I can’t remember how old I was when I first heard a Taylor Swift song; it just feels like she suddenly appeared in my life and has stayed there ever since.
From her debut album to the shiny new The Life of a Showgirl, there is something for everyone – meaning there’s no shortage of people who can tell you how important her work is to them.
Swift’s discography of more than 200 songs spans pop, rock, country, folk, and alternative. She often blurs the line between genres, so if you didn’t like the song you heard, just try the next one.
But I’m not here to preach the word of Swift. This is a lesson in pop culture, and class is officially in session.
Who made Taylor Swift famous?
Taylor Swift did. What people often forget in regard to the infamous moment during the 2009 Video Music Awards, when Kanye West snatched the microphone from Swift during her acceptance speech after winning Best Female Video, is that she was the one on stage accepting an award for Best Female Video.
During that year, Swift went on to win more than 100 awards for her album Fearless, including Album of the Year at the Grammys. To this day, the album is the most widely awarded country album of all time.
So, when that 32-year-old man tried to humiliate a 20-year-old girl in front of the whole world, and then acted like he did her some big favor, let it be known: Taylor Swift made Taylor Swift famous.
Does she only write songs about her exes?
Not at all. But even if she did, so do Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, and almost every other singer. They say “Write what you know,” don’t they? Well, Swift does exactly that. And a big part of what she knows is that men who act like fools need to be reminded that actions have consequences.
But for posterity’s sake, here are songs from each of her albums that are not about men: “A Place in this World”; “The Best Day”; “Long Live”; “The Lucky One”; “Shake It Off”; “Look What You Made Me Do”; “Soon You’ll Get Better”; “The Last Great American Dynasty”; “Marjorie”; “You’re On Your Own, Kid”; “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart;” and “The Life of a Showgirl.”
What’s a ‘track 5’?
In Swift’s discography, “track 5” has become a symbol of emotional vulnerability and raw honesty. The tradition began unintentionally. Fans noticed that some of her most heart-wrenching songs, such as “Cold As You” from her debut album, and “White Horse” from Fearless, were placed as the fifth track.
Over time, it evolved into a deliberate choice, and Swift herself confirmed that she now reserves the fifth spot on her albums for the song that she considers the most emotionally revealing.
A track 5 isn’t necessarily about heartbreak, though many are. It’s about peeling back the glitter and showing what hurts or what matters most. It’s the thesis statement of an album.
Did she rerecord a slew of albums just for money?
Imagine if you were planting a garden. You watered the seeds every day, pulled out every weed, and poured every bit of love you had into it. People loved visiting your garden, and you loved having them enjoy it with you.
But you were just renting the land, and one day, when your lease ended, your landlord uprooted all your beautiful plants, told the world they were his, and sold them to some guy, who planted them somewhere else and invited everyone to visit his garden instead.
What do you do? You buy your own land and plant everything again. Now, with your new garden flourishing, people stop visiting the stolen one. So by re-releasing her albums, Swift lowered the value of the originals and was able to buy them back.
Swift built a fanbase that recognizes the true value of art and believes that artists deserve to own their work. Her re-released albums were stronger, brighter, had better production value, and included new songs.
What’s up with the friendship bracelets?
Buckle up. This is the big one.
Flashback to 2022. Swift is on stage accepting the VMA’s Video of the Year award (poetic, right?), and she says the words that will change lives: “Meet me at midnight.”
Swift explains that the process of rerecording her albums has taken her back to so many pivotal moments that she wrote an album about 13 nights in her life, and the album Midnights came to be.
On track 5 of Midnights, “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” Swift sings this line at the end: “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it.”
Flash forward. As fans were preparing for Swift’s Eras Tour, they began talking about how sweet it would be to actually make friendship bracelets to trade with each other at the show, so that we, too, could take the moment and taste it.
One man in particular heard about the friendship bracelets, and before Swift performed in his city, he decided he was going to make a bracelet with his phone number on it and see if he could convince someone from her team to give it to her. That man was the future Mr. Taylor Swift – American football star Travis Kelce.
Bonus: What is Tayvoodoo?
Whatever guardian angel has been watching over Swift, I’d give anything for him to take me on as a client.
“Tayvoodoo” is a term that fans have coined, crediting Swift with being magical, or just the fact that because she’s so massive, the universe bends to her will. Things like her birthday being December 13, her first album going gold in 13 weeks, and her first #1 song having a 13-second intro – that’s Tayvoodoo.
The shadiest business deal that stole her life’s work out from under her, snowballing into meeting the love of her life? That’s Tayvoodoo.
Tayvoodoo can also affect others. The simple rule is: If you’re mean to Taylor Swift, your downfall is imminent.
The Urban Dictionary notes that the symptoms of Tayvoodoo are “crippling of mental/physical health, diminishing professional success, bags stopped, comments flooded, your name trending on Twitter (along with #YourNameIsOverParty), irrelevance.”
So, class, now that you know your history, go forth into the world knowing that Taylor Swift is not just for the overexcited fan girl. Her art can truly be enjoyed by everyone.