Musical Border Crossing

Every musician must be jealous of Taylor Swift's ability to transcend musical genres. Unlike other artists and bands, she does not fit neatly into one category. For example, you can hear her song "Love Story" on a country radio station and then tune to a rock station which will be playing the same song, albeit a different version. All they do is nix the fiddle and add an electric guitar solo and BAM, her music transforms from country bumpkin anthems to pre-teen pop. It's a feat of magic Houdini himself could not perform.

No matter what style her song actually is, seemingly every radio station picks it up. Her most recent tune, "We Are Never Getting Back Together," or whatever it is called, sounds more along the lines of a Kesha or Katy Perry song, yet due to her well-established position as a country singer, country radio stations play it incessantly. This is a bit absurd, since I can't think of any other singer/band to which this phenomenon applies. You don't see remixes of Metallica songs where they add a banjo to make it acceptable for country radio. I'm not sure I would want to hear that song to be honest.

Actually I lied. While writing this, my mind came up with an example. The Band Perry, a band who also specializes in country twang, gets their songs made over with injections of electric guitar solos to make their appearance on pop radio acceptable. So, I suppose it just applies to country artists.