today listening to every single analysis video in this playlist. time we'll spent, great stuff!

Your video really made me think about the album musically (I don't know much about the stuff like that so....) And I can now see how most songs use the same "ingredients". In my opinion this album stands out in it's lyrics more than sound and isn't as good compared to her other work but I still love the era.

I had to go back to this video and I wish you could do a lot of musical analysis like this of specific albums. It's really fascinating, even as someone who doesn't know much about musical composition.

I like your video so much! You give information so well structured and interesting. This video must have much more views. Thanks to this album I started to like taylor as an performer and songwriter. Despite the all repetive sounds this album is very pleasing to listen. And the same thing I can say about her previous album - 1989. There was the same chord progressions as well. As I think... i dont know music theory:(

I really dont know anything about the tecnical side of music but for me reputation is my favorite album by taylor and one of my favorite of all time, I really never understood why nobody likes it, her fans hate it, the critics didnt praise it either and its kinda like everybody forgot about its existence... for me was so meaningful, I guess because I could really connect with it and relate to the lyrics because of what I was going through in my life

This channel deserves to be so much bigger than it is.

A lot of people are asking why this album might use so many of the same musical building blocks across so many of its songs; my theory is that Taylor, working with Max Martin and Shellback, knew this album would be a big departure from her usual sound and wanted to lay a safe musical foundation in which to ground that departure. I imagine it was also an attempt to create a sonic landscape/identity unique to the album, making it feel cohesive and coherent. I find it particularly interesting that all the songs in C major have thematic similarities--they're songs about nurturing a new romantic relationship in private. However, this being her *intention* doesn't mean it was automatically artistically successful; art is subjective and what sounds "cohesive" to one person might sound "repetititive" to another. She uses these techniques through *so many songs* it's not surprising that someone with an ear attuned to these things would notice it and find it fatiguing. Re: the conclusion of the video, I do think it's a little unfair to argue that the album is driven entirely by resentment and spite when those are themes on 3/15 songs. I would make that critique of the album's *marketing*--the social media blackout, the snake image, the LWYMMD music video (I know it's attempting irony, it still comes across as spiteful) but not mecessarily the album itself. I do feel like as a ~swiftie~ who is nearly tone deaf for all I can distinguish between different chords/chord progressions, my biggest hangup with this album is the paratext, the sequencing, and the thematic confusion (is this an album about fame & public perception, as implied by the title? about a fictional femme fatale i.e. rfi, don't blame me? about personal, private love i.e. delicate et al?), but I still would have loved to hear a more musically diverse version of this album--maybe it would have made a difference!

so glad you got a better camera since this video

Awesome video Nick. This CD has been on repeat in my girlfriend's car since before the holiday and I thought many of the same things. Great job quantifying all of it and laying it out so nicely.

This is a great video, but I'm a little confused on the Pop Song Chords bit: surely if you're substituting another chord, then you're no longer using pop song chords? I was taught that it was a fairly strict I IV V VIm-changing the order alone is enough to make it no longer the Pop Song Progression, let alone subbing in the V for a II. Am I missing something here?

Coming from the future here, you should analyse lady gaga's chromatica because for me when I listened I thought she literally used the keys and structures for every song on the album like reputation

Listening to I Feel It Coming and Dancing With Our Hands Tied overlapped was weird and satisfying. Thanks for that

Hence no grammy noms

I LOVE this album, but it is very interesting to hear this.

i dont know much about this kind of stuff and i personally enjoyed the album but i was thinking maybe she used the same chords to make the album seem cohesive? Since there are songs like gorgeous and king of my heart and also songs like lwymmd, getaway car and dress which are so different from one another maybe she needed a way to make them familiar as if they belong to 1 album. Just my opinion tho, nice video.

You really put it into words. I don’t understand much about music theory but I think I understand what you mean and I felt it in my experience listening to this album… I found it repetitive and boring on the first listen or two. But as I listened to it more I begin to appreciate the different songs for their individual quirks….so I couldn’t understand how it was so boring on my first listen. But that’s it! They’re good songs but as an album just a boring ride

It was the first album of hers I fully listened which is weird for me now. It wasn’t what it was portrayed as. After LWYMMD everyone thought it was full of diss tracks but it had beautiful songs like IDSB DBM getaway car and delicate. The singles choices wasn’t good in this era.

he read this album for filth

I'm new here but man, you've come a long way from this video

I found this chanel this year and I like it because it felt like some of the people that have been in the platform for years, when I saw he had been uploading videos for that long I was suprise, then I watched the video that looks like it was film in a 2008 MacBook camera and somehow all made sense 😂

Interesting video. I'm not even gonna pretend I understand some of the things you explained here, and I'm sure some of them are straight up musical facts. For me the album works beautifully. And tells an amazing story that is about much more than just resentment. IT doesn't echo America's resentment at all. On the contrary, It is self reflective, and admits to her own mistakes. Case in point, getaway car, call it what you want, Delicate, New Year's Day. It is about finding happiness and loving yourself, and your loved ones, despite what anyone else might think of you, about not letting your reputation get to you, as she has done in the past. It starts off as middle finger, but gets progressively more vulnerable as the album goes on. Also, some of these comments certainly aged terribly. Hasn't had any long lasting effect??? LWYMMD is one of the best comebacks ever, and the whole Kanye drama has been completely unveiled and further proven Taylor's innocence in the whole deal. Among fans of Taylor, it is pretty much revered as a misunderstood album, but it is also the album that has turned many people into fans. It is also the most successful stadium tour in the US ever by a landslide.

This Video made me falling in love with you :o So cute!

I don't know if this video is about hate her Album or love it. Cause when it comes to Taylor she always has a story that everyone looking for. So lyrics & songwriting are the reason why people enjoy her music. And yeah I'm glad you don't pay attention about media who talked bad about her during that period of time. Basically media predicted that reputation would be flop and no one would go to her reputation tour. And I don't know if you're notice or not, during that era she barley has no promotion and she never do any interviews to boost that Album. But still Taylor broke records with that Album and also with her Tour. She actually made this album just for the fans and to be honest I enjoyed this album more than her any other projects. But yeah it still good to see any other options of people about this record

Love learning new things here. Obviously, I am no musician here so I can really understand few or some of your explanation haha! All I know is that from a professional/musician perspective, it’s not that great. I’m definitely in a different industry and just a swiftie here so for me this album is good definitely new from her and the best comeback like in-your-face comeback. Not her best album but definitely a great pop album if you’ll compare it to other artists.

Reputation still slaps tho!

this man really dropped this hard of a banger first try

I just found this video and it’s great!!!

Loveeee this album.. thanks for your opinion I enjoyed it

I know this is an old video, but it just got recommended to me lol. I really enjoyed hearing someone delve into the musical aspect of the album, I agree that there was too much focus on her actual reputation/the lyrics. It's my least favorite album from her by far, but even so, there are 4 or 5 songs that I really like, maybe even love - funnily enough, I think it's probably because the rest of it was just too repetitive, and I didn't realize that's what the problem was. Most of it just doesn't interest me. Some, like Gorgeous, Dancing With Our Hands Tied, and Dress, really impressed me. But it's the first Taylor Swift album where, after the first listen, I never listened to it in full ever again. Lover is MUCH better.

Yes.

worth listening to the rant for that weeknd remix

love from brazil

is it possible because taylor starts a lot of songs on the piano/guitar she's very familiar to these chords and these are her "go to's"

1:37 how did you do that?

Getaway car is a classic and no one can ever tell me otherwise

Perhaps you could think of the whole album as having a "home key", in the manner of Mozart's "Symphony No. 36 in C Major".

can you do a musical analysis on her new album pleaaaaaaaase 🙏🏻

That's an excellent video! I agree with your points, but to me the worst offense is the subdivided hi hat... it's so annoying! The same key is also a bad choice, perhaps if she introduced a bit more variety with the key used. I guess the point about Taylor sticking to the variations of I-V-vi-IV is valid, but to be honest i didn't notice it on rep, but on her other albums. Both Dress and So It Goes (since it starts with IV) are using a variation and to me it makes a huge difference while listening. The reason Taylor sticks to those chords is that she writes her songs primarly on guitar (and piano) and with a capo and C, G, Am, F she can build a song very easily. And for what its worth its on Rep that she used those variations more often than for instance Red or Fearless.

The reason I don't like Swift is I find her songs too repetitive (I like Red though). Look at 'we're never getting back together', how many times does she repeat that one line and its variations? Repetition can be good though if it's like a dance track, like Rihanna's Werk.

lol why r the 9 tht r in the same signature also mostly my favs @micthesnare can u explain this to me do i just hv boring taste in music :((

Listen to it again now! And make another video!

Yeah you really need to care about her persona and her lore to like her music unfortunately. She’s just a person, i don’t want to spend ten hours scrolling through social media to figure out what color means what ex or whatever.

Still a great album

It’s so the album is more coherent. Even tho they are similar I find the songs so different.

I first saw your top 10 albums of 2010 and there I immediately concluded that you don't like TS or at least have an issue with her. And then I saw this.

Fuckin yeah

Getaway car and king of my heart are two of my favorites on reputation so I died when you said they were the same song 🤣

You are so cuteeeee (and repetition is hilarious)

Oh.

I love Taylor but Reputation is not my favorite Now I know why I always think about why I don't love the music so much Now I do Thank you

In this Video, A Star was Born. Go’ on clap for em 👏🏾🐐

So I do love this album, HOWEVER, lol. I tend to immediately like things that sound like a older song I loved. Also I totally she feel like she’s, in ways coping Miley Cyrus with this record. In a very subtle, but some of that rappy girl pop, and a few random tones and stuff

The album slaps and none o'that technical mumbo jumbo will make me not levitate off the fucking ground as soon as king of my heart starts.

I only liked Delicate and New Years Day

lol, that horse neigh was cursed.

My swiftie friends can't believe this is my favourite of her albums. Im not sure why im so drawn to it? Luckily my lack of music theory means i haven't noticed any of the problems outlined in the video lmao, i think the interesting production and badassery of certain songs is what i really enjoy

Revisiting this and I have some points for you to consider: a large portion of what reputation was suppose to be and is, is a sort of camp portrayal of what the media has created as her reputation. a lot of critics did not look at this camp lens and part of that includes using generic pop lyricism. It’s intentional that it sounds generic pop with its structure. This snake like greedy generic pop star was the intention of making fun of with this album. So knowing the details behind the album and the context actually do matter when looking at The composition of this album. Anyway, love your videos just food for thought

720p that looks 480p mic the muffled snare

Hot take: this video alone is better than all of Antony Fantano's work

Didn't Ray Charles write literally all of his songs in the key of C...?

00:00 AND A REINCARNAION OF CRAZY FROG WAS BORN

Sounds like she was scrubbing a reputation clean rather than owning it. If this joke doesn't suit you, I'm sorry, I tend to miss.

For me, reputation is best listened to at night. The first time I listened to this was on a 26 hour bus ride to Disney world and it fucking slapped so hard. Reputation has become my favorite Taylor swift album and even though that’s the case, I still agree with many of your points. The fatigue might just be depending on the person but I never felt that while listening, but it’s an interesting thing to point out that I bet some people, including you, relate to when listening to this. I’m always going to be a huge Rep Stan, but I do admit that it has some flaws when you dig deeper into it. Amazing video and it’s crazy how this is your first video because your humor is just as amazing. This is genuinely one of my favorite videos of yours because I learned so much from it and it still had the classic humor from your later videos that I absolutely love

Hell I don’t get that hate on that one, I’d sue too if I was a major celebrity who has never supported a white supremacist cause even accidentally and some consequence free blogger defames me by saying I am um yeah I’d be pretty pissed, rumours like that can last a whole career even if its bullshit. I don’t say hey just because I know metallica has some real bad skinhead fans, Walmart playing enter sandman today makes them white supremacists; because bad people liking something doesn’t define it as bad for the person who made it, or other people who enjoy it for good reasons. I don’t know why the twitter generation feels that literally everything has to do with politics, even in the age of 60’s protest music most songs had fuck all to do with politics, even back then in those turbulent times there was space for music that didn’t want to be bogged down by the horrors of real life and real world conflicts, TLDR: Question: Why can’t taylor swift just be an apolitical musician, they’ve been around forever, Answer: She’s white, it’s current year, and she was late to tow the party line. if you are a white celebrity who doesnt endorse democrat candidates and doesn’t loudly support BLM and the LGBT lobby at literally any chance given, you can kiss your career goodbye

This is funny, if you're a fan of taylor swift you know why most if the songs are in the same keys 😂 there's a story about it sir.

reputation is her best album.

I still think taylor is a genius. She is a way more gifted songwriter but she has great vocals as well. Her persona so well crafted. A genius indeed! This album with edm sounds is still a banger i really like. Many songs very well done. Gorgeous is the best on i personally feel but many are worthy of being singles. This was a particularly interesting time of her career. Your citation of the sterogum article i read and found it to be very cynical of taylor persona but insightful and tyler, the creator comparison made with taylor persona well two are very different artist but artist nonetheless. She is role model to many but just cuz of that very reason her political comments matter hence she may have choose to keep quite on the front. So much hate she recieved from kanye and kim k fans and generally people hated on her on socials it was crazy. That article made stupid arguments saying bruno to be a joy and light while taylor not to be??? She has been joy for millions of women. That article was misogynistic! Coming from a pov of a covert hater. You also have that sense of taylor as a white supremist...its evident in your description of her.

I’m a life long Swiftie and Rep is one of my least favorite projects she’s ever done. I do love a few songs (Getaway Car, King of My Heart, Gorgeous) but I resent this album for its overall monotonous tone and harping on her own reputation. If she never performed “Ready for It?”, “Endgame”, or “This is why we can’t have nice things” ever again, I’d be ok with that.

She beat the music industry, exposing it for what it is!!. Not about talent, but about $$$. Being honest, TS is a below average musician at best..in fact it pains me to call her a musician. Yea, she's popular and has made alot of money and sold alot of whatever. But face it, people are sheep, they follow what is popular. So I do give her credit for breaking thru on limited talent, but DO NOT call her a musician!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's actually insulting to real musicians!

😪😪😪

The one dislike is probably from Taylor Swift herself, because you're a great teacher and lecturer. I wish I would have cared more about theory and stayed in band when I was a teenager. To be fair I had a bad teacher that pretty much ruined it for me. Anyway, I think you're a great teacher and I like your videos. Your ending made me laugh out loud too. Good stuff.

Flawed like this guy's camera

Personally I think this review is backwards. The review felt like it came first from a technical perspective. The review should start from a human element. "It felt repetitive by the middle", then look into why it might be repetition, then discuss that songs being in the same key as a potential cause. This felt like someone who read a couple books and determined if it was good based on those books. This felt like the same disconnect between audience and film critic. At the end of the day, if I'm rocking out all the way through an album and they're all C Major.... I'm not going to care. Music is art backed by science, not science backed by art. If this was a movie, we might hear: "Ghostbusters is bad because there's no character growth." But what I want to hear is "I loved the movie, let me leverage my technical background to explain how they pulled this off." I'm not saying Reputation is good, I haven't listened to it. I'm saying I can't trust his reviews will ever be the second sentence if he doesn't listen to an album open-minded rather than shaped by technical knowledge.

Sure, you said that you don't hate reputation but more than half of your "review", you're basically saying that the album tracks' composition are repetitive and bland. Can't you even realize how smart this album was, for Taylor to clap back at all the hate she's received into an enormous album like this? Plus her songwriting here is phenomenal. Sure, you won't talk about it because you're only so focused on her "composition" and "lyrical chords".

Shame, Taylor made so much money on it, and we enjoyed it... guess we can't all be intellectuals

at first I used to love this album because we saw the bad-ass (now cringe ass) side of taylor. but looking at her past works and the recent albums she put, this is definitely her worst record. looking at it now, i even think that this album is so unnecessary

Did he lied ?

Maybe this was a last minute PR album.

You know when you want to discuss a musical analysis of an album so you can add something new to the conversation without giving your 2 cents about the "controversies", don't just list off your unwanted opinions at the end hoping we wouldn't notice. I will not even get into the kanye phone call, since it has been proven that she has been right all along and your biased opinion on kanye in known (let's see the same energy with his "Famous" video. but you probably don't see anything wrong with it). But to also mention the theme of the album being "solely about resentment" in a fragmented US is just audacity that can only come from a white man. She mentions her "beefs" in exactly 5 songs out of 15, the rest being love songs.You'd think someone who did a whole video on musical analysis could see the album beyond its marketing. This is a female songwriter's catharsis album, I'd love to see the "resentment" comment on any male artist writing about his experiences. Also the audacity to talk about a fragmented US when the artist you love so much is a black man supporting a white supremacist president that is the cause of this divide. You bring up "long-lasting impact" but reputation stadium tour was one of the highest grossing tours in history, with LWYMMD and the single rollout a classic moment in pop culture thereafter. Also this woman has been put through hell before this album, wHY do you feel entitled to talk about whether she does outside press interviews or not? When it sold 1B+ without any traditional promo?

A nobody critiques something that just got millions 🙄 As if...

Wrong to this day

Too much negative opinions. More than half of this video is about hate on reputation. Smh. Oh well, what can I expect from someone who worships Kanye West's albums.