Reviews of "Mine"

Today, we read excerpts (pieces) of reviews of Taylor Swift's song "Mine."
Then, we wrote our own reviews.

Each student wrote a short review saying his or her opinion, and also chose a review to agree or disagree with.
There are 4 review excerpts. Each pair of students chose 2 to read and 1 to agree/disagree with in their review.

Click "Read more" to see the example reviews from class:



Billboard - If the rest of Taylor Swift's highly anticipated new album is as strong as its finely crafted lead single, then it's a sure bet that her career will continue.
"Mine" has a vibrant energy that perfectly complements her passionate vocals. As the artist matures personally and professionally, the song demonstrates that she's successfully transitioning from a teen ingenue writing about high school crushes to a young woman exploring adult relationships. Swift is a master at creating memorable lines, and one of the standouts here is, "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter." "Mine" is not so heavy that she'll lose any of her young fans, but there's lyrical substance wrapped in the joyful melody that shows Swift has the talent to go the distance and continue to broaden her audience.

Jezebel.com The video fits the “Taylor Swift brand” perfectly, but I wonder -- for an artist who has earned so many fans based on her confessional lyrics and her ability to seem relatable to her fans, there’s something kind of strange about the whole thing. Does anyone really think that 20-year-old millionaire Taylor Swift is having fights with her husband and worrying about having ‘bills to pay?’

BBC
The Good: It’s a true Taylor Swift country love song. She sings about a couple who went to college together and about all the fun they had. The words and melody of the song are catchy; the more you listen to it, the more you'll remember it. Everyone will want to sing along, though it will probably be more popular with her female fans. Taylor Swift masters details in her lyrics, and the "drawer of my things at your place," and being followed into the street at 2:30 a.m. make "Mine" feel like an honest song about a serious romance.

The Bad: Taylor Swift seems to have a scientific formula for musical success. Almost all of her songs sound exactly the same. This song is too similar to “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me.” Her fans will probably like this song, because it sounds so similar to her earlier music, but she won’t gain any new fans.

MTV Unlike many other young pop stars, Taylor Swift has an old style idea of romance. For Taylor Swift, the most romantic dream is marriage and children. This makes her very different from, for example, Britney Spears or Katy Perry. Whether you like this song will probably depend on if you identify more with the dream of marriage and children or late-night partying and drinking.