Have you heard of a musical artist named Taylor Swift? Of course, you have, because even if you live under a rock, her name has dominated the music industry and social media for years.
Taylor Swift’s rise to fame began in 2004, when she signed a music deal with Sony/ATV, becoming the youngest artist to sign with them in history. In 2006, she signed a contract with Big Machine Records and dropped her self-named debut album. Since then, Swift has released 10 albums, not including her re-recorded albums.
Swift began as a country artist, releasing her first four albums but transitioned to a pop genre when she released Red, a country-pop album. After Red, she released three pop albums, followed by two indie albums, with her last album being pop. Covering three genres throughout two decades is already a feat, but Swift reached for the stars. She proceeded to win Album of the Year three times in three different genres, becoming the first and only woman solo artist to win three times in three different genres. One thing Swift does exceptionally well is convey emotions, which Kremke brought attention to. Throughout her ten albums, she touches on every emotion and situation possible, even creating storylines throughout her albums.
“[I love] her way to convey all different emotions and like anything ever and just like, any emotion you have, there’s a song for it. Her whole discography like, anything you feel, there’s a song for it. And just like the beauty of her writing,” Senior Hayden Kremke said.
With fame comes hatred and Swift has gained a large following of people who constantly criticize her music, looks, and how she holds herself in the media. One of the largest moments of hate towards Swift was after her award-winning album 1989 when rapper Kanye West dissed Swift in one of his songs, “Famous.” The media criticized Swift’s reaction to the infamous line, causing her to retreat into a hiding of sorts for a little over a year before releasing “Look What You Made Me Do,” a single that was teasing the release of her sixth album, reputation. Since the West-Swift discourse, Kanye fans and sympathizers have torn into Swift, picking apart every aspect of her person.
“I think that some people think she’s overhyped, but people who are actually fans of her know that she deserves the hype that she is getting because she plans all of this stuff. I feel like she does get like a lot of overreactions because people who are her fans are very out-there, like really involved people, but people do the same thing with football and stuff like that,” Sophomore Mila Beale said.
Although Swift has attracted many followers, her song styles have turned off just as many. From football fans to entertainment lovers, many people dislike her worn-out music formulas.
“I feel like it’s [Swift’s music] generic and boring. It’s all the same stuff, just different words and different beat,” Senior William Smich said.
Arguably, Swift’s music appears to follow a pattern where she dates someone new, the couple splits, and she releases a new song about her relationship, adding to feelings of monotony with her songs. With each song and album release, fans grow frenzied with hype. For the past several months, Swift has influenced every square inch of media, including social media pages, major news outlets, and sports games.
“[I dislike her mostly because] of how overhyped she is. Everybody says she is the greatest female artist, but she has a few good songs, but they aren’t all the greatest thing ever,” Senior Luke Brant said.
Brant explains that as he heard Swift’s songs with increasing frequency, he began to hate listening to them. He believes that she was able to make her way into mainstream media with a few of her songs and remained there.
“Some of her music is lackluster, she sings about the same thing every time,” Brant said.
Many “anti-Swifties” have no grudge against Swift as a person, but question the reason she has gained such an intense following. Some students find her lyrics to be well-crafted and authentic, but dislike her common-sounding music scores, claiming that it is repetitive. Besides the fact that those who are not Swift-obsessed seem to prefer non-pop genres, students have also recognized that some members of the Swift fandom have taken their appreciation to concerning measures.
“Some of these fans are super scary. I feel I understand why people like her, but I don’t understand the hype at all. [I think she is popular because] her lyrics are pretty good and her voice is good too,” Senior Angelina Brack said.
Despite the consensus amongst “anti-Swifties” that Swift’s music has an empty quality, the group was divided on their feelings of which aspect of her music is actually empty. Some students find that Swift’s lyrics are unvaried and boring, while others acknowledge Swift as a talented lyricist, yet do not listen to her often.
“I think she’s a great lyricist, [but] I don’t listen to her as much as other artists. I think she has some great music, but…I have other favorites,” Senior Luke Housman said.
Few students credit Swift’s popularity to her ‘sad breakup songs’ and her ‘switch from country to pop music’. Whether or not these ideas really do contribute to her popularity, it seems that Taylor Swift’s stardom has been cemented into pop culture for the foreseeable future.
