It took going to a theme park and seeing a Taylor Swift tribute act 10 years ago for me to start listening to her music.
Now my daughter and I are total Swifties, my eldest not so much.
For me there’s the catchy pop songs, the beautiful ballads, and her music spans country, hip hop, pop, rock and jazz.
For my daughter I know part of the attraction is how she writes, we are both heavily into literature and poetry and the characters she paints, the stories and the way she uses words are very poetic and powerful. They also reflect how we feel in many ways, insecurities, love songs, songs to make you feel like a strong woman, they are all there. Yes there are pop mainstream songs, some we like some we don’t, most we like, but there’s so much more to Taylor Swift than that. So it’s not easy for people to quite grasp her popularity from the few songs that get radio play.
She was a 15 year old who started in country and wrote about what she loved. She hasn’t stopped writing and recording. There’s a massive catalogue of work there to listen to before you can truly make a judgement I think.
She is hardworking, writes all her own songs, plays guitar and piano, collaborates with lots of other artists, her concerts have become more and more elaborate and beautiful. The Eras tour took my breath away with the way they put together the dances, costumes, backing dancers/singers, scenery, the acting involved too in certain songs, her singing as she has such a strong voice which is getting better, it’s not Christina Aguilera strength but it is beautiful, and over 3 hours of artistry. She surrounds herself with good people-she gave bonuses to all her crew and drivers, she has had many of the same guitarists since she started who are older guys who seem to love being on stage with her and look after her. Her backing dancers and singers are all different shapes and sizes too which is amazing to see!
In every city she has visited she has given food and clothes to local charities.
Ultimately she loves music and writing music, she is extremely talented with words(Please listen to folklore, evermore albums and even speak now to hear that).
Her fans give friendship bracelets to each other for goodness sake and are so supportive and lovely-they are also as she is very supportive of cultural differences and also the LGBTQplus community. It’s so inclusive.
When I went to see the Eras tour with my daughter and friend at the cinema the majority of the cinema crowd went down to the front and danced together-we also swapped friendship bracelets.
So yeah I am proud to be a 42 year old swiftie. It’s a little bit of light and positivity in a dark world.