I, for one am mildly amazed. Nice one!
Taylor Swift the individual performer and Taylor Swift the Corporate Enterprise have evidently been able to hit that multiple-angles sweet spot that artists, promoters and ancillary businesses dream of. To a huge degree thanks to adding onto your usual Big Star traits, a sense of high engagement with the fandom as earlier stated.
Is that my sweet spot? No. But I’m not the demographic whose attention the pop entertainment industry craves, nor the one that craves this sort of fan engagement. And that’s fine. Even so from where I sit she’s a perfectly fine top charting star and I can acknowledge many of the various reasons mentioned upthread. And the ones I don’t get, well, I can always say “I don’t get it” and carry on listening to what I enjoy.
…
TBH “explain why Taylor Swift hit it so big” to me sounds like I could substitute in there “Beyoncé” or “Star Wars” — it will be because of many things, there will be parts that pass critics’ tests, parts where a demographic identifies, parts that touch upon a general zeitgeist, parts that are all about fanboy/fangirling, parts that are marketing, and it happens these were all hit at the right time and the right place(s). Good for her, I say.
Taylor Swift has been knocked out of the #1 spot on the Hot 100 by… Taylor Swift.
You realize it’s OK for people to have different tastes in music than you do, right? That’s really all there is to it.
My taste in music doesn’t affect my appreciation of skill. There are a lot of artists that I dislike yet I can recognize their skill. I’ve never liked Miles Davis yet his skill is off the charts.
I’ve already posited a guess to the op’s question based on the answers given. Her fans like her clever lyrics. There is also is a connection between Taylor Swift and her fans that transcends what most musicians engage in.
NVM, too Pit-ish
Given her business acumen she probably timed it that way.
In that case, about 2-3 weeks from now would be the perfect time for a surprise rerelease of her Christmas EP from 2007 so she can challenge Mariah Carey for the title of Queen of Christmas.
She needs to do a Christmas concert at the Sphere. Not IN the Sphere. AT the Sphere. Given the 2 sided nature of the screen she can fill it inside and out.
Y’know, I can so totally see all these latest predictions/suggestions happening…
If it the concert can be timed for a space station flyover I would pay good money for an image of Taylor Swift’s eye from space.
Taylor has 20 of the spots in Billboard’s Top 40 this week.
She’s going to totally lose her indie cred by being so well liked.
Plus, by this point there can’t be very many indie records much cooler than hers, can there be?
The Taylor Swift song that knocked Taylor Swift’s song out of #1 has itself been knocked out of #1 by Taylor Swift.
Someone had better been talking about getting bit by a møøse.
A møøse bit Travis Kelce once.
Sure, Taylor might be the most successful touring artist in history, but has she ever crashed the AARP’s website? Take that, you whippersnappers!
Isn’t the AARP website run on a Commodore 64?
Oh stop, the C64 is for kids.
Their website is on an AS/400.