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Taylor Swift’s music is catchy. We’ve all heard it on the radio for the past two decades, and despite the changes in genre from country to pop to alternative rock, her voice is clear and recognizable. It is not only the heartwarming guitar strumming from Fearless and the head bopping beat from 1989 that make her music so beloved, but also her song lyrics. Every Swift song is a story with a resonating message, which ranges from the sweet Romeo and Juliet style romance of “Love Story” to “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”, which Swift stated is

“about disillusionment with our crazy world of politics and inequality, set in a metaphorical high school.” You might be skeptical of the effect of lyrics on a song’s popularity, but lyrics are instrumental in allowing the listener to connect with the world a song creates. For example, “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)”, is largely verse, with very few background instruments and only Swift’s voice for backing vocals. Despite the relatively simple musical outline, the song received high praise and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the longest song to ever do so, according to the Guiness Book of World Records.

Taylor Swift’s career has lasted for almost twenty years, and yet she has never faded from the public eye. One reason for this success is her consistent production of music, usually one album release every two years. However, each album marks a shift into a new genre, and Swift constantly reinvents her image along with it. In her early country music albums Taylor Swift and Fearless, Swift sings with a Southern drawl and presents herself as an innocent, sundress-wearing teen, which is reflected in her songs about first love and heartbreak. However, as Swift made the transition into pop and rock with her albums Red and 1989, she dropped her accent and began dressing in flamboyant outfits that echoed the glitter of the ‘80s, channeling the look of a true pop star. Swift’s more recent albums, Folklore and Evermore, explore an indie-folk and alternative rock style, and her muted pastel aesthetic matches the quiet and thoughtful tone of the music. With each reinvention of her artistic style and presentation, Swift’s fanbase grows larger and more dedicated. Swift is able to draw attention to her music by creating new content, but more importantly she is able to keep the attention by making such radical shifts and consistently doing it fabulously.

Taylor Swift is not the only artist who can write beautiful lyrics and change up her style – but she is one of the few artists who is incredibly open about her personal life. In her 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Swift shares her difficult journey with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, and the intense pressure that she felt from the media. This vulnerability allows Swift to be seen as herself, rather than as an unreachable star. Swift’s openness allows her fanbase to connect with her more easily, and the millions of women that comprise it can likely relate to her past experience with sexual assault and the struggles of being female in a patriarchal world. However, Swift’s songs can touch anyone’s heart with their messages of self worth and the excitement of love. Swift is also very public about her romantic history, which can be traced back to her teenage years, and she often writes songs about her past relationships. There is no topic too sensitive, as she sings about her on-again-off-again relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal in “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and the power imbalance of a large age gap in “Dear John”, referencing her relationship with John Mayer. Mayer felt humiliated by the song, saying in an interview with the Rolling Stones that: “I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”

"Swift’s openness allows her fanbase to connect with her more easily, and the millions of women that comprise it can likely relate to her past experience with sexual assault and the struggles of being female in a patriarchal world."