Taylor

Taylor Swift was a rarity in pop culture: she was the sole celebrity who transitioned from the traditional to the mainstream and then to be a global pop culture icon. Swift shed her roots in country music as if she was a second skin and showed that she had the best pop sensibility in her time. Swift was the only artist/singer who could be a part of the trending zeitgeist and take it when she went on tour. This was evident in her early songs, particularly in her neo pay homage to Tim McGraw. On her second release Fearless (2008) Swift revealed a singer/songwriter who was beginning to know herself. Fearless was hugely popular not only in the United States with it's Top Ten singles Love Story, and You Belong with Me helped it to record six platinum albums however, it also swept the world. The album was particularly successful in Canada, Australia as well as the U.K. Speak Now delivered almost two years later and consolidated this popularity and pushed Swift towards the top of stardom. With the three albums that followed the three albums that followed -- Red 2012 1989, Red 2012 and Reputation 2017 -- her fame only grew. This was a sure indication that she was in the new music scene where she fit in. However, even when she reduced her approach with 2020's stripped-down sister album folklore, and Evermore she was still atop the pop world a position she maintained with re-recordings of her earlier catalog, as well as Midnights her chart-topping synth-heavy 2022 album.