Why has Taylor Swift become such a phenomenon?

[inclinations]

Explain your reasoning.          

[surfy]

Because she is perfect!

Or it's because she slayed the world with her songwriting skills

[Linnethia Monique]

Her main audience can relate to her and has also grown with her as well. She started out as a 16 year old girl singing about ex-boyfriends in High School to a 24 year old talking about ex-boyfriends in Adulthood with various other topics in there as well. She's baiting the hell out of the various social media sites and the tabloids themselves but she always seems to come out on top. Her evolution of personal style, songwriting, production, etc. is par for par what everybody her age range is going through right now. Britney did the same thing and it was why her audience stayed with her for years on out. Christina went from one image to what could be the beginning of "slut-shaming" due to the drastic change in content and personal style from her debut to Stripped. She's able to keep her face out there at all times due to various reasons and it works all in her favor.

[Green Baron]

When people realized she's actually good.

[surfy]

Nov 9, 2014 0:24:23 GMT -5 Green Baron said:

When people realized she's actually good.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see you posting this, Baron! :)

[Green Baron]

Nov 9, 2014 1:34:13 GMT -5 surfy said:

Nov 9, 2014 0:24:23 GMT -5 Green Baron said:

When people realized she's actually good.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see you posting this, Baron! :)

Why? I've always liked her somewhat.

[Mr. Thonk Eyes]

To me, a phenomenon is when someone blows up and becomes popular in a fairly short amount of time and dies off quickly. Taylor has been around for awhile now and I see no reason to believe she won't be sticking around for several more years so I do not consider her a phenomenon

[surfy]

Nov 9, 2014 1:37:01 GMT -5 Green Baron said:

Nov 9, 2014 1:34:13 GMT -5 surfy said:

I'm pleasantly surprised to see you posting this, Baron! :)

Why? I've always liked her somewhat.

I just never expected you to like her, I guess. I just never heard you say anything about her, so when I read this, you didn't pop into my head. Lol. Glad to hear you like her music though! :)

[Chelsea Press 2]

Taylor's music is super relatable and she found an audience that was open to her message and subject matter and she has managed to maintain that with each album, actually increasing it with the new album. It helps that she writes her own music because that's something that not every recording artist does. She doesn't have the greatest vocals, but she does well with what she has. Her lyrics are meaningful and her vocal performances convey that emotion. She doesn't really have any particular gimmick so her persona doesn't seem contrived.

Nov 8, 2014 23:19:19 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Her main audience can relate to her and has also grown with her as well. She started out as a 16 year old girl singing about ex-boyfriends in High School to a 24 year old talking about ex-boyfriends in Adulthood with various other topics in there as well. She's baiting the hell out of the various social media sites and the tabloids themselves but she always seems to come out on top. Her evolution of personal style, songwriting, production, etc. is par for par what everybody her age range is going through right now. Britney did the same thing and it was why her audience stayed with her for years on out. Christina went from one image to what could be the beginning of "slut-shaming" due to the drastic change in content and personal style from her debut to Stripped. She's able to keep her face out there at all times due to various reasons and it works all in her favor.

It's really helpful that she and most of her audience are in the same age group so she can tackle more mature subject matter in her lyrics so there isn't the whole "she's gone all X-rated now" issue that came about when Britney and Christina made that drastic shift. With them, it was not a gradual evolution towards the more mature stuff. It's like they were all "I was a girl yesterday, but I'm a woman today and I have sex and here are my goodies!". That just won't work with Taylor. Can you imagine her doing a Sex book and writhing around almost naked with musclebound shirtless guys covered in sweat in a music video or on tour? I cannot not see Taylor going that far with her material and her image because it wouldn't be authentic. That's just not her. It's nice that she is experimenting musically and trying different things just as others her age would do in life.

[Wolfy]

She reminds me a bit of Dolly Parton, and that coming from me is the ultimate compliment.

[Deleted]

She is flat chested and has no ass and no voice, we already on bad footing. I will say she has managed to manipulate the press real well. Make relatable lyrics to her audience and give her fans the appearance of a real sweet (fake) nice that makes her seem like the goody two shoes next door.

I'm proud of any woman who can make the most with the least and get that $$$.

[survivorqt]

It was the Kanye West incident that thrusted her into a super star, it really galvanized her fanbase

[Deleted]

She's relatable to her fans, writes her own songs, and gives her fans what they expect from her.
She has a great reputation for being lovely to industry folks and fans alike since she started, too.
I thnk she's one of those artists who truly tries to market herself as a "normal" young adult, and it's believable with all the interviews and social media interaction she has with fans.
She's been able to transition WITH her fans, instead of having the desire to rebel with a sexier image, the way many of her peers have.
I thnk she's extremely smart and knows what works for her; not a lot of artists are that savvy.
I don't think the Kanye incident had much to do with her career trajectory, honestly. She was already the biggest name in Country with Fearless, found some success on Pop, and toured internationally.
If you're a COUNTRY artist big enough to win a VMA, it's safe to say said artist is a bigger name than 99% of artists in their genre.

[Fat Ass Kelly Price]

She's bland and inoffensive enough to connect to the widest segments of the GP. She's as white as wonderbread and experienced a traumatic public event at the hands of black man, so 98% of white America can relate to her experience.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

I can't wait for her first flop album, and it's coming. Nobody can ride the wave forever.

[Chelsea Press 2]

Nov 9, 2014 4:08:39 GMT -5 survivorqt said:

It was the Kanye West incident that thrusted her into a super star, it really galvanized her fanbase

The controversy and fallout associated with that incident has little to do with her success since then. It's all about her and her material.

Nov 9, 2014 16:14:52 GMT -5 Fat Ass Kelly Price said:

She's as white as wonderbread and experienced a traumatic public event at the hands of black man, so 98% of white America can relate to her experience.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I think the Kanye thing definitely helped her.

I'd say a lot of her success can be attributed to her being relatable. Not just her music but her as a person. She seems very down to earth and friendly and it has always been clear and apparent. Even when I don't care much for her songs I always liked her at award shows and stuff because she makes friends with other pop stars and looks like she's always having a good time.

[Glove Slap]

It's a combination of several factors (material, marketing, Borchetta, etc.), but the big thing is that she's evolved at just the right pace and in the right way for her audience to keep up. If you look back at what was being said about her 5 years ago, it was that her fanbase would outgrow her. But that didn't happen, she grew up with them.

The Kanye thing definitely enhanced her as well, and her string of relationships after kept it up. She's very polarizing in some aspects. I know people who generally couldn't care less about celebrities who go on and on about how great she is, and others who generally never have an opinion on celebrities either don't hesitate to refer to her as a stuck up cunt.

It also helps that she's a skinny blond white girl, the perfect face of White America.

[sundaymorningguy]

Nov 9, 2014 2:54:14 GMT -5 @spiritanimal said:

She is flat chested and has no ass and no voice, we already on bad footing. I will say she has managed to manipulate the press real well. Make relatable lyrics to her audience and give her fans the appearance of a real sweet (fake) nice that makes her seem like the goody two shoes next door.

I'm proud of any woman who can make the most with the least and get that $$$.

This!  I like to refer to her as the Queen of the Basic Bitches!  There are a whole lot of basic bitches out there to be had.  Good for her for realizing there was a market that was up for the taking .

[slayZ]

A couple of thoughts -

- She has the smartest, most aggressive, forward thinking team in the business. Who else was doing partnerships with Starbucks, Walgreens and Papa Johns to maximize sales?

- She's relatable and not at all polarizing. More so than Rihanna, Katy Perry, Miley, who seem to go for the shock factor and shut out a massive chunk of album buying population.

- She's non threatening, while also making great quality music.

- Image is on point.

- P&R team does not let up. It's good story after good story out, every...single...day.

- Celebrity squad backing her up and pimping her every chance they get.

- Slot open in country music for a female artist like her, thus creating and developing a supporting fanbase.

- Fans grew up with her.


It's essentially a lot of factors put together, and while most celebrities seem to focus on one or two of those when aiming at success, Taylor and her team took over all of those angles and put together a successful career. Not to mention, Taylor's insanely talented.

[Love Plastic Love]

It is a lot of elements that come together many of which have already been mentioned. I do think she is really smart though and talented. I have never listened to a cd of hers and though, oh this sucks or is half-assed or just doesn't work. She releases a quality product every single time and the people who buy her trust her for that.
I was also a bit worried that she would try to Britney/Christina it up at some point since that seems like a natural progression for most female stars to have their edgy rebellious era, but she has very quietly grown up while never going too far to be polarizing for her general audience. Like, if you look at her during her debut and Fearless compared to now, it is a HUGE difference. However, it isn't like she did it in one cd-it was a gradual multi-cd shift, both in image and music.
She is also a very smart businesswomen and/or has one of the best teams out there. There have been mild backlashes against her now and again, but instead of panicking or overreacting, they just rode it out quietly.

Her insane success will die down eventually, but I think she has pretty clearly established herself beyond the point of disappearing completely at any point. She will probably be touring successfully for her entire life with the loyal fan base she has built for herself even after her cd sales calm down.

[Deleted]

Nov 8, 2014 23:19:19 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Her main audience can relate to her and has also grown with her as well. She started out as a 16 year old girl singing about ex-boyfriends in High School to a 24 year old talking about ex-boyfriends in Adulthood with various other topics in there as well. She's baiting the hell out of the various social media sites and the tabloids themselves but she always seems to come out on top. Her evolution of personal style, songwriting, production, etc. is par for par what everybody her age range is going through right now. Britney did the same thing and it was why her audience stayed with her for years on out. Christina went from one image to what could be the beginning of "slut-shaming" due to the drastic change in content and personal style from her debut to Stripped. She's able to keep her face out there at all times due to various reasons and it works all in her favor.

Agreed, but I'd also add that she's a damn good businesswoman who knows her market. Like, Bey levels of savvy. She writes to a generation that just "gets it"-- whatever that is.

[Joe1240]

-Great Promotion team that puts her nearly every talk show that wants to have her on

-Great marketing with every album. The Countdown single thing has worked every time.

-No sexy image like her peers in the industry to turn people off from buying the music[For Example Miley Cyrus]

-Music lyrics that everyone can relate to in their own life

-No albums with filler songs in it;puts every quality material with each and every release.

-Social Media,taking advantage of it with twitter,facebook and instagram to hype up projects and singles.

-Last but but not least Taylor is one of the most talented artists in the industry today.

Also I also like to point out that Taylor was already big way before the Kayne thing ever happened.She had a NBC Special and was on SNL way before that ever happened."Fearless" was already selling long before that happened. "You Belong With Me" was one of the biggest summer songs of 2009.

[slayZ]

Also, let's not forget that Taylor can not only write a hook-filled, ear candy track, she can also do the melody for it AND produce it herself. There are no writing camps for her and the success of her albums isn't based on a flavor of the month producer/rent-a-rapper, glossy single cover. She's, at her core, a one woman show, and that's what separates her from most other mainstream acts.

[Linnethia Monique]

Nov 10, 2014 0:49:34 GMT -5 slayZ said:

Also, let's not forget that Taylor can not only write a hook-filled, ear candy track, she can also do the melody for it AND produce it herself. There are no writing camps for her and the success of her albums isn't based on a flavor of the month producer/rent-a-rapper, glossy single cover. She's, at her core, a one woman show, and that's what separates her from most other mainstream acts.

LBR she used Max Martin, Shellback and Ryan Tedder to conceive her first true Pop Album. So did Ariana Grande on her first "superstar" album. Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, P!nk, etc. all used him and his team.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Nov 9, 2014 16:27:11 GMT -5 Chelsea Press 2 said:

Nov 9, 2014 4:08:39 GMT -5 survivorqt said:

It was the Kanye West incident that thrusted her into a super star, it really galvanized her fanbase

The controversy and fallout associated with that incident has little to do with her success since then. It's all about her and her material.

I wouldn't totally discount the racial implications of the Kanye incident. If Kanye had jumped on stage with anybody other than a young, white girl, nobody would even remember he did it.

Plus the media coverage of it took Taylor from cutesy country crossover to somebody everybody in America knew.

[Linnethia Monique]

It also jump started the media coverage on her 3rd album with her writing a "response" to Kanye in Innocent.

[slayZ]

Nov 10, 2014 1:03:49 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Nov 10, 2014 0:49:34 GMT -5 slayZ said:

Also, let's not forget that Taylor can not only write a hook-filled, ear candy track, she can also do the melody for it AND produce it herself. There are no writing camps for her and the success of her albums isn't based on a flavor of the month producer/rent-a-rapper, glossy single cover. She's, at her core, a one woman show, and that's what separates her from most other mainstream acts.

LBR she used Max Martin, Shellback and Ryan Tedder to conceive her first true Pop Album. So did Ariana Grande on her first "superstar" album. Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, P!nk, etc. all used him and his team.

Taylor's been a superstar and a phenomenon long before Max Martin was involved. She won Album Of The Year at the Grammy's and had a 7x platinum album with a producer no one knows about. Let's not discredit her past work simply because it wasn't called "Pop." No one said she became a phenomenon after 1989. She's been one.

[Glove Slap]

Eh, Max Martin definitely helped her make the jump to an adult act I'd say. Despite the massive momentum from Fearless, her celebrity in general was much bigger during the Red campaign than during Speak Now.

[fullonrainstorm]

Nov 10, 2014 1:03:49 GMT -5 Linnethia Monique said:

Nov 10, 2014 0:49:34 GMT -5 slayZ said:

Also, let's not forget that Taylor can not only write a hook-filled, ear candy track, she can also do the melody for it AND produce it herself. There are no writing camps for her and the success of her albums isn't based on a flavor of the month producer/rent-a-rapper, glossy single cover. She's, at her core, a one woman show, and that's what separates her from most other mainstream acts.

LBR she used Max Martin, Shellback and Ryan Tedder to conceive her first true Pop Album. So did Ariana Grande on her first "superstar" album. Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, P!nk, etc. all used him and his team.

Fearless which has sold > 6 million copies was primarily written and produced by Taylor herself and Nathan Chapman. Speak Now which was her first million debut was completely written by Taylor herself with NO co-writers.

All that her recent collaborators have done is help put finishing touches on what was already a well-oiled finely tuned songwriting/producing machine.