What type of legacy will Taylor Swift have?

[Joe1240]

Dec 29, 2020 10:15:57 GMT -5 @jadenlefranks said:

As I see it, the General Public looks at Taylor Swift as the "Love Story" & "Shake It Off" girl who writes about her exes & became a snake in 2016-2017. As for music-lovers and fans, they will see her as one of the most talented singer-songwriters who penned classics such as "Enchanted", "State of Grace", "august", and "Wildest Dreams".

Most of my friends (aka locals) don't know that Taylor released folklore/evermore this year (or they don't care). So I'm sure that they don't see the less-manufactured version of Swift. Most people remember her for the 1989 era & cheesy hits such as "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "Bad Blood", and possibly "ME!".

But the truth of the matter is that Taylor can easily adapt to the music industry due to her incredibly smart business ethic, and she always carves her own lane to succeed in. She saw that country wasn't going to make her a superstar so she transferred gradually to pop. Then after a couple eras she realized there was no more room for her to grow in pop, so she went for the toned-down acoustic & folk route. She's incredibly versatile, personable, and of course, wicked smart. Her songwriting skills, ear for hits, and longevity will be admired for decades - by people like us, at least. As for the GP, I think she'll always be the ex-hater girl.

You are exactly right and as a Swift fan I have seen it this year and none of my friends or family members know that Taylor released an album this year either and they also don't know about the Live In Paris/Long Pond Sessions tracks either.It is true people who casually follow music only know the big hits and wouldn't be able to name any of the deep cuts of any artist.But us music lovers/Swift fans will be able to name a lot of tracks compared to the average music listener and we are the ones who know about her great music specials such as "The Long Pond Sessions" etc.,This is what happens with any other artist as people only tend to remember the big hits, look at Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, the average music listener only knows the big hits. Great writeup, Jay! As a Swift fan it was well said. :)

[tobichartmaster]

One of the big issue in the legend debate is people have different standards. Like if an artists truly captures the attention of 10 Million people for decades around the world, and a good portion of these people agree this musician is a legend, many people will disagree. Because it is simply not a big enough number of humans on this planet name this artist a legend/not relevant enough. Others set the bar lower and put this artist immediately into the legends section.

Now the word legend is used on so many occasions. If a young rapper dies, the comment sections flood with the word legend. 6ix9ine is called a legend, by some. When AVICII died, the word legend was used. When Chester died, the word legend was used. Kate Bush has a following that calls her a legend. When talking about Björk, people call her a legend. Aalijah is also called a legend. LGBTQ supporting artists are also called legends, despite there chart performance and sales are non existent.

Are the opinions of old rock critics more important than what a 17 year old hip hop fan says in the legend debate? Does the opinion of a classic music fan weight more than the one of a gay pop stan?

In the end, artists just contribute to this industry, make their fair share of money, top the charts, win some awards, connect with their base over decades, go on tour, make music some till they die regardless the sales.

100 Million album units and 10 Million concert tickets sold, 10 Grammys (2 AOTY) Emmy, Brit award won, 300 Million overall social media following, one of the richest, most influential women in the world. Better than if she chased a career as a simple wedding singer at least in that point most people would agree right?

In the end Taylor found her place in this mixture of modern music artists, regardless how many people hate her or try so hard to discredit her accomplishments.

[Deleted]

Feb 1, 2020 11:54:55 GMT -5 SPRΞΞ said:

She will go down as Rihanna will. Someone with a lot of hits, but hardly any impact.

You can’t really even say her removing her catalog from Spotify was even impactful anymore, when nobody followed her, and she herself backtracked on it when her songs weren’t as successful and put it back.

Still all in all tho, she has a great catalog and will have a lot of recurrent airplay. She’ll be an AC staple for decades.

I think both Taylor and Riri will have some songs at the very least be remembered. For Taylor, I'd bet on Love Story, You Belong With Me and one of the 1989 singles (most likely Blank Space) being remembered, while for RiRi I would bet on Umbrella, Disturbia and Diamonds (maybe Work too). However, neither of them will be as huge in retrospect as, say, Michael Jackson, for whom there are multiple hits from nearly every solo album that are still classics to this day, and is someone who nearly every male Pop and R&B star still seeks to imitate (I'm looking at you, Bruno Mars, Chris Brown and The Weeknd).

[Caviar]

Album sales.

[leonagwen]

Great songwriter, songs that connect with people, Great album sales.

[Lost In Musical Reverie]

Feb 26, 2021 2:20:01 GMT -5 leonagwen said:

Great songwriter, songs that connect with people, Great album sales.

That's what Aretha should have said when asked about Taylor, even if the "great gowns, beautiful gowns" remains iconic to this day.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

When this thread was made, Taylor’s career as an artist of current music was winding down and she was venturing closer to legacy artist. I think legacy artist status plays a huge role into what a legend makes because people have to still care about enough of your catalogue long after the fact to keep you in the conversation.

But I think folklore and evermore changed a lot of that. She didn’t get big hits from them, but she diverted the conversation even more toward her songwriting - even though it was already there. I think branching out with those two albums helped further establish her as a solid songwriter/artist/creator.

The Taylor’s Versions re-releases might push her back on the road to legacy artist, almost by definition due to the fact she’s re-promoting all of her old albums again, but even by doing that the way she is, she’s further directing the conversation about her. Even if her career peaks are with Red, 1989, folklore/evermore, or whatever, her career will always have the major footnote of the re-recordings, and how much she pushed her songwriting, and expanded into new genres that almost always worked.

I’d say the answer is pretty clear.

[Ling-Ling]

Whether her music and persona hold up over the decades, who knows? I think she's very talented and she's proven to be a dynamic songwriter. I've never found her to be a particularly dynamic or influential artist/personality overall though.

Either way, she's going down in the record books and she'll go down as one of the voices of her generation. That's more than most artists achieve.

[nickd]

I'm very curious to see how much noise the re-recordings will make. Maybe the impact will be comparable to an artist's death? Not exactly the same, since they won't be making headlines to the same extent on the day-of. However, due to the fact that they will be released over an extended period of time, it could encourage the conversations about her music to last longer and go deeper by revisiting each of her albums in their entirety, whereas an artist's death would typically just bring attention to their biggest hits.

[Joe1240]

Taylor will always be remembered as a great songwriter to us Swift fans and those who followup with current-day music but to the GP she will be most remembered for her major hits[Love Story,You Belong With Me] and the 1989 era who was Taylor's major peak of her career.

[Dreams]

She will be remembered as one of country music's biggest, most popular, crossover icons!

[neverduplicated]

The one narrative that has consistently followed her throughout her career is that she is an excellent and unique songwriter, so I think Taylor will be remembered as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. She will also be remembered as one of the most consistent, successful, and awarded artists (and particularly female artists) of all time, which is just an undisputed fact as this point. Her two Grammys for AOTY (and possibly third soon) is something that can't ever be taken away and will be cited for years to come.

The answer to this question is going to continue to evolve considering she's just now embarking on the biggest legacy venture of her career so far with the re-recordings. She has so much goodwill at the moment, and there's every chance that re-releasing all her albums will create nostalgia for her older material much sooner than would've happened otherwise. I think in even just a year from now, we could be answering this question very differently.

I think it's also important we remember that Taylor is a woman, and women have a harder time being taken seriously as legends than men, especially old white classic rock stars who have always received unquestioned praise for their work. If Taylor's legacy is mostly "that girl who wrote all the songs about her exes," let's remember this is mostly because we live in a misogynistic society, because that would never be the main legacy of a man who wrote lots of break-up songs. Other top female artists have also struggled with their legacies, from Madonna, the most successful female artist of all time, often being remembered more for sex than music, and Mariah often being remembered more for butterflies, rainbows, and her diva image than serious artistry.

Finally, with the stance she took against Spotify and Apple Music and these upcoming re-recordings, she is also creating a legacy for herself as a strong businesswoman who has the power to expose and change industry practices. This could actually be a huge part of her legacy, especially if she were to make a documentary about the re-recordings which highlight the reasons behind the project (and I would not be surprised at all if she did this).

[Lost In Musical Reverie]

^ We could as well end the thread. This is the perfect answer.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

As far as the rerecordings, I don't see there being any broad resurgence in interest in her back catalog. The rerecordings themselves aren't going to do anything major outside of the stan community that will buy the 43 different cassette versions of Tim McGraw (Taylor's Version).

Eventually she'll stop selling out stadiums and the album sales will dry up, and that's when she has 2 paths to choose from. She can go the Madonna route and continuously chase trends with varying degrees of success or she can she move into being a songwriter/producer/mogul type and try to "fix" the issues she has encountred in the industry. Which path she chooses will determine how she's seen in 30 years.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Mar 3, 2021 7:05:44 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

As far as the rerecordings, I don't see there being any broad resurgence in interest in her back catalog. The rerecordings themselves aren't going to do anything major outside of the stan community that will buy the 43 different cassette versions of Tim McGraw (Taylor's Version).

Eventually she'll stop selling out stadiums and the album sales will dry up, and that's when she has 2 paths to choose from. She can go the Madonna route and continuously chase trends with varying degrees of success or she can she move into being a songwriter/producer/mogul type and try to "fix" the issues she has encountred in the industry. Which path she chooses will determine how she's seen in 30 years.

I agree that the re-recordings only have limited potential and she could become a mogul type figure in a long run but why will she stop selling out stadiums? (Unrelated to issues stemming from covid obviously). Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Cher, Paul McCartney - don’t they continue to sell out stadiums decades after their new recordings stopped showing any signs of relevancy? I get that it might be blasphemy to some to compare Taylor to being on the level of those names, but in reality, she has a dedicated fan base and has the material to back her up. As she ages, as long as she can keep up a reputation as a solid performer - solo or with band - who can appeal to wide audiences, I don’t see why there should be an expectation that she can’t continue on as a legacy touring act.

[nickd]

Mar 3, 2021 7:05:44 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

As far as the rerecordings, I don't see there being any broad resurgence in interest in her back catalog. The rerecordings themselves aren't going to do anything major outside of the stan community that will buy the 43 different cassette versions of Tim McGraw (Taylor's Version).

Eventually she'll stop selling out stadiums and the album sales will dry up, and that's when she has 2 paths to choose from. She can go the Madonna route and continuously chase trends with varying degrees of success or she can she move into being a songwriter/producer/mogul type and try to "fix" the issues she has encountred in the industry. Which path she chooses will determine how she's seen in 30 years.

I don't really expect Taylor to go crazy experimental, but I don't really think she'll go trend chasing either. You can just look at her choices of artists she collaborates with. They're generally not from the DJ Khaled stable of collaboration choices. Bon Iver, HAIM, The Chicks, The National and Sugarland aren't the artists you go to if you're chasing trends and trying to be hip and score a hit with today's teens. Neither is Brendon Urie really, despite him having a bigger following and a recent hit, his following is more Millennials than Gen Z, and it kind of makes sense they'd collaborate since they were fans of each other beforehand.

Mar 3, 2021 8:59:08 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

Mar 3, 2021 7:05:44 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

As far as the rerecordings, I don't see there being any broad resurgence in interest in her back catalog. The rerecordings themselves aren't going to do anything major outside of the stan community that will buy the 43 different cassette versions of Tim McGraw (Taylor's Version).



Eventually she'll stop selling out stadiums and the album sales will dry up, and that's when she has 2 paths to choose from. She can go the Madonna route and continuously chase trends with varying degrees of success or she can she move into being a songwriter/producer/mogul type and try to "fix" the issues she has encountred in the industry. Which path she chooses will determine how she's seen in 30 years.

I agree that the re-recordings only have limited potential and she could become a mogul type figure in a long run but why will she stop selling out stadiums? (Unrelated to issues stemming from covid obviously). Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Cher, Paul McCartney - don’t they continue to sell out stadiums decades after their new recordings stopped showing any signs of relevancy? I get that it might be blasphemy to some to compare Taylor to being on the level of those names, but in reality, she has a dedicated fan base and has the material to back her up. As she ages, as long as she can keep up a reputation as a solid performer - solo or with band - who can appeal to wide audiences, I don’t see why there should be an expectation that she can’t continue on as a legacy touring act.

Or if those are too blasphemous, maybe comparing her to Guns N Roses, AC/DC or Garth Brooks and their touring would be less blasphemous? While Top 40 radio might be more driven by 15-20 year olds tastes, 30-50 years are more likely to be able to afford $100+ concert tickets so I think she's be able to maintain solid touring sales as her fans grow up.