Billy Corgan defends Taylor Swift: “One of the most gifted pop artists of all time”
Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan has defended Taylor Swift after she was criticised over the length of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department. As no stranger to releasing hefty albums himself, Corgan is demanding more respect for Swift as “one of the most gifted pop artists of all time”.
Smashing Pumpkins were never shy about releasing extended albums. Their beloved 1995 record, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is a double LP with a swollen 28-song track list. Their recent rock opera project, Atum, featured 33 songs across the three parts. Even on some of their shorter albums, the length of the record itself has regularly been over an hour.
In the mind of Corgan, he can’t understand why music fans would turn their nose up at having more music from their favourite artists, and believes they should be grateful for receiving more tracks.
In a new conversation with The Irish Times, Corgan used Sinead O’Connor’s work to illustrate his point, claiming, “Let’s go back to Sinéad for a second. Now that Sinéad’s gone, would it be a bad thing if somebody turned up tomorrow and said, ‘Hey, I just found this tape, and there’s enough for 20 – or 30 or 50 – ‘Sinéad songs.’ Would that be a bad thing?”
Corgan made the argument that not only should fans be excited about new material, but that songs shouldn’t be condemned to live and die in artists’ archives rather than being released into the world. That’s an ethos Swift clearly shares as the re-released versions of her own albums, dubbed ‘Taylor’s Versions’ as she regains control of her masters, contains extended ‘Vault’ sections of previously unreleased tracks.
Furthermore, only a few hours after the release of The Tortured Poets Department, she announced a secondary, bonus collection of songs written for the record deemed ‘The Anthology’.
All in all, with the core album and the additional tracks, the tracklist stretches to 31 songs and a runtime of two hours. While some claimed that it was too long and unnecessary, Corgan disagrees.
“Taylor Swift is one of the most gifted pop artists of all time,” he said. “How is it a bad thing that she’s releasing more music? I can’t follow that … You can go on Spotify and just skip it.”
He related the criticism to his own work, too. “People complained about the length of my last album, Atum. I thought, Well, just go make your own playlist. Just listen to the record one time – rag over the six or 10 songs you like and make your own record,” he said.
To Corgan, it seems that people have lost their attention spans or ability to handle extended art. He continued, “Why is this such a strange concept? Have some sense of proportionality. This hyperbolic thing – ‘They ruined Star Wars. My God, this is all too much for me to process’ – it’s all a bit childish.”
While plenty of classic rock or alternative fans might turn their nose up at Swift, Corgan joins the powerful and ever growing ranks of legends who publicly praise her music. The likes of Eddie Vedder, Stevie Nicks, Paul McCartney, Patti Smith and Dave Grohl have all previously shared their love for the pop artist.
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