So, what’s the big deal with Taylor Swift? Here’s why there is no one else like her

It’s been a week now since Taylor Swift swooped into town for a A pair of performances at US Bank Stadium which attracted around 128,000 fans and all of them dominated local media for days.

However, I keep hearing people reject it. It is only for teenage girls. She is not talented. It’s deceptive. And so on and so on.

I’ve been writing professionally about music for 28 years now and have covered teen pop concerts since my ‘N Sync days. I’ve seen it all, including that time I went to a Kidz Bop party on my own and endured an icy stare at the entire show. But I’ve never seen anything quite like the 33-year-old Taylor Swift.

For those still not convinced, hear me out.

She is a talented songwriter

Swift learned to play the guitar when she was 12, and soon after, she began writing her own songs, inspired by the likes of Shania Twain and Dolly Parton. She persuaded her parents to move to Nashville, where she worked with experienced songwriters to hone her craft, including Liz Rose, who once described a couple’s after-school writing sessions as “some of the easiest I’ve ever done. Basically, I was just her editor.” She was writing about what happened at school that day. She had a clear vision of what she was trying to say. And she came up with the most amazing hooks.”

From the very beginning, Swift has written about her life and passions in a way that relatable to her peers like few other musicians. Nor was she afraid of evolution. After releasing three multi-platinum albums and 17 singles in the country genre, Swift began exploring other sounds with 2012’s “Red,” which in turn expanded her audience and helped turn her into a global star.

She seemed to have hit her peak after the somewhat tepid 2019 movie “Lover,” but she surprised everyone with her pandemic-inspired shift to indie-folk with her 2020 albums “Folklore” and “Evermore,” and worked with unlikely collaborators like The National’s Aaron Dessner and Justin Bon Iver Vernon. She has a reputation for using her romantic relationships as fodder for songs, but in 2020 she looked for lyrical inspiration outside of her own life.

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While doing most of her writing with partners, she wrote her third album, 2010’s Speak Now, entirely on her own. “(Taylor Version)” is scheduled to be released on the record on Friday. (More on her re-recordings in a bit.)

She knows what it’s like to be a fan

Swift’s debut single, 2006’s “Tim McGraw”, was inspired by her love of Tim McGraw’s song. She knows what it’s like to be the one staring at the stage.

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As such, Swift has created an entire ecosystem beyond her songs for those who want to dig deeper. She fills her lyrics, videos, photo sessions, and album sleeves with Easter eggs and references to both future and past events in her life. Some fans spend hours decoding everything and that’s part of the fun. Several posts sum up everything on a regular basis for the rest of us.

Although she tightly controls the details she lets the public know about her personal life, loyalists still know a lot more than you think, including the names and bios of many of the people she works with, such as longtime publicist Trey Payne. Fans know they have to keep an eye out for potential Watch Swift’s mother at her parties.

The average listener can listen to her music on streaming services. But Swift also offers her music in several physical formats with limited editions, alternate covers, and colored vinyl. Each new album, or as she puts it, an “era,” is also accompanied by a massive amount of merchandise, from T-shirts and hoodies to handbags and beach towels. Merch sales outside US Bank Stadium opened in the afternoon before their premiere there and some people waited hours to be among the first to get a chance to buy. It’s good at capitalism!

She wants to control her own music

In 2019, music executive Scooter Braun purchased Swift’s first Big Machine Records label, which included all of the masters, music videos, and artwork for Swift’s first six albums. She angered Brown, a man she described as a “manipulative, manipulative bully,” by now controlling much of her catalog, and vowed to re-record and reissue those records.

In the years prior to rock and roll, it was not uncommon for artists, especially black artists, to re-record hits after being blown away by their record company. More recently, groups like ELO and Blondie have done the same in hopes that their new releases will be the ones used for licensing in movies, television, and commercials.

But no one has done what Swift is doing now. (Prince threatened to do so at the turn of the century, but was unable to release a re-recorded version of his single “1999.”) In 2021, she released not one but two new recordings of “Fearless” and “Red” and placed them with a label” ( Taylor’s version)” newly added. Next up is the aforementioned “Speak Now”. Many fans expected her EP “1989” to be the next single she released.

She is a hard worker

Since the beginning of her career, Swift has done whatever it takes to get her music heard. She toured extensively and met personally with the country radio program staff at each tour stop. Each tour has grown larger and more elaborate than the last, leading directly to her current outing, which sees her perform for over three hours each night. This is relatively rare for ring and court acts and unprecedented for pop stars.

Speaking of her current tour, Swift does have a live band and dancers, but she spends a lot of the show alone on one of three huge stages and manages to hold the attention of the entire audience in the palm of her hand. When all is said and done, you will have performed 117 shows on five continents.

In the early days of her career, Swift was sometimes criticized for her thin voice, particularly during live performances and duets at award shows. So she doubled down and worked harder, practiced more and built her voice into the powerful instrument that was on full display in her USBS shows.

The night I saw her, she told the crowd that she started writing songs two days after the COVID lockdown and has since released over 50 new songs across three albums. One feels that this is a woman who cannot work.

It all paid off for Swift, who is known for her philanthropy and support for disaster relief, medical research, and the arts. Pollstar makes an estimate Total for her current tour It could amount to “a staggering, unbelievable, unimaginable $1.4 billion.” Forbes predicts her net worth is It’s likely to be around $900 million Next year.

Next comes Taylor Swift – The Age of the Billionaire.

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