“Taylor Swift is one of the most gifted pop artists of all time” — The Smashing Pumpkins’s Billy Corgan defends TTPD album’s length

Billy Corgan, the lead singer and co-founder of The Smashing Pumpkins, spoke with The Irish Times on June 3, 2024, wherein he talked about facing backlash and defended the length of Taylor Swift's album, The Tortured Poets Department.

Taylor Swift's TTPD album has received the love of fans globally; however, it comprises 31 songs, which makes the album span a little over 65 minutes in total. The length of Swift's album generated buzz, and some criticized it as well, which was defended by Billy Corgan in his interview.

"Taylor Swift is one of the most gifted pop artists of all time. 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 stated.

Supporting his defense with an instance, Billy Corgan stated the example of Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor. He mentioned that now that Sinead's gone, it won't be bad if somebody says they found a tape wherein there's enough for 20, 30, or 50 Sinead songs.

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"Why is this such a strange concept?" — Billy Corgan talks about his lengthy album and more

Talking about being criticized for lengthy albums, Billy Corgan cited the example of The Smashing Pumpkin's last album, Atum. The album was released in three parts, the final of which came out in May 2023. The total length of the album was 138 minutes, talking about which Billy mentioned:

“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. Why is this such a strange concept?”

In his interview with The Irish Times, Billy asked people to have "some sense of proportionality." He said that people complaining about the run time of entertainment "ruined Star Wars." Billy also mentioned that the behavior of those who say it's too much for them to process is "a bit childish."

Billy also talked about the Smashing Pumpkins breaking up and coming together again. When he started the band in 1988, it consisted of bass player D'arcy Wretzky and her ex-boyfriend James Iha. Iha and Billy had amazing chemistry on stage; however, they did not get along otherwise.

Additionally, the acoustic drummer of the band, Jimmy Chamberlin, was fired in 1996 after he and the band's touring keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin, overdosed together, which resulted in the latter's death.

The Smashing Pumpkins broke up in 2000, and Billy put the band back together in 2006 without its original members. Later, Chamberlin and James Iha rejoined the band in 2016.

Commenting on the same, Billy Corgan mentioned:

“The combustibility ... it was not musical. It was personal. We were four completely different people. And, of course, it’s worth noting that two of the four of us were in a relationship at one point – albeit not in relationship any more. The relationship between them pitted me on the other side with my closest musical collaborator in the band, which was Jimmy."

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In other news, Billy Corgan's band The Smashing Pumpkins will shortly begin its "The World is a Vampire Europe Summer" 2024 tour from June 7, 2024, until July 16, 2024. Additionally, the tickets for locations like Dublin, Berlin, Manchester, and London have already sold out.