What do you get when you combine two of the world’s most powerful, female pop stars with singer-songwriter and producer Jack Antonoff?
You get two of the most successful albums of this summer; Taylor Swift’s Lover and Lana Del Rey’s Norman F***ing Rockwell.
With merely seven days separating the drop dates of the albums, Swift led the way with her Aug. 23 release. Del Rey’s album followed on Aug. 30.
Despite the different sounds these artists have, these two albums have a lot more in common than expected. Here are two singer-songwriters who have more to say about politics, feminism and love than either has ever touched on before.
Jack Antonoff co-produced both of these chart-topping records and his assistance shows a positive example of men helping women in the music industry, especially considering both women have dealt with power-hungry men in the past.
On both albums, hidden within tracklists of storytelling and heartbreak, there is one track that speaks to the experiences these women have faced. These experiences caused both popstars to be outward and passionate with their feminism.
On Norman F***ing Rockwell, Del Rey’s feminist anthem, she sings, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it.
“There’s a new revolution, a loud evolution that I saw/ Born of confusion and quiet collusion of which mostly I’ve known/ A modern day woman with a weak constitution, ’cause I’ve got/Monsters still under my bed that I could never fight off.”
Likewise, Swift offers a feminist commentary on her track, “The Man.” Swift has been a part of various headlines involving sexual harassment and power-hungry men in the music industry — with her most recent case involving Scooter Braun and the ownership other old music.
Swift mentions this when she sang, “’I’m so sick of running/ As fast as I can/ Wondering if I’d get there quicker/ If I was a man/ And I’m so sick of them/ Coming at me again/ ‘Cause if I was a man/ Then I’d be the man.”
It is clear that through these albums, these women are ready and able to talk about politics. They have grown up and are not afraid to preach their beliefs — both have used music to do so.
Swift’s Lover is her seventh album featuring 18 tracks — her longest to date. Her ‘80s-inspired pop tracks carry listeners through a technicolor lens of New York City and London. Songs like “Cornelia Street” and “Cruel Summer” prove Swift’s ability to capture any given moment and turn it into a catchy tune.
She also spoke out about the Equality Act using her single, “You Need to Calm Down” as an anthem for LGBTQ rights. The music video featured notable cast members from the LGBTQ community like Netflix’s “Queer Eye” cast and past winners of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race.”
Likewise, Del Rey has turned her fifth album, NFR, into a glorious depiction of her world in southern California.
In her title track, she sings, “Your poetry’s bad and you blame the news, but I can’t change that and I can’t change you.”
Lana herself is a poet disguised as a pop star. As always, she sticks true to her normal, classic-sounding ballads mixed with piano melodies and her notorious vocals. Also featured on NFR is a cover of Sublime’s hit, “Doin Time,” where Del Rey put an eerie twist on the song. .
The greatest takeaway from both albums is that both Swift and Del Rey are authentically true to themselves. Both musicians have been in the music industry for more than a decade now and have recently entered their thirties. It is clear through Lover and NFR that these women are clearly not making music to impress anyone but themselves.
