![]() ![]() But even amidst all that doom and gloom, Usher’s Confessions emerged as a bona fide blockbuster, a four-quadrant monster.Įarlier this week, writing about Usher’s insanely dominant club klaxon “ Yeah!,” I called Confessions “a Thriller for the post-Napster era.” But the better comparison might be Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, the messiest all-conquering smash of the ’70s. Young people just weren’t buying music anymore. ![]() The iTunes Music Store hadn’t yet emerged as a money-maker, and label people were mad that they had to do business according to Steve Jobs’ terms, selling all of their songs for only a dollar apiece. ![]() The labels and their lawyers had managed to put Napster out of business, but tons of other file-sharing services were popping up to fill that hole. The industry was a few years past the peak of the CD-sales boom. In 2004, the music business was in trouble. I can imagine record-label bean-counters looking back on Usher’s 2004 and softly weeping, pining for the days that they can’t have back. For that one year, Usher was putting up numbers. But nothing in the man’s career, before or since, can measure up to what Usher did in 2004, the year that he truly owned the pop charts. That happened just a couple of months ago, when a moment of beautifully hammy showmanship from a Tiny Desk Concert reached meme status. Usher might not reliably chart the way that he once did, but he can still become a viral sensation out of nowhere. Usher Raymond was a star long before 2004, and he remained a star for years after. Swift also completely changed the production of her Red bonus track “Girl At Home” for Red (Taylor’s Version), giving the country tune an electro-pop makeover.In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. ![]() The original version of her 2006 breakup anthem “Picture to Burn” contained the line, “That’s fine I’ll tell mine you’re gay,” but before it was released as a single, she changed it to “That's fine You won't mind if I say.” This lyric now appears on all versions of her self-titled debut album, and will likely stay that way when she re-records it for the future “Taylor’s Version” re-recording. Then you grow up and realize no one take someone from you if they don’t want to leave.” The singer now has an opportunity to change the lyric on “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version)” to reflect her new mindset, but it’s not known whether she’ll actually rewrite lyrical history, and Swifties are split on whether she should do so.īefore “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version),” there was precedent for Swift amending her songs. “That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. “I was 18 when I wrote that,” she told The Guardian in 2014. Swift previously expressed regret for writing those lyrics, previously attributing it to her age. The most obvious clue is a reference to her profession in the chorus, which begins with Swift singing, “She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress.” Most fans believe the song was written about actor Camilla Belle, who started dating Swift’s ex-boyfriend Joe Jonas in October 2008, almost immediately after they split in an infamous 27-second phone call. But as heard in “Taylor’s Version,” Swift now sings, “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.” The second line of the chorus, “She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress,” is what some critics have called out as misogynistic. “Better Than Revenge” sees a teenage Swift call out her ex’s new girlfriend for taking him “faster than you can say sabotage” and criticizing her snobbery and red carpet demeanor, with cutting lyrics like “No amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity” making it Swift’s most biting revenge anthem to date (even over “Vigilante Sh*t”). Ahead of Swift’s newest “Taylor’s Version” album, one of Swifties’ most pressing questions was whether she would rewrite somewhat controversial lyrics on her beloved deep cut “Better Than Revenge.” When the re-recording was released on July 7, Swifties found out that she did indeed change the lyric in question. There is nothing Taylor Swift does better than revenge - but it looks a little different on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). ![]()
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