The New Taylor Swift

“Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man,” wrote Taylor Swift in her new song “The Man.” 

International Women’s Month opened up with this iconic music video which was released on February 27. Swift is becoming more and more of an influential women for young women around the globe. With that said, I decided to take a look at her journey in the pop world.    

Taylor has been known for dramas, ex-boyfriends, and the fight for her space in this big music industry. By 2010, when she was starting to gain space in the music industry, Taylor had something different from everyone else. She wrote her songs, and she was good at it. Most of the artists bought lyrics and got success from it. Taylor started switching her image from “country music girl” to “pop artist” that could run this industry. 

With that happening, a lot of people starting seeing Swift as a threat that could reduce their sales and change the perspective of “talent.” Being a young woman in an industry that sells not only your product (her music) but sees you as part of the selling comes a lot together. She needed to expose her personal and professional life to tabloids and paparazzi. Can you imagine a 21-year-old woman opening her life to strangers? 

 

But why the need for this? You may not be the biggest fan of her for various reasons, yet there is the need to admit she knows how to make an entrance and to reinvent herself in every new release. Taylor always shows herself as a real human being that makes mistakes, learns from them, and is continually improving herself. 

Back to her career path, Swift has been through some hard stuff. In 2009, when she was starting to gain space in this industry, she was on stage to receive her Video Music Award for Best Female Video. Kanye West got on stage and interrupted her speech, mentioning that Taylor did not deserve it.

One of Swift’s main mark in the industry is her power to take every life lesson and bring it to lyrics. By bringing it to the commercial field, Taylor caught the attention of many people and received critics. Claiming to expose her love relationships with many other artists, and to tell her fans about what happened, seems to make people mad. The boldness of Taylor was caught by the way she put her love stories out there as a goal to have a “closure” in all her relationships.

Even people who do not follow Swift’s steps in the music industry, know about her relationships and experiences. Not only about partners, but she also exposes other people who had to influence her in some way. The feud with Katy Perry, for example, that lasted for a good year, got her to successes like “Bad Blood” or even with Kanye West himself “Look What You Made Me Do.” The main point here is how she takes every little event in her life to get fame and success. And this is what seems to get more people pissed at her.

In 2016, Taylor started to show more personal growth by giving young girls speeches that could inspire them. Exposing her experiences in the professional world and how to not take things for granted, she became a feminist figure for the 21st Century, even though some people may not agree with that. 

The most significant moment we could see her maturity by this time was with the Kanye West incident. Taylor decided to step back and take time from social media and all the press life. Instead of fighting back right away, she used that for personal gain and not professional. Swift came back with everything, releasing her album “Reputation” in 2017, that receive very positive feedback and achieved success. 

During her hideaway time, the 2016 elections were occurring in the United States, and Taylor did not pronounce about it. This led to a frustrating process in her fan club that was expecting her to become this personification of the fight for human rights, equality, feminism, and LGBTI+ rights. By not showing her face on any vehicle of communication for 18 months, people got upset, and her fan base was falling apart. 

After returning to public life, Swift pronounced herself in support of the democrats in 2018, which affect both her image and success in the music industry. People who did not follow her started supporting her decisions and waiting for her next steps.

With all that, Taylor started fighting for more rights and decided to ignore what people say or think about her. She began a movement to develop more artists’ rights in streaming and copyrights, refusing to put her work in platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify. 

The following scandal that caused chaos in the industry was related to Scooter Braun, who started a dispute with her for her music catalog. By the time Swift tired of being the target of all this and willing to become the symbol of change in the music industry decided to speak up. She was exposing other artists that supported this system of privilege and accusing people of being anti-feminist and doubting her talent. 

Now, Swift has been supporting young female artists such as Billie Eilish and Lizzo that, according to her, are the future of the music and pop industry. Instead of creating chaos and confusion, Taylor decided to focus on what she has the best: determination. She is determined to continue her music success, independently of the wrong people in the industry, and shades people throw at her. 

In a world that is changing and women gaining space, Taylor needs to be brought up. She may not be the best person in the music industry, but she shows herself as a human being. As she sings, “I’d be a fearless leader, I’d be an alpha type, when everyone believes ya, what’s that like?” in “The Man” from the album “Lover.”

• pop culture
• Taylor Swift
• the man