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Cierra Lurz

Professor Flores

English 1201

30 January 2022

Songs That Matter Now Article Summary

“Taylor Swift, indie-rock star? Long, long ago, this might have felt strange” written by Steven

Hyden is a New York Times article from March 2021 that shines a light on the development of

music throughout the years, especially concerning the coexistence of indie-pop and mainstream

songs by Taylor Swift. Ten years ago, Swift released her hit song “We Are Never Ever Getting

Back Together” with the lyric “And you would hide away and find your peace of mind/With

some indie record that’s much cooler than mine” that later on can be referred to the media and

their perception of Taylor Swift’s genre of music (Hyden). The article then proceeds to mention

the fact that Taylor Swift and indie rock band The National teamed up to collaborate on two of

Swift’s albums, “folklore” and “evermore” in 2020, which blew a lot of music critics away. In

2012, no one would have expected a major pop star like Taylor Swift to be releasing music with

an indie-folk sound. Hyden says “Long, long ago, indie bands once feared that if they didn’t

zealously guard their territory, their styles would be subsumed and co-opted by the mainstream”

(Hyden). Now, it’s safe to say that it’s become an extremely common thing for pop and indie

music to exist in harmony together.

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Work Cited

Hyden, Steven. “Taylor Swift's Indie Act.” The New York Times, 10 March 2021,

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/10/magazine/taylor-swift.html. Accessed

31 January 2022.