he/him
11 x 1
@pop3blow2
HIGHEST
10 x 5 (@citoig, @bad karma, @unnameable, @Dātura, @Subwaykid)
LOWEST
2 x 2 (@Phloo, @cometomyparty), 2.25 x 2 (Nick, @UncleDeSeanAli)
How is a legacy defined? Is it in records of how many albums you have sold? Is it in how many stadiums you can sell-out? Is it in your influence, how many people you have inspired? These aren’t questions I often ask myself, mainly because I’m insignificant, but I can imagine for an artist like Taylor Swift, questions like these must be on your mind.
“Clara Bow” is about the lineage of legacy and how women in the music industry are often compared to one another and seen as a replacement whenever a “new” star emerges. When speaking about this song for Amazon Music, Taylor Swift said this about the song “Clara Bow”: ““I used to sit in record labels trying to get a record deal when I was a little kid. And they’d say, ‘You know, you remind us of’ and then they’d name an artist, and then they’d kind of say something disparaging about her, ‘But you’re this, you’re so much better in this way or that way.’ And that’s how we teach women to see themselves, as like, ‘You could be the new replacement for this woman who’s done something great before you.’”
This comparison is part of the ritual of becoming a new star; all it takes is one look at the respective threads of all the new inductees to the Big Pop Girls cannon. Take Chappell Roan as example – she immediately began drawing comparisons which led to several pages on the forum debating whether she was the “new” Lady Gaga or the “new” Katy Perry. At the start of her career, before these two albums that she claims are her only ones, Sabrina Carpenter drew similar comparisons to Ariana Grande. Similarly, Gracie Abrams quickly began being billed as the “new” Taylor Swift. Watch out Beyoncé, here comes Tinashe. You get the gist.
This “new” version of that artist is always presented as a threat to the already established star. “Why should we listen to Katy Perry when Chappell Roan is there?”. “Why should we bother with the new Taylor Swift record? Olivia Rodrigo is doing exactly the same thing!”. “Lady Gaga? She’s just a Madonna wannabe.” This is not a new thing whatsoever and it’s something that inarguably all women in the industry of a certain age have faced.
Lyrically, the song is made up of conversations – the pre-chorus being the perspective of the young female artist (in this case, Stevie Nicks and later, herself) with the verses, chorus and outros being from a nondescript man presumably working at a record label. The song has a really unique structure that establishes a distinct and interesting flow. There’s a dynamic between the two that I think sells this song, particularly with the pre-chorus, where Taylor truly sounds hungry for success and in the place of these young women where she once was.
“I'm not trying to exaggerate
But I think I might die if it happened
Die if it happened to me
No one in my small town
Thought I'd see the lights of Manhattan”
In “Clara Bow”, Taylor traces that lineage of ‘replacements’ to show her point – because she feels replaced as well. The song closes out with herself now becoming the point of reference for other artists.
"You look like Taylor Swift
In this light, we're lovin' it
You've got edge, she never did
The future's bright, dazzling"
She has written songs before about the music industry, about how women are constantly being pitted against one another in a negative light, and how women in the industry are seen as disposable past a certain age, but she has never done it this well.
