Taylor Swift is one of the most important names in pop music at the moment , even in the music industry’s ever-changing interests. After being nominated in six categories at this year’s Grammy Awards last week and winning Album of the Year for the third time for her 2020 album Folklore, she has firmly placed herself at the top of the music food chain. However, it has not been a smooth ride to the top for Swift. She has had some tumultuous years in and out of the public zeitgeist, and the release of Folklore helped Swift position herself back in the positive public consciousness as an important and influential female artist.
After winning the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2008, the release of her first album Fearless in 2010, and the album’s subsequent eight Grammy nominations, Swift had established herself as America’s Sweetheart. Praised for her innocence, such as her refusal to sexualize her image for profit (and dubbed a perfect role model by none other than Oprah Winfrey), Swift’s reputation was squeaky clean. As Jude Elllison Sady Doyle wrote for Elle Magazine, “Her albums were universally lauded by critics—and, perhaps more importantly, popularly beloved.” In other words, her reputation and image were perfect, however it was such she could not upload it.
The start of her downfall can be pinpointed to July 2016, when the controversy surrounding Swift’s feature in the music video for Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ broke out. West insinuates in the song that he was responsible for Swift’s fame and success, with the lyric “I made that b**** famous”. When Swift claimed that she gave West no approval to mention her in the song, West’s then -pouse Kim Kardashian released a video onto her public Snapchat story. A recording of a phone conversation between the two videos in which Swift is heard approving West’s decision to reference her in the lyrics. Swift’s team’s attempt to argue that this phone conversation had been faked unfortunately turned public opinion against her.
Further fuel to the fire was added by Swift’s public battle with her ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris over him denying her presence as a backing singer on his track ‘This Is What You Came For’, in collaboration with Rihanna. Swift’s once-respected ability to turn her break-ups with other celebrities, for example Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Lautner, into chart-topping pop hits, turned into a tirade against her man-eating and profit-driven ways. She openly addressed this seismic shift in public opinion with the release of her 2017 album Reputation, which was met with more hatred and scorn towards her character. Her entire music catalogue was reduced to a hysterical candy-pop and bland nothingness, and the once-respected title of a ‘Swiftie’ became an insult.
However, it wasn’t until Swift’s surprise release of Folklore late last year that people really started to come around to the idea of Taylor Swift as a respectable musician and to stop driving hate towards her character and her music. The songs on Folklore were an authentic return to Swift’s country music roots, and the music depicted real and raw emotions while telling rich stories. After a deplorable performance for her album Lover, being left out of all major award categories, andReputation, receiving zero wins at the Grammys that year, Folklore was nominated in six categories and won Album of the Year.
In a 2017 article for Elle Magazine, Jude Ellison Doyle wrote, “Swift is like (Britney) Spears, in that both are ultimately the victims of the very patriarchal ideals they worked so hard to uphold.” Her career has seen dramatic highs and lows, as the epitome of a young girl’s role model fell to the position of a hated and spurned liar. Swift’s reputation has undergone major changes, moving from an enemy of the people to a well-respected artist at the top of her field.
Her musical renewal and return to her roots in her music has been celebrated, and the constant wave of Taylor Swift-directed hate seems to have finally, for the most part, come to an end. I for one, am delighted to see it. Whether or not you are a fan of her music, the hate she received for years was not deserved, and I’m happy to see how her music can finally be taken seriously as a talented artist. Her constant stream of releases since Folklore last year has been unfaltering, and the quality consistent, and it finally feels like the old Taylor has returned, or at least been musically resurrected, if not just through the new re-recordings of her old hits to be released in April.
