Why is Taylor Swift so popular despite criticism of her as an artist and person?

Why is Taylor Swift so popular? What makes her different from other female singers in her age group?

I didn’t used to listen to TS until pandemic when I asked the same thing. Why is she so popular, I must be missing something. I heard her songs on the radio, but to me this didn’t equate to the success, popularity, and overall critical acclaim that she was receiving. I set out to figure out what the hype was and if I could figure it out. I am by no means her age, old enough to be her mother, but I feel after my pandemic journey down this rabbit hole that I have some insight into why she is so popular

Her best songs are not on the radio. As I mentioned, I had heard her hit songs, they were catchy, but to me they all were not iconic stand out songs and I could not see how these songs were equalling her popularity and critical acclaim. What I found out is that her best songs are usually not on the radio. Fans and critics know this, but I didn’t because I had never listened to an album of hers before. I don’t understand it, but obviously it has worked for her, but her best songs are not the songs that everyone knows from the radio. If anyone is basing their judgment on radio hits, then they are way off base, as I was.

She is the best songwriter today. This is a bold statement. I didn’t think this because of point #1 above. But, as I went down the rabbit hole to figure this out, I realized what talent she has. I had always heard this, and the critics seemed to all be in agreement on this point, but I had just not heard much consistency with lyricism to think of her that highly. But, now I get it. She is amazing. She is highly intelligent, interweaves literary references from Bronte, Hemingway, FScott Fitzgerald, Wordsworth, Du Maurier, Browning, etc. If you don’t know, then you don’t know. Sometimes they are just catchy lines, but if you don’t know, you will miss a literary reference. She speaks in metaphors, everything is a metaphor for something else. If you think it is a shallow song, I bet there is a much deeper meaning to it. Take her song Welcome To New York. Of course this has a dual meaning, right? She’s using it as a metaphor. She is a story teller with excellent diction and if someone listens to her storytelling songs they can picture the scene, smell the smells, feel the breeze and imagine what its like being in that room experiencing what she is referring to. And, she always leaves some of the details out until the end, like a punchline or a conclusion, or a twist at the end. If you haven’t listened, then you don’t know. Neither did I.

She plays several instruments and writes her own material. She is a musician that usually writes on piano or guitar. Any one of her songs, even the heavy pop hits, she can break that down and play it acoustically at a concert. She doesn’t have a team of writers. She writes. The credits the producers but she is the songwriter. She writes differently depending upon the song. During pandemic, she toplined background tracks written by Aaron Dessner from the National. The first of those was Cardigan. He sent her some background music and went for a run. When he got back she had written the melody and lyrics. She is a prolific writer. People and critics didn’t believe it, so for her third album she wrote exclusively by herself to prove everyone wrong. The critics never said another word.

She expands the musical experience beyond simply listening to music. She puts out easter eggs and clues, puzzles, and keeps the fan base engaged in trying to figure out these clues. It is fun, can be frustrating, but I can see how this has been a huge way to keep her fans engaged and adds another level to the musical experience.

She is down to earth. Each album since RED (RED, 1989, Reputation, Lover) prior to pandemic, she has invited about 100 fans to 3–4 of her homes in LA, London, Rhode Island, Nashville, etc… to entertain them, bakes cookies for them, has gifts for them, knows their names, and plays the album for them before the album is released. This is a way of connecting with her fans one-on-one and genuinely seems to enjoy this. I did not know she did anything like this but this seems to be a big deal, and prior to pandemic, something she really enjoyed sharing with her fans.

She is an advocate for other artists. She stood up to Apple Music with the famous Apple Letter, took all her music down, and demanded that artists be paid fairly for streaming. The next day Apple changed their policy. She notoriously refused to put her music on Spotify due to lack of paying artists. This battle made such an impact on the future of streaming rights and $, that it will be included in the Netflix documentary on Spotify. And recently, with her re-recording her masters has brought the attention to artists and how the record labels own the work, not the artists. This has already made an impact on new artists as they now have leverage to at least negotiate the ownership of their masters. For instance, new artist Olivia Rodrigo credits Taylor Swift for paving the way and giving her the courage to fight to control her masters, and she owns them because of it.

Her songs are not about breakups. A common misconception that I fell into before I started my research, not all her songs are about breakups and boyfriends. Keeping in mind that artists of all types (painters, writers, poets, sculptors, singers, etc) usually create art from what inspires them or what they know or have experienced or what they are feeling. Taylor certainly is known for this. BUT, every artist does it. I have no problem with this, and neither should anyone. If so, then they have a problem also with Shakespeare, da Vinci, etc. EVERY artist pulls from their own self and writes. What I found is that she writes about all kinds of things, some of them are relationships. Sometimes she will write about a relationship and 10 years later she will write about it again, but from a different perspective, or a different side of an event. Because there are always different sides, emotional, feeling, the direct event, the aftermath, all types of ways to write about a certain event. Then, as one looks back 10 years later, I’m sure those emotions or ways of expressing the event is very different. I like that she can and does do this. 5 songs may be about a given event but each will tell a different story. I don’t know any other artist who can do this.

She does indeed write about her life. Although she is getting away from this as she has gotten older, she has and still does on some songs write about her life. I like this. It give her fans a little bit of a view into her world and her life. Which is what the fans want, to be closer to her. She doesn’t do it because of that, she does it because it is what she knows. For instance, the album Reputation has 15 tracks and it tells a story about meeting someone, leaving a relationship, feeling a connection with that new someone, beginning to date and the insecurities of a new relationship, and beginning to fall in love. Listening to the album shares a view into her life during that time. At the end of the album, she has fallen in love and you know exactly what it was like for her to fall in love. The following album, Lover, picks up where Reputation left off in that it is an album about BEING in love. These two albums are love albums and they are all about her life.

Each album is different. I guess I knew she started in country music, but I had never listened to it. But, each album, and she has 9 now, is a different sound. She has ventured into 4 different genres of music and nailed each one. Country, country pop, pop, pop with RnB and rap, bubblegum pop, indie/folk,, and she even did a little jazz on Lover album. She can do any genre of music because she is a lover of music, she likes all music. I don’t know any other artist who is as versatile. I cannot believe how versatile she is. And, she is able to seemingly jump back and forth between these genres within months, weeks, or even within albums themselves. She is a chameleon. Every album you don’t know what you are going to get. Many artists today are very predictable. The same sound, or maybe the same style. Nothing new. Not pushing boundaries. Not taking risks. Not jumping into other genres. Taylor has been doing that her entire career. This keeps the fans guessing what kind of album is she going to put out next. It will always be a different sound from the previous album. Once she puts the album out, she mentally checks out and she’s already moved on to the next project. She doesn’t stay there too long.

All of these things and I’m sure there are plenty more, make her stand out. I had never listened to an album of hers before pandemic, and that became my pandemic project to figure out her popularity. I think I found several things about her that I did not know. I judged her music based on Shake it Off (I despise that song) or other songs that I felt just weren’t as good as her popularity and acclaim. Now I know. I get it now. And, I think she is the best songwriter today, and making the best music today. That’s my conclusions to why she is so popular and how she is different.