I don’t get it. Her music is sometimes catchy but otherwise unremarkable, from the songs I’ve heard. How does she break all these records and accumulate so much fame and wealth?
She’s pretty, but a lot of singer songwriters are, especially those with makeup and costume people, a support staff.
Is there something else to her that people like?
I’m confused about what makes her so apparently unique or phenomenal.
Update: there are so many things that make swift unique or phenomenal.
I’ve received tons of great answers from people that have helped me understand, like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, many factors that makes swift different and consequently more successful than her peers.
Clever lyrics, top-tier production, sharing autobiographical and emotional points in her life very directly, apparent honesty with few or no public blemishes, creating a community of fans through Easter eggs and house parties and unconventional, but always personal methods, an early start supported by wealthy parents, she keeps winning against abusers, and her music itself is popular and fun.
Those are just a few of the puzzle pieces contributed here, and a dive into this post is a pretty good explanation of many of the factors that must be contributing to her phenomenal success and recognition, that set her apart from other pop stars, even pop stars who were phenoms in their own right.
This is a very educational post, thank you to everyone who has contributed.
I wanted to chime in, since I’m in the unique situation of not being a “Swiftie” but still having an above-average knowledge of Taylor Swift due to being married to a Swiftie.
For starters, her songs are very relatable for women. Especially in women around her age, she was routinely writing songs that spoke to the emotions during each periods of their lives. My wife, for example, was in middle/high school when Taylor was releasing her romantic country songs, and met me right around when Taylor released Lover. This is all because Taylor is extremely autobiographical with her lyrics and was writing about what she was experiencing at the time. She wrote lovesongs in Speak Now because she was in high school and early college when she produced the album. She wrote Lover because she had met a man who, at the time, she perceived to be a man she could spend the rest of her life with. Since Red, very few of her songs are about hypothetical situations. Almost all of them are about her real experiences as a person and as a woman, with the exception of folklore and Evermore, and that speaks to women in a very strong way. Her lyrics and reasons behinds songs are deep, much deeper than most give her credit for.
Additionally, she is extremely good at marketing. Many of her songs and albums have Easter eggs in them that only true fans will be able to find. She also drops a lot of cryptic hints, which her fans love to dissect and interpret to try and predict major releases or announcements. It’s just good fun for them, and it increases the hype significantly. Also, her concerts are not just live music, they’re a whole show. The Eras concert is 3 hours long, and she is singing and running the entire time. She rarely lip-syncs - I say rarely because I’ve heard claims that she does but I have never seen it - and gives it her all every single concert. Her band and many of her dancers and support staff have been with her for a decade or more now, and they have continued to routinely put on shows to the best of their abilities without fail.
Finally, she is, most Swifties believe, a genuinely good person. The worst thing I’ve ever heard of her doing is loaning her private jet out to her friends and families which caused her to break the news because her jet was causing a lot of emissions. Beyond that, she seems to be a grounded woman who genuinely loves her fans and the people around her.
If you take nothing else away from this post, this is the most important fact: She is relatable to women. She sings about her lived experiences, many of which are relatable to her fans.
Thanks, I really appreciate your perspective.
A lot of what you said rings true and certainly fits in puzzle piece-wise with everything else
My wife has just informed me of the latest Easter egg, to further explain the marketing prowess and give an example.
She has changed her profile picture to black and white, rather than full color. While trivial to non-Swift fans, this is a red alert to her die-hards. I haven’t heard many of the theories yet (my wife often distills them down to the most reasonable for me, thankfully), but her favorite so far is that it is signaling her intent to release the “Taylor’s version” (re-recording) of her album Reputation, which is one of her most popular albums and has a black and white theming. This is the kind of puzzles and theory crafting thst many Swift fans find so enthralling
Ha, okay, so there’s a whole puzzle culture to everything she presents. Yes, that would attract a lot of people as well. Thanks
Don’t really see her as being massively more popular than people like Michael Jackson or Madonna at their peak. She’s like 18 years into her career at this point, like a snowball accumulating more and more fans.
Of course it helps that she had rich parents to be able to grease the wheels in the early stages of her career.
The music is alright. There’s a decent amount of it, and it’s fairly varied. It’s called pop for a reason.
Madonna has 300 million sales over her career, and Taylor Swift has 200 million sales and almost twice as many awards (from the numbers I am finding on websites) at about half her age.
As far as I can find anything, it looks like Madonna sold half as many albums by the time she was in her mid-thirties.
I’m not convinced, especially after some of the answers in this post by other commenters, that just because they’re both pop stars, their success is mutually definable or explained.
Under the Influence has an episode about her marketing.
Listened to it, I agree that the rerecorded albums was a great move, especially at a time when everybody was tired of the record companies manipulating artists.
And the Easter eggs are a good point that I’m convinced rally her fans into a community that think they’re getting something special, and the eras tour is really interesting to me because obviously everybody’s talking about it, but I don’t hear much substantive about its organization.
I didn’t hear about the 10 different sets or that she has her own in-house staging company, self-funding the movie and it’s just amazing.
I really like the point at the end when he mentions that she keeps winning. All of her momentous undertakings result in a victory on her part.
Really interesting episode, thanks
She was one of the few singers who appealed to love-crazy teenager girls a couple of decades ago.
I’m personally not a fan. But I am a fan of her making the right-wing nut jobs apoplectic.
That is 100% my favorite part of her career, besides the f*** you record labels, i’m re-recording my entire catalog, which is pretty cool
Note: apoplexy means malding.
You are asking an infinitely difficult question of why she is so incredibly popular, I don’t think I can tell you why she’s more popular than, say, Beyoncé. Except maybe that she is more consistent. That said, I’ll give you my perspective on why I like Taylor Swift.
I’m a dude and my music taste is pretty diverse but I mostly grew up listening to metal and punk. That said, when I left my ex (for the second time). It felt really good to listen to We are never ever getting back together on repeat. Most breakups I’ve had, had songs that have helped me through and leaving a toxic relationship… It just felt really good to repeatedly sing those words over and over.
I don’t know if it’s actually true but I’m a guitarist and I’ve heard the phrase “Taylor Swift is the Beatles of the 21st century” meaning her music releases currently have the largest impact on guitar sales and popularity. If for nothing else, I respect her a lot for performing live with a guitar. She doesn’t do anything crazy but you don’t have to have crazy guitar skills to make good music. I personally enjoy learning her songs every now and then because a) they are relatively straightforward to learn but still encompass nice playful elements, b) I am mostly interested in becoming a better singer nowadays and her songs are definitely challenging for me to sing.
- Both folklore and evermore are really nice albums imo. Very nice and tasteful music. Last year I had a phase where I was having trouble finding music. I was sick of extreme metal, I was sick of hardcore techno, and I listened to so much leftist folk and folk punk that I grew sick of it. All the music I listened to was always fast, intense and challenging. I just wanted nice songs that I can sing along to with real instrumentation. I realised I don’t mind pop music but I like real instruments because they feel more real to me (fwiw lol, please don’t take this as hatred for electronics, I also love techno as stated above). Well folklore and evermore offer just that for me. Nice songs with real instruments and beautiful instrumentation. I prefer folklore for being darker but evermore uses more guitar which I also like. My fav songs out of the 2 albums:
Folklore
- cardigan
- mirrorball
- this is me trying
- invisible string
Evermore
- willow
- champagne problems
- 'tis the damn season
I still want to express that I don’t always like her lyric writing. She uses brand names a bunch and I also feel like there are often references to American things which I just don’t know about.
Also, while I like folklore and evermore, I find them borderline impossible to listen to all the way through. All the songs basically strike the same mood, it’s nice relaxing music, but there’s not a big emotional arc throughout the albums for me. I tend to stop listening to evermore once I reach “no body, no crime”… God that song is awful lol.
Thanks, I’ll check out your recommended songs from folklore and evermore.
Her songs are produced by the CIA and contain subliminal messages that make her irresistible.
Yvan Eht Nioj
This makes about as much sense to me as the apparent means by which she has become this successful.
He/she is obviously kidding.
Not me, I only speak in serious absolutes.
Either that or I’m a republican.
CIA are here and down voting you. Stay frosty.
music good
I think like most of the other answers, this plays a part, but since there are so many other artists with good music, doesn’t really explain why there’s only one Taylor Swift.
-Very skilled songwriter. I don’t necessarily like all her stuff but I legitimately think she’s the best songwriter (meaning, composing music and writing lyrics) of her generation. Probably since Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel.
-Very attractive and a good performer
-Well connected in the music industry let her get an early start/inside track
-obsessed with being popular. I don’t mean that in a negative way, but her primary objective with her music is to please as many people as possible. I think the documentary “Miss Americana” on Netflix explains that very well-at one point she straight up says “I just want people to like me” or something like that. That means her music/career has always focused on mass appeal as opposed to making more… limited-appeal music like most artists do at some point in their career
-she’s kept a remarkably clean image even through being famous for close to two decades. It’s very telling that the worst thing her haters can say about her is “but her plane uses a lot of carbon!” This means parents let kids listen to her, brands love her as a sponsor, nobody boycotts her, etc.
-one last thing, I think people love her songs because they feel like they’re true. Her songs have a very intimate, almost confessional quality that a lot of artists strive for buy often comes off as fake.
Thanks! Those are all interesting points and I have never heard of that documentary but love documentaries, so I’ll definitely be checking that out.
Especially since you’re the first person who’s mentioned how much she wants to be popular, or how much she is focused on that.
That’s very interesting and obviously seems very relevant, thanks.
She’s just lately a decent songwriter. For most of her career, her songs were written for her by the heavy hitters behind virtually every top 100 hit. Her producer/mixer/writer Jack Antonoff still does most of the heavy lifting.
I am tired of seeing the sentiment that she’s some brilliant songwriter–she really only kind of plays the guitar. The reality is that if anyone is made to be a billionaire, and work with one of the best musical minds of our time (Antonoff), and collaborate with the other top song writers/ghost writers, of course, a decade later, they’ll be able to write songs. It was never some innate talent of hers, or else the songs she truly did write early in her career would have been the hits, instead of the mutually agreed upon worst on the album.
The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has written or co-written every song in her discography, with the exception of several cover songs and two guest features, alongside some songs released by other artists
Source?
this commenter is lying and the sources they claim to cite contradict their own claims.
Co-writing means nothing at the mega-pop industry level, and starts having little meaning far before that. But, if you are genuinely under the impression that it has meaning, I have a bridge to sell you.
The source for my claims of brilliant songwriters writing her entire early career is visible in Genius for everything pre-Lover.
i am sick and tired of this misogynistic bile. i do not write this comment for your sake commenter, but for the sake of anyone who might be swayed by your bullshit rhetoric.
let’s break this down:
“sHe ReAlLy only PlAys ThE GUitaR” you can’t even get that factoid right. Taylor Swift plays at least four instruments.
“she doesn’t write her songs herself and the ones she does write are mutually agreed to be the worst”—
outright false:
Many critics selected “Dear John” [on which Swift is credited as the sole songwriter] as Speak Now’s best song for its production and emotional impact. Such critics include Jon Caramanica in The New York Times (lauding the blues production for expanding beyond Swift’s country-music comfort zone),[15] Mikael Wood in Spin (saying it was “epic pop-country poetry”),[17] and Willman in The Hollywood Reporter (underscoring the “chills-inducing climax”). wikipedia
too late for you? Our Song (2006, written solely by Swift) was one of the “Award-Winning Songs” at the 2008 BMI Country Awards, which honors the year’s best songwriters.[35] It featured on Rolling Stone’s 2019 list of the best female country songs from 2000.[36]
“Jack Antonoff does the heavy lifting” Antonoff is a FUCKING incredible artist and I do not deny that, but who sings the songs with a critically acclaimed voice? who performs the music live to meticulous, hours-long choreography? spoiler: not Antonoff, buddy! you might be shocked to hear it was a woman.
Next time you want to just lie on the internet maybe ar least try to find some supporting evidence instead of making empty assertions like a freshman in high school. Like damn. 🗿
deleted by creator
By early in her career do you mean when she was like 18? I’m not saying she hasn’t had a lot of help. But I disagree with the idea that she’s just a figurehead. She is listed as a writer for pretty much all her songs, and you can usually tell a Taylor Swift song just by the sound/lyrics, which isnt something i can say for a lot of pop artists. If it was Antonoff the whole time then Bleachers would be more popular (relative to Swift).
your analysis is correct. the commenter you are replying to is like literally lying and i’m making an effort to point that out because they are getting far too many upvotes for someone whose sources contradict their own statements. check out my other comments if interested lol and have a great day 😊
No, she really only started to write with “Lover”. Prior to that, it was Antonoff, and prior to that it was a lot of different writers/ghost writers.
I also don’t think she’s just a figure head. I appreciate everything she’s done to get artists paid more, I think she’s a good role model for girls/women, etc. But, I do not think she’s a talented song writer. She’s not a multi-instrumentalist. And, she is a billionaire, hoarding wealth like all the others.
I think people love her songs because they feel like they’re true
Her very first hit was about being a farmer’s daughter.
Not sure what song that is off the top of my head, but I didn’t mean “true” in the literal sense. More like, people feel like the songs give them a glimpse of the real Taylor swift. That’s particularly true of her more recent albums I feel like. For example, “Folklore” is told largely through stories about other (fictional) people, but it feels like a reflection of emotions and experiences she really has been through. It’s all very parasocial and I’m not sure how much of it is genuine, but my point is it FEELS genuine.
And Tom Clancy was never a Russian submarine captain or spy
Do people like Tom Clancy novels because “they feel like they’re true”?
Sorry if you missed the point, but what I intended to say is that, artists frequently create pieces that they haven’t actually experienced.
Your point was completely obvious but Tom Clancy was a very poor choice to illustrate that point. Of course some artists produce works that have an essence of truth despite being fiction; perhaps Taylor Swift is such an artist, but Tom Clancy definitely isn’t.
I’m with you dude, she has a completely unremarkable to me as well.
In terms of her songs and dancing, definitely.
But I really think this threat has pointed out why she’s so successful.
Squeaky clean image so she can be played everywhere, great marketing, high production, clever lyrics, a lot of community outreach, autobiographical social media and songs, and I finally understand why people talk about her business acumen after I listened to a podcast about her eras tour and how much was self produced.
She’s knocking it out of the park on every front she can while focusing solely on the music industry.
Definitely an interesting phenomenon.
I’m still not wild about her music, but I was very curious how someone so young can become so successful when she sounds so similar to all of the other artists I’ve grown up listening to.
Things go viral sometimes and it snowballs. The more famous you are, the more famous you can become. She’s also good enough at being an entertainer to keep riding the wave of increased fame, with added resources the bigger she gets.
Taylor for me is extremely emotional and autobiographical. I connect emotionally with her songs in a way that allows me to feel what she’s feeling. Music is emotional and usually has a message, but for me her music does make me feel more.
Which makes sense, I always loved pink Floyd for their art and what they were trying to say, I usually am an emotional person, and I think for a lot of people that’s why she’s popular.
You have an emotion you’re working through? She’s got a song for it.
Thank you for your answer, I’m glad to hear from a fan of hers.
So her songs are making you feel something in a way other female artists who sing about breakups do not?
Does she mostly sing about relationships? I haven’t listened to much of her stuff, just whatever is the popular stuff that I wouldn’t be able to avoid while I’m walking around.
And then the first few songs that pop up when I type in Swift on YouTube because I’m trying to figure out the answer to this question after she breaks like the 12th record of her career
Relationships were a key one in her earlier albums, but there’s a lot more. I think her singing about her experiences is part of the reasons millennials really tend to her especially, we kind of grew up with her
The awkward teenage years, the first loves, the deep friend connections, losing those friends, romantic betrayal, work betrayal, and more.
She also is extremely versatile. She’s played and experimented with different types of music. People like to shoehorn her into pop, but she’s done obviously country, pop, folk, a bit of rock, lover in my mind was a decent synth album, she’s played around with a lot
That’s why we all talk about her Eras, each era in her life she made an album, and that album usually has a different style. Personally my favorite is reputation, which was heavier and more electronic. Synth? Like I said try Lover or Midnights. Folk like Mumford and sons or Lumineers? Try Folklore and Evermore.
One thing for sure is that you don’t have to like everything or anything of hers, but she has such range that it is rare that someone hates every song of hers.
Also I should say I’m a mod of !taylorswift@poptalk.scrubbles.tech and the dozens of us lemmy swifties are always happy to have more members :)
I really like synth and I think they are her least referenced work in this post so far, but I’m very interested in listening to her synth albums.
Thanks
Sure didn’t expect her to be compared with Floyd.
Probably because it’s a very weird comparison to make. If I had to pick a polar opposite of pop music in most every way, I would probably pick one of the weirder pink Floyd albums.
Not weird at all. Roger Waters was extremely autobiographical with his music, he sang extensively about the war, family, and what he was going through. The Wall sure but The Final Cut was intense, dude has some emotions to process.
Taylor and him do the same thing, just different life experiences. He is more political but far, but she’s gone political, look at The Man, You Need to Calm Down, and one of her most scathing ones, Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.
For shows as well I’ve never seen more well put on shows, Roger Waters with The Wall and Taylor with Eras, both extremely precise shows, they are both absolute showmen.
Alright I’ll give those songs a listen. I appreciate the response
I don’t think a more wildly different artist to TS could be found than Pink Floyd. Things they have in common: are human. Trolling or what?
Lol nope, I’m a fan of both. People don’t need to be put in buckets where they only like something’s and not others.
I’ve seen Roger Waters twice, watched him build the wall on stage and send out the inflatables, and it kicked ass.
Also saw Eras last year in person, and it was the most precise well thought out concert I’ve seen.
No rules in life saying you can’t like both
I mean that’s cool, I don’t like boxes either. Just a very unexpected comparison
I used to dislike Taylor Swift along with all other contemporary pop stars. Maybe even a little bit more, because she had the audacity to call herself Country: Spitting in the face of personal heroes like Kristofferson, Nelson, and Cash.
Then I stopped being an edgy teenager, Swift released Shake it Off, and I had to recognize it was a fun song to dance to. In an ironic kind of way of course, but nevertheless.
And then, in 2015, Ryan Adams released his cover album of Swift’s 1989, playing every single song on the album in a folksy way. I dug it. And with it, I had to appreciate that Taylor Swift is one hell of a songwriter: I loved the songs, I just don’t love the sound of pop music all that much. That’s personal taste, not everything I dislike is bad.
Then Ryan Adams fell from grace with metoo, so fuck him. At least it triggered Father John Misty to publish (and later remove) his legendary covers of Swift in the style of the Velvet Underground.
Fast forward to 2020, and Taylor Swift dabbles with music I can actually enjoy listening to with her album folklore. Pretty cool. I actually got my expectations up for her next album, evermore, low-key hoping that it would be musically inspired by the Battle of Evermore. Sadly I was wrong, but again, it’s a matter of personal preferences.
What matters more is the fact that she’s reinventing herself from album to album - she’s successful in one formula, and she just ditches it and moves on to something different. And every time she does it, she seems to be even more successful than the last time. Her growth as an artist is astonishing.
Finally, she’s just cool. Fuck the labels - she’ll just casually re-records her entire discography in order to take back control of her songs. She’s caught up in all kinds of stupid celebrity drama, but it tends to be the rest of the industry falling over like toddlers trying to drag her into shit for PR while she acts like the only adult in the room. She also scores points for casually hanging out with Billy Bragg and encouraging people to vote and shit.
Swift was hardly the downfall of country; the amount of autotuned trash from both sexes now is off the charts. I can’t make myself listen to a country channel for the rare genuine song because I start to rage at the horrid garbage they play the rest of the time.
I’m fine with pop, there are plenty of pop songs I’ve liked, and I can recognize how since of her songs are fun, I’m curious why she receives dozens of rewards.
Your point about successful in one formula, and then ditches it and moved on to something different
Do you think that happens with every album, or is there a specific example you’re thinking about?
Oh I want to add, it’s definitely very cool to re-record your discography.
So I’m not exactly an expert, I just have some friends who are Swifties and I enjoy sometimes hearing people out about what they’re interested in over a beer. But I’ll give a shot at answering based on my limited knowledge.
I don’t think Swift makes a point out of reinventing herself every time. I guess she had her country phase until Red in 2012 (We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together), and perfected pop in 2014 with 1989 and Shake it Off, Blank Space and all that. The following two albums I know nothing about, but Wikipedia lists them as electropop. And then she completely changes her sound in 2020 with folklore, suddenly being more folksy and reaching an audience of middle aged male music reviewers who had previously not shown any interest in her music. Somehow the fans of her older albums loved it as well, so her fan-base only expanded.
Evermore is kind of a continuation of folklore. I find it to be a little bit more poppy at times, but it’s not a huge change of direction, and kind of builds on the same universe (low-key and lower-key). Midnights however, which is her final album to date, is again something completely different: A full blown concept album, and musically again a complete change of direction. A Swiftie friend of mine said she had to give it a couple of spins before she got into it, but that it’s now one of her favourites. As a prog rock fan, that sounds about right to me for a concept album.
Personally I started listening to Midnights for the first time ever while writing this post, and I gotta say the opening tune Lavender Haze has some fun things going on in it. The music is interesting, the songwriting is original, and she’s a talented performer with a likeable persona. I’m not very surprised she receives her awards.
How do you think she compares to Britney Spears, Madonna, or Beyonce? Like, Taylor Swift has become a pop star. You don’t have to love her music to see she has wide appeal. I don’t really like Madonna but you listen to a song and you are like “yeah I can see why people have danced to this for thirty years”
Okay, yeah so I think it’s the awards that I don’t really understand, since she doesn’t seem that unique to me compared to Ellis, Madonna or beyoncé, but she has the most awards out of them and far more awards than many other pop"stars", like a pretty crazy amount more.
Swift has 81 awards
Beyonce has 96, 31 of which are BET awards, which I do think is significant in this specific list since obviously Taylor Swift isn’t competing in that category.
But then let’s get to other pop stars.
Lady Gaga has 35 awards? The f*** like I can sing tons of her songs.
Adele has 40? Adele. Adele? Taylor Swift has twice as many awards as Adele?
Rihanna has 49 including her 19 BET awards
Billy eyelash like I don’t know whatever, after that it’s all like a dozen awards or a couple dozen each.
Taylor has 81 awards, even without any BET awards?
How does Taylor Swift have twice as many awards as Lady Gaga or other similarly huge artists?
Because they’re not similarly huge.
Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce, and the fact that she’s going to be watching (not performing) the Super Bowl is going to add a huge number of eyeballs. To the biggest event in the country.
Lady Gaga has 35 awards? The f*** like I can sing tons of her songs.
Lady Gaga has also put out five studio albums, Taylor Swift ten.
I think that furthers my point if a casual listener remembers several Lady Gaga songs but very few(one) of an artist who has twice as many albums?
Or a top artist having ~twice as many albums explains having ~twice as my awards as some other top artist.
Madonna has 14 albums, Taylor Swift has 10 albums, but Swift has received far more awards in her career so far.
I feel like with Madonna or beyoncé, either of them are more unique and have more staying power.
I’m not a big pop head, but I can sing a bunch of their singles and I can’t think of a Taylor Swift song except I think the never going to get back together one?
Maybe I’m just perceiving Taylor Swift is more successful and wealthy than all of these other pop stars?
I should probably go look at the numbers to see if the perception she projects is as insanely successful as it seems to me
Why would you think anyone has more staying power than Taylor Swift? At 34 years old she has been in the music industry for 19 years and she’s only growing in popularity. She topped the Country charts for 24 weeks with her debut album at age 17.
Sure, we won’t be able to compare her to Madonna for another 30 years or so, but I don’t exactly see a reason to question her staying power.
Because many other artists created a movement that it seems like Taylor Swift waded into and perpetuated without contributing something significantly new.
I’m interested in your " we won’t be able to compare her to Madonna for another 30 years"， are you agreeing that Swift doesn’t have the sort of staying power that Madonna or other pop stars have achieved?
If so, why has she received so many more awards than anybody else? So many.
I might not understand what you mean by this comment:
“Sure, we won’t be able to compare her to Madonna for another 30 years or so, but I don’t exactly see a reason to question her staying power.”
I just think it’s easy to assess Madonna’s staying power because she’s still around and somewhat relevant, even though she had her biggest hit 40 years ago. It’s not easy to say right now who will be remembered and who will be forgotten in 30 years.
I hear people say that all the time, but Madonna was a pretty radical figure, and so was Michael Jackson and the Beatles, who people keep bringing up?
They were all pioneers of a very clear movement or another, whereas Taylor Swift is just a pop star who sings about relationships and breakups in the middle of a line of pop stars who sing about relationships and breakups?
Well, but I don’t fully understand the amount of award she’s received because she sings well, when there are other artists who sing as well.
I do think that all of your comments are helping bring me closer to a complete picture though, or at least as complete a picture as we can get so early into her career.
Thanks
As someone who doesn’t really follow any sort of pop media or celebrities, I’ve often heard her songs around on the radio somewhere but just as often have I heard some other over produced pop singer and couldn’t have told you if it was Swift or not.
The music industry has been a racket for nearly 100 years. Music doesn’t get popular because people like it, it gets popular because it’s promoted. Way back when, promoters would pay radio stations to play their music to encourage sales. The methods are slightly different now, but it’s still the same kind of old boy’s club telling people what they like.
Taylor Swift understood the industry she was getting into, and was very adept at exploiting it.
