What type of legacy will Taylor Swift have? Revisited

[daneeis]

I came across this 4 year old thread about Taylor Swift's legacy. (I did not want to violate any rules, so I decided not to bump it).

pulsemusic.proboards.com/thread/191476/type-legacy-taylor-swift?page=3


ANTi posted
How do you all see Taylor Swift’s legacy in the music industry being viewed once her star starts to fade a bit more, years/decades down the road? Do you see her being considered a musical legend?



She’s broken so many records and there’s probably not a person in the world that doesn’t know who Taylor Swift is. Her popularity is unreal, whether you love her or hate her.



But musically, do you see people looking back and saying what a great artist she was, and will her songs be considered “classics” that stand the test of time?



There’s no doubt she is a talented songwriter, but I don’t know that she really has any songs that will stand the test of time. I think she will have a pop music icon legacy similar to that of Britney Spears, but not sure she will be as “culturally“ significant as Britney or Madonna, etc. Even with all of her success, I just don’t know that she broke any barriers or paved the way for anyone.



Discuss!

Dammn Baby posted
For me, Taylor Swift has always just been there. I like her, I listen to her records, but I've never sought her out as an artist, and I just don't find her interesting as a person (although I think that's because she rarely allows people to see beyond the veneer of perfection that she cultivates).



Her entire career - and everything she does - seems intentionally and blandly engineered for popularity and mass appeal. I respect her considerable talent (primarily as a songwriter), and she has an outstanding business acumen and work ethic, but it always feels to me like she's selling an inoffensive version of herself designed for mass consumption, because she wants to be liked more than she wants to challenge herself as an artist. Kacey Musgraves is a peer in age, and is far less prolific, but already has a body of work with more depth and nuance than Taylor.



For most of Taylor's career, she has been apolitical, non-aggressive, and has lacked any sense of edge. She hasn't bothered to evolve her image over the past seven years. She is the Bree Van de Kamp of pop music.



In my mind, she's not distinctive enough to meet the threshold of memorable. Unlike say, Madonna, no one is going to look back decades from now and say that Taylor Swift changed pop music or created a movement. They'll say she had a lot of hits, sure, but so do a lot of people. It takes more than that to be remembered.



I hope that, one day, she'll give up on mainstream popularity and make a really interesting album that allows her artistry to flourish instead of be packaged for consumption. She's going to need to evolve if she wants to stay relevant as we're already on the other side of the peak of her popularity. She needs to make an album that makes people go, "Wow, I never expected that from Taylor Swift."


Has the impact of the rerecordings and the overall "Eras" era changed your opinion of Taylor Swift and her legacy?

[Forever Winter]

No. The only thing the re-recordings and eras era did was reaffirm my position: A legend since Red.

Her impact will be her songwriting, her fight for artists rights, and her discography which will outlive everyone who is alive right now.

[bat1990]

Reading that old thread was a trip. No one could have predicted how well the re-recordings, Midnights, or The Eras Tour would be.

My guess at this point is that her mainstream power starts to fade at radio/streaming after TS13 and then she moves into legacy touring artist and (self-funded, if she has to) albums of new music regardless of commercial expectations.

[dbhmr]

I've expected her unrelenting top-girl status to wane since like 2017 so fuck if I know, but tempted to say that she and Beyonce are going to continue to rewrite the rules of pop female superstardom and just continue to elevate and separate themselves for the rest of the decade--and however much longer they want.

Taylor is driven by success so the moment pop music isn't the thing that keeps her on top, she'll pivot and she'll do it successfully. Girl group creator? Actress? Who tf knows.

[Forever Winter]

Dec 6, 2023 12:45:58 GMT -5 dbhmr said:

Taylor is driven by success so the moment pop music isn't the thing that keeps her on top, she'll pivot and she'll do it successfully. Girl group creator? Actress? Who tf knows.

She's going to write hits for other artists. She's talked about this before

[bat1990]

Dec 6, 2023 12:45:58 GMT -5 dbhmr said:

I've expected her unrelenting top-girl status to wane since like 2017 so fuck if I know, but tempted to say that she and Beyoncé are going to continue to rewrite the rules of pop female superstardom and just continue to elevate and separate themselves for the rest of the decade--and however much longer they want.

Taylor is driven by success so the moment pop music isn't the thing that keeps her on top, she'll pivot and she'll do it successfully. Girl group creator? Actress? Who tf knows.

It also goes back to my generational theory about music trends that I posted in god knows which thread.

But per that theory, Gen Alpha will start taking over pop music trends in 2028. However, the generation-spanning appeal of Ms. Swift could keep her in good graces with them to survive the transition, especially if she continues to pivot.

At minimum, I could see her being like Babs and still scoring #1 albums even if they don't have the legs they used to.

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

Taylor will be highly regarded for songwriting for both herself and other artists and her continued successes. Her and her team have worked tirelessly for the last few years. I could see her still being successful as she has been for at least a few more years. Everyone will face some sort of diminishing returns eventually.

[irice22]

The recent difficulty labels are having of launching new artists spells good news for Taylor. Gen Z seems to love these veteran artists.

[Eloqueen™]

At the end of the day I truly think she will be the most prolific female songwriter of all time (I truly feel she was a big part of ushering in the standard of new artists writing their own material). I also think in 15 years or so it won't be debatable to mention her in the same breath as someone like Madonna (in terms of star magnitude).

[tekkenguy]

At the very least I think she’ll go down as the defining artist for Generation Z, just like Elvis to the Silents, the Beatles to the Boomers, and MJ to the X’ers. For Millennials I’d argue that it’s Eminem.

[musicfan134]

Undoubtedly the biggest star of the 2010's and (so far) the 2020's. Her staying power cannot be ignored. It is pretty cool to see her smashing so hard, even though I am not the biggest fan of her vocals personally.

Having said that, I think her biggest legacy will be her "girl next door" image and vibe she's had and maintained for so long. The girls' talented as a songwriter, yet I think her biggest talent is actually relating to people she's never met so much. Everyone I've met or spoken to about her, who is a diehard Swiftie, feels they have a connection to her/her music that no other artist has ever been able to replicate. It's actually brilliant marketing. This generation, more than any before, needs to feel a connection to whoever or whatever they support and throw their money behind.

Taylor not only gets that, she embraces it and has opened herself, her artistry, and her career up in a way that no other artist has ever done before. She is a brilliant businesswoman, and I think we will eventually see her transition into more of that side of things as a record label executive, producer, or something like that when pop radio and audiences inevitably start to ease up on her whenever that may be.

So not only will she be remembered for her own career, I predict she will be in some way responsible for shaping the next big popstar for the next several decades. She just gets it. She's dominated the music industry for so long that she knows how to not only work it, but how to thrive in it and excel in it. I think she will want to pass that knowledge on to someone at some point. I don't think it's anyone we've met yet, or anyone even Taylor herself has necessarily met yet. But I really think she's going to try and "find her own replacement" at some point so to speak. And I honestly think she will succeed.

[𝐂𝐎𝐂𝐎🍁]

She will be what she is today a rich white woman who can't really sing well but appeals to the average girl and gay who love someone attainable so they too can feel one day thell be plucked up of the sidewalk of Kansas City, Missouri

[Forever Winter]

Dec 16, 2023 21:15:03 GMT -5 𝐂𝐎𝐂𝐎🍁 said:

She will be what she is today a rich white woman who can't really sing well but appeals to the average girl and gay who love someone attainable so they too can feel one day thell be plucked up of the sidewalk of Kansas City, Missouri

The projection. The only reason Taylor Swift is big is because of the music.