Taylor Allison Swift is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. She rightly adored by billions of people, us included, and is held in the highest regard by so many, as a true light within the world and the industry. However, with that level of fame comes a lot of negativity, misogyny, and misconceptions, and if you’re new to the world of Taylor, so it can be hard to differentiate between the truth and what’s made up by the press. In the face of the negativity, we’re here to speak our truth, and the truth of so many people who have been able to share in the joy of Taylor Swift. Here are 5 reasons why we think you should become a Swiftie.
1. Taylor Swift treats her fans like family
In all of her years as an artist, Taylor has never charged fans to meet her. In fact, she personally hand picks dedicated fans from social media and invites them to her house for Secret Sessions. These events are a listening party premiere for a few select fans where they get to listen to Taylor talk about her inspiration and album making process, as well as hear the tracks before they are officially released. These fans are found by Taylor herself or members of her team, through what is referred to as “Taylurking” where Taylor stalks her fans online to decide who gets to meet her.
Taylor is very interactive with her fans online, particularly on Tumblr. She follows and likes tweets from fans on that platform, and also reposts photos of fans on Twitter when they tag her in posts of them with her albums. Even though Taylor is such a huge celebrity, she treats her fans like they are her own personal friends. Even when she is attending public events such as movie premiers or music award shows, she always takes time to stop and take pictures with fans and sign autographs.
2. She uses her platform to speak out about important issues
Taylor Swift is no stranger to using her influence to speak up about important topics or to show her support for artists and various causes. In 2014 Taylor removed her discography from Spotify due to the small royalties that the service pays artists. Then, in 2015 she wrote a letter to Apple Music to explain why her album 1989 would not be available on the streaming platform. This was due to the fact that artists and other members of the music labels such as producers and writers would not be paid royalties when users signed up for a three-month free trial. She explained that all artists, especially newer and smaller ones, deserved to be compensated and paid for their work.
Years later in the fall of 2018, Taylor made an Instagram post and asked her fans to register to vote. Within 2 days of her post, there was a spike in new voter registration. In this same post she also endorsed 2 Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee. In a separate post, she shared a letter she wrote to a Tennessee senator to express her support of the Equality Act, which inhibits discrimination of individuals based on the gender they identify with or their sexual preference. Lastly, in order to celebrate LGBTQ Pride month,Taylor made a donation to the LGBTQ organization GLAAD and created a petition on change.org to encourage the Senate to support the Equality Act.
Taylor has also been vocal about speaking out against sexual assault. She filed a countersuit against a radio DJ that groped her in 2013 when he filed a defamation lawsuit against her. However, what was significant about the case was that Taylor only wanted $1 in compensation for damages. The monetary amount was symbolic, because the real value came from the verdict, when the jury ruled in favor of Taylor.
Furthermore, Taylor has spoken out about the gender inequality that exists in the music industry due to male privilege. She has mentioned that people always questioned the success of female artists and want to attribute their achievements to their male coworkers. With every milestone that Taylor reached, it was always met with backlash. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Taylor stated that when “A man does something, it’s strategic. A woman does the same thing, it’s calculated. A man is allowed to react. A woman can only overreact.” Female artists are critiqued for their love lives, their physical appearances, the way they dress, while the same is not true for male artists.
In addition, Taylor has been a staunch supporter for the rights of artists to own their own music. She has been very public about her battle to repurchase her music from Big Machine Records, in an attempt to create awareness for other young artists when signing a contract and negotiating with a record label.
Also, Taylor has shown her support for the LGBTQ community through donations to a LGBTQ organization in Tennessee in addition to the release of her song ‘You Need to Calm Down’ in honor of pride month. In the song she gives a shout out to GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and following the song’s release, the organization revealed that there was a sudden increase in $13 amount donations (a reference to Taylor’s favorite number). At the end of the music video for ‘YNTCD,’ Taylor left a message that implored fans to sign her petition for Senate support of the Equality Act which demanded that the federal laws treat all citizens equally.
3. Her resilience in the face of criticism
Over the years, Taylor has been ostracized numerous times by the general public. However she has remained steadfast in her identity. She does not allow the opinions of strangers to influence her. Something we have always admired about Taylor is her ability to withstand hate and backlash. She is able to take all of the harsh words that people use against her and turn it into music. For her, songwriting is an escape and a way to share her emotions and release her feelings into chords, melodies, and lyrics.
Taylor’s hit single ‘Shake It Off’ is a response to all the negative comments people have made about her personal decisions, her behavior, and her music. She has mentioned before that we can not control what other people say or how they behave towards us, but we can control our reaction to their words. Instead of choosing to take insults to heart, Taylor chooses to ignore the criticisms and find the humor in every situation so she can laugh at herself. Thus, ‘Shake It Off’ was born.
Secondly, Taylor has played with the media’s idea that she is a crazy obsessed serial dater that only writes songs about her exes as revenge, by writing a satirical song. She turned this false conception of herself into the sarcastic lyrics that compose ‘Blank Space,’ which dethroned ‘Shake It Off’ at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and proceeded to stay at its peak for 7 weeks.
Another prime example of how Taylor turns the critiques hurled at her into hit songs is ‘Look What You Made Me Do.’ The entire concept of the music video revolves around exaggeration and drama in order to capitalize on the persona that the media has painted her out to be. At the end of the music video for this, Taylor makes fun of herself by referencing critiques that she always makes an annoying surprised face when her name is announced as the winner of an award. She also mocks comments that say she is fake and always pretends to be nice and that she always plays the victim. There is no doubt that the pen is mightier than the sword, and we will always be in awe at how Taylor uses negative words as fuel for her songs.
4. Her amazing songwriting ability
Perhaps what Taylor Swift is most known for besides her successful crossover from country to pop music, is her capacity to write beautiful metaphorical lyrical masterpieces. Something that has remained consistent throughout her phenomenal career is her style of penning songs filled with plenty of visual imagery that gives listeners a feeling similar to watching a movie or reading a book. The tracks that she writes are always filled to the brim with intense physical descriptions that make it easy for her audience to imagine themselves walking in her shoes and experiencing the same situations that she sings about. Her music is very relatable, covering a wide spectrum on topics whether it be love, rejection, doubt and confusion, the dark side of fame, youth, critics, cancer, overcoming adversity, growing up, or forgiveness. Taylor’s iconic narrative story telling style always touches on a wide range of subjects and emotions, which makes it easy for people of all ages to connect and relate to her music.
5. Her sweet and kind personality
One of the best traits about Taylor is her character. She is an extremely humble and down to earth person. Even though she is one of the most famous and successful artists in the world, she treats everyone she comes into contact with (whether it be her friends, fans, or employees) with the utmost level of respect.
Moreover, Taylor is very supportive of friends. She is always giving them shoutouts and promoting their music on her instagram, and she also invited many artists to be special guests for her 1989 World Tour and Reputation Stadium Tour. Some of these artists (just to name a few) included MKTO, Little Mix, Sugarland, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill.
Additionally, Taylor Swift acts like your normal average person. At times you can almost forget that she is an internationally famous pop star. What’s special about her is that she has a lovely, sweet, and dorky personality. She’s not afraid to joke around and act silly or to openly declare her affection for all things cats-related. She is such a relatable person and it’s practically impossible to not love her.
We’ve got an even longer list of reasons why you should stan Taylor Swift, but these were just 5 of them! Let us know why you stan Taylor by leaving a comment down below or tweeting @thehoneypop!
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