Taylor Swift: From Country Star to Pop Iconoclast

Taylor Swift has released ten studio albums across the 17 years of her career, with six LPs – including three re-recorded albums from her back catalogue – coming out in the last three years. This week, she also teased the arrival of ‘Reputation’ (Taylor’s Version)’.

Swift showed an interest in music at an early age, and she progressed quickly from roles in children’s theatre to her first appearance before a crowd of thousands. She was age 11 when she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game, and the following year she picked up the guitar and began to write songs. Taking her inspiration from country music artists such as Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks (now the Chicks), Swift crafted original material that reflected her experiences of tween alienation. At venues in the Nashville area, she performed many of the songs she had written, and it was at one such performance that she was noticed by record executive Scott Borchetta. Borchetta signed Swift to his fledgling Big Machine label, and her first single, “Tim McGraw” was released in the summer of 2006.

“Even if you’re happy with the life you’ve chosen, you’re still curious about the other options.”

The song was an immediate success, spending eight months on the Billboard country singles chart. Now age 16, Swift followed with a self-titled debut album, and she went on tour, opening for Rascal Flatts. Taylor Swift was certified platinum in 2007, having sold more than one million copies in the United States.  Swift continued a rigorous touring schedule, opening for artists such as George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill. That November Swift received the Horizon Award for best new artist from the Country Music Association (CMA). Capping the year in which she emerged as country music’s most-visible young star.

On Swift’s second album, Fearless (2008), she demonstrated a refined pop sensibility, managing to court the mainstream pop audience without losing sight of her country roots. With sales of more than half a million copies in its first week, Fearless opened at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It ultimately spent more time atop that chart than any other album released that decade. Singles such as “You Belong with Me” and “Love Story” were popular in the digital market as well. The latter accounting for more than four million paid downloads.

“To me, Fearless is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.”

Swift’s celebrity skyrocketed two years later, with the release of her sophomore album “Fearless.” The rise of smash hits “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me” coincided with her first Grammy wins, the beginning of a public obsession with her relationship status, and the infamous interaction with Kanye West at the 2009 VMAs. It was a huge year for Swift, who became an idol for young girls, a radio staple, and the subject of serious public debate for the first time. Her public image evolved to a larger version of what she known as in 2006. As she described begging her parents to take her to Nashville the way another child might ask to go to Disneyland and reintroduced herself to the world. Her starpower has climbed even higher, as her newest album “Midnights” broke the record for the most-streamed album in a day in Spotify history.

Taylor Swift, an unmoving presence in popular culture, signaling that her decision to share her political opinions. And move away from the people-pleasing she so committed to has not hurt her celebrity. Although the media will never tire from discussing her romantic history, Swift has done her best to extend the stance she took with her “reputation” album, putting her art at the forefront of her public life and rarely sharing details about her now six-year long relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. Now Swift leads with her music and uses her platform to amplify causes she cares about.

She says:

“And so, I decided, in order to keep that connection going, if I couldn’t play live shows with you, I was going to make and release as many albums as humanly possible.”

There comes a moment in a lot of Taylor Swift songs where it becomes hard to sing along. It’s sometimes a concept, sometimes a perspective, sometimes a phrase, sometimes just a word — but in that moment, you realize that this song isn’t about you. This song is about Taylor Swift. In ways both subtle and obtuse, she makes sure that all of her songs belong to her. There a reason there not many Taylor Swift covers — as Swift told NPR in 2014, through her lyrics, “People have essentially gotten to read my diary for the last 10 years.” It’s pretty hard to cover someone else’s diary. This is an unusual quality in pop music. So many radio hits blow up precisely because they could be about anyone. Certainly, those songs carry different weight when sung by different people. But the themes transcend any specific artist.

Per Variety‘s review of one of the shows, Swift said: “The reason we didn’t tour for five years — that was not a normal or scheduled thing. We had a global pandemic; we had much more important things that we had to worry about. “And so, I decided, in order to keep that connection going, if I couldn’t play live shows with you, I was going to make and release as many albums as humanly possible.”

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