Article

Taylor Swift and the Work of Songwriting

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Abstract

In her 2016 speech accepting the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for 1989, Taylor Swift gave a message directed at any young women who were watching: ‘focus on the work’. Taking Swift’s emphasis on ‘the work’ as a guide, this article surveys Swift’s changing compositional techniques and her reception as a songwriter over the course of her career. Though one of the most-discussed figures in popular culture, there exists little analysis of the musical works that remain the fulcrum of Swift’s artistry and ‘artist-brand’. Gender and genre bias have clouded perception of Swift’s particular skills and techniques. To begin an analysis of the work of Taylor Swift, this article traces her stylistic development through a series of song case studies drawn from successive albums, her collaborations with co-writers and producers, and the 2016 hit by Calvin Harris and Rihanna that was co-written by Swift under a pseudonym, ‘This is What You Came For’. By listening closely to her recorded output, we can hear how a modern songwriter responds to commercial pressures to evolve while retaining a coherent musical identity—and how Swift’s respect for ‘the work’ might motivate her activism around issues of ownership and authorship in the music industry.

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... Swift's influence extends beyond music, addressing modern relationships, feminism, and politics through her songwriting (Morrissey 2023) shaping her evolution and fuelling activism for ownership and authority in the music industry (Sloan 2021). She handles diverse roles as a pop icon, movie star, businesswoman, philanthropist, and advocate (Smialek 2021), evident in actions like reclaiming ownership of master recordings, and donating to various charities (Theberge 2021). ...
Thesis
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The mega concert events industry has experienced remarkable growth in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic (Chen 2021), indicating its resilience and adaptability in meeting the evolving demands of consumers for immersive entertainment experiences (Liu-Lastres and Cahyanto 2021). Notably, the ongoing success of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour (TSET) serves as a compelling illustration of this trend (Herrera 2017; Bengtsson and Edlom 2023), emphasising the importance of integrating consumer engagement aspects, particularly Parasocial Relationships (PSR), into event management strategies. Consequently, this dissertation delved into the realm of PSR within the context of mega-concert events, with a specific focus on the influence of TSET. TSET stands as a monumental cultural phenomenon, driving economic growth and fostering deep connections with audiences worldwide (Rossman 2022). In the face of economic challenges, eras tours like TSET demonstrate remarkable resilience, offering immersive storytelling experiences that resonate profoundly with fans (Franssen 2022). A thorough examination of existing literature revealed limited research on the impact of mega-concert events on PSR. To address this gap, ten semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with participants who had either attended or were planning to attend TSET across various locations including America, Australia, and the UK. These interviews aimed to explore participants' emotional attachment to Taylor Swift during the event and the factors influencing their engagement, thereby fostering PSR. The subsequent discussion and findings used thematic analysis to identify three overarching themes: Swift's relatability and personal touch, creating a sense of community, and the illusion of intimacy, all pivotal factors presented in establishing and nurturing parasocial bonds. Drawing from these findings, recommendations were proposed for enhancing future mega-concert events, focusing on strategies to strengthen audience engagement and foster deeper connections between performers and attendees. Acknowledging its limitations, the study offered suggestions for future research endeavours to broaden and refine our comprehension of PSR and its dynamics within mega-concert settings. These efforts aimed to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this domain and guide the development of more immersive and impactful event experiences.
... Despite the fact that Taylor Swift is one of the most recognizable and popular music artists in the world, there are surprisingly few academic papers that use Taylor Swift for teaching purposes at the university level. The academic literature on Taylor Swift covers a wide range of themes including music streaming (Zehr, 2021), the re-recording of albums aka the Taylor's Version project (Tilghman, 2021), the imagery, language, and types of metaphors used in her music (Sloan, 2021;Yastani and Susilawati, 2020;Sahusilawane et al., 2023;Frida & Zuraida, 2022), and celebrity role models and fandom (Hammond et al., 2022;Dajches and Stevens-Aubrey 2023;Smialek, 2021). While these papers investigate different aspects of Taylor Swift's career, they are geared towards academic debates rather than for use as teaching aids in the classroom. ...
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Taylor Swift is the most iconic music artist of her generation; her current Eras Tour is already the highest grossing of all time. Given her fame, fortune, and popularity among Millennials and Gen Z, which make up the vast majority of today’s college and high school students, Taylor Swift’s career offers a myriad of opportunities for teaching economics. The impact of her career has led to a new term entering the economics lexicon: Swiftonomics (the economics of Taylor Swift and Swift’s impact on the economy). This paper provides two lesson plans that make use of the Taylor Swift phenomenon to illustrate the concepts of supply and demand and exchange rates. For each lesson plan, we provide links to videos and news articles and a range of assessment activities involving Quizizz and a standalone handout which can be used in-class or assigned for homework. The size, diversity, and devotion of Taylor Swift’s fanbase (colloquially known as Swifties) presents economic educators with a unique opportunity to incorporate economic lessons within their current curriculum, from high school through to an introductory economics course at the college level.
... Despite the fact that Taylor Swift is one of the most recognizable and popular music artists in the world, there are surprisingly few academic papers that use Taylor Swift for teaching purposes at the university level. The academic literature on Taylor Swift covers a wide range of themes including music streaming (Zehr, 2021), the re-recording of albums aka the Taylor's Version project (Tilghman, 2021), the imagery, language, and types of metaphors used in her music (Sloan, 2021;Yastani and Susilawati, 2020;Sahusilawane et al., 2023;Frida & Zuraida, 2022), and celebrity role models and fandom (Hammond et al., 2022;Dajches and Stevens-Aubrey 2023;Smialek, 2021). While these papers investigate different aspects of Taylor Swift's career, they are geared towards academic debates rather than for use as teaching aids in the classroom. ...
... Despite the fact that Taylor Swift is one of the most recognizable and popular music artists in the world, there are surprisingly few academic papers that use Taylor Swift for teaching purposes at the university level. The academic literature on Taylor Swift covers a wide range of themes including music streaming (Zehr 2021), the re-recording of albums aka the Taylor's Version project (Tilghman 2021), the imagery, language, and types of metaphors used in her music (Sloan 2021;Yastani and Susilawati 2020;Sahusilawane et al. 2023;Frida & Zuraida 2022), and celebrity role models and fandom (Hammond et al. 2022;Dajches & Stevens-Aubrey 2023;Smialek 2021). While these papers investigate different aspects of Taylor Swift's career, they are geared towards academic debates rather than for use as teaching aids in the classroom. ...
... It is hardly surprising, then, that Swift's celebrity has proven to be a rich topic for celebrity studies research. In 2021, just after the completion of this Forum's special issue, Contemporary Music Review published a thematic issue on Swift (Fogarty and Arnold 2021); in as well as beyond the pages of that issue scholars have explored how Swift's stardom is inflected through race (Cullen 2016;Arnold 2021), gender (Sloan 2021), class (Krebs 2014), capitalism (Smialek 2021, Théberge 2021) and authenticity (Dubrofsky 2016). In Celebrity Studies, too, several colleagues in the field have published on Swift; so far, they have mapped her strategies of authenticating her rapidly changing musical persona (Wilkinson 2019), demonstrated the ways in which her public image is co-opted by extremist political movements (Prins 2020), and explored her contribution to neoliberal feminism (Isaksen and Eltantawy 2021). ...
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Outfit is an important element in supporting a person's appearance when attending a music concert. Each concert itself brings its own concert which is closely related to the identity of the singer which is reflected in the concert concept, choreography, stage setting and costumes. This research will discuss the phenomenon of the meaning of outfits and friendship bracelets used by Taylor Swift fans when attending her concerts which have now become the hallmark of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. This research method uses a combination of digital ethnographic methods which specifically use the Instagram and TikTok platforms, and participant observation methods. The results of this research found that the use of outfits by Taylor Swift fans that are tailored to certain Taylor Swift albums reflects the extraordinary connection that Taylor Swift fans have with Taylor's songs which are represented in certain outfit modifications. This form of connection can be seen from fans who volunteer to sew, modify, and hunt for outfits that match the Taylor Swift album of their choice. Apart from that, this form of connection is passed on and established by fans to other fans when attending The Eras Tour concerts through friendship bracelets. Each fan makes friendship bracelets inspired by albums, titles or lyrics from Taylor Swift's songs which they will then exchange with other fans at The Eras Tour venue.
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Taylor Swift fans constitute one of the largest and most active pop music fan bases. ‘Gaylors’ are Swift fans who read her artistic and celebrity texts through a queer lens. As an extremely active community within the Swift fandom, gaylors produce subversive readings of Swift’s songs, and they seek to compile evidence that Swift herself is secretly queer. How did speculation about Taylor Swift’s sexuality become an organizing force for many in the Taylor Swift fandom? Using interviews with self-described gaylors ( N = 19), this study explores how gaylors produce queer readings of her songs and celebrity persona and how those interpretations cultivate joy, shape personal identity and build community. An in-depth analysis of the gaylor phenomenon illuminates how fans construct diverse readings of pop culture texts, and it reveals the potential importance of fandom for historically marginalized communities.
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Music podcasts use a variety of listening modes to draw non-musically trained listeners into close readings of songwriting, production, and reception. Taylor Swift has attracted the attention of music podcasters who have devoted individual episodes and entire serial podcast to topics ranging from her celebrity feuds and well-publicized relationships, her autobiographical and deeply referential song texts, her savvy branding strategies and relationships with fans, and her public rejoinders to music industry inequities, such as her Taylor’s Version re-recordings. In the case of several Swift podcasts, these expert listeners are also avid fans, challenge the stereotype that avid pop fans are only amateur listeners. Her fans, notably those who self-identify as Swifties, are also active podcasters. This article is about listening to the sonic environments of fan-driven podcasting and the sonic spaces of fandom through music podcasting. This article engages with the sound and content of fan-driven music podcasting and the listening techniques used by hosts to listen to both the music of the artist where their fandom is centered, as well as the paramusical elements of their star persona and sonic strategies used by hosts to shape a virtual sonic environment where listeners listen with and through the hosts’ embodied listening. Through two case studies, The Swift Talk and Switched on Pop, I demonstrate how fan-driven Swift podcasting is sonically constructed and approaches listening as an inclusive social, analytic, and embodied practice of communicating fan musical knowledge to produce new insights into how listening, songwriting, star persona, and fandom are articulated in fan podcasting.
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In the past, copyright law was of interest only to legal scholars and Hollywood film types. Today, however, copyright law is on the front page of local newspapers, argued about in conversations at the water cooler, and discussed by teenagers looking to find free music on the Web. Intellectual property intimidates those who don't understand the underlying principles or those that don't speak the language of copyright law. Siva Vaidhyanathan's Copyrights and Copywrongs explains the history of American copyright law in prose that is surprisingly free of legal and academic terminology. Vaidhyanathan's book surveys the historical developments from the literary works of Mark Twain to the music sampling cases of Napster. The book highlights how copyright law has accommodated the changing ways in which information is disseminated across America. The book is well written and full of examples taken from popular culture that allow the reader to connect with the author and the underlying philosophy of copyright law.
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These music articles were commissioned by an editorial board as part of our former online-only review article series. We are offering them here as a freely available collection.
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