There is truly nothing quite as special or unique as the presence of Taylor Swift in 2018. She is the smartest business woman in the game and the most polarizing pop artist of our generation. Yet, she continuously gets berated, shamed, and ridiculed by the mass public, and it has been going on for years. Ever since the infamous Kanye West âImma let you finishâ speech interruption, Taylor Swift has been on the brain of everyone close enough to a computer or television, both in a good and bad way.
Taylor Swift started out as a country artist, writing melancholy ballads about heartbreak and growing up in the big scary world. As she shifted into more mature songwriting and delved deeper into the aspect of intimate and romantic relationships, the ugly head of slut shaming comes around, as it does. âAll she does is sing about boys;â âHow many boyfriends has she had;â âShe just broke up with another one, here comes another album.â And then she released a straight up masterpiece of a pop album: 1989.
This was a huge turning point for Swift. With the critically acclaimed album breaking all previous records, Taylor Swift was a household name, but also a public âshame.â Accused of abandoning her roots to sell albums, accused of cultural appropriation, and accused of losing her songwriting prowess, Taylor Swift stayed strong, head held high. With poignant songs, such as âBlank Space,â âOut of the Woods,â and âNew Romantics,â Swift had not missed a beat when switching genres, proving she could incorporate meaningful and thought-provoking lyrics into pop bangers.
Then the ugly got uglier. Without too many details (there are a TON), Kanye West and Kim Kardashian-West sought to take down the cultural icon. After seemingly burying the hatchet years after the speech fiasco, Swift and West seemed to be friends and were supposedly planning on going to the studio together. However, West had recorded a song in which he sings, âI feel like me and Taylor might still have sexâŠI made that bitch famous.â Kanye says Taylor approved the lyrics, Taylor said she didnât, Kim released a video of Swift and West on the phone talking about it, Taylor is âoutedâ as a fake and a snake. The ridicule and humiliation led Swift to leave the public eye for nearly two years, only to come back bigger and stronger than ever, but we will get to that later.
In Swiftâs defense, it is never seen in the video that Kanye plays her the lyrics, âI made that bitch famous,â which was the more upsetting part; Kanye also never mentioned those lyrics, and they were to be added to the song post-phone call. After Swift made a public statement about wanting to be excluded from a narrative she had no control of, and no interest in, people immediately did what they do best: attacked. Flooded with snake emojiâs on Twitter and bombarded with hate comments, Swift felt defeated and retreated. But, in August of 2017, a good 1.5 years after the incident, Swift released a âbait-and-switchâ song entitled âLook What You Made Me Do,â with a video that poked fun at her new snake persona, took jabs at the Wests, as well as her ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris (a whole other can of worms), and rebranded herself as the Snake Queen. Talk about a rebirth.
Now that Iâve flooded you with all this information, what is it Iâm trying to get at? Very good question, curious reader. Taylor Swift is a smart and powerful business woman. Every move she makes is calculated and with purpose. âBlank Spaceâ was a pop song that was a satire on the mediaâs portrayal of her as a serial dater. She produced 1989 as a sonically cohesive album (many complaints were that the songs sounded too alike) due to her previous album, Red, being snubbed Album of the Year at the Grammyâs due to its lack of sonic cohesiveness. âLook What You Made Me Doâ was yet another satirical song tackling her tattered image while also playing into the âfeudsâ in her career. The first half off her latest album, reputation, is meant to represent the âreputationâ she garnered over the years, while the second half is a representation of her true self. She knows the game she is playing, she plays it well, and she has always come out a winner.
The most recent, and most iconic thing, Swift has accomplished is so monumental. Ever since the 2016 Presidential Election, Swift was accused of being a Trump supporter by one small factor: she remained quiet about politics. Yes, the mere fact that she wasnât vocal (which is false) about her political beliefs led everyone to believe she was a Neo-Nazi, white supremacist, Trump girl. And, boy, does everyone feel foolish now. On Sunday, October 7, 2018, Swift took to Instagram, after her final US tour date for reputation, to encourage her fans to register to vote. She does call out Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican candidate, and says that she will not be voting for her since she does not contain the same values as Swift. A fairly simple statement, but a very effective one.
Now the tides have turned. Everyone, minus Republicans, LOVE Taylor Swift now that she has broken the silence and taken a stand. As I stated earlier, Taylor Swift has always been vocal about her BELIEFS. She was always a strong advocate for gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and mental health awareness, as well as race equality. So whatâs different? She finally put in a statement that is clear as crystal and cannot be compromised. She wants people to vote and she is not voting Republican in Tennessee. Since this, over 165,000 new voter registrations were recorded across the US. This is not a coincidence. It is also not a coincidence in timing.
After Swift was deemed pro-Trump, many people assumed that her tour would be funded by a primarily Republican demographic. Why didnât Swift say something sooner? Because she wanted a message to be sent. Some would argue that she âneededâ that audience to fund her tour, but she would have sold out regardless, in my opinion. But, itâs a bigger stab in the back when this group of people willingly, and blindly, gave her their money, then she turns around and makes a statement like that, and the checks are already cashed. The tour is over, her sold-out stadiums, and she held true to her beliefs. She didnât need the money of Republican fans, but itâs just calculated and petty, which makes it even more fantastic. Following up with this, Swift performed at the American Music Awards that Tuesday, her first award show performance in years, and she sang the stadium tour version of âI Did Something Bad.â In the song, the standout lyrics are: âIf a man talks shit, then I owe him nothing,â âI never trust a narcissist, but they love me, so I play them like a violin and I make it look oh, so easy,â âThey say I did something bad, then whyâs it feel so good,â and âTheyâre burning all the witches even if you arenât one.â This is the most iconic moment in Swiftâs career.
The Internet will say Swift single handedly took down the Republican party, or that she did it for the attention. Needless to say, the power of Taylor Swift cannot be denied. She is a strong and successful woman who refuses to give up the fight. She is a pop star yes, but she is also a business woman, a crafty one at that, and a human being. All these âcontroversiesâ around her just fuel her fire and she will continue to rise above the flames. Go ahead and light her up, because sheâs taken flight and sheâs not stopping any time soon.
