Jackson 1

Kenadie Jackson

Professor Rodgers

Writing 2010

June 14, 2023

Taylor Swift

You know her well, or at least you have heard of her. With her red lips, blonde hair, and

“the way her blue eyes shine”, you sure would recognize her. “There’s somethin’ ‘bout the way”

her words work and her mind stuns most. A “flight risk with a fear of falling” has conquered the

music industry along with struggles and trials she has been put through. She’s “walking fast

through the traffic lights, busy streets, and busy lives” to get to the places she needs to be. While

traversing Hollywood and “walking through [many] crowd[s]” she must ask us, “Are you ‘Ready

for it?’”. Most of the time her fan base will answer no. This artist is known for her easter eggs

and investigation worthy clues that it makes you wonder “how many days did [she] spend

thinking” about her latest announcements. Opening her 2020 surprise album with the lyrics, “I’m

doing good, I’m on some new shit. Been saying yes instead of no.” paints a clear picture of

where she is growing in her work and herself. The music industry is “rough on the surface but

[she] cut through like a knife”. I am sure you have guessed who the mystery artist is by now

whether she also asked you to “meet [her] at midnight” or you are very caught up in tabloids.

This mystery artist is none other than the music industry herself, Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift, or professionally known as Dr. Taylor Alison Swift, has grown up in the

spotlight which can be exhausting and pressure filled. Nonetheless, all of her upbringing, growth,

charity work, business moves, and so many other parts of her story have been done with grace,

elegance, and vulnerability.

 Jackson 2

Taylor Swift started songwriting when she was a little girl, and her first ever recorded

song was released when she was 15, “Tim McGraw” (Miss. Americana). Since then her

songwriting has done nothing but grown with her. Taylor Swift has written in a variety of

genres, from country to pop to indie and folk, and she has won “Album of the Year” three times

with three different genres. From her first album Taylor Swift to her latest album Midnights she

has remade herself many times, and has changed her performance many times as well to keep up

with Hollywood times. (Miss. Americana). Whenever the pandemic hit Taylor Swift had to

cancel her Lover tour and her whole world stopped. The pandemic was hard for everyone, but

Taylor couldn’t stop producing music. Her friends Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dressner helped her

produce two albums from multiple different states, Folklore and Evermore. These two albums

were her introduction to folk music and storytelling. Up until this point she has been writing

about herself and her own experiences. In these two albums she wrote about stories and

characters she created in her mind. In her documentary, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio

Sessions, she shares how In three songs (“Cardigan”, “Betty”, and “August”) she created an

intense love triangle and high school love story. Cardigan is Betty’s perspective of a summer

where James left and cheated on her with Augustine; Betty says, “And when I felt like I was an

old cardigan under someone's bed, You put me on and said I was your favorite”. James’

perspective on this, in the song “Betty”, was, “I was walking home on broken cobblestones just

thinking of you when she pulled up like a figment of my worst intentions. She said "James, get

in, let's drive"; those days turned into nights, slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer

long”. Taylor created James and Betty to be high school sweethearts who had some trouble in

their love, but Tyalor also wanted to give perspective to Augustine, the other woman who did

love James. August knew she would never have him when she says, “Wanting was enough, for
 Jackson 3

me, it was enough. To live for the hope of it all…”. Taylor Swift wrote this beautiful, full picture,

story in one album. “Scholar Sir Jonathan Bate, a former Shakespeare professor at Warwick

University, said he believed the popstar is more than “just high-class showbiz” and has a “literary

sensibility” that was apparent from her debut album.” (Harrison). Her writing has only grown

since her first album released in 2006, and her writing has only grown with her fan base, me

included. My sisters and I grew up on Taylor Swift, she and her music was the only thing my two

sisters and I could collectively love and appreciate. The countless karaoke times, road trip

concerts, and album release listening parties, created unforgettable memories for us girls. I feel

as though Taylor Swift helped me grow up and helped give me perspective. She always

encourages creativity, love, and imagination which are essential to life.

While it was a dream come true for Taylor Swift to start her singing career at such a

young age, it was also very harmful to her and her self image. She shares in her documentary,

Miss. Americana, how the paparazzi and societal beauty standards gave her a very noticeable

eating disorder, and self image issues. She is very open about her struggles and now advocates

heavily for women to love themselves as they are. I have always struggled with my image and I

have also struggled off and on my whole life with an unhealthy food relationship. Whenever

celebrities are open about who they are and what they struggle with, it makes them more human

and better societal figures. In one of her latest music videos for her song “Anti-Hero” there was a

lot of controversy around this one clip of Taylor standing on a scale, and instead of giving her a

weight it said “fat”. Taylor Swift was publically shamed for apparently being “fat-phobic” when

she was just recognizing her eating struggles and image difficulties from society’s impossible

standards. It is hard when today there are certain trigger words with certain communities; it is

hard to attempt to be good. I feel as though it is important for celebrities to try and be real like
 Jackson 4

Taylor is. After the controversy came, Taylor was quick to act and apologize and removed that

scene from her music video entirely; she cares about her people and their feelings. When society

only sees you as characters on screen, who are filthy rich off screen, it is hard to view them as

humans. Taylor Swift comments on societal beauty images that affect every girl in Miss

Americana when she says, “Because if you’re thin enough, then you don’t have that ass that

everybody wants, but if you have enough weight on you to have an ass, then your stomach isn’t

flat enough. It’s all just fucking impossible” (Miss. Americana). I feel this way everyday, and so

do many other girls and women I know. It is integral to start viewing women as more than their

looks: “I wanna love glitter and also stand up for the double standards that exist in our society. I

wanna wear pink, and tell you how I feel about politics. I don’t think those things have to cancel

each other out” (Miss Americana). Taylor Swift is probably one of the best role models to

women of all ages nowadays. After the 1989 world tour Taylor Swift disappeared. Taylor Swift

addresses in Miss Americana how she was told to act by her producers, “Throughout my whole

career, label executives would just say, ‘A nice girl doesn’t force their opinions on people; a nice

girl smiles and waves and says thank you.’ I became the person everyone wanted me to

be.”(Miss. Americana). She then shares how after soul searching and growing and healing from

trauma how she realized she needs a new perspective; “Nobody physically saw me for a year.

And that’s what I thought they wanted. I had to deconstruct an entire belief system, toss it out

and reject it.” (Miss. Americana). That year was after her album 1989 and before her album

reputation. Taylor Swift had to find herself. After her whole life being constructed on praise and

love, whenever she got haters her life crumbled. In 2016 Kanye West released a song “Famous”

when in this song he says, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch

famous. (Goddamn) I made that bitch famous”. Taylor Swift spoke out saying that she was not
 Jackson 5

aware of these lyrics, and Kanye’s fan base came at her throat. Endless twitter streams of calling

Taylor a snake and other hateful words, she couldn’t handle it anymore. Taylor’s reputation was

destroyed which led her to find her own worth and her own self love instead of the public’s

anymore.

Along with her encouraging outlooks, words, and pieces of advice, Taylor Swift is very

active in her charity work. We are given a list of some of her charity works from Billboard, Hello

Magazine, and Look to the Stars. Billboard shares:

October 2011 – She donates $70,000 in books to her hometown library, January 2015 – A

lucky fan gets $1,989 to help pay for student loans, February 2015 – Swift gives $50,000

in song proceeds to NYC schools, September 2015 – “Wildest Dreams” video proceeds

go to animal foundation, February 2016 – Swift supports Kesha with $250,000 when she

wanted to record independently, August 2016 – She thanks doctors who saved Jaime

King’s son’s life with a large donation, August 2017 – Swift donates to Joyful Heart

Foundation for survivors of sexual assault, September 2017 – Hurricane Harvey survivors

get a helping hand, April 2018 – Singer thanked by RAINN for donation during Sexual

Assault Awareness Month, July 2018 – Swift donates Reputation tour tickets to mourning

Massachusetts police departments to try and help their spirits, October 2018 – Swift

meets boy with autism she donated $10,000 to for a service dog, September 2019: Swift

donates $10,000 to help fan battling cancer cover medical bills, March 2020: She donates

$1M to Nashville tornado relief efforts, March 2020: Swift quietly donates to fans amid

coronavirus crisis, December 2020: Rent help for two mothers, December 2020:

Donation to Ohio food bank for christmas, and March 2021: Swift donates $50,000 to

mother of five whose husband died of COVID-19 (Aniftos).

 Jackson 6

These are just a few examples from Billboard of Taylor Swift’s generosity and kind heart. Hello

magazine shares how Taylor Swift is an “active supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and

has visited sick children at the St Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Walter Reed Army

Medical Centre, and the Ronald McDonald House and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in the

past. She has also donated over $200,000 to the V Foundation for Paediatric Cancer Research.”

(Watkin). Also, Taylor Swift, “in 2013 she opened the Taylor Swift Education Center in the

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, donating $4m to the museum so that children can

explore the culture of country music through workshops, installations and interactive classrooms

there.” (Watkin). Finally, Look to the Stars gave their readers a list of every organization

regularly supported by Taylor Swift:

ACM Lifting Lives, ALS Association, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Cancer Research

Institute, Children in Need, Clothes Off Our Back, DonateMyDress.org,

DoSomething.org, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Entertainment Industry Foundation,

Feeding America, FHI 360, GLAAD, GRAMMY Foundation, Habitat For Humanity,

Hands On Nashville, Hero in Heels, Make-A-Wish Foundation, MusiCares, Music for

Relief, PETA, PROJECT ZAMBI, Red Cross, Save The Music Foundation, Shoe Revolt,

Shriners Hospitals for Children, Small Steps Project, Soles4Souls, Stand Up To Cancer,

Tug McGraw Foundation, UNICEF, Victory Junction Gang, Wish Upon A Hero

Foundation” (Look to the Stars).

Taylor Swift puts her people first and foremost, and she makes it incredibly obvious.

Even while she is a gifted poet, and an evident gifter, Taylor Swift is a true

businesswoman. As an aspiring businesswoman I truly look up to her and her strategies. 3 tips to

takeaway from Taylor Swift’s marketing and branding is that reinvention is key, you must cater
 Jackson 7

to your audience, and you want to build loyalty to sell your brand (McIntosh). Taylor swift does

an incredible job at creating unexpected surprises to keep people intrigued. Leading up to her

1989 album release she had fans win invites to one of her homes for a secret-session, pre-release

listening session. Any company can easily pull that off, however Taylor personally showed up to

each of them, and casually sat with her fans and talked about the album and got to know them

personally (Team Tony). Taylor Swift is also very public about hinting at things days to years in

advance; her easter eggs keep her entire fan base on a witch hunt trying to figure it out. In an

interview with Jimmy Fallon “Swift explained, ‘It's sort of a tradition that we started a very long

time ago. I think the first time that I started dropping sort of cryptic clues in my music was when

I was 14 or 15, putting together my first album.’”(McIntosh). As a matter of fact, in one of her

latest music videos for her song “Bejeweled” off of the album Midnights Taylor Swift shared

with Jimmy Fallon in an interview that “she and her team ‘have a PDF file for the Easter Eggs in

this video because there were so many, we couldn't keep track.’” (McIntosh). Taylor Swift loves

her music, but it is important to notice how she has fallen in love with her fans more than the

fame. She caters to her fans and consistently acknowledges them. Which is what makes you fall

in love with her.

While we are on the topic of her business strategies, the biggest one I feel I must point

out is her re-recordings. When receiving the Billboard Woman of the Decade award she gives a

speech where she shares how her music and her songs were secretly sold out from under her.

Lately there’s been a new shift that has affected me personally and that I feel is a

potentially harmful force in our industry and as your resident loud person I feel the need

to bring it up. And that is the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying

up our music as if it is real estate…This just happened to me without my approval,

 Jackson 8

consultation, or consent. After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright,

my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m told was

funded by the Soros Family, 23 Capital, and the Carlyle Group. Yet to this day none of

these investors have ever bothered to contact me or my team directly. To perform their

due diligence on their investment. On their investment in me. To ask how I might feel

about the new owner of my art. The music I wrote. The videos I created. Photos of me,

my handwriting, my album designs. And of course, Scooter never contacted me or my

team to discuss it prior to the sale or even when it was announced. I’m fairly certain he

knew exactly how I would feel about it though…The fact is that private equity is what

enabled this man to think, according to his own social media post, that he could buy me.

But I’m obviously not going willingly. Yet the most amazing thing was to discover that it

would be the women in our industry who would have my back and show me the most

vocal support at one of the most difficult times, and I will never, ever forget it. Like, ever.

(Billboard)

Scooter Braun bought Taylor Swift. In a CBS interview Taylor Swift shares how “she's going to

re-record the masters of her earlier songs to regain control over them” (CBS). By re-recording

her songs, and being completely transparent as to why she is re-recording them, her fans have

boycotted listening to any of her old albums that she has re-recorded. For example, Fearless, this

was her second album and her first re-recording. After the re-recording it is very prominent in

the swiftie nation that you cannot listen to the old album because that is money right back to

Scooter Braun. For her albums that aren’t re-recorded yet though, the fan base does still listen to

them. Taylor Swift has been very transparent about her not doing this for the money. She is doing

this because that is her music; it is her childhood diary. Along with each of the re-recorded
 Jackson 9

albums, Taylor Swift releases “Vault Tracks”. Vault Tracks are songs that she wanted to put on

the original album that either didn’t make the cut or the label didn’t like. So, along with

re-releasing her old hits, she is adding even more to the mix. Taylor Swift really meant it when

she said, “And as for me, lately I’ve been focusing less on doing what they say I can’t do and

more on doing whatever the hell I want.” (Billboard).

What is Taylor Swift up to now? She is currently on her Eras Tour. The Eras Tour is her

first tour since the Lover Tour was canceled due to the pandemic. Her Eras Tour is Taylor singing

through her eras, also known as her albums. I went and saw her April 23rd, 2023 and still

haven’t recovered. She works through each of her albums, and has two surprise songs at each

show; my show’s songs were “Cold As You” from her debut album Taylor Swift and “Begin

Again” from her album Red (taylor’s version). Taylor also just announced on May 5th that on

July 7th she will be releasing Speak Now (taylor’s version). The Era’s tour consists of 52 U.S.

dates surpassing her last tour for reputation which only had 38 dates. She also just posted on

Instagram showing her eight Latin America concerts which adds up to 60 dates now. Her concert

consists of all her albums, as previously stated, but there are also many twists and turns. There

are 44 songs creating a show over three hours long. There are stunts, dancers, costume changes,

and more; Taylor Swift loves to perform, and she gives the people their money’s worth. “‘It’s

almost like a different Broadway musical for each song,’ Dave Brooks — Billboard Senior

Director of Live Music and Touring…‛The cost has gotta be well north of $100 million …

probably a lot more than that,’ said Brooks. ‘It’s gonna be one of the most expensive tours ever,

but it will also be one of the highest-generating tours financially. So it pays for itself basically.’”

(Arnold). Taylor Swift always has and always will be creative.

 Jackson 10

Taylor Swift has influenced me greatly. She is an inspirational business woman with a

generous soul, who wouldn’t look up to her? While she is a great woman and role model, her

biggest influence on me are her words. She knows how to speak and how to comfort. She has a

song for any situation to help you not feel alone and to help you move past. Her lyrics are also

fun to use regularly; the introduction to this paper is full of them. While writing this introduction,

the first paragraph, I took the first lyric from the first song of each of her albums. Taylor

instigates and creates creativity and imagination. Every person has certain songs to listen to

during a certain point in their life. These songs for me are almost all Taylor Swift songs because

she makes them relatable. The loss of a loved one, a heavy breakup, divorce, a family member

getting cancer, these are all things that I faced this past school year. Taylor Swift did not get me

out of those hard times, but her music made it feel less lonely. Her words reach your deepest

emotions and your hardest of heart and it softens it. It is an indescribable feeling when you feel

known and heard. When music is able to fulfill that, then it is even more special. This is a list of

songs that have touched me, and, whether you listen to it or not, I highly recommend at least

looking at the lyrics: “Cold as You” Taylor Swift, “The Outside” Taylor Swift, “Don’t You”

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault), “Haunted” Speak Now, “Back to December” Speak

Now, “Dear John” Speak Now, “Long Live” Speak Now, “The Last Time” Red (Taylor’s Version),

“Begin Again” Red (Taylor’s Version), “Better Man” Red (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault),

“Nothing New” Red (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault), “Clean” 1989, “You are in Love” 1989,

“Delicate” reputation, “Don’t Blame Me” reputation, “Death by a Thousand Cuts” Lover, “The

Archer” Lover, “Daylight” Lover, “My Tears Ricochet” Folklore, “Mirrorball” Folklore, “This is

Me Trying” Folklore, “Cardigan” Folklore, “Peace” Folklore, “Gold Rush” Evermore, “Tolerate

It” Evermore, “Happiness” Evermore, “Closure” Evermore, “You’re on Your Own Kid”
 Jackson 11

Midnights, “Sweet Nothing” Midnights, “The Great War” Midnights, “Hits Different” Midnights,

“You’re Losing Me” Midnights.

In the End, Taylor Swift is just a human with a gift. She is a 5’11” blonde with piercing

blue eyes, the occasional red lip, whose favorite number is thirteen. Taylor has a mom, dad, and a

brother; she has a few cats too. It is important to see celebrities as humans first because then you

can recognize and appreciate their feelings. Taylor Swift is so much more than what the media

makes her to be. Her upbringing, growth, charity work, business moves, and all the other aspects

of her life have shown that she is not just another female singer with a few exes. Taylor Swift has

heart, and a big one at that.

 Jackson 12

Works Cited

Aniftos, Rania. “A Timeline of Taylor Swift’s Generosity”. Billboard, 23 March. 2021,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/timeline-taylor-swift-generosity-8481430/.

Accessed 14 June 2023.

Arnold, Chuck. “Rocket sleds, stunts and a $100M budget: Inside Taylor Swift’s ‘unbelievable’

Eras Tour” NYpost, 24 March. 2023,

https://nypost.com/2023/03/24/inside-taylor-swifts-unbelievable-eras-tour/. Accessed 20

June 2023.

Billboard. “Taylor Swift Accepts Woman of the Decade Award”. Youtube, uploaded by

Billboard, 13 Dec 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVpkFb9-fts.

Accessed 14 June 2023.

CBS. “Taylor Swift moving to regain control of her catalog by re-recording masters of prior

songs”. CBS, 22 Aug. 2019,

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-swift-moving-to-regain-control-of-her-catalog-by

re-recording-masters-of-prior-songs/. Accessed 14 June 2023.

Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. Directed by Taylor Swift, Performances by Taylor

Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dressner, Long Pond Studio, 2020. Accessed 14 June

2023.

Harrison, Ellie. “Taylor Swift is a real poet, Shakespeare expert says as he compares her to the

Bard” Independent, 16 April. 2023,

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/taylor-swift-shakespeare-l

yrics-b2320716.html. Accessed 18 June 2023.

 Jackson 13

Look to the Stars. “Taylor Swift: Charity Work & Causes”. Look to the Stars,

https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/taylor-swift. Accessed 14 June 2023.

McIntosh, Ali. “3 Tips from Taylor Swift’s Marketing Playbook for Your own Brand”. VI

Marketing and Branding, 14 Dec. 2022,

https://blog.vimarketingandbranding.com/3-tips-taylor-swift-2022.

Accessed 14 June 2023.

Miss. Americana. Directed by Lana Wilson, Performances by Taylor Swift, Andrea Swift, and

Scott Swift, Netflix, 2020. Accessed 14 June 2023.

Ray, Michael. "Taylor Swift". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 May. 2023,

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Taylor-Swift. Accessed 14 June 2023.

Team Tony. “Taylor Swift’s Modern Marketing and Business Disruption Techniques”. Tony

Robbins,

https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/taylor-swift-pop-star-power-broker/.

Accessed 14 June 2023.

Watkin, Hannah. “Taylor Swift’s Charity Work Over the Years as Eras Tour Donations

Revealed”. Hello Magazine, 25 March. 2023,

https://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/20230325167695/taylor-swift-eras-tour-chari

y-work-over-the-years/. Accessed 14 June 2023.