Is Taylor Swift the biggest pop star of the century?

DTo say that these are the most anticipated concerts of the year is an understatement. Taylor Swift, and her gigantic tour “The Eras Tour”, finally arrives in Europe after traveling through the Americas, Japan, Australia and performing six dates in Singapore. And it is Paris, or more precisely Nanterre, which will have the honor of welcoming him first in Europe, for four exceptional evenings at La Défense Arena, from May 9 to 12.

Enjoying extraordinary celebrity, from her first album recorded at the age of 16, the new queen of pop has, paradoxically, remained confidential for a long time in France. At the top of the charts and all streaming services, the singer from Nashville has never been so listened to and popular across the globe.

A fan since 2012, our colleague Morgane Giuliani publishes an illustrated biography of her idol, Taylor Swift: the rebel who became an icon, at Talent éditions. She deciphers, for Pointall the facets of an artist who remains unknown.

Point : Taylor Swift enjoyed phenomenal success from the start of her career in the United States and then around the world. But in France, it’s as if we’re only discovering it now…

Morgane Giuliani: Yes, completely. We stuck on the fact that she was originally into country music. What she proposed next was not at all what teenagers and people her age were listening to in France. At that time, at the end of the 2000s, we were already much more into rap, RNB, and there was still a lot of rock. There is also this image of a “good girl” that didn’t really speak to us. We were more used to very “sulphurous and sexy” pop like Madonna, Britney Spears, Shakira, Beyoncé, Rihanna, etc. Back home, for a long time, even people in the music industry described Taylor Swift as bland, because that wasn’t what was expected of a woman in pop…
READ ALSO Box office, earthquake, Grammy Awards… The completely crazy figures of the Taylor Swift phenomenonLanguage, too, was a barrier. Overall, we are not very good at English in France. However, if we are not interested in the lyrics when we listen to Taylor Swift, who writes everything herself, then we are missing out on everything. So yes, it took longer in France. She did a first world tour in 2010, which took her to Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and very quickly to Asia. But his first Zénith, in Paris in 2011, was a failure, tarpaulins had been pulled up to hide the empty seats.

What sparked the change?

There are several things that explain the shift in my eyes. The album 1989 [sorti fin 2014, NDLR] found its audience, being for a long time the best-selling one in France. But for those who found pop superficial or who were not interested in it, the two folk albums, composed during confinement, were able to show another side of his personality and his music, especially since Folklore [sorti le 24 juillet 2020, NDLR] did very well and won the Grammy Awards for Best Album.

I also think that TikTok has helped her a lot in finding a new audience, because, casually, she has a lot of sounds that have gone very viral. The app is based on very short sounds, which allow you to record small sketches or small choreographies. And since Taylor Swift has a very good sense of formula, there is a lot to draw from her discography to create little sketches. The documentary Miss Americana, released in 2020, also helped to humanize her in the eyes of people who were not interested in who she was, in her context.

She’s really, really far ahead of everyone. Nobody sells that many albums today in fact, especially in a music industry that has been collapsing for around twenty years.

In your biography, you do not hesitate to call her “the greatest pop star of the century”. What allows you to affirm this?

If only in terms of sales, this is a fact. His latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which has just been released, it sold more than 2 million copies in one week. It is enormous. She’s really, really far ahead of everyone. Nobody sells that many albums today in fact, especially in a music industry that has been collapsing for around twenty years.
READ ALSO Taylor Swift: “The Tortured Poets Department” is already the album of all recordsThen her tour became historic by exceeding a billion in profits even though she was only halfway there… In addition, everyone is waiting with great impatience to know if she will officially speak out in support of Joe Biden for the American presidential election. No one is asking that question about any other star right now. We feel that his influence is incomparable.

Some criticize her for consensual pop, which is not committed enough… Her fans consider her to be a genius songwriter. What is it really ?

I find it unfortunate that many people remain convinced that she doesn’t say anything, when in fact, she does. By her own admission, Taylor Swift writes some songs with “her prettiest ink pen” and others with “glitter gel pens” which are really more made for dancing. It’s really this combination of the two that makes it interesting. But even songs for fun, when you scratch a little, there’s always a message behind it. Then there are his texts, very tortured, very intimate, very introspective. On this, I find that she demonstrates great emotional intelligence. He is someone who is able to observe situations and describe feelings too. She manages to portray an increasingly nuanced image of herself, which was not the case at the start of her career.

It’s more and more politicized, there is more and more anger.

That’s one of the things that makes her fascinating: when you look at her entire discography, you see an evolution in the way she tells the relationship between men and women. It’s more and more politicized, there is more and more anger. We also sense a feminist point of view where she avoids pitting women against each other, whereas that is what she did before.

Taylor Swift has had this image of the good little girl since her beginnings… And yet, in the title of your book, you speak of “rebel”?

Of course we don’t immediately think of Taylor Swift (laughs). But at the end of the day, he’s someone who rebelled a lot against the music industry, who rebelled against streaming services until they folded, against his first record company which sold his first albums without his agreement. So, she decided to re-record them… It’s all scary, some majors have since tightened their contracts and the possibilities of re-recording to prevent others from following her example.

READ ALSO How Taylor Swift turns fans’ heads with her ‘surprise songs’Even at a young age, she was offered a development contract at a record company where she was asked to record songs written by other people. She refused and slammed the door. I find that it also indicates a desire to do as she sees fit, with real confidence in herself and her abilities. She makes sure to really have control of her career, of her discography. She also rebelled against those close to her who did not want her to become politically involved.

Taylor Swift has a rather exceptional way of playing with her fans, with the hints she can show here and there on social networks… To what extent does this contribute to making her admirers even more fans?

I think she enjoys it a lot and doesn’t do it purely out of self-interest. But there is still some marketing genius in that. She started without thinking about it, it was her first or second album, she began to hide messages in her titles, putting capital letters here and there, to create a sentence.

@v_swiftie_ Are we about to get the 3rd part to tortured poets that is now in “SCREAMING COLOR” or something brand new?!? Also another 72 found alluding to RepTV being released on October 11, 2024. #TTPDSwiftBI #TTPD3rdPart? #thegridisaligned #taylorswiftnewalbum #torturedpoetsdepartment #swiftok @Taylor Nation #RepTV #175DayTheory #72DayTheory ♬ original sound – V_Swiftie_

All of this has taken on enormous proportions today, fans will talk about it on social networks, they will make videos, it creates a lot of engagement and it gives him free publicity. It went to the point where it even partnered with Google. When you typed in “Taylor Swift,” it brought up a puzzle to solve.

It contributes to this impression of closeness that fans have, of feeling apart, of bringing the community together, of showing them that she thinks of them and that she takes them into account when promoting her albums. Besides, she says it: she will continue to do it as long as she sees that it continues to amuse the fans.

It stirs up a lot of animosity on both the left and the right. On the left, because there are people who think that she is not committed enough and on the right because she is already far too committed for their liking.

His influence on young people shakes the American conservative right. In 2016, on the other hand, she was attacked for not having taken a position on the presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton… What do we know about her commitment?

He’s not the kind of artist who will constantly react to the slightest thing that happens. We expect this a lot from stars today, because we ourselves, in fact, can feel obliged to do it. For her first political speech, in 2018, to support Democratic candidates in Tennessee during the mid-term elections, she wrote a long text which was carefully considered, reread several times with her right arm.

At the same time, he was criticized, during his American tour, for not having had a word on stage for access to abortion in the states where he was in danger. But that’s not his way of doing things. When the Roe vs. Wade decision, which guaranteed access to abortion throughout the United States, was overturned, she was outraged on Twitter, saying that she found it terrifying, very worrying and that it was very serious. So she will say it once, but not repeat it.

READ ALSO Taylor Swift targeted by TrumpistsI think she’s still a little terrified of people’s reactions. Then she is also in a complicated position, she stirs up a lot of animosity on both the left and the right. On the left, because there are people who think that she is not committed enough, and on the right because she is already far too committed for their liking.

In any case, the time when Donald Trump’s supporters made him a muse seems far away…

Fox News, for example, talks about it very often, they do editorials about her, they tell her to stay in music, not to get involved in politics, that it’s none of her business… They’re afraid that she’ll officially call for vote Joe Biden. She is so successful in mobilizing young people that it could be a big blow to Donald Trump.

Silence allows all recovery. For a long time, she was presented as the darling of Trump’s America, which was really a very dishonest manipulation. Because looking at her words and even those around her, there were still a lot of clues that suggested she was on the Democratic side. Today, that would no longer be possible.