Devil has a combination tape — and Taylor Swift is on the playlist

[ad_1] <img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d25e0a3925f024dd3ca26ffa2d055cf3" id="bdf3d" src="https://www.conservativereview.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWJsYXplLmNvbS9tZWRpYS1saWJyYXJ5L3NhdGFuLWhhcy1hLW1peC10YXBlLWFuZC10YXlsb3Itc3dpZnQtaXMtb24tdGhlLXBsYXlsaXN0LmpwZz9pZD02MTc3MTgzOCZhbXA7d2lkdGg9MTI0NSZhbXA7aGVpZ2h0PTcwMCZhbXA7Y29vcmRpbmF0ZXM9MCw0NiwwLDQ2IiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc5MzM2OTU0N30.KjeU4B9wpmQTmULpPK1LP-iyDf4nKgDLVpNo153MKZA/image.jpg" /> Taylor Swift is again with a brand new report, and along with her return come the outdated accusations.

For years, folks have instructed that she hides unusual symbols in her songs and movies. Even different pop stars have stated the identical factor — they usually’re not improper. From the serpent motif that slithered by means of her "Status" period to the witchy forest rituals of "Willow" and the tarot-like imagery of "Midnights," Swift has lengthy performed with the language of mysticism.

What religion as soon as supplied in household and devotion, the trade now mimics by means of sexualization and self-display.

It’s seductive, deliberate, and deeply disturbing.

Rock as soon as wore its insurrection brazenly. Ozzy Osbourne feasted on bats. Led Zeppelin flirted with the occult. Alice Cooper strutted throughout phases just like the satan in drag. However pop is subtler, sweeter — and much more harmful. Rock shouted “Hell!” for the shock of it. Pop smiles, takes your hand, and leads you there.

Billie Eilish, the Beetlejuice of pop, floats by means of a fog of melancholy, her music drowning in melancholy: songs about mutilation, numbness, and detachment from actuality. Lil Nas X, a raving gay who appears to enjoy depravity, enjoys grinding on Devil. Doja Cat smears herself in blood and calls it expression.

None of that is random. The trade has realized that darkness sells as a result of vacancy is a vacuum that must be crammed. Rhythm reaches the place purpose can’t, and perception will be rewritten one beat at a time.

Sadly, no viewers is extra susceptible than younger ladies.

They hear on repeat, absorbing lyrics like liturgy. Pop has at all times identified easy methods to attain them. Within the Sixties, the Beatles sang of affection as liberation. By the Nineteen Eighties, Madonna turned it right into a advertising marketing campaign. Britney Spears wore innocence like a dressing up, then tore it off — actually and figuratively — knives in hand. There's something unmistakably demonic in her descent, a possession of the spirit that fame so typically brings.

The identical story repeats itself throughout the pop pantheon.

As soon as the cherubic choirboy of world pop, Justin Bieber now fluctuates between repentance and relapse, his physique scarred by tattoos and abuse. There’s additionally Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, and Ariana Grande, every one a pathetic model of their former selves.

The pop idol is now not a musician however a mannequin for imitation. The outcomes are seen: melancholy, anxiousness, disordered consuming, and a technology that sings about love however can't outline it or determine it. Younger individuals are raised on a rotation of heartbreak and hedonism, instructed to have fun the very issues that destroy them.

Pop at the moment preaches a gospel of transaction. Each want is on the market. Love is now not a covenant however a contract. Intercourse just isn't intimacy however commercial. Artists sing about our bodies the best way brokers speak about shares — measured in clicks, hype, and fleeting returns.

The message is obvious: Every part is foreign money, even the physique.

RELATED: Taylor Swift's 'Lifetime of a Showgirl': The identical unhappy sound and fury

Frazer Harrison/Getty Photographs

What started as leisure has developed into indoctrination. The language of romance has been changed by the “logic” of {the marketplace}. Pleasure is product, individuals are platforms, and purity is simply one other model to discard as soon as it stops promoting. The road between pop music and OnlyFans is straighter than most need to admit. Each peddle phantasm — connection with out dedication, want with out depth.

What religion as soon as supplied in household and devotion, the trade now mimics by means of sexualization and self-display. The result's a tradition fluent in indulgence, obsessive about pleasure however unaware of purity. What as soon as pointed upward now drags us down. The language of heaven has been rewritten within the dialect of hell.

Even the visuals echo it. Neon crosses. Angel wings stitched from latex. Horns hidden beneath halos. The symbolism, evident to anybody with functioning imaginative and prescient, is at all times dismissed as “artwork.” However artwork with out advantage stops telling the reality and begins promoting the lie. And historical past reminds us that deception has at all times been the satan’s favourite instrument.

Pop’s best trick is pretending it’s innocent. Rock scared mother and father into vigilance. Pop lulls them into complacency. It sounds harmless sufficient, however beneath the lovable choruses lies the identical poison. When each track preaches self-worship, when each lyric mocks modesty, when each beat celebrates bondage, the playlist turns into a pilgrimage into perdition.

The trade calls it leisure. However look nearer and also you’ll see a darker design: music that numbs, not nourishes, and beats that bind, not liberate.

It’s no accident that the idols of this age are referred to as “idols.”

Tens of tens of millions stream them, worship them, and defend them with evangelical ecstasy. They form the ethical temper of the younger greater than any preacher ever may. And but whereas they promote songs about love and lightweight, the world they create grows darker by the day. Damaged properties. Hookup tradition. Teenage pregnancies. Gender confusion. Isolation and self-harm. Religion mocked. Fatherhood maligned. Motherhood handled as an outdated inconvenience.

The irony is that Swift and a number of other different artists had been raised within the church. They know the cadence of a hymn, the fun of a crowd, the eager for transcendence. They simply redirected it. The altar turned a stage, and the worship didn’t cease however modified course.

However here is the reality: Mocking faith is a poor substitute for that means. You'll be able to dance in satan horns for under so lengthy earlier than realizing there’s nothing on the opposite facet of derision and disdain. No tradition that mocks the sacred can stay robust.

The trade calls it leisure. However look nearer and also you’ll see a darker design: music that numbs, not nourishes, and beats that bind, not liberate. The melodies are catchy as a result of the message should be smuggled in softly. That’s the genius — and the evil — of pop music.

And so we arrive the place we started. Taylor Swift has launched one other report. Hundreds of thousands have listened. However few have stopped to marvel what’s being worshipped.