Taylor Swift Continues to Surprise Her Fans
by Victoria Hopkins
Taylor Swift can’t yet let go of the hold that country music seems to have on her. In an article entitled “ Taylor Swift Proves She Can Do It All” Clare Jones writes “…Swift never fully shed her country roots. It proved that she can effortlessly glide from country to modern pop without sacrificing one for the other.” Country music continues to make an appearance in her newer music. Since Swift started her career out as a country music singer this is not surprising. Before Taylor switched over to pop music, she was well known in the country music industry, but she also never stayed within that box. She was always drawn to the style of pop music which seemed to come naturally to her since the awards her songs would win were mostly for pop artists. In her book Taylor Swift: Country Pop Hit Maker Robin Nelson lists examples of Taylor’s Billboard top. 40 hits—again typically featuring pop singers. It wasn’t until listeners and agents demanded that she chose a direction that she finally gave up on country music. In Taylor Swift Veers From Country Roots but Fans Stay Keely Gould writes At a certain point, if you chase two rabbits, you lose them both. Swift decided to go all the way and lose the country reputation that has been following her around to chase a new pop reputation.” in. Although many critics have said that she chose pop for the wrong reasons and that she was risking her career in music by making such a big change, switching genres has allowed Taylor to be recognized for her catholic taste and musical talent.
Switching over started with a pop song in her album ‘Fearless’, then half of an album being pop in ‘Red’, and finally a full pop album found in ‘1989’— also a tribute to her birth year. Some saw this as a new beginning. Since the album solidified her position in pop music, Swift was able to not only grow as a musician but also grow her star power as a pop artist eventually rising to become one the best pop singers in a generation. But was that enough for Taylor? Is being in pop really what she wants to continue to be doing?
Taylor answers these questions with her albums Evermore and Folklore. In these albums she mixes many different genres together into music. Some may even see it as a homage to the music itself: the way of Swift saying that there are too many different ways to make music for people to just define it as one genre. While these albums also showed how she had grown as an artist, she also added songs that were distinctively country . These songs draw on Taylor’s past as a country singer and bring out the best in her voice. Bringing out the banjo again allowed many of her pop music fans to experience genres they would never listen to .
Evermore and Folklore albums also include more alternative , indie rock folk/folk-pop tracks— genres that typical pop artists don’t tend to interact with because they don’t believe their fans will follow. But Swift has been able to not only swiftly change genres, but bring her fans along for the ride. She not only made old fans stronger fans, but allowed for newer fans to look at her as an artist for the first time. Since the most popular songs on these two albums both happened to be country songs, some fans started speculating that she would be coming back to country music. Wondering whether Swift was “mulling a country return,” Beth Garrabant writes “No Body, No Crime, with its even larger hit potential, could lead to a mighty return atop the country charts.”
Swift swiftly quelled these rumors with another pop album that showed a completely different and new side with a heavy focus on techno and afro beats. This showed longtime listeners that Taylor is experimenting with all different kinds of music and that she wants to be known for such newly-found versatility. Whether or not that involves another new genre remains to be seen. Since if you go back to her music throughout the ages you will start to see how she is always at least incorporating another genre in her music. For her earlier stuff it was country and pop. For her newer stuff it’s pop and rock. The reasoning for this is yet to be found.
Since Taylor is such an exceptional artist she is probably challenging herself as a musician to see if she could do all these different styles of music and to see where our own limits to music are. Especially since with each genre that becomes a big break she herself becomes more confident in her music and her fans ability to appreciate the music she makes. The real question then lies in will Taylor Swift ever meet her end or will her fans have artist loyalty throughout her career? Indeed, fans are a very important aspect for artists to consider when they switch genres, since they are the ones buying and listening to the music. That is why most artists try to make fans loyal to them and not loyal to the genres. Some fail and some succeed. In the case of Swift she has been successful in keeping her fans loyal and getting newer fans involved. That seems to be a skill you need to switch and mix genres. Mixing genres is not something that a lot of artists tend to do. Since it tends to not allow themselves to be categorized. This sometimes makes it hard for fans to find the music they are looking for when they look based on a genre. That’s why what Taylor Swift is doing is not only crazy but in a way unachievable by many. But not the queen herself. She is doing what many before her have failed to do. She is allowing her lyrics to speak for her. Jp writes “…combining wider musical influences… will not only sound unique within a specific genre, but it will also more closely represent your authentic voice as an artist. Win-win.”, about the way good artists mix music in Making and breaking genres in your music. In this sense she is able to assemble people who like to listen to different genres to all listen to her music. This is really genius of her because she is able to bring people together under one umbrella instead of making them feel separated like what the world does.