Throughout 2020, an exemplary girl, Taylor Swift, has shown miracles of efficiency. In the summer, she hit the industry unannounced with Folklore, taking a confident step from stadium pop to good old indie folk. Critics immediately recognized this work as one of the best records of the year (no joke - six Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for the track "Cardigan"), and sales of the album in the United States alone exceeded 1 million copies. But the happy owner of ten Grammy statuettes and the title of the highest paid artist of 2019 (according to Forbes, the blonde's earnings amounted to $ 185 million), apparently, this seemed not enough. And so on December 11, two days before Taylor's 31st birthday, the ninth album "Evermore" appeared on all streaming services. A kind of record-sister "Folklore", as the singer calls it. We understandhow Taylor has managed to raise the bar for 16 years.
The American dream
“For ten years I was a mirror of my ill-wishers. She did exactly what, in their opinion, she was incapable of. I said goodbye to the co-authors, pumped my vocals every day, gave up relationships for several years, and when the album "Red" was criticized for the abundance of tracks about unhappy love, I wrote the groovy song "Welcome To New York" about how happy I am with friends in this city. Then the haters started wailing that my music didn't sound like country anymore. Please - I have released an exemplary pop album "1989". But people always found something to find fault with, and I again gave flawless results. Everything developed further and further in a spiral, each time I tried more and more desperately to please the critics and calm them down, "admitted Taylor Swift in December 2019, when Billboard named her" Woman of the Decade."
These words are the main advantage of the singer and a curse at the same time. She is the embodiment of the American dream: a beautiful white talented girl who does not get involved in scandals, is always friendly, always smiling - not only wants, but sincerely believes in what is needed and, most importantly, you can remain good for everyone and please everyone. At the age of 15, she signed a contract with the record company Sony - go look for another equally conscious young singer of songs with a guitar. In 2018, she earned $ 226 million on the "Reputation" tour, setting a record in the US music industry, in 2019 she sold the album "Lover" with a circulation of 679 thousand copies per week - that year no one broke this record.
Reputation Tour in Sydney Australia 2018 © Mark Metcalfe / Getty Images
In addition to the innate desire to “become the best version of herself,” the singer also has an innate sense of justice. Just remember how 25-year-old Taylor refused to upload her music, including the album "1989", on Spotify and Apple Music, because she considered it a predatory streaming policy not to pay musicians royalties for a free three-month period of use. Under pressure from the executive, Apple was forced to abolish the controversial rule and start paying royalties almost out of its own pocket. Swift responded with Apple's exclusive rights to a film about its world tour. Before Spotify, Swift had mercy only in 2017, just in time for the release of her sworn girlfriend Katy Perry's "Witness" album. According to the journalists, to return to muffle the hype surrounding the release of the album. Yes, in 2017, Taylor already showed her teeth with might and main.
Rise from the bottom
The syndrome of an excellent student is obvious, and this is not an image at all, otherwise it is unlikely that Swift would have been able to remain silent for eight years after the scandal with Kanye West at the VMA awards in 2009, pivotal for her career and character.
Ten years later, in an interview with The Guardian, the singer explained what was happening to her: “You seem to be blown away by a huge wave. You can either pretend that you are able to withstand the elements, or succumb to it - dive to the bottom, hold your breath, wait for the low tide and, while at the bottom, think about how you got here. I asked myself many questions, including, "Why did I let people treat me the way they treated me? Why did I trust them? What did I do to get blown away by the wave?"
Over the years of metaphorical stay at the bottom (which did not prevent her from releasing two albums during this time), underwater currents joined Kanye's wave. In 2013, at the backstage of one of the concerts, radio host David Miller put his hand under the singer's skirt. Taylor complained to his superiors, Miller was fired, and he filed a lawsuit against Swift - for libel, estimating moral damages at $ 1 million. The trial ended in the fateful 2017 - the victory of the artist. In 2016, Taylor was attacked by fans with indignation about why she did not speak out about the presidential election. A year remained before low tide.
In 2017, Taylor Swift went ashore in stilettos instead of cowboy boots and with the evil album "Reputation", in which she expressed everything that bothered her there, at the bottom. On the track “Look What You Made Me Do,” she bluntly stated, “Sorry, old Taylor can't answer the phone. Why? Because she died."
What the new Taylor is capable of, other than skating a mega-successful tour, the world learned two years later. In the summer of 2019, music manager Scooter Brown bought the Big Machine Label Group for $ 300 million, with which Swift had a contract, and with him the rights to six of her albums. The singer called the deal a "worst-case scenario" as Brown was Kanye West's manager. She also named Brown as the cause of “endless manipulative bullying,” which allegedly lasted for years. “The scooter left me without the results of my life's work, which I was not allowed to buy. In fact, my musical legacy will fall into the hands of the person who tried to destroy it,”Taylor wrote, urged her fans to tell Scooter what they think of him and decided to re-record all six records. By the way, Kanye West got involved in the conflict - oddly enough, on Taylor's side:the rapper promised to help the singer regain the rights to the albums.
In addition, the singer stood up to her full height not only for herself, but also for the rights of women and sexual minorities. For example, she released the song "You Need To Calm Down" in support of LGBT people on the album "Lover". She, of course, flew in from the haters for speculation on a fashionable topic, but it did not matter anymore. A girl from the conservative country world, from where the Dixie Chicks (and now simply The Chicks) was expelled in disgrace for publicly condemning the US invasion of Iraq, put her own views and her own truth above possible public censure, and even recorded a joint track with the trio.
In a loud voice
Taylor Swift's new identity is realistically brushed by director Lana Wilson in the Netflix documentary Miss Americana. The key moment of the tape, in the first part of which the singer diligently writes the album "Lover" and reflects on the past, is the decision to speak out during the election of the Senator of Tennessee. Swift had an extremely difficult post against Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn - a kind of "Trump in a skirt" who does not accept gay marriage and the law against violence against women. “If newspapers can scold me for saying“Don't choose a homophobic and racist!”, Then let them scold me,” the singer decides. The bold press of the publish button is preceded by an eloquent scene: Taylor and her mother on one side of the room argue with their father and two other men from Swift's team about the appropriateness of her decision. “Imagine if we came to you with an idea,how to cut your audience in half,”the father warns the singer. Blackburn nevertheless became a senator, but Taylor did not lose either: she felt that she could become the mouthpiece of youth thirsting for democracy (the song "Only The Young" is about this). Even Donald Trump admitted this, tweeting that he now loves Taylor's music a quarter less. Naturally, in the summer of 2020, the artist supported the Black Live Matters movement, and in the presidential elections - Joe Biden.and in the presidential election - Joe Biden.and in the presidential election - Joe Biden.
We can say that with the victory of Biden, Taylor finally won - at least in her own eyes: she ceased to be liked by everyone and to react to any attack in her direction. As a result, she returned to folk and country music, as if forgetting the cries of critics that she had no place in these genres. And in passing, she became one of the richest women of the year, according to Forbes, with $ 365 million in accounts. Well, Taylor, keep it up.
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