Things have been upside-down and topsy-turvy ever since Beyoncé performed at the Country Music Awards, so I probably shouldn't be surprised about the rumors that Taylor Swift's next album will have a hip-hop bent. She and Beyoncé must have been involved in some sort of Freaky Friday-esque swap, and the only way to get back into their rightful bodies is to each release a song in the genre of the other one. Either that, or Taylor Swift has left us alone for too long without a new album, and we're starting to go stir-crazy and throw out ideas.
Even though we don't even have a release date or the confirmation that Swift's followup to 1989 is forthcoming, The Sun has reason to believe that the singer's sixth studio album will include "a real mix of edgier hip-hop and R&B sounds." Oh reeeeeeally? That's interesting, have your source tell me more please.
"Taylor is always looking at ways to grow as an artist and really wants to try something different and unexpected for the next album. She’s not afraid of experimenting so is working with a lot of different faces to see if she suits a new sound. The remix of her song 'Bad Blood' had a less pop vibe — especially once Kendrick Lamar featured on it — and was a big hit, so she thinks her fans will like her going in this direction."
I'm glad they referenced "Bad Blood" in there, because that's exactly what sprang to mind for me. At first, I was a little weirded out by the concept of Swift going in a more hip-hop and R&B direction, since that feel so so so different from who I understand her to be as an artist. Then I thought about the transformation she's already undergone since she got started. Let's not forget that 1989 was the first time Swift even officially went pop; before that, she was still technically a country artist, and the change in tone didn't seem to bother her audience one bit.
The Kendrick Lamar "Bad Blood" remix in particular pushed her pretty close to the hip-hop border, so I'm thinking that these rumors being true wouldn't actually be a bad thing at all.
And hey, even if she goes too far or doesn't have the credibility to pull off this rumored new direction and the music itself doesn't turn out the best, so what? It doesn't affect the music she's made in the past, and Swift has proven throughout her career that she knows what her audience wants. She can slip up once in a while, and always get 'em next time. At the very least, this would explain all those rumors of Swift and Drake collaborating on music together...
