11mo ago

Can someone explain to me what makes Taylor Swift so popular?

I don't get it. Her music is sometimes catchy but otherwise unremarkable, from the songs I've heard. How does she break all these records and accumulate so much fame and wealth?

She's pretty, but a lot of singer songwriters are, especially those with makeup and costume people, a support staff.

Is there something else to her that people like?

I'm confused about what makes her so apparently unique or phenomenal.

Update: there are so many things that make swift unique or phenomenal.

I've received tons of great answers from people that have helped me understand, like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, many factors that makes swift different and consequently more successful than her peers.

Clever lyrics, top-tier production, sharing autobiographical and emotional points in her life very directly, apparent honesty with few or no public blemishes, creating a community of fans through Easter eggs and house parties and unconventional, but always personal methods, an early start supported by wealthy parents, she keeps winning against abusers, and her music itself is popular and fun.

Those are just a few of the puzzle pieces contributed here, and a dive into this post is a pretty good explanation of many of the factors that must be contributing to her phenomenal success and recognition, that set her apart from other pop stars, even pop stars who were phenoms in their own right.

This is a very educational post, thank you to everyone who has contributed.

302 comments

I wanted to chime in, since I'm in the unique situation of not being a "Swiftie" but still having an above-average knowledge of Taylor Swift due to being married to a Swiftie.
For starters, her songs are very relatable for women. Especially in women around her age, she was routinely writing songs that spoke to the emotions during each periods of their lives. My wife, for example, was in middle/high school when Taylor was releasing her romantic country songs, and met me right around when Taylor released Lover. This is all because Taylor is extremely autobiographical with her lyrics and was writing about what she was experiencing at the time. She wrote lovesongs in Speak Now because she was in high school and early college when she produced the album. She wrote Lover because she had met a man who, at the time, she perceived to be a man she could spend the rest of her life with. Since Red, very few of her songs are about hypothetical situations. Almost all of them are about her real experiences as a person and as a woman, with the exception of folklore and Evermore, and that speaks to women in a very strong way. Her lyrics and reasons behinds songs are deep, much deeper than most give her credit for.
Additionally, she is extremely good at marketing. Many of her songs and albums have Easter eggs in them that only true fans will be able to find. She also drops a lot of cryptic hints, which her fans love to dissect and interpret to try and predict major releases or announcements. It's just good fun for them, and it increases the hype significantly. Also, her concerts are not just live music, they're a whole show. The Eras concert is 3 hours long, and she is singing and running the entire time. She rarely lip-syncs - I say rarely because I've heard claims that she does but I have never seen it - and gives it her all every single concert. Her band and many of her dancers and support staff have been with her for a decade or more now, and they have continued to routinely put on shows to the best of their abilities without fail.
Finally, she is, most Swifties believe, a genuinely good person. The worst thing I've ever heard of her doing is loaning her private jet out to her friends and families which caused her to break the news because her jet was causing a lot of emissions. Beyond that, she seems to be a grounded woman who genuinely loves her fans and the people around her.
If you take nothing else away from this post, this is the most important fact: She is relatable to women. She sings about her lived experiences, many of which are relatable to her fans.
- Thanks, I really appreciate your perspective.
  A lot of what you said rings true and certainly fits in puzzle piece-wise with everything else
  
  My wife has just informed me of the latest Easter egg, to further explain the marketing prowess and give an example.
  She has changed her profile picture to black and white, rather than full color. While trivial to non-Swift fans, this is a red alert to her die-hards. I haven't heard many of the theories yet (my wife often distills them down to the most reasonable for me, thankfully), but her favorite so far is that it is signaling her intent to release the "Taylor's version" (re-recording) of her album Reputation, which is one of her most popular albums and has a black and white theming. This is the kind of puzzles and theory crafting thst many Swift fans find so enthralling

Think of a dish made by a world class chef, that food is probably exquisitely crafted using unique and fresh ingredients. There probably aren't that many people out there who truly appreciate it, and probably a lot who just think it's weird.
Now think of pizza. It's relatively cheap and broadly appealing. It wouldn't be put in the same class as the food prepared by the chef, but a lot more of it gets consumed.
Taylor Swift is talented, pretty, affable, has a superior work ethic, and makes music that's catchy and easily digestible. Like pizza, her music appeals to the broadest group of people.
- I like this explanation, but I feel like there are plenty of other artists who fit into that category.
  Is it just random that they had to pick one brand of pizza to go crazy over do you think?
  
  The pizza has been carefully crafted by teams of experts to appeal to the largest audience.
  
  She is a damn fine businesswoman. She was able to use social media to have a relationship with her followers and build a large audience. That's one of the main reasons she became famous.
  Also, there have been a couple of situations that benefited her fame, such as the Kanye incident
  
  Luck and timing are big factors. There are many talented artists out there that work hard and make the kind of music that (in theory) should appeal to a large audience but never make it. Either at all or not to the level of Taylor Swift. If you make the right music at the right time, your chances increase but you still need luck.
  Edit: what I've heard of Taylor is that she's very good in making the right music at the right time. The songs fit the trends in music. But I've never listened much to her, so I don't know for sure if its correct
  
  My brother is a swiftie and seems to think that her talent is above and beyond a standard artists talent. One thing that is praised is how much range she has covered across her albums.
  I'm personally not a fan, and to me she seems overrated, but I also have to recognize the mass following and legitimate consistency in the music quality. She's not like a Katy Perry recycling the same tune.
  So I think she's like a really nice pizza, appealing but always good quality, always fresh.
  
  She's smart and not lazy. A lot of people get fame and money and massively shift their focus. Longevity is probably the toughest part, not going crazy, and remaining relatable to young people while simultaneously having millions of dollars.
  
  And are there not plenty of other popular artists?
  
  Gordon Ramsay isn't the best chef on the world, still he has the most restaurants by a big margin
  A ton of people would say Tswift is their ultimate fantasy fuck even though she isn't the hottest girl on the planet (she still could be a model probably, being slim and tall)
  Being famous always has a certain pull to it and if you do it right you can leverage being famous to become even more famous
  Worlds top athletes are overpaid (at least in team sports) would you rather have the #1 player or a team full of top 100 players... Well the #1 player sells a ton of merch, but almost always the team with more depth is winning games (if the budget is equal)
  
  She's pretty and blond as well... oh, and white.
  It's like Britney all over again.
  
  Just like pizza, artist go off after a while. (It just takes longer)
- I disagree with this. She’s a pretty amazing song writer, which is really uncommon for pop stars. I can see why someone would think she’s more like pizza if you only listen to the hits, but if you actually sit down and listen to a whole album you’ll find that there aren’t many songs that are just flat-out bad. Actually, one my favorites by her is a B side. You can actually track her progress as a musician from fairly generic country artist to someone who has a really unique and uncomplicated sound. I mean, I get why people go for the “simple = easy”, but that’s simply not the case. It’s really difficult to write a song that is as clean and as well put together as she does and still have it be good. To continue your food metaphor, Taylor would be like sushi; there doesn’t have to be a ton of ingredients to be incredibly delicious.
  Then you also have to consider that she’s Gen Z, has been doing this for 18 years, and has managed to stay fairly relevant most of that time. Like she really is the only Gen Z pop star who has managed to stay in the limelight without dropping out of being a complete tool (Justin Bieber).
  You also have to consider that for a long time she had a carefully crafted public image as a champion of the LGBTQ+ community. Whether she actually is or isn’t doesn’t really matter (I personally think it’s a lot of rainbow-washing) when you have bops like “You Need to Calm Down”. Or the fact that she features a bunch of trans people in the video she directed for “Lavender Haze”.
  
  She’s a pretty amazing song writer, which is really uncommon for pop stars.
  Just because you make pizza, doesn't mean you don't make great pizza. I'm not saying she's out here making $0.99 Mr. P's Pizzas ("fabulous" in their own right).
  Then you also have to consider that she’s Gen Z, has been doing this for 18 years, and has managed to stay fairly relevant most of that time.
  I've considered it, but it's not true. She may appeal to Gen Z but she was born in '89, making her dead center of being a millennial.
  I've never said she's bad, but if you've ever listened to more complex music, her's isn't that. She's great at what she does, and seemingly smart and levelheaded, and that's fantastic. But to say her songs are masterpieces that are like beautifully woven tapestry of lyrics and music, I don't see it. And, in all fairness, if they were, she'd probably have a fan base 95% smaller.
  
  How is she an amazing song writer? What song do you think stands out and is amazing?
- The world class chef can only cook for a few at a time. Digital distribution means big voice.
- Is she NY style or deep dish?
  
  St. Louis

-Very skilled songwriter. I don't necessarily like all her stuff but I legitimately think she's the best songwriter (meaning, composing music and writing lyrics) of her generation. Probably since Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel.
-Very attractive and a good performer
-Well connected in the music industry let her get an early start/inside track
-obsessed with being popular. I don't mean that in a negative way, but her primary objective with her music is to please as many people as possible. I think the documentary "Miss Americana" on Netflix explains that very well-at one point she straight up says "I just want people to like me" or something like that. That means her music/career has always focused on mass appeal as opposed to making more... limited-appeal music like most artists do at some point in their career
-she's kept a remarkably clean image even through being famous for close to two decades. It's very telling that the worst thing her haters can say about her is "but her plane uses a lot of carbon!" This means parents let kids listen to her, brands love her as a sponsor, nobody boycotts her, etc.
-one last thing, I think people love her songs because they feel like they're true. Her songs have a very intimate, almost confessional quality that a lot of artists strive for buy often comes off as fake.
- She's just lately a decent songwriter. For most of her career, her songs were written for her by the heavy hitters behind virtually every top 100 hit. Her producer/mixer/writer Jack Antonoff still does most of the heavy lifting.
  I am tired of seeing the sentiment that she's some brilliant songwriter--she really only kind of plays the guitar. The reality is that if anyone is made to be a billionaire, and work with one of the best musical minds of our time (Antonoff), and collaborate with the other top song writers/ghost writers, of course, a decade later, they'll be able to write songs. It was never some innate talent of hers, or else the songs she truly did write early in her career would have been the hits, instead of the mutually agreed upon worst on the album.
  
  By early in her career do you mean when she was like 18? I'm not saying she hasn't had a lot of help. But I disagree with the idea that she's just a figurehead. She is listed as a writer for pretty much all her songs, and you can usually tell a Taylor Swift song just by the sound/lyrics, which isnt something i can say for a lot of pop artists. If it was Antonoff the whole time then Bleachers would be more popular (relative to Swift).
  
  The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has written or co-written every song in her discography, with the exception of several cover songs and two guest features, alongside some songs released by other artists
  Source?
  
  i am sick and tired of this misogynistic bile. i do not write this comment for your sake commenter, but for the sake of anyone who might be swayed by your bullshit rhetoric.
  let’s break this down:
  “sHe ReAlLy only PlAys ThE GUitaR” you can’t even get that factoid right. Taylor Swift plays at least four instruments.
  “she doesn’t write her songs herself and the ones she does write are mutually agreed to be the worst”—
  outright false:
  Many critics selected "Dear John" [on which Swift is credited as the sole songwriter] as Speak Now's best song for its production and emotional impact. Such critics include Jon Caramanica in The New York Times (lauding the blues production for expanding beyond Swift's country-music comfort zone),[15] Mikael Wood in Spin (saying it was "epic pop-country poetry"),[17] and Willman in The Hollywood Reporter (underscoring the "chills-inducing climax"). wikipedia
  too late for you? Our Song (2006, written solely by Swift) was one of the "Award-Winning Songs" at the 2008 BMI Country Awards, which honors the year's best songwriters.[35] It featured on Rolling Stone's 2019 list of the best female country songs from 2000.[36]
  “Jack Antonoff does the heavy lifting” Antonoff is a FUCKING incredible artist and I do not deny that, but who sings the songs with a critically acclaimed voice? who performs the music live to meticulous, hours-long choreography? spoiler: not Antonoff, buddy! you might be shocked to hear it was a woman.
  Next time you want to just lie on the internet maybe ar least try to find some supporting evidence instead of making empty assertions like a freshman in high school. Like damn. 🗿
- I think people love her songs because they feel like they’re true
  Her very first hit was about being a farmer's daughter.
  
  And Tom Clancy was never a Russian submarine captain or spy
  
  Not sure what song that is off the top of my head, but I didn't mean "true" in the literal sense. More like, people feel like the songs give them a glimpse of the real Taylor swift. That's particularly true of her more recent albums I feel like. For example, "Folklore" is told largely through stories about other (fictional) people, but it feels like a reflection of emotions and experiences she really has been through. It's all very parasocial and I'm not sure how much of it is genuine, but my point is it FEELS genuine.
- Not just that, but Republicans hating her so much made her even more popular.
- Thanks! Those are all interesting points and I have never heard of that documentary but love documentaries, so I'll definitely be checking that out.
  Especially since you're the first person who's mentioned how much she wants to be popular, or how much she is focused on that.
  That's very interesting and obviously seems very relevant, thanks.

I used to dislike Taylor Swift along with all other contemporary pop stars. Maybe even a little bit more, because she had the audacity to call herself Country: Spitting in the face of personal heroes like Kristofferson, Nelson, and Cash.
Then I stopped being an edgy teenager, Swift released Shake it Off, and I had to recognize it was a fun song to dance to. In an ironic kind of way of course, but nevertheless.
And then, in 2015, Ryan Adams released his cover album of Swift's 1989, playing every single song on the album in a folksy way. I dug it. And with it, I had to appreciate that Taylor Swift is one hell of a songwriter: I loved the songs, I just don't love the sound of pop music all that much. That's personal taste, not everything I dislike is bad.
Then Ryan Adams fell from grace with metoo, so fuck him. At least it triggered Father John Misty to publish (and later remove) his legendary covers of Swift in the style of the Velvet Underground.
Fast forward to 2020, and Taylor Swift dabbles with music I can actually enjoy listening to with her album folklore. Pretty cool. I actually got my expectations up for her next album, evermore, low-key hoping that it would be musically inspired by the Battle of Evermore. Sadly I was wrong, but again, it's a matter of personal preferences.
What matters more is the fact that she's reinventing herself from album to album - she's successful in one formula, and she just ditches it and moves on to something different. And every time she does it, she seems to be even more successful than the last time. Her growth as an artist is astonishing.
Finally, she's just cool. Fuck the labels - she'll just casually re-records her entire discography in order to take back control of her songs. She's caught up in all kinds of stupid celebrity drama, but it tends to be the rest of the industry falling over like toddlers trying to drag her into shit for PR while she acts like the only adult in the room. She also scores points for casually hanging out with Billy Bragg and encouraging people to vote and shit.
- Swift was hardly the downfall of country; the amount of autotuned trash from both sexes now is off the charts. I can't make myself listen to a country channel for the rare genuine song because I start to rage at the horrid garbage they play the rest of the time.
  
  It's probably hard to pin it on anyone in particular - the Grand Ole Opry had their heads up their asses long before country music started sucking for real. I guess outlaw country defined itself by not following the rules of the Nashville scene.
  I've never been to the US, so the closest thing I came to an American country channel was some cassette recordings my dad made in the 80s and that we kept listening to in the car. Obviously learning about contemporary country music was a shock for me once I started spending too much time online.
- I'm fine with pop, there are plenty of pop songs I've liked, and I can recognize how since of her songs are fun, I'm curious why she receives dozens of rewards.
  Your point about successful in one formula, and then ditches it and moved on to something different
  Do you think that happens with every album, or is there a specific example you're thinking about?
  Oh I want to add, it's definitely very cool to re-record your discography.
  
  So I'm not exactly an expert, I just have some friends who are Swifties and I enjoy sometimes hearing people out about what they're interested in over a beer. But I'll give a shot at answering based on my limited knowledge.
  I don't think Swift makes a point out of reinventing herself every time. I guess she had her country phase until Red in 2012 (We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together), and perfected pop in 2014 with 1989 and Shake it Off, Blank Space and all that. The following two albums I know nothing about, but Wikipedia lists them as electropop. And then she completely changes her sound in 2020 with folklore, suddenly being more folksy and reaching an audience of middle aged male music reviewers who had previously not shown any interest in her music. Somehow the fans of her older albums loved it as well, so her fan-base only expanded.
  Evermore is kind of a continuation of folklore. I find it to be a little bit more poppy at times, but it's not a huge change of direction, and kind of builds on the same universe (low-key and lower-key). Midnights however, which is her final album to date, is again something completely different: A full blown concept album, and musically again a complete change of direction. A Swiftie friend of mine said she had to give it a couple of spins before she got into it, but that it's now one of her favourites. As a prog rock fan, that sounds about right to me for a concept album.
  Personally I started listening to Midnights for the first time ever while writing this post, and I gotta say the opening tune Lavender Haze has some fun things going on in it. The music is interesting, the songwriting is original, and she's a talented performer with a likeable persona. I'm not very surprised she receives her awards.
  taylorswift
  
  How do you think she compares to Britney Spears, Madonna, or Beyonce? Like, Taylor Swift has become a pop star. You don't have to love her music to see she has wide appeal. I don't really like Madonna but you listen to a song and you are like "yeah I can see why people have danced to this for thirty years"

In a word: marketing. In two words: relentless marketing.
- Her dad owned the record company. They are rich. $$$$
  
  Her dad owned 5% of the record company.
  Don't get me wrong, that's an advantage most will never have, it's connections, it's expertise, it's starting ahead of the pack, and most of all to my mind, it's certainty that you won't be wasting your life by focusing on your art, but it's also just not accurate to pretend that's all she has going for her when she was richer than her parents after first album.
- Best answer in the thread

I'm personally not a fan. But I am a fan of her making the right-wing nut jobs apoplectic.
- That is 100% my favorite part of her career, besides the f*** you record labels, i'm re-recording my entire catalog, which is pretty cool
  
  She also is helping bring down the Ticketmaster monopoly. That's where she earned my respect.
- 10 points for apoplectic
- Note: apoplexy means malding.

The reason is that her dad is quite rich and was a stock broker.
He invested heavily in the label that had his daughter under contract, being able to dictate what the label was focusing on and on top he has thrown another Million on her, to start the journey.
So to sum it up a huge tone of money, contacts and knowledge about how to run a business by her father.
- Both of her parents worked in finance and upper middle class, but not "quite rich". He invested in a 3% stake in the label, approximately $120,000. That is big money for most but not ultra rich money. Even today they are worth the low millions.
  Contacts, enough money to launch a career, business acumen, hard work, and luck have been most of it.
  
  Never said ultra rich and by any means someone who is able to take over a million out of their pocket to Kickstart anything is rich.
  
  My parents couldnt afford $1200 to invest in me. Mustve been nice
  
  In what world does investing roughly 3x the median yearly income in the US into your child's potential music career not count as "quite rich"?
- Taylor's dad got her daughter a label to help make her a star, but I think that Taylor might not have done as well if she went through typical music industry channels. Taylor wasn't a Rebecca Black kind of artist; she wrote a lot of her own music and was able to define her image as herself at a time when that wasn't common at that time.
  Keep in mind she came up around the time the music industry has lost most of its revenue due to streaming. The music industry would have commonly invested in Taylor like artists a decade or two ago, but the economics of doing that wasn't there. Self promotion and funding also wasn't that uncommon, a lot of the rap around that time came out under the same model of artists promoting their own work before getting signed; Taylor just had more resources.
  But even then, daddy buying an label would explain a one hit wonder, or maybe even a good album or two. It wouldn't explain Taylor's sustained success. Money only goes so far.
- That explains how she had a headstart in her career, but has nothing to do with her being so popular right now.
  
  Besides the insanely huge help she had on the beginning, the bigger part was for sure the knowledge transfer in terms of how to run a monetary wise successfull business.
  And yes she is talented, I'm not saying she isn't. But the advantage she had, due to this, speak for itself.
- Oh shnit, I didn't even know about this. Okay that explains at least a bit.
  Thanks.
- They worked mid-level jobs in finance, which pays well compared to most careers, but it's just on the higher end of middle class. I know several successful people in the music industry and that's honestly a pretty common story. They all had high end instruments and gear at a young age. One band I know had a dedicated jam space at one of their father's warehouses. They could leave their gear set up in a secure location and play loud anytime for as long as they liked. Things like that really contribute to success.
  The Kid Laroi is another example of it. Both parents were in the industry and he had a development contract at 14. At 17 he was living with Juice Wrld and doing remixes with Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber. That doesn't happen by accident.
- Label*
  
  You're right. Ups :P
- Two n’s in tonne.

The music industry has been a racket for nearly 100 years. Music doesn't get popular because people like it, it gets popular because it's promoted. Way back when, promoters would pay radio stations to play their music to encourage sales. The methods are slightly different now, but it's still the same kind of old boy's club telling people what they like.
Taylor Swift understood the industry she was getting into, and was very adept at exploiting it.
- This is true, but not everything that gets promoted gets popular. A lot also flunks.
  Taylor Swift just happens to hit a sweet spot that appeals to a lot of people.
  And music has a self-reinforcing spiral. People listen to music from artists that they like, and which their peers like.
  So a popular artist could theoretically release an album without any promotion and it would still become popular, just because people will be curious to listen to the new songs from an artist that they already like (of course, record labels will always heavily promote work from their popular artists to make them even more popular).
  
  She appeals to a lot of people because she followed the script of what has been established as appealing to a lot of people, what people have been trained to like. It's the same manufactured crap that has always been promoted, the difference is she's an artist that knows what that is, rather than the artist being directed that way.

Her songs are produced by the CIA and contain subliminal messages that make her irresistible.
- Yvan Eht Nioj
- CIA are here and down voting you. Stay frosty.
- This makes about as much sense to me as the apparent means by which she has become this successful.
  
  He/she is obviously kidding.

You are asking an infinitely difficult question of why she is so incredibly popular, I don't think I can tell you why she's more popular than, say, Beyoncé. Except maybe that she is more consistent. That said, I'll give you my perspective on why I like Taylor Swift.
1. I'm a dude and my music taste is pretty diverse but I mostly grew up listening to metal and punk. That said, when I left my ex (for the second time). It felt really good to listen to We are never ever getting back together on repeat. Most breakups I've had, had songs that have helped me through and leaving a toxic relationship... It just felt really good to repeatedly sing those words over and over.
2. I don't know if it's actually true but I'm a guitarist and I've heard the phrase "Taylor Swift is the Beatles of the 21st century" meaning her music releases currently have the largest impact on guitar sales and popularity. If for nothing else, I respect her a lot for performing live with a guitar. She doesn't do anything crazy but you don't have to have crazy guitar skills to make good music. I personally enjoy learning her songs every now and then because a) they are relatively straightforward to learn but still encompass nice playful elements, b) I am mostly interested in becoming a better singer nowadays and her songs are definitely challenging for me to sing.
Both folklore and evermore are really nice albums imo. Very nice and tasteful music. Last year I had a phase where I was having trouble finding music. I was sick of extreme metal, I was sick of hardcore techno, and I listened to so much leftist folk and folk punk that I grew sick of it. All the music I listened to was always fast, intense and challenging. I just wanted nice songs that I can sing along to with real instrumentation. I realised I don't mind pop music but I like real instruments because they feel more real to me (fwiw lol, please don't take this as hatred for electronics, I also love techno as stated above). Well folklore and evermore offer just that for me. Nice songs with real instruments and beautiful instrumentation. I prefer folklore for being darker but evermore uses more guitar which I also like. My fav songs out of the 2 albums:
Folklore
cardigan
mirrorball
this is me trying
invisible string
Evermore
willow
champagne problems
'tis the damn season
I still want to express that I don't always like her lyric writing. She uses brand names a bunch and I also feel like there are often references to American things which I just don't know about.
Also, while I like folklore and evermore, I find them borderline impossible to listen to all the way through. All the songs basically strike the same mood, it's nice relaxing music, but there's not a big emotional arc throughout the albums for me. I tend to stop listening to evermore once I reach "no body, no crime"... God that song is awful lol.
- Thanks, I'll check out your recommended songs from folklore and evermore.

Don't really see her as being massively more popular than people like Michael Jackson or Madonna at their peak. She's like 18 years into her career at this point, like a snowball accumulating more and more fans.
Of course it helps that she had rich parents to be able to grease the wheels in the early stages of her career.
The music is alright. There's a decent amount of it, and it's fairly varied. It's called pop for a reason.
- Madonna has 300 million sales over her career, and Taylor Swift has 200 million sales and almost twice as many awards (from the numbers I am finding on websites) at about half her age.
  As far as I can find anything, it looks like Madonna sold half as many albums by the time she was in her mid-thirties.
  I'm not convinced, especially after some of the answers in this post by other commenters, that just because they're both pop stars, their success is mutually definable or explained.

I'm not a huge fan or anything, but I think she's a really talented musician and really good at managing her fame. She keeps a strong relationship with her fans, her music spans numerous genres, and her father is a wealth manager.
Watching her Tiny Desk concert helped me get more into her music so I could enjoy it with my daughter.
- Very cool, thanks for the recommendation, I love those tiny desk concerts. I'll watch it

I'll sum up some answers that made things click for me
She writes songs spanning many emotions.
Her albums span multiple genres. (I've only heard pop and country, but I'm not a fan.)
She is hard working, prolific, and puts on a show.
So with that combination it seems she has something for everyone. Personally, I only know one TS song, but it's catchy as hell. So there's no song that I hate that happens to TS song either.
About point 2.: I'm a Paul Simon fan and he spans multiple genres, but I wouldn't expect non-fans to know that.
- I've also only heard her pop, although i keep hearing that she spans multiple genre.
  I'll ask the next Swifty that responds that they would recommend in any other genre besides relationship pop, break up pop.
  Thanks, and the Paul Simon note is interesting. What do I listen to if I'm curious about listening to unconventional Paul Simon?
  The Paul Simon I'm definitely not familiar with.
  
  I'm not a music expert but here goes.
  Paul Simon is most identified as folk. The act Simon and Garfunkel is basically pure folk if such a thing exists.
  Listen to the opening of Late in the Evening. He's singing folk, but there is no guitar (to my ear). Instead it's a bass guitar playing funk. Later some horns come in. They sound like mambo to me.
  There are two songs on Graceland that he recorded with a South African band. This was during apartheid. He heard a bootleg tape from this SA group, and had to travel to a part of South Africa that he was banned from doing business in.
  Does he make it some powerful statement? No, that would be a stunt. He just wanted to make music with them. "I Know What I Know" is about the insipid-ness of show biz party-networking culture. It's wild.
  
  She started in country music and moved to mostly pop from there, a lot of her original country music is about breakups too but that's pretty typical for women in country music because they don't get much freedom of movement for topics there unless they're hyper famous.

great marketing
- Peak reddi .. I mean lemmy.
  
  Your comment is peak reddit tho
  
  -3500. Making more progress!

Taylor for me is extremely emotional and autobiographical. I connect emotionally with her songs in a way that allows me to feel what she's feeling. Music is emotional and usually has a message, but for me her music does make me feel more.
Which makes sense, I always loved pink Floyd for their art and what they were trying to say, I usually am an emotional person, and I think for a lot of people that's why she's popular.
You have an emotion you're working through? She's got a song for it.
- Sure didn't expect her to be compared with Floyd.
  
  This hurts.
  
  Probably because it's a very weird comparison to make. If I had to pick a polar opposite of pop music in most every way, I would probably pick one of the weirder pink Floyd albums.
- Thank you for your answer, I'm glad to hear from a fan of hers.
  So her songs are making you feel something in a way other female artists who sing about breakups do not?
  Does she mostly sing about relationships? I haven't listened to much of her stuff, just whatever is the popular stuff that I wouldn't be able to avoid while I'm walking around.
  And then the first few songs that pop up when I type in Swift on YouTube because I'm trying to figure out the answer to this question after she breaks like the 12th record of her career
  
  Relationships were a key one in her earlier albums, but there's a lot more. I think her singing about her experiences is part of the reasons millennials really tend to her especially, we kind of grew up with her
  The awkward teenage years, the first loves, the deep friend connections, losing those friends, romantic betrayal, work betrayal, and more.
  She also is extremely versatile. She's played and experimented with different types of music. People like to shoehorn her into pop, but she's done obviously country, pop, folk, a bit of rock, lover in my mind was a decent synth album, she's played around with a lot
  That's why we all talk about her Eras, each era in her life she made an album, and that album usually has a different style. Personally my favorite is reputation, which was heavier and more electronic. Synth? Like I said try Lover or Midnights. Folk like Mumford and sons or Lumineers? Try Folklore and Evermore.
  One thing for sure is that you don't have to like everything or anything of hers, but she has such range that it is rare that someone hates every song of hers.
  Also I should say I'm a mod of !taylorswift@poptalk.scrubbles.tech and the dozens of us lemmy swifties are always happy to have more members :)
- I don't think a more wildly different artist to TS could be found than Pink Floyd. Things they have in common: are human. Trolling or what?
  
  Lol nope, I'm a fan of both. People don't need to be put in buckets where they only like something's and not others.
  I've seen Roger Waters twice, watched him build the wall on stage and send out the inflatables, and it kicked ass.
  Also saw Eras last year in person, and it was the most precise well thought out concert I've seen.
  No rules in life saying you can't like both

I'm definitely not a swiftie, but she does have some catchy music, and Shake it off was the default song for getting my kids out of bad moods and over bad days.
I also used to think she was a catty removed for the way she was caught on camera making a face when Selena Gomez was with Bieber. However since then I've heard her speak about things she cares about and I appreciate her passion and that she's against the things I'm generally against, she definitely seems to care and motivate her swifties to care about the right things, and that makes me tend to support her.
- Listening to her speak as a public figure is a good idea, I'll look for some interviews. Thanks

Kanye interrupted her acceptance speech with some crazy shit.
From there on, it was just maintaining the momentum.
- I do think this is a good point, that she got a cultural relevance boost from this.
  
  Tbh, I'm not a swiftie, but ever since the Kanye thing I've hated Kanye and been partial to T swift.
  Kanye is just such an asshole. I don't see how anyone can like him.
- And all these years later, Jay Z was just complaining on stage that his wife should have won Album of the year after Taylor won it again.

Just commenting to let you know that you are not alone in your confusion.
To me, most of her songs are pleasant but forgetable.
She seems like just one of many female Pop artists with a bit of girl-next-door charm. Maybe that charm is her appeal?
Maybe she is a witch?
Who knows.
- That's the thing, I would just think "current pop sensation" but she seems way more successful and receives so many more awards than other pop artists.
  It's somewhat shocking.
  Probably a witch

Under the Influence has an episode about her marketing.
- Listened to it, I agree that the rerecorded albums was a great move, especially at a time when everybody was tired of the record companies manipulating artists.
  And the Easter eggs are a good point that I'm convinced rally her fans into a community that think they're getting something special, and the eras tour is really interesting to me because obviously everybody's talking about it, but I don't hear much substantive about its organization.
  I didn't hear about the 10 different sets or that she has her own in-house staging company, self-funding the movie and it's just amazing.
  I really like the point at the end when he mentions that she keeps winning. All of her momentous undertakings result in a victory on her part.
  Really interesting episode, thanks

She makes music that a lot of people really like. Often times because they relate. It sounds like it’s not your kind of music, and that’s fine. Not really any more to it.
- That doesn't explain all of the awards. And it's not just a lot of people, it's often a historical amount of people right?
  That many people and that many awards just because she has the same formula every other pop star has?
  
  She’s really good at making pop music. Just because it doesn’t appeal to you doesn’t mean she’s not good.
  My friend Alex is really into metal music. Like, it’s all he listens to. Every once in a while I’ll listen to some of his songs, and they all sound the same to me. The stuff he says is awful sounds the same to me as the stuff he says is incredible. That doesn’t mean there’s no variation in metal or that it’s all just formulaic, and it doesn’t mean that bands can’t be really good at making and playing metal music, it just means I can’t tell when they are, cause it’s not my kind of music.
  It appears to be the same for you and pop music. It all sounds the same to you because it’s not your kind of music.
  
  Awards are generally either the industry giving itself awards for their own products or a metric of sales, which is a product of good marketing. Neither of these things have to do with talent or originality.
  
  She makes music that a lot of people really like.
  That doesn’t explain all of the awards.
  Yes it literally does. Disappointed to see OP approach this with such bad faith—it’s clear you don’t want to have your predetermined conclusions challenged. :(

ITT:
- I understand a lot of you seem to just not like Taylor Swift, which is not at all where I'm coming from.
  The songs of hers that I hear and I like are fun pop songs, but I don't understand why her fun pop songs win twice as many awards as any other artist, and 20 times as much or more of most artists
  
  My explanation is that she is a symptom of societal decline. She is in a constant news cycle, in the news every day. Just like Trump or Elon Musk, that's how she makes it further to the top. As a results, generations upon generations begin to forget that good music is possible.
  Goodbye as I get downvoted to hell!
- Most ppl didnt say that.... they said ppl like it cuz they're told to

Things go viral sometimes and it snowballs. The more famous you are, the more famous you can become. She's also good enough at being an entertainer to keep riding the wave of increased fame, with added resources the bigger she gets.
- Yea, good point

Besides listening to her when she is on the radio from time to time, Taylor Swift was forever carved in my mind when she agreed to have a (now classic) duet with a goat.
- You're right, this marks her as a great.

She was one of the few singers who appealed to love-crazy teenager girls a couple of decades ago.

She's been an industry plant since the beginning of her life, her parents were both rich and her dad was already in the music industry.
- This was mentioned and I do think it explains an important part of her initial success, but of course not all of it.
  Miley Cyrus, Lana del ray, Zoe Kravitz all have wealthy parents whom were big in the music industry, but aren't as big Taylor Swift is.
  It also seems important to note that her parents were not in the music industry, her dad was a stock broker and her mom was a marketing executive, according to what I'm reading here.
  How was her dad in the music industry?
  
  I think he invested a bunch of money in a record label, he was never a famous celebrity but he did have a lot of sway with a record label because of investments and shit.
- That explains how she got started and noticed, maintaining it is more difficult.
  
  She was good enough to fit the mold

Why did so many 12- year- olds buy Batman T-shirts in 1989? Other T-shirts were surely available?
- Yeah why do boys like coola super heroes with a cool tv show and awesome design? I guess we'll never know.
  
  It was about a specific movie, that was HEAVILY marketed, not a TV show.
- Sure, but the batman shirts didn't win dozens of awards and generate the GDP of several countries
  
  Whoosh

I went to a Daddy-Daughter school dance with my kid a few weeks ago, she's in Kindergarten, so it was just a new experience for her going to a dance, we had a good time. However, it's been a while since I've been to any sort of dance function at all (in school or out), but I'm pretty sure that more than half the songs were all Taylor Swift songs. I don't know if that's indicative of white people dance music selections in general, or if this was specific to that function and who they thought the girls wanted to listen to, but her music apparently gets played alot.
I think her popularity might be tied to her relatively clean image. Apart from the serial dating, the racist boyfriend thing, and the wasteful jet planes, she's still fairly clean in the eyes of popular America, she apparently hasn't had a big sex scandal or nude photos leak. Hell, when fake photos of her started spreading everywhere recently, that's when politicians started talking about reigning in and regulating AI Art, and that's been around for years now (even photoshopping images has been a thing for ages).
Funny enough though, my daughter actually hates Taylor Swift.
- Ha, yeah, I agree with you that the clean image certainly helps lend an air of credibility to her success

Because she's not only good at producing the right music, she's good at business and has the right connections to launch them.
- Thanks, I'm very curious about this. What are some salient examples of her business prowess?
  
  My favorite...
  Guy owns her masters.
  Taylor says "can I buy my master's?"
  Guy says "nope"
  Taylor says "ok" then then re-records all of those albums again in a complete "fuck you"

I honestly don't know. What I do know, though, is that her fanbase is weird and likes putting curses on people. No joke.
- Weird keeps things interesting and curses are make believe, so if it's fun for them, no harm no foul.

Overpromotion

I'm with you dude, she has a completely unremarkable to me as well.
- In terms of her songs and dancing, definitely.
  But I really think this threat has pointed out why she's so successful.
  Squeaky clean image so she can be played everywhere, great marketing, high production, clever lyrics, a lot of community outreach, autobiographical social media and songs, and I finally understand why people talk about her business acumen after I listened to a podcast about her eras tour and how much was self produced.
  She's knocking it out of the park on every front she can while focusing solely on the music industry.
  Definitely an interesting phenomenon.
  I'm still not wild about her music, but I was very curious how someone so young can become so successful when she sounds so similar to all of the other artists I've grown up listening to.

music good
- I think like most of the other answers, this plays a part, but since there are so many other artists with good music, doesn't really explain why there's only one Taylor Swift.

Cause shes hot and i like her voice. I like her pop stuff better than her country though. There are a few of her country songs i like but very few compared to her pop stuff.
- Cool.
- I hate that how hot she is or isn't has any bearing on her music's popularity.
  
  Male artists have certainly used sex appeal to sell records and tickets without much issue, I can't see why it would be any different if Swift does it.

You could ask this question about any popular artist for the last 70 years, probably longer, why The Beatles, why Elvis Presley, why Michael Jackson, why Madonna?
Hype mainly.
- The Beatles had a huge and demonstrable effect on a large portion of rock n roll music. I'm not their biggest fan in any way, but you can literally see how they helped initiate a huge change in popular music in their era if you look at what came before them and what came after. It's pretty disingenuous to claim it was mainly only hype.
  
  In retrospect, yes. They became hugely popular and that influenced lots of artists that came after them. Was “Love Me Do” really that groundbreaking? How about “Twist and Shout”?
- The Beatles Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson all seem unique in several salient ways that explain their success, Madonna at least in fashion.
  And all of those artists were at the beginning of one movement or another, Taylor's right in the middle of popular pop.
  I can't think of anything comparably unique about Taylor Swift, though I don't know much about her, hence the curiosity.
  
  In hindsight possibly. I’m only old enough to comment on Michael Jackson and Madonna but at the time their music wasn’t that unique. Michael Jackson absolutely pushed the boundaries with his music videos. Madonna played up to controversy. That’s how they built their audiences.
- So on your mind every artist is equally appealing and equally talented? What a confusingly random thought to assert as fact.
  
  No, that’s not what I meant at all. I’m saying that there are equally talented artists as the really big, well known ones and the reasons they weren’t as big is possibly down to not being in the right place at the right time.

I'm with you, OP. There has to be something we're missing, right?
- I think people in this thread have offered a pretty good mosaic of all of the things that lend to her inordinate success.
  It's been really interesting reading everyone's answers and then looking for corroborating evidence in her music, videos, cultural touchstones and so on

Branding.

As someone who doesn't really follow any sort of pop media or celebrities, I've often heard her songs around on the radio somewhere but just as often have I heard some other over produced pop singer and couldn't have told you if it was Swift or not.
- That's why it's so baffling how she's received so many awards and constantly breaks records. Like dozens of awards. Why?
  
  the music industry has never really been for the listeners.

Oh boy, I think I can help you here. My wife became a huge swiftie part way through my being with her, and I'm a musician myself, so I've ended up accidentally digesting a whole lot of her music extremely thoroughly when I normally would not have.
I already don't listen to the radio, but when I'd heard her songs before I'd casually enjoyed them as catchy hits, but I have come to respect her quite a bit as an artist and genuinely enjoy a good few of her songs. There could be a whole documentary on her success and why, but I'll try to sum it up as best as I understand through accidentally learning the ways of her fans and analyzing her music, even trying to be succint there are a few big points to hit on here, and this will be stupid long, probably two comments.
Her music is very well written and mixed/produced/performed. On its own that doesn't really matter much in the sea of pop artists, but her secret weapon in terms of retaining fans is her variety. Basically, this is what allows the "eras tour" to exist. She started country rock, became synthy pop, rebooted into indie rock, and has now transitioned back into electronic pop, but with a more laid-back vibe than her excitable pop anthem days.
Her songs are mostly very smartly written pop, but her band focused music also has some smart instrumental writing and performances for people who enjoy music more than just for pop catchiness. For instance, the song I most enjoy by her is Tolerate It, which is written in a 5/4 time signature, which is very unusual and interesting for pop music, but the song is so smartly written and the vocals are delivered in a catchy enough way that the listener doesn't even really notice the strange time signature.
To top this point off, her lyrics can be quite good. Mostly, it's just well-written pop again, but on some of her songs, and particularly across the indie rock styled albums Folklore and Evermore the lyrics can be really excellently written and poetic. The subjects of love and loss she predominantly writes about are generally relatable by everyone, and probably very relatable to some, but she also writes about other things on and off, like gender inequality or the loss of family, other very relatable topics for people in general.
Her start in country rock was very down to earth and her immediate talent in songwriting out the gate established a strong cult following early on. Again, this is not a very unique thing for pop artists, but her secret weapon here is that she has retained a very down to earth persona and a feeling of honesty with her fans, which is bolstered by the fact that she writes her own music.
She collaborates with artists, too, but she definitely also has a very strong "author's voice", and if you listen to and analyze enough of her music you can come to understand some of her unique melodic touches and bits of her songwriting that are throughout her whole catalog. This is why I, as a musician, respect her the most. If she just took songs from others it wouldn't be the same thing. It's a bit like Michael Jackson and how he would really give it his all for songs and his personal touch vocally always came through, no matter the genre style he was performing.
She's extremely smart and doesn't breed controversy. If you listen to interviews with her or really hear her talk about anything in depth at all you learn that she knows a shitload of stuff about a lot of things and is very well spoken. She's whip smart and that no doubt has significantly contributed to her success on a business side. She also doesn't do anything evil or controversial aside from the regular mass production of merch and usage of private jets, etc.. her biggest controversies were writing too many breakup songs that got popular, which, compared to many other artists is not even ranking as controversy. For someone who's been in the game for this long that's a big deal for staying power and loyalty. (Continued in second comment)
- Thanks for the reasoning, I've been watching the videos with subtitles on and agree that she has clever writing and many of her songs to sound very autobiographical, I think both of those add into what's earned her such recognition
- Little touches and interesting artistic moves contribute to making her fans die hard and have a lot of "Taylor" to consume. In particular, she treats the reveal of information about upcoming music and projects like an ARG. Her music videos have visual symbolism or color coding that takes from her musical history and foreshadows her moves in a way that she never explicitly reveals directly.
  As an example, some music video has symbolism of a clock, with fingers with painted nails replacing the clock hands, each finger's paint color corresponds to an album's color (every album of hers has a unique color that represents it in her catalog). Each finger's album color corresponds to the number on the clock that the finger is pointing at, representing the month of the year that she ended up announcing the re-release of those albums when she went through and began re releasing all of her music all over again (in order to legally own the music, these albums technically originally belonged to her production company, but since she wrote them she can re-record and re-release them to claim ownership).
  This whole concept of color coded symbolism and foreshadowing happens constantly, her fans are constantly on a very deliberate easter egg hunt that pays off time and time again by rewarding the fans with new music or merch drops. And her move to re release and record her old music is at once a brilliant business move, but also a respectable artistic move, and as far as I know is the only time in history this has happened with an artist, and it is, again, her music variety and quality that lets this happen.
  Lastly, through all of this she builds a huge, tight fan base who can appreciate any number of different things about her music or her personality. She writes good music at the core of it, which is the most important part. She makes strong business moves and isn't afraid to go outside the box and change genres, make puzzles for her fans, or do something unprecedented. There are a ton of reasons she is as big as she is, hopefully this summed up the important parts enough for you to understand, but there are a lot of reasons she's become the largest pop star ever, and musicians everywhere should take note of these things.

It's probably closer to why people like trump only the swifties are probably less inclined to kill people that don't like Taylor swift.
Or people really found her whiny breakup song phase relatable. That's probably what got the ball rolling. Then it's just like the Beatles or something but with objectively worse music.
I really don't like any of her songs that I have heard. To be fair I can't recall ever liking any songs that were ever on the radio during the time I have been alive at least.
- objectively
  In their time, the Beatles also weren't considered very good by the non-fans. Also, subjectively, I don't think "love me do" is a great song. I don't think Taylor Swift writes really bad songs, I'm just not into the music/ singing style.
  This is a great cover though. And, objectively, it shows her song writing is fine.
  
  Fine, but boring. I want to have some bit of surprise in my music I actively consume.
  She is a super solid, consistent pop writer and performer, but she still has not had more than a couple of songs that have grabbed me.
  I’m not going to be pissed people enjoy her, though.
- It's worth noting that of her top played songs in Spotify, I think maybe only one of them was on the radio. Her two pandemic albums Evermore and Folklore do not get radio time at all, I don't recall hearing much on the radio from her albums Lover or Reputation either, but probably some.
  I think a lot of times people heard shake it off or similar when it was played all the time and think that is representative.

Wait i thought she was the author of Harry Potter, not a singer..

OP, can you explain why any other celebrity whom you do not follow is popular?
if not, i think your question is unfairly asked
you are framing this as though fame is a question with a simple y=mx+b formula for an answer, as though pop music isn’t a billion dollar industry of hundreds of thousands of creative professionals (not just musicians) vying against one another for their opportunity to make a mark.
with full respect and appreciation for your curiosity, it’s fine to “not get” a person’s music, but that doesn’t mean you are owed an explanation for the entire raison de’tre of the pop culture industry.
- I'm not curious about the whole industry, just about this hyper-successful artist who appears unremarkable to me and isn't the first to pioneer any particular pop movement like other hyper-successful artists before her.
  I'm assuming there must be things I don't see.
  I don't think I'm owed an explanation, but I think it's perfectly fair to ask for an explanation that others with more experience in the subject can choose to provide.
  If you look into the comments here, there are a lot of really good explanations and answers.
  
  +1 for pointing out facts and elements of her character that changed your perspective in recent comments. i was getting really off-put by your earlier replies, hence my abrasion.
  i want to point out that a lot of the things you “discovered” here could easily have been found out by instead reading some music journalism. nothing has been said here that hasn’t already been said hundreds of times by well-known music critics you can find on google.

Are you a woman that’s went through a lot of break ups? I’m assuming no otherwise you’d already know the answer.
- Correct. Is that mostly her song catalog, songs about breakups?
  
  I’m not super familiar with it, but she’s helped a lot of women through heartbreak. That does a lot for your popularity. With at times it being a super catchy tune. Over and over and over. She’s not new at all.
- Most people aren't.

Sheep need a god to worship. There have been thousands before her; madonna, elvis, beattles, whos music i could careless less for, and there will be thousands after her
- This doesn't really bear out an analysis of their music or where they were and their respect of genres when they started being radically successful, that I can see.
  That's what I was curious about, why she is uncommonly successful without seeming particularly uncommon.
  Although a lot of the people have contributed to a pretty good comprehensive answer of what makes her so successful

People like her cuz they're told to like her 🙃

Are you a little girl. ?
It would much easier to understand if you’re a little girl.

Da joos
- The juice?
  American football former running back OJ Simpson? I don't know...

I think she shouldnt be popular, and I guess it's because of marketing. The media companies put her in the spot light a lot, and people got used to her music I guess.
It's not like with Michael Jackson or Madonna where the music were actually very good and creative. This is like pizza I guess, something to listen to that sounds the same as everything else.
- She may not be your cup of tea, which is totally fine. No music is for everyone. But to say her music is not creative or good like Michael Jackson and Madonna is silly. It definitely reveals an unfamiliarity with her catalog. While I like Madonna, she has not competently covered as much ground as Taylor Swift has been able to.
  I used to not really like Taylor Swift until I actually sat down and gave her music a real listen, then I got what all the hubbub was about. She has a lot of albums for her age, and there's relatively little filler on them (some have none in my opinion).
  
  I admit I haven't listed her very much. I will give it another try. What album should I start with?
- So I've listened to every single song anybody has mentioned, and most of the albums that they've mentioned in this right, and I can say that her songwriting itself is impressive, not enough to receive double the awards of Lady Gaga, in my opinion, but it is good songwriting, and her music videos are very impressively produced, the timing is compelling in them.
  Man, did everyone read some pizza article that I've never heard of?
  You're no joke, at least the fourth person to mention pizza.
  But even pizza, there are so many brands, how did this brand become far and away the most popular and awarded one. That's the question, not whether pizza is popular, but how did this one brand win so many awards relative to the other brands?

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Folklore

Evermore