Why America Loves Taylor Swift So Much

If I asked 100 people on the street before September 13, 2009 who would be the biggest artist of the upcoming decade, they would have given a plethora of answers. Some would have said Lady Gaga, after she’d just released The Fame Monster with big hits like “Poker Face” and “Bad Romance”, or Katy Perry, after she had one of the first ever lesbian-based number one hits. Others would have leaned towards Hip-Hop, with answers like Kanye West, who had released one of the greatest four album runs in the history of music at the time, or Drake, who was fresh off of his mixtape So Far Gone and had the almost-chart-topping hit “Best I Ever Had”. Many might have leaned towards the R&B side citing Rihanna, Chris Brown, or Jason Derulo as the brightest star. But, on that night, everything changed, and it happened because of one award ceremony.

If you didn’t look it up already, the VMAs happened that night, and some of the aforementioned names were performing songs along with other big stars like P!nk, Green Day, and Janet Jackson, who did a tribute to her late brother, Michael (you may have heard of him). But one performance captured many people’s attention. This country singer named Taylor was singing her song with a live band on the NYC subway (this was before late night hosts started doing this same shtick), and she won an award for “Best Female Video”, the public was so happy for her, she finally was going to get the recognition critics thought she deserved. 

Then, disaster struck. While Taylor was accepting her award, Kanye’s bi-polar a** ran on stage and took the mic from Taylor while she was still speaking. Of course, the rest is history: Kanye got exiled to Hawaii, made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, then did some other dumb s**t. But, right after this happened, Beyoncé actually did win for “Video of The Year”, and invited Taylor to finish her speech. This generous act made a semi-popular country singer America’s sweetheart, and sparked something that no one thought would have happened: The meteoric rise of Taylor Swift.

I think we as music fans can comfortably say it: Taylor Swift is the biggest thing in music since Michael Jackson, maybe even The Beatles. She hasn’t not sold out a show in at least half a decade, got a Disney deal for a film of her tour, has the biggest fan base on Earth, and boosted the viewership of the NFL just because she is dating Travis Kelce (“I only started watching Football when Taylor Swift said it’s ok” – Nikki Glacer). And, even though I am all for a woman being the biggest artist on the globe, I have to ask this question: How, and why? I mean, her singing isn’t as impressive as many other female pop singers of now and the past (Billie Elish, Mariah Carey, Amy Winehouse, Ariana Grande, etc.). And, she isn’t the only artist that writes their own songs (Prince, D’Angelo, Sam Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Bowie, Adele, Lauryn Hill, every rapper that isn’t Drake or Diddy, etc.). You could say that it’s because Swift has no fear of sharing her political views, but Taylor is no Run The Jewels or Public Enemy. So, why is she the one who is the most popular artist of the 21st century? That is what I will explore in this month’s article, as we figure out the reasons on why Taylor Swift is so beloved in the States. 

Reason 1: She’s White

I hate to say it, but it’s true: there have not been many black artists who have broken through the superstar barrier, at least, not to the degree that white artists have (it has been rectified in recent years though). The only two that are instantly recognizable are Michael Jackson and Beyoncé (Prince is debatably on this list), and that’s because Mike had vitiligo and straightened his hair, which made him look white, and generally created safe music that appealed to white audiences. And Beyoncé is just Beyoncé. Only a white American could have written “Love Story” or “Wildest Dreams”. Taylor’s experiences give her fodder to write songs that have appeal to wide audiences.

Reason 2: She’s Somewhat Relatable

I’m guessing that when the word Billionaire pops into your head, you think of someone like Jeff Bazos or Elon Musk, or fictional people like Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne. And, it makes sense. These people have enough money to pay for their lavish lifestyles, huge houses, and nice car collections. But, Taylor Swift isn’t an ordinary billionaire. Instead of singing about the things someone like Rick Ross talks about (who she is almost 10x richer than), she sings about her cats, her personality, and her troubles finding a boyfriend. She talks about the ladder a lot (more than 50 times), and it makes sense. If you want to have your fanbase relate to you, talk about something that everyone goes through. That’s what Drake was going for when he made “Marvin’s Room” and “Feel No Ways”, and he’s the number two artist in the world. The only problem is, Swift is a billion-dollar celebrity who, in the opinion of others, has lavish needs, while the people who listen to her went through a breakup or are struggling for very different reasons. But, luckily for Swift, the positive reception to those tracks outweigh the negative, and some of them are known as her best songs ever among her fanbase.

Reason 3: She is Always the Victim

Obviously I touched on the Kanye situation previously, but there have been many other scenarios where Swift is (rightfully) seen as the victim. Another beef that Swift had was with her record label, Big Machine Label Group and their head, Scooter Braun. She was mad that she didn’t have her masters once her contract ended, so she re-recorded all of her songs and told her fanbase to stream those versions. Then, Taylor’s Version was born. And, of course, I have to talk about her boyfriends, who (like I said before) she has written multiple songs about. Including, but not limited to: John Mayer (“Dear John”), Jake Gyllenhaal (“All Too Well”), Harry Styles (“All You Had To Do is Stay”), and Calvin Harris (“Look What You Made Me Do”). This has become a running gag among the music community, where we all laugh at whoever dates Swift because they are 100% gonna be turned into a song (looking at you Travis Kelce, you’re f**ked. Actually, according to my editor, he already has two to his name). And, even worse than the last two is when Taylor got wrapped up in a s/a case back in 2015. To make a long story short, a Radio DJ grabbed her a** when taking a picture, and after Swift’s team told the radio station, he was fired. Then, the DJ took the case to court, suing for defamation. And, even though she did get touched inappropriately, and there was a picture proving it, nobody believed her. The case got thrown out in 2017, where Swift countersued for $1 and won, but she didn’t do anything else. Luckily for Swift, there was no damage done. But, somehow, with all these different altercations, she is still painted as the victim. 

Reason 4: She’s Family Friendly 

If there is one thing that most artists neglect nowadays, it is family-friendliness and radio play, which died due to the rise of social media. Recently, you don’t really need the radio to decide if you are big or not. For sure, it helps – but with the rise of TikTok and other social media platforms implementing short form content, it really doesn’t matter if your song is clean or not. All it needs to have is a hook to appeal to teenagers and people in their early twenties who use the app (and they don’t care about cursing). But, what about the generations before and after? Most people 60 and over don’t use social media, so their dive into popular music is through the radio. This is where Swift comes in. Until around 2022, Swift didn’t curse a lot in her music, so it was perfect for the radio stations to play. And, because of that fact, younger kids and seniors got to listen to her music. Then, years later, these young kids developed into obsessive tweens and teenagers.

Another factor is that she hasn’t had any major controversies. If we go to all of the artists I mentioned in the first paragraph, 4 out of the 7 have a major controversy (Chris Brown with assaulting Rihanna, Jason Derulo s/aing a girl, Kanye being himself, and Drake being an alleged p*dophille). But Swift is the closest thing to squeaky clean as possible (her biggest controversy is that she flies her jet too much). And, a squeaky clean record can help your popularity in America. By the way, this is not like Swift just happens to be family friendly – she actively pursues that image. A couple months ago, some people used AI to generate explicit images of Swift. Almost immediately, she and her team shut it down, and you can’t find those images on any social media sites. 

In conclusion, the meteoric rise of Taylor swift can be summed up in four elements: her race, her relatability, the fact that she is always the victim, and how family friendly she is. But, why hasn’t this formula worked as well for many other artists? Well, the answer is simple, her fanbase.

During the early 2010s, Taylor began to call her fanbase the “Swifites”, and they are known as the most intense fanbase on Earth (K-Pop fans are second and the Barbz are third). Anyone who is under a private account tries to hate on Taylor on Twitter (still will never call it X), the Swifties unite to try and find any public dirt on that person. Remember those guys who generated AI images of Swift earlier? Her fanbase found both of the guys’ home addresses and they got a crap ton of hate mail. So, why am I noting this? The reason is because, with her fan base, Swift is untouchable and can do no wrong. If someone ever tries to disrespect her, the Swifties will vigorously defend her.

But what does this mean for pop music as a whole? Even though Swift is, and will probably continue, to be a megastar for the next half a decade, the hype around her will eventually die out. Either she retires, releases a couple poorly received albums, or drops the ball on her brand badly (in the same vein as John Lennon saying that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus). But, at the end of the day, I don’t know, and I feel like we should appreciate a time where a woman is the biggest pop star in America.