Last week, Taylor showcased her enviable productivity by releasing her third album in a year. After a dispute regarding the masters of her recordings, Taylor kicked off her campaign to re-release her entire back catalogue of music, denying some bloke called Scooter the opportunity to profit from her work for all eternity. And I have to say, I unashamedly love it. And in truth, I always have – but not always unashamedly. For years, a public admission that you might be a fan of Taylor was met with scoffs and derision. But in a matter of just a few years, I’ve gone from listening to ‘Love Story’ on private mode on Spotify to proudly blaring her new hit ‘Mr Perfectly Fine’ in the car on the way to walk the dog.
So what is the cause of this change? What’s happened? The shift started, I think, with her album 1989. The ears of Swift sceptics pricked up as she released an absolute belter of an album, which spoofed the image of her that the media had created over the years and was honest and confessional throughout. With high production value music videos and collaborations with some of the world’s best songwriters meant this was a turning point.
I am briefly going to mention the album that followed because I think we can all agree it was quite funny, if slightly disastrous. For all those How I Met Your Mother fans out there, Tay Tay’s 2017 album, Reputation was a genuine, real-life Robin Daggers moment and I love that we’ve made the collective decision to just not talk about it. After this album, which failed to garner any attention during awards season, was followed by a brief stint in the world of bubble-gum pop – which if I’m honest, I wasn’t on board with. But the real moment when all closeted Swifties could reveal themselves was last year when she surprised us all with Folklore. I’m sure some people would inexplicably rather listen to Soundcloud rappers rambling in triplets all day but surely even they can agree that every song on Folklore was triumph of song writing and storytelling. The album reflected her experiences of the last few years, the production was simple and effective; it just felt like an album from a singer/songwriter who made an album for herself. After that, the last thing we all expected was another cracking album; but that’s what we got. And it was just as good.
On top of some incredible output over the years, Taylor has built empire and has quite rightly been named one of the world’s most powerful women. She almost single-handedly secured fair (ish) payment for artists of streaming platforms and reportedly caused a huge spike in voter registration in 2018 whens he strenuously opposed Marsha Blackburn’s bid for congress. She’s a truly impressive and iconic figure but most importantly, she’s an incredible songwriter; and I am very pleased to be able to express that opinion openly and have everyone around me agree.
May God grant you Tay Tay’s productivity.
Harry Fenn