In her 1968 music from Tune to a Seagull, “Cactus Tree“, Joni Mitchell predicted her life’s path: “One will ask her for eternity / Whereas she’s so busy being free.” Mitchell prioritized inventive freedom over relationships that threatened to stifle her. In 1965, at 21, she gave up a daughter for adoption and wrote a music about it titled “Little Inexperienced” (from 1971’s Blue).

Freedom is outlined relative to oppressive forces; it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Sustaining it entails discovering a self-evident medium of expression. Twisting somebody’s story can perform as censorship. 

Trendy superstar advertises itself as freedom regardless of the constraints inherent in its advertising and marketing. Peter Weir’s 1998 movie The Truman Present, a couple of man who doesn’t know his life is a staged manufacturing, predicted social media-era fame. Platforms resembling Instagram allow a relentless stream of shared data, that means any second of privateness can shatter the fourth wall of superstar. The Truman Present portrayed a traditional life; Truman’s existence grew to become a spectacle when individuals watched. 

In Worldwide Relations, a college of thought known as cultural relativism asserts that performing an anthropological research on a tradition contaminates the outcomes. The research topics will at all times act in another way round outsiders than in isolation. Taylor Swift’s profession is a research of relativism in popular culture. Does opening the field of her non-public life to share with the general public tarnish it? Swift’s work embodies the stress between commercialism and artistry, making a symbiotic relationship: she pays dues as a pop star, writes radio hits, and is rewarded with a platform for deep cuts which are the inspiration of her enterprise. 

Taylor Swift can be a case research of the American Dream. Earlier than I clarify why, I need to acknowledge her privilege: her father was a stockbroker at Meryl Lynch, and he or she was raised on a Christmas Tree Farm in Studying, Pennsylvania. Within the music “The Finest Day” (Fearless, 2008) she wrote, “I grew up in a reasonably home with a number of area to run.” It appears like Swift had a reasonably good childhood. 

Nonetheless, by way of music, she isn’t a nepotism child. At 13, Swift and her household moved from Pennsylvania to a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, to situate the aspiring musician nearer to the nation music business. (Her father transferred to Meryl Lynch’s Nashville location.) The technique of Swift’s household put her in the proper place to propell her budding profession. From that time ahead, nonetheless, Swift’s upward trajectory represents a mixture of free-market economics and musical expertise. 

At 13, Swift signed a growth cope with RCA Records however left the label one yr later as a result of it required her to report songs she didn’t write. At 14, she signed with Common Music’s Scott Borchetta. The catch: Borchetta was leaving Common to begin an indie label, Huge Machine Data. Swift grew to become one of many three unique artists to signal on. Her fourth single, 2007’s “Our Tune”, hit the highest spot on the nation charts. Swift’s second album, 2008’s Fearless, received Album of the 12 months on the Grammys. It was uphill from there.

The Enterprise of Pop

In a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift mentioned her relationship with Huge Machine Data: “Lots of the perfect issues I ever did creatively, I needed to…aggressively struggle to have occur.” 

Maybe she was referring to her determination to transition from nation to pop on her fifth album, 2014’s 1989. Upon listening to of Swift’s imminent departure from Nashville, Borchetta “went right into a state of semi-panic.” In line with a 2014 Billboard interview, he requested her, “Are you able to simply give me three nation songs?” Moreover, Swift mentioned different heavyweights within the music business believed her ambition to bear an entire pop makeover was “overly optimistic”. 

In line with information from Nielsen SoundScan, in 24 hours, 1989 matched its first-week gross sales predictions, transferring 600,000 models. In seven days, it bought 1.287 million copies, a shock to an business headed towards streaming dominance. A report from the RIAA said that development in streaming income offset the decline in everlasting downloads. Whereas the market switched from one digital platform to a different, Swift bought 480,000 bodily copies of 1989. “All the sudden, I didn’t look so naive anymore,” she mentioned to Billboard. 

After 1989’s launch, Swift eliminated her catalog from Spotify, citing unfair compensation charges for artists. In an op-ed for the Wall Road Journal about streaming’s rise, she frankly said, “Useful issues ought to be paid for.” It’s a easy sufficient idea, one thing that may very well be distilled into the hook of a pop music. 1989’s elimination from Spotify, a streaming platform, boosted its gross sales. Swift additionally capitalized on merchandising. Every bodily copy of 1989 included one in every of 5 units of polaroids from the album’s cowl photoshoot. Theoretically, a fan might purchase an infinite variety of CDs earlier than acquiring all 5 Polaroid units as a result of the packaging doesn’t specify which set is included. (I say this was cash nicely spent.)

In subsequent years, Swift continued to pair albums with merchandise. Magazines launched alongside 2017’s repute included Swift’s private images, poems, and handwritten lyrics. With 2019’s Lover, she shared pages from her diary, every excerpt together with a CD. Streaming’s low royalties have compelled musicians to seek out various income sources. “The monetary construction [of the music industry] hasn’t caught up with streaming,” Swift instructed Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. For instance, she cited that many producers require co-writing credit for collaborations. Moreover, in 2023, Billboard restructured its charting system to account for the artists who bundle albums with t-shirts or live performance tickets. 

Swift’s 2014 determination to take away her catalog from Spotify, successfully elevating 1989’s gross sales, was one thing solely an artist of her stature might do. Though 1989 extended the period of buying albums, its creator couldn’t fend off the rising tide of streaming endlessly. In 2015, when Apple introduced its streaming service, Apple Music, Swift threatened to withhold 1989 from the platform except the corporate compensated artists throughout a three-month trial interval that will be free to customers. Inside 24 hours, Apple modified its phrases, and Swift’s music grew to become out there on its service.

Though Swift’s “To Apple, Love Taylor” assertion prevented a blatant injustice, it didn’t change the route of the business. In 2023, the common payout per stream on Spotify was $0.000318 and $0.0008 on Apple Music. 

As a result of Taylor Swift’s streaming reluctance elevated gross sales, many noticed her activism as opportunistic. Twitter customers known as her “money-hungry” and “grasping”. Former One Route band member Zayn Malik retweeted an info-graphic that praised Miley Cyrus’ determination to launch an album without spending a dime and criticized Swift’s streaming stance. 

Within the music video for “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift fought towards this portrayal. In a scene, she breaks right into a financial institution and burns money inside a vault. Above her an indication reads “Streaming Co.” By turning the claims made towards her right into a cartoonish charade, she factors out their sensationalism. 

Portraying Taylor Swift’s altruism as selfishness due to its financial advantages undermines the premise of superstar. With a large platform, something Swift does generates cash, even selfless issues. Does that imply she shouldn’t do them?

In 2016, her falling out with the general public exemplified cognitive dissonance on a large scale. If one might declare the character of fame condemned her embodiment of it, redemption turns into theoretically unimaginable. Swift grew to become a illustration of superstar’s pitfalls regardless of her international platform guaranteeing these flaws are contained in their very own illustration.  Her self-caricatures in “Look What You Made Me Do” resuscitated her persona by reminding viewers that superstar is a efficiency. Destroying Swift’s previous selves, because the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty had sought to do, was futile as a result of these selves functioned on the extent of fiction to start with. 

Fame is the fragile steadiness of fantasy and actuality. An issue happens when an middleman between the patron and the product—the press—decides which elements of the product are actual and which aren’t. 

The New Panorama of Streaming

Within the decade since 1989, Taylor Swift has conquered streaming with out jeopardizing gross sales. The Tortured Poets Division (20240 bought 2.61 million models in its first week – greater than double the first-week complete of 1989. Moreover, at 891.37 million streams, The Tortured Poets Division broke Drake’s report for an album’s greatest streaming week ever. (Drake’s Scorpion, with 745.92 streams, held this title since 2018.) 

Swift’s enterprise technique of aligning a product’s advertising and marketing with the autobiographical storyline at its core translated from gross sales to streaming. folklore (2020) made Swift’s Spotify dominance clear, because it amassed 80 million streams in 24 hours, breaking Arianna Grande’s report of 70.2 million. folklore’s shock launch mirrored the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a sudden phenomenon that pressured individuals into isolation. Following 2019’s Lover, an album of simple pop, folklore reminded listeners of Swift’s songwriting presents. 

In 2017, Swift returned her catalog to Spotify, one other enterprise and private narrative mixture. Her albums impacted the platform the identical day Katy Perry launched her fourth album Witness, which included a diss monitor aimed toward Swift titled “Swish Swish”. In line with Consequence of Sound, Swift’s previous materials outperformed Perry’s new. 

In an interview with the Recording Academy, Swift defined her option to pursue “blatant pop music” on her album, 1989. It stemmed from the failure of its predecessor, 2012’s Crimson, to win Album of the 12 months on the Grammys, prompting her to comprehend she had not been making “sonically cohesive” albums. Though commercially profitable, Crimson obtained important backlash for its mixture of nation, gentle rock, and dubstep. 

Every music on 1989 appears like a radio single, that means its precise singles had double blockbuster potential. On these songs, Swift trimmed her verbose writing model and recruited heavyweight producers Max Martin (Brittany Spears, Katy Perry), Ryan Tedder (One Republic), and Jack Antonoff (Enjoyable.). Like every good pop album, 1989 makes use of familiarity and consistency to innovate. 

In a 2014 interview with ABC information, Swift mentioned, “My followers had been afraid I might make pop music and cease writing sensible lyrics…emotional lyrics.” In contrast to Communicate Now and Crimson, which function “Expensive John” and “All Too Effectively”, 1989 lacks a five-minute ballad. Nonetheless, Rolling Stone credited Swift’s option to trim her writing: “As each Eighties pop star knew, you don’t comply with one epic with one other.” 

The second single on 1989, “Clean House”, topped the Billboard Sizzling 100 for eight consecutive weeks. In an interview accompanying The 1989 World Tour Dwell, Taylor Swift described the music as written from the angle of the “jet-setting, tragic mess I apparently am.” Snare drums and quotability made the hit a radio success and dialog piece. By embracing her repute, she broadened her listener base whereas entertaining followers who remained in on the joke. Within the “Clean House” music video, she makes use of an apple to carry out voodoo on a love curiosity, evoking Snow White by embodying a princess and a witch: the poles of her persona.  

The music’s title comes from the road, “I’ve bought a clean area child/ and I’ll write your title.” Throughout a pause, Swift clicks a pen: a manufacturing flourish that acknowledges a typical criticism levied at her, which she summarized in a 2019 interview with Vogue: “She’ll write a music about you…Don’t stand close to her.” By implying the inevitability of her songwriting, Swift diminishes the media’s skill to painting it as a flaw. 

Social critic Camille Paglia described Taylor Swift’s peer group of actresses and fashions as “fascist blondes” and “efficiency props.” Later, within the “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, Swift acknowledges this criticism by portraying herself because the cult-like chief of a Barbie doll military. 

Within the poem “If You’re Something Like Me”, Swift wrote, “No quantity of mates at 25/ will fill the lunch tables of your previous.” The “squad”, Swift’s well-known pal group, manifested a childhood insecurity. Celebrities are out of contact. Their actuality yields friendships that violate normality. Swift and mannequin Karlie Kloss had been the joint cowl stars of Vogue in March 2015 after assembly on the Victoria’s Secret Trend Present. Whereas the impetus for Swift’s friendships could have been real, her platform causes them to seem unattainable. 

The primary single from 1989, “Shake It Off”, has a humorousness about itself. Nation music supplied area for Swift’s earnestness, however pop stardom required her to remodel the panorama round her. “Shake It Off” infiltrated a brand new style by admitting {that a} crossover requires costuming. Within the music’s video, Swift journeys and falls making an attempt to match her backup dancers.  

She continues to play together with her picture in 2017’s “I Did One thing Unhealthy”, stating, “I by no means belief a narcissist, however they love me.” The contradiction: breakup ballads point out Swift does belief narcissists, and it hasn’t at all times labored out. Within the 2021 brief movie All Too Effectively, she portrays a relationship between a 20-year-old lady and a person in his 30s the place gaslighting is the material of the couple’s discussions. “You’re holding me hostage to one thing I don’t bear in mind,” the person says. Reminiscence is subjective.  

When mandatory, Taylor Swift sacrifices hooks to inform a narrative. On the folklore monitor “seven”, a story of misplaced childhood innocence, she asks the listener to “Image me within the weeds/ earlier than I realized civility.” At the same time as her fame reaches new peaks, she expresses a need to be perceived as regular. Faraway from its machinations in pandemic isolation, on folklore, Swift contemplates fame. In Folklore: The Lengthy Pond Studio Periods, Swift mentioned she wrote “mirrorball” after the COVID-related cancellation of her stay reveals. “I’m nonetheless making an attempt every part to maintain you me,” she sings. Within the music, a disco ball serves as a metaphor for superstar. “They dangle there and each time they break it entertains us,” Swift added in Lengthy Pond. Nonetheless, in keeping with its author, this story of fame additionally has an on a regular basis utility: “You need to be completely different variations of your self for various individuals.”

This flexibility works itself into Taylor Swift’s music. Though steadfast in its dedication to Eighties-driven pop, 1989 was about change. The various sonic palettes of its predecessors, Communicate Now and Crimson, sparked dialogue about whether or not Swift was a rustic or pop star. Her inclination in the direction of a sure sound however, the flexibility to outline herself as one factor, ought to she select to take action, is a worthwhile want to say. Writing a pop album proved Swift managed her enterprise. 

Whereas penning songs, Taylor Swift undertakes a course of reserved for critics: distinguishing a public entity from a personal particular person. The sharpness of her observations penetrates the celebrity of their creator. In The Truman Present, when the titular character discovers his world to be a fabrication, he asks its maker, “Was any of it actual?” That presence replies, “You had been actual.” Swift is the designer and star of her personal Truman Present. 

Pop Tradition’s Distorted Actuality

In July 2016, Kim Kardashian toppled Taylor Swift’s citadel. By sharing edited footage of a telephone name recorded with out Swift’s information, Kardashian decreased Swift to a method of communication after which rendered that communication invalid. In a poem titled “Why She Disappeared”, Swift described the backlash she confronted: “Your ache is manipulative.” When Kardashian shared an edited clip that appeared to catch Swift in a lie, she triggered a public reckoning with superstar, diverting consideration from her weaponization of the identical enterprise. Swift grew to become a scapegoat for the exploitative elements of fame by the hands of somebody well-known for being well-known. 

No particular person can distort actuality. Nonetheless, somebody who controls the definition of the phrase “actuality” has the facility to control others. As a time period, “actuality” incorporates its definition and its technique of utility. All phrases have a that means, however individuals can apply them in another way and disagree with others’ interpretations. “Actuality” can take away itself from this dialogue as a result of its definition asserts it ought to be taken at face worth. 

Within the novel 1984, George Orwell wrote, “If the previous and the current exist solely within the thoughts of the listener, and the previous may be altered, what then?” Basically, if we credit score an entity as embodying reality, we permit them to alter what we predict we all know. The Kardashian household has turn into billionaires by altering what’s perceived as “actuality”, 

In 2014, on The Ellen Present, Taylor Swift described a recurring dream about being arrested for against the law she didn’t commit. Two years later, Kim Kardashian subsumed Swift’s public picture right into a one-sided dialogue that amounted to framing Swift for a deed of Kardashian’s invention. As a result of Kardashian managed the portrayal of Swift’s alleged crime, she might dictate its punishment. Something Swift mentioned would guarantee this eventuality. 

For a residing, the Kardashians edit near-constant footage of their lives to inform a narrative. The parts of their narrative are actual, however the outcome won’t replicate the reality. 

Taylor Swift reclaimed her throne by making the assassination of her character right into a cartoon. In “Look What You Made Me Do”, she sings, “The previous Taylor can’t come to the telephone proper now…’trigger she’s lifeless!” She reanimates her persona on her phrases with a playful reference to the telephone name that triggered her demise. 

Even a confessional songwriter is aware of the elements of her story listeners don’t wish to hear. But, Swift can’t fully divorce the general public’s rejection of her enterprise from her narrative. She should embody the hero and villain of her personal story to show that adversity exists. As a celeb, Swift lives in a glass citadel: rich and well-known however clear. A mob outdoors the fortress maintains the flexibility to shatter the glass at will. When the mess they create turns into clear, they use the citadel’s transparency to argue it by no means existed, even when its inhabitant continues to be banging her head towards the wall. 

“You caged me you then known as me loopy,” Swift sings on the 2024 music “Who’s Afraid of Little Outdated Me?” As an entertainer, Swift shields the general public from its contradictions. A pop album accomplishes this as a result of straightforward listening disguises financial objectives. Though her least lyrically detailed album, 1989, greatest embodies her ethos as a result of the act of creating it tells an actual story. Writing breakup songs in a brand new kind that insulated them from criticism conveyed themes of non-public freedom.

The Intersection of Life and Artwork

Taylor Swift expounded on this message of independence on the promotional single “Welcome to New York”, asserting her post-Nashville relocation. Shifting to a brand new metropolis mirrored Swift’s style shift. The singer had turn into so well-known that the small print of her life existed in media past songwriting, which allowed for 1989’s lyrical universality. 

Maturity is about greater than monetary independence. It’s the skill to set the phrases of your life with out utilizing childhood accomplishments to argue in your remaining within the circumstances of their creation. Swift’s pop makeover spoke to followers as a result of it denoted private catharsis with out explicitly stating its trigger. The enterprise determination that birthed 1989 was additionally its emotional argument.

When this album was launched, I used to be 17, and I can testify to the attract of its mythology. I purchased the bodily CD, and sifting by means of polaroids depicting Swift in numerous New York locales, together with Greenwich Village and the Staten Island Ferry, I believed, Wouldn’t or not it’s cool to maneuver to town? Get out of the suburbs? I didn’t obtain this. Within the decade since this album’s launch, I spotted {that a} metaphorical report label limiting my decision-making capabilities existed inside me. I did attend faculty in a metropolis, however bodily relocation didn’t clear up my downside. I unknowingly suppressed my ideas. Writing, what I’m doing now, freed me. 

“Persons are lots smarter than advertising and marketing executives give them credit score for,” Taylor Swift instructed Billboard. Linking enterprise and private narrative may be an asset and legal responsibility. A public life can promote a enterprise, however doing so means enterprise success hinges on one thing extremely subjective. The stakes for ensuring that the 2 pillars, enterprise and private, replicate one another are excessive. 

Within the “Look What You Made Me Do” video, Swift stands on an airplane with “TS6” printed on its wing. She cuts off these wings and spray paints “repute” over “TS6”. Status is Swift’s sixth album. Followers speculate this scene represents Swift leaving a deliberate sixth report on the reducing room ground after the eruption of her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. This incident necessitated a brand new album that will tackle the controversy. Listeners won’t ever know what the unique “TS6” appeared like. The connection between celebrities and the general public is one in every of mutually assured censorship. 

Within the music “Amelia”, Joni Mitchell sang, “Possibly I’ve by no means actually liked…I’ve spent my entire life in clouds at icy altitudes.” Celeb relationships are sometimes accused of being publicity stunts. Nonetheless, this criticism is a truism. Celebrities win when the general public derides one thing with a built-in degree of efficiency as a spectacle. Their existence turns into a dialogue that generates revenue.

Taylor Swift lives in a glass citadel, however she will be able to inform her story from there. Is it a worthwhile sacrifice? In 2023, she and actor Joe Alwyn ended their six-year relationship. Sources instructed Individuals they cut up on account of completely different approaches to fame. Their relationship had grown throughout Swift’s 2016 hiatus from public life and, subsequently, the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a 2012 interview with Vogue, Swift mentioned, “If we have to dig a tunnel beneath a restaurant in order that we will go away…I can’t try this.” 

Swift’s physique of labor communicates that an individual’s sense of self shouldn’t hinge on the success of affection affairs, even when one stays in pursuit of them. In 2022’s “You’re on Your Personal, Child”, she sings, “I hosted events and starved my physique like I’d be saved by an ideal kiss.” Love is Swift’s muse, not her salvation. 

In a 2009 Rolling Stone interview, Swift described the necessity to withhold private particulars from the media as “self-preservation”. She would later be taught to translate this instinctive restraint from her profession to her private life. Romantic relationships can turn into a two-way mirror of codependency: every particular person makes use of the opposite’s contrived deal with constructive qualities to justify their very own. In the meantime, two separate storms are brewing. 

It may possibly turn into doable, out of a need to disregard one’s flaws, to inhabit the model of oneself {that a} associate sees. You turn into the residing embodiment of their actuality, which leaves you weak to exploitation. Is your associate at fault for holding you hostage to a self-image you willingly challenge?  The act of writing a music by trimming feelings right into a storyline displays the sacrifice of sustaining a significant private life. The media’s deal with Swift’s preoccupation with penning love songs misses their level. To say, She writes an excessive amount of about ex-boyfriends, invalidates the technique of Swift’s product after its ends have already been achieved. 

In a evaluation of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, critic Ann Powers wrote, “Although her lyrics typically recount acquainted situations on the street to romantic achievement, her actual topic is consumerism.” Equally, 1989 tells the story of a romantic relationship but in addition hides a covert topic: the battle between the self and forces performing upon it, together with public opinion, indecisive ex-boyfriends, and cussed report label executives. 1989 foresaw the tides swelling towards Swift and placated them. Communicate Now and Crimson, by means of their hyper-specificity, elicited robust backlash. “It was a extremely awful factor of her to do,” John Mayer mentioned of Swift writing “Expensive John” about him. Conversely, by cleaning 1989 of direct allusions, Swift recentered herself as the primary character of her work. 

In “Imbroglio”, an episode from Netflix’s The Crown, Prince Charles argues together with his mom about his need to voice his political views. Queen Elizabeth says, “Let me allow you to right into a secret. Nobody needs to listen to [your voice].” 

Pop stardom is like royalty. Persons are intrigued by the lives of well-known individuals, but the impetus for that intrigue is filtered by means of layers of media coaching. What the general public finally ends up consuming is its personal urge for food for escapism. If Taylor Swift’s enchantment is heartbreak, what are the pillars of her fantasy? 

Swift conceals from the general public the identical factor each particular person retains from themselves: the messy elements of human nature. Her life is like The Truman Present as a result of her humanity turns into a spectacle. The engine that drives it’s the rapt consideration of viewers. Any job requires an individual to compartmentalize sure feelings. Trendy life has yielded a fascination with actuality TV as a result of a work-obsessed tradition makes residing for its personal sake a novel thought. 

The Freedom of Storytelling

After I first heard 1989, it impressed me to write down a poem, a part of which I’ll share right here: “I shed my cocoon/ however my new wings quickly broke/ identical to they used to.” After I noticed Taylor Swift transition from nation to pop, I spotted I wanted to make adjustments in my life. A decade has passed by. Have I succeeded? The brief reply is sure. On this article, I quoted the essay that impressed me to write down music criticism: Rob Sheffield’s evaluation of 1989 in Rolling Stone. As a result of a side of my maturity facilities on my passions, I achieved what mattered to me: self-preservation. Now, I simply want to maneuver out of my guardian’s home. I was a highschool English trainer. I just lately had a third-round interview for an workplace job a couple of days in the past. Leaving training was not a straightforward selection. I liken it to Swift’s determination to depart nation music. It was an ecosystem during which she may very well be completely satisfied however not completely understood. 

In Lana Wilson’s 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Swift recounts label executives convincing her to stay mum on politics, utilizing the Dixie Chicks for example of activism gone fallacious. “I grew to become the particular person everybody wished me to be,” Swift mentioned. It was good for enterprise for Swift to consider her personal mythology. Waking up from such a dream can really feel like self-destruction. “Within the loss of life of her repute, she felt really alive,” she mentioned. 

As a music critic, I’m drawn to artists present process a coming-of-age as a result of I’m going by means of my very own. As Ann Powers famous, Katy Perry writes about love, however her actual topic is consumerism. Swift additionally writes about love, however her actual topic is the self. I write about pop music, however my actual topic is me. 

Freedom is a clean area. In the event you attempt to negotiate with it, you kill it. It’s doable to compromise with the platform in your voice: one style of music or one other. Nonetheless, the story being instructed can’t be disputed. The flexibility to write down the subsequent chapter is the engine that drives an individual’s life. 

“Insurrection is what you make of it,” Swift mentioned. She challenged the machine round her by embracing style outlined by construction. Being heard can present sufficient achievement that an individual fails to see they continue to be in an enclosure. Writing essays resembling this was the ultimate step of escaping mine. When my work is revealed, my voice is heard. However I suppose I need to are inclined to different issues in my life. 

On the cowl of 1989, Swift wears a sweater emblazoned with seagulls crisscrossing the sky. The duvet of a reissue reprises this imagery. Seagulls evoke the top of a journey: reaching a shore after years within the woods however recognizing a sure kind of freedom stays out of attain. I stay by the ocean and sometimes kayak to a close-by island inhabited solely by birds. They scatter in a swarm above me after I attain the sting of the seashore, reminding me of the 1989 album cowl. Within the distance, I can see a metropolis skyline. I really feel the tug of the previous and the longer term. By labeling them as separate entities, I’m free. However in contrast to Taylor Swift, I don’t know which route to go.

Works Cited

Aguirre, Abby. “Taylor Swift on Sexism, Scrutiny, and Standing Up for Herself”. Vogue. 8 August 2019. 

Abad-Santos, Alex. “Kim Kardashian’s Taylor Swift-Kanye West Snapchat story, defined”. Vox. 23 July 2016.

“Calvin Harris and Zayn Malik in indignant alternate over Taylor Swift”. The Guardian. 18 August 2015.

Caulfield, Keith. “Taylor Swift Makes Historic Debut at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With ‘The Tortured Poets Division’”. Billboard. 18 June 2024.

Christman, Ed. “The place Are Individuals Shopping for Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’? A Retail Breakdown of (Most likely) the 12 months’s Greatest Album”. Billboard. 7 December 2023.

Colburn, Randall. “Taylor Swift is out performing Katy Perry on Spotify”. Consequence. 11 June 2017.

“Cultural relativism”. Carnegie Council for Ethics in Worldwide Affairs.

Dickey, Jack. “The Energy of Taylor Swift”. TIME. 13 November 2014. 

Dolan, Jon. “Crimson”. Rolling Stone. 23 October 2012. 

Donovan, Samuel. “Imbroglio”. The Crown, Season 3, Episode 6. Netflix. 17 November 2019. 

Eells, Josh. “The Reinvention of Taylor Swift”. Rolling Stone. 25 September 2014. 

Friedlander, Joshua. “Information and Notes on 2014 RIAA Music Trade Cargo and Income Statistics”. RIAA. 2014.

Golden, Zara. “Twitter Reacts To Taylor Swift’s Breakup With Spotify”. The FADER. 1 August 2016.

Grigoriadis, Vanessa. “The Very Pink, Very Good Lifetime of Taylor Swift”. Rolling Stone. 5 March 2009. 

Hiatt, Brian. “Taylor Swift: The Rolling Stone Interview”. Rolling Stone. 23 September 2019.

Hussey, Allison. “Billboard Proclaims New ‘Fan Bundle’ Rule for Chart Eligibility”. Pitchfork. 5 Might 2023.

Irvin, Jack. “Inside Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s ‘Variations’ That Led to Their Breakup: Sources (Unique)”. Individuals.com. 10 April 2023. 

“John Mayer: Taylor Swift’s ‘Expensive John’ Tune ‘Humiliated Me’” Rolling Stone. 6 June 2012. 

Gentle, Alan. “Billboard Girl of the 12 months Taylor Swift on Writing Her Personal Guidelines, Not Turning into a Cliche and the Hurdle of Going Pop”. Billboard. 5 December 2014.

Mantha, Priyanka. “Extraordinarily Overanalyzing Hollywood’s Nepo-Child Increase”. New York Press Room. 19 December 2022. 

McKinney, Kelsey. “Taylor Swift bought 1.287 million albums final week. However the way forward for music is streaming”. Vox. 5 November 2014.

Paglia, Camille. “Camille Paglia Takes on Taylor Swift, Hollywood’s #GirlSquad Tradition”. The Hollywood Reporter. 10 December 2015. 

Powers, Ann. “Album evaluation: Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream’.” Los Angeles Instances. 24 August 2010.

Rolli, Bryan. “Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Smashes Spotify Data As It Heads for the Greatest Debut of 2020″. Forbes. 26 July 2020.

Sheffield, Rob. “1989”. Rolling Stone. 24 October 2014. 

Swift, Taylor. Folklore: The Lengthy Pond Studio Periods. Taylor Swift Productions. 25 November 2020.

Swift, Taylor. “For Taylor Swift, the Way forward for Music is a Love Story”. The Wall Road Journal. 7 July 2014. 

Swift, Taylor. Interviewed by Barbara Walters. ABC Information. 15 December 2014. 

Swift, Taylor. Interviewed. Grammy Professional. 4 January 2016. 

Swift, Taylor. “To Apple, Love Taylor.” Tumblr. 21 June 2015. 

“Taylor Swift on ‘Lover,’ Attending an Emo Dinner Get together, and Extra”. The Zane Lowe Present. 29 October 2019. 

“Taylor Swift.” The Ellen Degeneres Present Season 12, Episode 36. 27 October 2014. 

Virpp, Yassine. “Music Streaming Payouts Comparability: A Information for Musicians”. VIRPP. 17 July 2023.

William, Chris. “Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s Full 2016 Cellphone Name Leaks: Learn the Full Transcript”. Selection. 21 March 2020.

Van Meter, Jonathan. “Taylor Swift: The Single Life.” Vogue. 17 January 2012.

Yuan, Jada. “On the Highway with Finest Mates Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss”. Vogue. 13 February 2015. 

Willman, Chris. “Taylor Swift’s street to fame”. EW.com. 5 February 2008.