While you didn’t explicitly say it pop music and especially female created pop music is typically written off in general. The idea that since its popular means its dumb and simple. Moreover if its written by a woman its automatically “chick” music which some gatekeepers of music will automatically write off. (See the founder of Rolling Stones recent scandal about his book on Rock Music). It doesn’t help that Taylor Swift’s radio hits are usually her simplest bubblegum pop hits. These songs in my opinion are the worst on her albums. [I am thinking “Shake it Off” from 1989 and “ME!” from Lover as the best examples]
The reason people like Taylor Swift is that she is a great story teller in her song writing. She usually writes about her life which lets people see her personal life. Especially, if you know about her life from the tabloids where you can connect dots from lyrics to her breakups, boyfriends etc. However, I feel they stand along from that because they can tell an entire story within a song. These start simple in her first albums and as her craft grew the themes and stories get more complex with it.
Most importantly is that since she has been prolific for so long those who are the same age as her have been fans their whole life. This means her albums follow your life experiences and were released when you were going through that stage. People love 1989 since it was about their early twenties and was released then, so you can listen now and be nostalgic about that time since it captured that experience so well. This happens if you were a fan at that time or not, but especially if you were. With her Eras tour they played from all her albums so its like seeing a concert of your life if you have been a fan for ages.
This doesn’t even get into the marketing which she has been great with. Re-releasing albums in order to own them instead of a record label was genius. Since she was upfront about it people didn’t see it as a soulless money grab but rather a reclaiming of art. While people hate out of touch pop stars they really hate out of touch record executives. She painted herself as the hero of this story because she was honest and upfront about why and how she was doing this. It also helps that the Taylor’s Version are just as good if not better than the original and releasing new songs never hurts
While you didn’t explicitly say it pop music and especially female created pop music is typically written off in general. The idea that since its popular means its dumb and simple. Moreover if its written by a woman its automatically “chick” music which some gatekeepers of music will automatically write off. (See the founder of Rolling Stones recent scandal about his book on Rock Music). It doesn’t help that Taylor Swift’s radio hits are usually her simplest bubblegum pop hits. These songs in my opinion are the worst on her albums. [I am thinking “Shake it Off” from 1989 and “ME!” from Lover as the best examples]
The reason people like Taylor Swift is that she is a great story teller in her song writing. She usually writes about her life which lets people see her personal life. Especially, if you know about her life from the tabloids where you can connect dots from lyrics to her breakups, boyfriends etc. However, I feel they stand along from that because they can tell an entire story within a song. These start simple in her first albums and as her craft grew the themes and stories get more complex with it.
Most importantly is that since she has been prolific for so long those who are the same age as her have been fans their whole life. This means her albums follow your life experiences and were released when you were going through that stage. People love 1989 since it was about their early twenties and was released then, so you can listen now and be nostalgic about that time since it captured that experience so well. This happens if you were a fan at that time or not, but especially if you were. With her Eras tour they played from all her albums so its like seeing a concert of your life if you have been a fan for ages.
This doesn’t even get into the marketing which she has been great with. Re-releasing albums in order to own them instead of a record label was genius. Since she was upfront about it people didn’t see it as a soulless money grab but rather a reclaiming of art. While people hate out of touch pop stars they really hate out of touch record executives. She painted herself as the hero of this story because she was honest and upfront about why and how she was doing this. It also helps that the Taylor’s Version are just as good if not better than the original and releasing new songs never hurts