Ross Raihala
What’s the big deal with Taylor Swift? Here’s why there’s no one else like her!
It’s been a week now since Taylor Swift swooped into town for a pair of shows at U.S. Bank Stadium that drew about 128,000 fans and all but dominated local media for days.
And yet, still, I hear people who dismiss her. She’s just for teen girls. She’s not talented. She’s a fraud. And so on.
I’ve been writing professionally about music for 28 years now and I’ve covered teen pop concerts since the days of ‘N Sync. I’ve seen it all, including that time when I went to a Kidz Bop concert alone and endured icy stares the entire show. But I’ve never seen anything like the 33-year-old Taylor Swift.
For those still unconvinced, hear me out.
She’s a talented songwriter!
Swift learned to play the guitar when she was 12 and, soon after, began writing her own songs, inspired by the likes of Shania Twain and Dolly Parton. She convinced her parents to move to Nashville, where she worked with experienced songwriters to hone her craft.
She knows what it’s like to be a fan!
As such, Swift has constructed an entire ecosystem beyond her songs for those who want to go deeper. She fills her lyrics, videos, photo shoots and album sleeves with Easter eggs and clues to both future and past events in her life. Some fans spend hours to decoding it all and that’s part of the fun. Numerous publications regularly sum it all up for the rest of us.
She wants to control her own music!
In 2019, music executive Scooter Braun purchased Swift’s first label, Big Machine Records, which included all masters, music videos and artwork for Swift’s first six albums. Enraged that Braun, a man she has called an “incessant, manipulative bully,” now controlled so much of her catalog, she vowed to re-record and reissue those records.
In the earlier years of rock and roll, it wasn’t uncommon for artists, particularly Black artists, to re-record key hits after getting shafted by their record label.
She’s a hard worker!
All of that has paid off for Swift, who is well known for her philanthropy and support for disaster relief, medical research and the arts. Pollstar is estimating the gross for her current tour could reach “an astonishing, unbelievable, inconceivable $1.4 billion.” Forbes predicts her net worth is likely to hit around $900 million next year.
Next up for Taylor Swift — the Billionaire Era!!!
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Related: Metro Transit announced Monday that more "light rail and/or bus service will be provided" this upcoming Friday and Saturday nights after Taylor Swift's U.S. Bank Stadium concerts.