Taylor Swift was a “pegacorn” for Halloween. No, it’s not a sex thing (but it sounds like it, right?). Swifty is a Pegasus + unicorn = pegacorn. She wanted to be a unicorn with wings. It’s sort of cute. I’m glad she didn’t go for a Sexy Maid/Nurse/Whatever. I’d much rather see women dressed up as pegacorns rather than sexy whatevers.
Anyway, Taylor had a really amazing week. Her album, 1989, dropped and it became the first and only platinum-album debut of the year. This is actually a two-fer: the last time an artist went platinum in their first week was 2012, when Taylor released Red. Taylor’s label, Republic Records, threw her a “private party” in Soho last Thursday to celebrate. There were gormet white truffle burgers and a cake shaped like a Polaroid camera.
Vulture also had a great analysis on Taylor Swift’s earnings, real estate, album sales and tour grosses – go here to read. By their analysis, Swifty is probably sitting on just shy of $200 million after taxes. My guess? It’s probably a lot more than that. Taylor tops nearly every list of the top-grossing tours, albums, etc. Anyway… it’s good to be Tay-Tay. It’s profitable to be twee.
Last thing – Taylor was on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show and she danced and lip-sync’d to Iggy Azalea. It was brilliantly awkward, hilariously dorky and everything in between. This is the kind of thing where I go… “Okay, maybe she might be sort of fun as a friend.”
Photos courtesy of Swifty’s Instagram, Fame/Flynet.
Minus the wings that looks like the most comfortable and snuggly costume ever. I want to binge watch law and order and eat cookies in it.
+1
She’s wearing Asian pajamas with angel wings. You might like it better than a maid or nurse costume, but it’s really all the same level of creativity.
I agree that it’s not the most creative costume.
At least it’s not “Sexy PhD Student” or whatever. Those outfits are so annoying!
My thoughts exactly! “Sexy” costumes have become so much the norm, I feel it is a win anytime a young female doesn’t feel pressured to sex-ify her costume.
As I’ve never seen a “Pegacorn” before as a costume, I think that’s creative enough. It’s recognizable and clever, I don’t care how complex it is, it’s a win in my book.
Am happy for Taylor swift she has come a long way and she has got the staying power. This girl is going to last in the industry. I know So many people don’t like her but you must admit she works hard and deserves all she earns. She doesn’t bring in the shock factor neither does she throw antics and she is pretty harmless. She is going to be around for a long time, take it or leave it 🙂 😉
The level of security protocol this girl has to deal with on a daily basis is crazy yet you never hear her complain about fame nor lack of privacy. She takes time to greet her fans on the streets and takes time to know the “lowly” employees working for her. She doesn’t b1tch about paps. Not a fan of her music but I don’t mind seeing her around.
Totally agree. I just saw her on a Graham Norton show on Youtube. She is really likeable and obviously has a good head on her shoulders. I think her music is awful but man do I think she would be a great friend.
She’s someone I wouldn’t mind my daughter looking up to as a role model, at all and there are very few i can say that about. She’s only 2 but squeals when shake it off comes on, and honestly even though her early songs aren’t my style, i really can’t help but jam to it with her. It’s been years and still she hasn’t cracked and decided, “but see how shocking and sexy I am!! I’m a grown up!!” An inevitability it seems with most pop stars. If highschool age baby wiffie brought her clone home as a new friend, I’d have that girl over every day.
I have to admit that even though I’m not a huge Taylor fan, her new CD is quite good. It’s a pop CD that’s actually bearable and it’s not nearly as whiny and annoying as her previous songs…I think it’s a solid effort for her first full pop album, this chick knows how to sell CDs.
Most of the songs are written by the small group of guys who write and produce for LITERALLY every other pop artist in the world, as were the hit singles off her last album Red.
Which goes a long way to explaining why they’re refreshingly saccharine teen-free!
The unicorn costume OTOH, is giving me unpleasant flashbacks to the first time Miley Cyrus unleashed her faux-twerking on the world…
I thought she wrote all of her own music…???
She doesn’t “other Renee”. she’s apart of the process, i.e. she doodles ponys and kittens on the song sheets with a glitter pen and they have to give her writers credits. Same as Katie Perry and Rihanna.
She collaborated with Adele’s And Bey’s co songwriter, Ryan Tedder. Nothing wrong with that, it’s an industry norm.
I disagree. She actually does more than just doodle with songs. She’s a talented songwriter…many of her country songs were written soley by her. Yes, Ryan Tedder and others wrote her pop stuff, but she contributes more than you’re implying..her name is attached to pretty much every song on the album. Which is why her pop songs on 1989 are much better, IMO, than much of Katy perry and company. Taylor actually knows music…might not be a strong singer, but she knows how to read and wrote music and doesn’t pretend to know like others.
She must have written the bulk of her previous albums; isn’t all the criticism about how she writes songs about all her exes?
That’s such a lie and jealously.. She writes all her songs or collaborates …
Imogen Heap who Taylor Swift wrote the song ” clean” , has a great blog how she thought Taylor Swift was like every other pop star who didn’t write their own music and how wrong she was…
Don’t post jealous lies as some fact that only you know.. And isn’t collaborated by any evidence .
Every song on the album is listed who are the writes , either Taylor wrote on her own or she collaborated like with Imogen Heap or Jack Antonoff.. All singer , song writers with their own careers … who actually praise Taylor Swift’s writing.
That’s why Taylor Swift has been honoured a record 6 times by the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation And Nashville Songwriters Association International ..
Sorry to break it to you but she does produce and write or co write all her music.
Taylor and her fans act like she does all of the writing but I think it was Fearless or Speak Now that she wrote all of the songs alone. Her first few albums were mostly written by Taylor but had co-writers for polish. I do think that Taylor took a back seat on “Red” and “1989”. The ideas were hers but definitely much more of a collaboration than her earlier albums. Max Martin and Shellback are huge writers and producers so more than likely they were the driving force. There’s nothing wrong with co-writers. People think Adele is an amazing writer but she has co-writers for most of her songs.
How about “you’re misinformed” instead of “that’s such a lie and jealousy”? That ruined an otherwise decent rebuttal.
Have any of you listened to her voice memos on her newest CD? It’s amazing! It reveals how SHE wrote the songs and her rough drafts of songs. All sang acoustically. It very much shows how talented she is at writing songs.
@ Louise .
Ah well there isn’t some massive conspiracy that all music reporters and writers and people in the industry from all the people she’s worked with on her albums who are the best in the business , from artists and producers to engineers to writers …
Are in on to pretend that Taylor Swift writes/ composes all her music or co writes .
Or that her album Speak Now that she won Grammy of the Year for best album ((something no pop star has won ) that she wrote every song on the album with co writers.
She even has 3 message recording on 1989 that show her writing process.
No because it does read like lies and jealousy.
Even doing a quick goole search .
Anyone would know that Taylor Swift won Grammy for album of the year for her 2010 release Speak Now ( which is feat in itself ) and that she was the sole song writer of every song on the album, there’s not some dispute , there isn’t anyone taking credit for one song or some songs, she wasn’t sued by anyone demanding credit, no one in Nashville believes some else wrote the album so it just lies from that this poster , that they pulled out of their a$$ to do discredit Taylor Swift.
Instead of a blog like this celebrating a young women who has talent and is beating the boys in a male dominated industry and seems to be humble with kind .. They decide to spread lies to tear her down.
I listened to a review of 1989 on NPR the other day, and I was pretty impressed.
I know she got help writing the songs but for pop song,s they were well crafted. They had a few interesting, off-beat moments, and the lyrics were OK. She could have done power ballads and made the whole thing OTT, but she held back, which gave the songs a slight hint of irony.
I wouldn’t buy it, because it was still to poppy for me, but compared to the other stuff that’s out there I think she’s good.
I think it’s a decent pop album, but I find the music itself very generic. If I hadn’t known “Blank Page” was her in advance, I wouldn’t have recognized it as anything but a one-off song by a new artist. The CD has lost the sound I associate with T. Swift – in that regard, I think RED was the better pop album. (Or are we still operating under the pretense that RED was in any way country?) It’ll be a hit, no getting around that, but I’d hope her next pop album does better to differentiate the sound as more distinct to her.
She writes her own stuff. You can tell because of how horribly repetitive her songs are.
What’s with her obsession with headlights and red lipstick? Every second song on the new album features one or both.
The wall street journal had a review of 1989 and seven of the tracks were written/produced by max martin and two by the guy for fun; she has a ton of help, but her stans just don’t want to see it. She is not ella fitzgerald or Janis Joplin. SHe is an overrated, overhyped generic pop star with a savvy management team that knows what sells.
There Is nothing remarkable about her music, and her live singing voice is unimpressive. It’s called hype.
But really, doesn’t she ever get tired of marketing herself?
@theoneandonly – ella fitzgerald wasn’t a songwriter, and janis co-wrote or covered lots of songs. most singers get a “ton of help.” that’s the nature of making music.
You can write a song and have someone else produce it. The two tasks can overlap a bit, but ultimately they are very different things. Production only applies to the song on that specific recording.
A well written song can be played in a variety of ways, because the lyrics and melody will carry it in any form (different key, acoustic, with a rock edge, in a jazz style, with a marching band, etc.). A well produced song that isn’t well written is only as good as it sounds with those specific production aspects in that specific recording.
I’ll take a pegacorn over a sexxy nurse/cat/whatever any day.
Yes!
That costume is awesome! (Where did she get it?)
I want to believe the unicorn reference is a shade for Leann Rimes. LeAnn is copying the birth year shtick at the moment and tweeting Taylor Swift. Taylor could have copied the unicorn shtick.
Okay, maybe not, but I had fun with the thought.
I don’t think LeAnn is anywhere on Taylor’s radar. They did both release albums this week. Taylor sold millions and Leann’s is ranked somewhere in the 800’s.
Since I am in blackout on twitter it feels good to get some snark out of my system here so yeah its a fun thought to entertain:) and for Rimes tweet to Swift on her platinum debut another classic hey look at me hands waving madly desperation to belong tweet
As for Taylor cute comfy costume…its always extremely cold where I live for Halloween this makes me feel cozy and I would love to hit the slopes in it just once!
Did LR actually do that? she’s probably going to try and get her to notice her so that she can suggest they do a song together. There’s no way Taylor’s people would let her near LR, it only takes a quick search to see what poison she is.
I can only imagine how thoroughly maddening Taylor’s crossover success is to LeAnn the loser. Ah, the lulz.
The pegacorn comes from an episode of “Ew” she did on Jimmy Fallon. http://youtu.be/JltEXpbGM8s
I like her. I can’t help it.
I do, too. I’m feeling dizzy.
Me, too! What is happening??? She’s so…likeable!
I bought the album. It is on my playlist for when I run. Love it. Can’t help it. 😎
+1
•GoodNames•
My daughter is a die-hard Swifty and flat-out adores her. So you are in fantastic company! 😉
Since other people mention it, as a mom, I have no issues with my daughter having TS as a role model. None whatsoever.
Also, Taylor Swift is beyond nice to her fans. Taylor opened her ‘Red Tour’ in Omaha, NE and someone on her team graduated from the high school my children attend(ed) so this person arranged for the high school band (band would have spent several hours with her from the proposed plans) to greet Taylor upon her arrival to Omaha. Someone in the high school band tweeted that info so her management team canceled the meet and greet. When Taylor found out — she was upset because she hates letting people/her fans down (my daughter was heartbroken). Taylor, as a consolation, gave the high school band tickets *in the pit* for both nights she was in Omaha (band students had a choice of which night). My daughter was OVER THE MOON — she got to see Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift in concert and occasionally she was close enough to Taylor to touch her. Doesn’t get much better than that.
And that’s just one of many things she does for her fans. She stays long past she’s supposed to to sign stuff and and is always doing something extra for them. Plus on her 1989 album (the deluxe version) featured voice memos on how she song writes (most songs were recogniseable too). Love her or hate her — she IS wonderful to her fans.
My daughter wants to add:
On various social media sites (tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) Taylor actually invited some of her fans (89 fans per session and my daughter thinks it was 6 sessions) over to meet her personally and listen to the album before it was rel eased. According to participants, Taylor made sure it was a very personal and a good experience for them.
*released
All shade aside, she sounds like she really tries to treat the fans right. My kid sister has been to quite a few of her shows and she’s forever raving about Swift’s kindness to her supporters. Swift seems to be keenly aware of who pays her bills and that’s a good thing.
What a sweet story! Love it.
I don’t like her. She’s good looking but I just can’t take someone who literally can’t sing as ya, know…a singer.
I think it’s a “whole package” situation… no one would accuse Billy Corgan of being an overly talented vocalist, but The Smashing Pumpkins are sooo good.
THe smashing pumpkins are a great rock band, and Billy Corgan is an actual you know, musician, not a manufactured corporate product like tay tay.
Of course she’s good to her fans; she and her team knows what sells.
But what does that have to do with her music or her guitar skills, which are amateurish – have you seen her actually play riffs live and improvised like any real guitarist?
Ah, the old debate about technical virtuosity vs. artistic expression!
A person can be incredibly artistically talented without being technically gifted, just as someone can be technically gifted yet lack artistry. Four words: Dream Theater, Bob Dylan.
Quality isn’t always determined by technical skill. While Taylor might not make the most powerful music ever written, I think she has a knack for lyrically tapping into the “everyman” experience of current millennials. Because “catchy” is such a hard quality to define, many of those that aim for it still can’t achieve it. I do think that takes talent, even if she can’t shred a guitar.
Beyonce sells more plus she has bigger impact.
Does she? I always thought T Swift sold more
Eh no, Swift sells way more. Her opening numbers are insane and she’s breaking her own records.
I do find Beyoncé more interesting, Swift while nice, is too bland for me.
Really. I actually think I find Taylor more interesting because seems a bit more open and real. Beyonce seems super rehearsed to me whenever she gives interviews, and when she takes photos of herself trying to be “authentic,” it appears equally as superficial. That’s just my opinion, of course. Though, I probably like Beyonce’s music better than Taylor’s–well actually I prefer Jay-Z to both of them.
You find Beyonce interesting ….come on you can’t be serious.
Does Beyonce even do live interviews ..cause she has the vocabulary of a 5th grader and is about as dull and dish soap.
Beyonce been with one guy since she 18 teen and only worked.
Who are Beyonce friends the only person who isn’t a family member and once part of her group is Paltrow .. And that’s more Jay Z then Beyonce.
When she not touring all she does is take photoshopped pictures and post them and vacation ..and let’s not get into her documentary , the thing was a master piece of dull and the mind of a narcissist .
Lol Beyonce doesn’t have once million first week album sale in her whole career …
Her last album / video whatever that was was her best selling of her career and she only sold 660 thousand in first week.
Taylor Swift will be making history by this being her 3rd album to sale over a million in one week .
No artist has archived since Sound Scan recorded first week sales figures, even though the music has changed so much Taylor Swift the only Super Star to be able to pull off million week sales .
I know I’m replying super late to this but just wanted to put this info out there for anyone who reads this after me. Record sales are really disingenuous way of judging mass appeal. A lot of places had Taylor’s album for sale for $3.99 and as low as 99 cents (Xbox music). I have never purchased a Taylor Swift album but even I purchased it when it featured for 99 cents. I buy every 99 cents album of the week even if I don’t like the artist and you would amazed (visit a few WP sites) at the number of people who bought the CD just because of the sale.
There’s room for both of them, there doesn’t have to be some senseless competition between them. Let each sing their music and let the fans enjoy it, I’m so sick of these endless false choices. Just because you like someone doesn’t mean you have to bad mouth someone else.
I completely agree, Bob. Why even compare the two? They both are incredibly successful in their own right.
Im not really into her music but I dont rush to change the station either.
That said, the more I read about her, the more I like her. Like I would totally hang out with her and talk cats, antiquing and maybe bake some cakes or something. Im quite a bit older than her but I really think she would be my kind of friend. I actually have a cpl gf’s who are 10+ yrs younger than me but always seemed yrs ahead of their age. I think Taylor really is like that. either that or she really does have the best PR team in the business.
I heard on the radio she’s donating all proceeds from this album to… I want to say NYC schools? I haven’t seen coverage here unless I’m missing a link but would like to see more info on this! Love or hate her that’s a classy move if it’s true.
She is donating all of the proceeds from the single Welcome to New York to the NYC city schools… I saw it on the View 🙂
Somehow, suddenly, I feel over-saturated by Taylor swift, even though she’s been a huge star for years. She’s just everywhere, and trying SO hard to be relatable and cute(and she is naturally, or has always seemed that way to me, so why so much effort now, suddenly?). It’s exhausting. I think the overexposure is why the chorus of people who don’t really like her has been getting progressively louder over the past few weeks. Maybe she should take a year or two to chill. She’s young and has talent and country and a mature fan base to fall back on, she doesn’t need to be in our faces constantly. And yes, “good role models” can be overexposed as well; look at Anne Hathaway and Beyoncé. Everyone loved them and thought they were nice, classy women, until they didn’t. It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when both Hathaway and Knowles had sterling reputations on gossip sites, and few would dream of bashing them. There’s this weird Icarus effect that female stars need to worry about(admittedly because of sexism and the distaste the media has for female ambition), and I feel like Taylor’s wings are about to melt off.
I agree that Taylor is really overexposed. I don’t know why she did so much publicity for this album. She’s at the stage where so much publicity isn’t necessary. Sure do some of the usually talkhows but she went overboard with doing all of the morning/late night shows and listening parties. It says a lot that she did E! News. Usually c-listers and reality tv stars do in studio appearances. It was really bizarre.
Clearly she did somuch publicity so that she could achieve a million sale first week. Advertising/publicity + good product = sales.
I think they melted off last year when she was criticized for dating “too many” guys. Despite the criticism, she overcame it, which shows what a loyal fanbase Tay Tay has.
I think it’s adorable!
Did anyone catch the SNL skit last night about being a Taylor Swift fan? It really fits the comment thread right now! Hehe
Yes! I made a reference to it upthread.
@ Mackey I couldn’t reply back to you up thread but yes LR did tweet a shoutout to TS cuz thats how she rolls desperado who won’t come to her senses
Isn´t the therm alicorn or is that something My Little Pony made up (yeah I watch that, i think its cute and fun).
I love me some Tay TAY! You keep on keepin on, pegacorn
The idea is cute, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. If I was sitting on millions, I’d be going all out on those costumes.
Why are people bringing up Beyonce she’s not even in the same league as Taylor Swift .
Beyonce has never in her whole career sold a million besides over a million albums in her first week .
The sad fact Beyonce’s last album / music video’s was the highest first week sales of her career.
She been around since Britney Spears who does hold that honour , Brtiney 2000: O’pps I did it again” meaning even when people were still buying cd , Beyonce was never a big seller and her digital single sales don’t even compare to Swift, Rihanna or Katy Perry .
This will be Taylor Swift’s 3 rd time in the last 4 years , only Eminem has done it twice and not since 2002… Taylor Swift is selling albums as if the music industry hasn’t changed in the last 14 years.
Pretty adorable.
This year I dressed up as a slutty zombie unicorn. I even had an origin story: I went to a party as a slutty unicorn and got bit by a zombie and voila! And unicorns bleed glitter, of course. A bit convoluted, yes, but it was a hit.
That’s an improvement on the over saturation of zombies of late. First vampires, now zombies, I hope witches are next.
That’s an improvement on the over saturation of zombies of late. First vampires, now zombies, I hope witches are next.
She just pulled all her songs out of Spotify because she thinks music should not be free.
I actually think Swifty would be an awesome BFF.
I like that her costume was cozy and comfy and not skin tight and sexy. I think too many people feel pressured to make themselves tarty on Halloween.