Taylor Swift | Graphic by Bethany Althauser | The Wright State Guardian
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has been in the public eye for almost 20 years now, and in that time, she has attained a following unlike anything our generation has witnessed.
The Loudest Woman This World Has Ever Seen
Swift has always used her platform to bring awareness to the things that she is passionate about. This makes it nearly impossible to discuss Swift’s true impact without mentioning feminism and misogyny. She discusses it in her songs, most notably “The Man,” and has openly discussed these topics in many interviews.
“The Man” is a track from Swift’s seventh studio album, “Lover,” which was the first album where she took full creative control over her music, as this was the first of her albums that she owned. While she addressed the haters in the past in songs like “Mean” and “Shake It Off,” it was never so specific.
Generally, “Lover” as an album and an era is regarded by fans as being mainly love songs and happy-go-lucky, and while that might be partly true, the interviews that Taylor was giving at the time gave a distinctly different vibe. She spent a lot of time discussing how she had been burned by her former record label and her master tracks being sold. This was also when she announced her plans to re-record her albums.
Now this is all old news since those re-records have been incredibly successful and well-known; however, during this time, she also discussed feminism, politics and everything she had not been allowed to before for fear of her old management that it would lead to backlash. When her masters were stolen, Taylor finally decided to break her silence on all of these matters that are important to her.
This is all detailed in her documentary on Netflix, “Miss Americana.” In this, she also breaks her silence on her past mental health issues, including an eating disorder, and opens up about the relationship she was in.
Since then, fans have been blessed with more tracks that discuss misogyny, such as “Nothing New (featuring Phoebe Bridgers),” “mad woman” and “You Need To Calm Down.”
Her Midas Touch
Success seems to follow everything that Swift does. The economy has been boosted in every city that she has toured on the Eras Tour due to the increased demand for all sorts of different things, including hotels, food and, most importantly, supplies for making friendship bracelets.
During the Super Bowl game, the National Football League showed Swift for a total of 55 seconds, which was 11 different times. Many football fans and Taylor Swift haters expressed their dislike of this fact, some even being angry, when the fact is that Taylor Swift is now an icon and a brand. It is smart for other businesses to capitalize on her success when they can. However, the NFL does not need more views, but it is still not hurting anyone to show someone that so many people connect to.
Cetaphil, a skin care brand, saw the opportunity for this and released a heartwarming commercial emphasizing the new way that fathers and daughters might have been able to bond.
The hate that Taylor has received as a result of her screen time at the Super Bowl is a great example of the type of misogyny that she spoke out against during her past interviews.
She Can Do It With A Broken Heart
The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) is Swift’s next album and will be out on April 19, 2024. This is her eleventh studio album and is expected to fall into the synth-pop genre, which could mean nearly anything. The tracklist has already been released in full, and fans are making their predictions as to what each track will be about.
Her heart, now seemingly and hopefully intact again, was presumably shattered after her six-year relationship ended. We got some songs on her Grammy-winning album, “Midnights,” that hinted at this, depending on which fans you ask. During her acceptance speech, Swift said that she kept the secret of TTPD for two years, which is approximately how long Swift and her ex have been broken up.
Swift started her widely successful, career-redefining tour closely after this breakup, with it not even being public knowledge until a few weeks in. Being “The Eras Tour,” she sang songs from every era, including “Lover,” which was notably a love album for the ex of that fresh breakup.
There have been many Easter eggs, from burning the Lover house down at every show to her many surprise songs from the tour’s start to the present day. Overall, though, it seems it will be a breakup album, likely not catching up entirely to her relationship with Travis Kelce, or at least not focusing on it as a larger theme. Hopefully, that will come from her twelfth studio album, meaning it could be a big sister album to “Lover.”
Regardless of what TTPD has in store for us, and whether it will delve into feminism and misogyny or clap back at any of the backlash Swift has received for being a person, a brand and a girlfriend all at one time, it is sure to be a masterpiece.
