PFor those who write or talk about music in Italy today, try to give this phenomenon a dimension. Taylor Swift it can be, above all, a great opportunity to make peace with pure pop music. For many, too many, the real and only enemy. Because girls like it, it tops the charts and takes into account the heartbeat of the trend. So our country, the land of saints, poets, sailors, national football coaches and, why not?, music critics, often prefers don’t beat yourself up at all. Rewind the tape: our criticism fought i The Beatles format “The Ed Sullivan Show” (1964), he did not even try with Abba AND Madonna. WITH Michael Jackson she exposed herself more than usual because Jackson carried the black artist “phenomenon” in heavy rotation on MTV. But this did not last long: beyoncé – except for sporadic cases – we did not talk about it. Therefore, the one who asserts with a seemingly impenetrable hint that our country is “musically isolated” is involuntarily ambiguous. Because then he usually adds: “Not listening to Taylor Swift enough, we don’t count artists who are also her children.” This is where I think the donkey falls though. Even if we assume that we and the whole world need an Italian Taylor Swift, how will she be treated? We would have noticed his talent or wait until the Americans tell us how it happened recently with Sabrina Impactatore? What kind of press did they enjoy, let’s say Paula and Claire (who has little or nothing to do with Swift, let’s be clear) when did they make alien-flavored pop and not Pausinian at all? And should the Italian Taylor Swift sing in Italian, thus excluding any other market on earth (if not the usual Latin America after the appropriate translations of the lyrics), or should she cross swords, in English, with the original Swift? Here we can see the stalemate with Comma 22, sorry: that is, there is no positive solution on the horizon. The only one – long-term and perhaps anachronistic – could have foreseen the delusional idea of making some kind of discourse about pop music and who – cyclically – becomes its most modern symbol. Yes, Today Taylor Swift is a symbol. Because he embodies everything that a pop star should be and everything that pop music needs: he writes great songs, sings like a god, he is attractive and knows how to stand on stage, as many rockers dream of playing on dick and arrogance . He’s also making, let’s add, a lot of money from the American recording industry (and not only because his music – news a few days ago – “will give a boost to US GDP of $ 5 billion, if you count concert ticket sales, hotels booked by fans, and cascading effects, from restaurants to airplanes). And we say this knowing that while rhyming green dollar with spiritual music, someone has already raised their eyebrows, as if warning us of imminent excommunication.