In honor of the much-anticipated release of Red (Taylor’s Version) as well as All Too Well: The Short Film, I have compiled five reasons why I love Taylor Swift. If you’re not a fan, I would recommend that you watch the award-winning 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, to brush up on your Swift knowledge and really understand her following’s fierce dedication. Directed by Lana Wilson, Miss Americana gives us a vulnerable inside look at Taylor’s growth and progression from a breakthrough country star and growing young woman to an empowered artist and cultural icon. The documentary is a great place to start learning, and it’s available on Netflix.
Without further ado, here are five reasons why I love Taylor Swift (and why you should):
1. HER MUSic
(In case it wasn’t obvious enough.)
Taylor has written/co-written every single one of her songs. She’s produced several critically acclaimed country, pop and indie albums over the past 15 years and her albums cover so many complex narratives: falling in love, being broken-hearted, cheated on or in an on-again-off-again relationship. But one of the things that sets her apart (in my opinion) is that she writes more than just love songs. She sings about topics like familial relationships, friendships, betrayal, public perception, mental health and coming-of-age narratives in her songs.
It’s also worthy of noting that Taylor’s latest albums, folklore and evermore — aka, gifts to humanity — have kept many Swifties sane over the past year and a half. In a time of quarantine, mass isolation and not much to look forward to, Taylor’s ability to create narratives and tell stories through imagined characters kept us entertained and hooked on her storylines. These albums and their accompanying music videos provided us with some much-needed pandemic escapism.
2. Her relatability and powerful vulnerability
Content warning: This section mentions disordered eating and sexual assault.
Taylor’s powerful vulnerability comes through best in tracks like Red‘s “All Too Well,” (and the new 10-minute version, *crying*), Lover‘s “The Archer” and evermore‘s “happiness,” but there’s more to her than her music.
If you watch Miss Americana, Taylor’s relatability and openness really comes to light. As she reads her childhood diaries and deconstructs her adolescence, a lot of what she says is pretty relatable. As a young star, she relied on external validation for happiness and strived to be a “good girl” by not taking up space. She was relatively quiet, well-mannered and did not speak publicly on political issues.
In the documentary, when she opens up about the mass hate and slut-shaming she received after the Kanye West fiasco, it becomes clear that she’s just as real as you and me. She also reveals her struggles with loneliness, disordered eating and sexual assault, becoming an empowering feminine role model and comforting voice for women facing similar life issues.
Her courage and willingness to open up about these issues only brought her more down-to-earth to her fans while strengthening and solidifying her fanbase.
3. The ‘you belong with me’ music video
Need I say more? In a mere three minutes and 48 seconds, this video gave us more than entertainment. It gave us an entire storyline, a wonderfully relatable Taylor as the main character (and the villain), a funny hairbrush lip sync dance montage, the iconic “Junior Jewels” T-shirt and a surprise Cinderella ending. (Not to mention, the “You ok?” sign memes.) The video came out in 2009 when most of us were in elementary school, but as young Swifties, we collectively found a way to relate somehow, or at least admire her as a cool older sister enduring the plights of ~high school romance~.
4. Her political advocacy
As explained in Miss Americana, Taylor was advised for years as a young country star to not speak on political issues in order to maintain a clean public slate. She muzzled herself, and admits it was her own doing. But somewhere in-between the Reputation and Lover eras, she broke out of her shell to endorse Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper for Tennessee in the 2018 midterm elections. Over social media, she encouraged us to “vote based on who most closely represents your values.”
In the past couple years, she has been pretty vocal on topics such as LGBTQ+ rights, systemic racism and domestic violence, advocating for passage of the Equality Act and publicly speaking out against Sen. Marsha Blackburn and former President Donald Trump.
She’s also publicly advocated for women in music, calling out Scooter Braun in her 2019 Billboard Woman of the Decade award speech. Braun bought the masters to Taylor’s first six albums without her knowledge or consent (hence, her re-recordings to truly own her music).
This is meaningful not only because Taylor uses her fame to inspire change, but because she found a way to break the cookie-cutter mold of how a successful woman in music should act.
5. Her growth and confidence
As Taylor continues to re-record her first six albums to truly hold ownership of her music, fans cannot wait to see what this week has in store. Why? It’s more than just her musical talent.
Throughout it all, Taylor’s story is just really inspiring. From her hard work and talent as a young star, to her reclusion after receiving mass hatred, to her brilliant comeback with the Reputation album, she’s been a great role model and taught us so many lessons about confidence and self-ownership.
And there’s something so pleasing about the Lover album era, watching Taylor lose the darker imagery of Reputation and express herself joyfully with bright colors, over-the-top music videos and wholesome love songs about Joe Alwyn. The first track, “I Forgot That You Existed,” is a perfect expression of her improved mental health and newly-found confidence. It’s like listening to her happily-ever-after moment.
AND THEN there’s the newly released, breathtaking, emotion-bursting 10-minute version of All Too Well, that was meant to be released on the original Red album. I think this masterpiece explains itself (and why we DON’T like Jake Gyllenhaal).
If you’ve made it this far, congrats! That’s great! You’ve passed Intro to Swift. Happy listening this week!
Next up: Will it be 1989? Or Speak Now? Who knows. Are you ready for it?