WATCH MASTERS PORTRAIT : Taylor Swift - “America’s little girl” who became a worldwide star (III)

 this is a follow-up of a previous post

In 2020, she committed to Joe Biden, without however participating in his campaign events. She also posted various messages to call for a vote. These prompted thousands of registrations on the electoral lists. Michael Francis Taylor, author of the book Taylor Swift: The Life, Loves and Music of a Global Sensation, published by New Haven Publishing, considers it “possible” that it will influence the 2024 presidential election.

Taylor Swift has also shown herself to be committed to gender equality, demanding better justice for women victims of sexual violence. In 2017, she obtained the conviction of a DJ who had sexually assaulted her. "I'm sorry to everyone who wasn't believed, because I don't know what would have happened to me if people hadn't believed my story when I revealed what happened to me." , she says during a concert in 2018.

A real business woman

But whether for his music or his image, his success also (and above all?) owes to his business and marketing acumen. As her biographer, Michael Francis Taylor, explains: “She runs everything she does and she has a marketing genius unparalleled in the music industry. » “She owns her titles and controls her songs from writing to production and marketing. She controls the entire chain, which is very rare,” adds Gaël Sanquer of NRJ.

A unique situation which allows her to go to war with entertainment giants such as Spotify (which she boycotted for years deploring remuneration considered too low for artists), Apple Music or Ticketmaster (she said she was "out of control"). her” concerning the failures of the platform to sell tickets for her concerts).

In 2019, she entered into conflict with her ex-producer, Scooter Braun, denouncing his “tyrannical control”. Since then, Taylor Swift has had her first albums re-recorded, in order to recover the rights. A “Taylor’s Version” notice is added to the titles she has republished. Three years earlier, she was already ironic by answering “have a good lawyer” to the question asked by Vogue “what advice would you give to someone wanting to become a singer?” ".

An omnipresent control, observed by the head of NRJ Gaël Sanquer on the occasion of his upcoming tour in France in May and June 2024. While the radio launched a competition in February to offer tickets for the Parisian concerts of the star, “Taylor Swift's team wanted to validate everything, from the poster campaigns to the comments made on the air to announce the competition, to the word,” he says. “It was unprecedented to see such a level of control. »

His Eras tour, which has already gone down in history as one of the most lucrative ever, is no exception to the rule. Months of rehearsals took place and everything was fine-tuned. Taylor Swift even produced a film about this tour which will be broadcast around the world at the end of 2023.

A feature film that became the highest-grossing concert film of all time and broke Justin Bieber's record. One again.

WATCH MASTERS PORTRAIT : Taylor Swift - “America’s little girl” who became a worldwide star (II)

 this is a lollow-up of a previous post

A strong bond with his fans

The latter formed themselves into a true community. They call themselves the Swifties. “It’s a very big and very caring community,” says Sandra, herself a Swiftie, who for example sends Christmas cards to other fans with whom she communicates on Instagram. “Friendship bracelets” are an example of these exchanges between “Swifties”. Mentioned in a Taylor Swift song in 2022, they have become a symbol of fans who give them to each other during the star's concerts.

While her media appearances have become rarer, Taylor Swift has built a whole strategy to appear close to her fans, going as far as sending Christmas gifts to admirers, for example, or going to a store with customers shopping. buy his album.

She uses Instagram a lot, where she is followed by 280 million people, making her one of the most followed artists on the platform. Photos of her cats, of her birthday… She appears as a “girl next door”, that is to say the one who could be your neighbor. Far from the superstar that she is, however. Taylor Swift is also very present on Twitter, where she comments and likes certain posts from her fans. Enough to maintain their loyalty despite the artist's changes in musical registers.

A musical shift

Between the artist's first album and his latest songs, the difference is obvious. In 2008, Taylor Swift released her second album, and still mixes pop and country sounds. The song Love Story, the album's main single, has already established itself as one of its main international hits.

Country is still at the center of his music, with a banjo omnipresent throughout the song. She won an MTV award the following year and became the first country artist to receive an award at this ceremony. However, we especially remember Kanye West, who cut her off in the middle of her speech to say that Beyoncé “made one of the best music videos of all time”.

But little by little, over the course of the albums, country fades to give way to pop. The transition took place in 2012, with his album RED, and was confirmed in 2014, with his fifth album, 1989. The pop title Shake it off, whose clip has been seen more than 3 billion times on YouTube, became a planetary tube.

This winning pop turn allowed him to establish himself internationally, and particularly in Europe. “Taylor Swift already had a lot of success in the United States in the country register. But this genre is not at all suited to France or Europe. She had a fierce desire to conquer this international audience, hence this musical shift from country to pop music,” rewinds Gaël Sanquer, from NRJ, when the radio began to broadcast it in 2012.

From “little girl of America” to committed artist

Another shift beyond his music, that of his image. For a long time, Taylor Swift was perceived as “America’s little girl”. A smooth image of a good girl that has stuck to her for a long time, she who has been widely criticized for her love life and her multiple boyfriends. “I became the person everyone wanted me to be,” she confides during the documentary Miss Americana, broadcast on Netflix.

“I’m just a 22-year-old singer. People don’t want to know my political opinions, they just want to hear me sing about breakups and feelings,” she said when the media asked her about her political opinions.

Until she decided to break this image and get involved in politics. In 2018, she posted a long message on Instagram, where she committed to LGBT+ rights and where she supported the Democratic candidates in her state for the midterm elections. A hard blow for the Republicans who made him a symbol of conservative America, country music being a traditionally conservative environment.

(to be continued) 

WATCH MASTERS PORTRAIT : Taylor Swift - “America’s little girl” who became a worldwide star (I)

Successes across the world, concerts that break all records... American singer Taylor Swift, from a country background, has become a music legend in just a few years. An ascent due in particular to his artistic sense and impeccable mastery of his career. Discover the first episode of our series dedicated to Taylor Swift.

You only have to align a few numbers to realize the status of music icon obtained by Taylor Swift in the United States and around the world. Four Grammy awards for the best album of the year (a record which places her ahead of Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon or Stevie Wonder), a fortune estimated at 1.1 billion dollars according to Forbes (one of "the rare artists to achieving this status solely through music and stage"), a place at the top of the American charts for 68 consecutive weeks (beating Elvis Presley's record)… The list could go on for a long time.

The woman who was named Personality of the Year 2023 by the prestigious Time magazine is a unique artist in the United States, thanks to a career that owes nothing to chance.

A “very authentic” artist

From her first album, released in 2006 and simply titled Taylor Swift, the singer, barely 16 years old, rose to the rank of young American country star. The album was written in high school by Taylor Swift. Nothing surprising for the one who learned the guitar at 10 years old and who, even as a child, “was singing all the time”, as her father, a financial advisor, told UDaily. At school, as she later explained in several interviews, Taylor Swift was ostracized by her classmates and took refuge in writing songs.

The teenager, who was born in 1989 in Pennsylvania, auditioned in New York to play in Broadway musicals, but without success. At age 13, she moved with her family near Nashville, the country capital, where her parents hoped she could be successful. A successful bet since she signed her first contract as an author and composer with Sony/ATV Tree Music Publishing, becoming the youngest artist to sign on this label. Already a first record.

Her first album contains one of the recipes that will make Taylor Swift successful throughout her career: it addresses her intimate thoughts and her romantic relationships, from happiness to betrayals. A common thread that allows its fans to find themselves in these universal stories.

“Since the beginning, I have identified with the songs she writes,” explains Sandra, a fan of the artist, born the same year and the same month as Taylor Swift and therefore aged, like the singer, 34 years old. “I feel like I’ve grown and evolved with her. These words mean a lot to me. She excels at sharing her personal experience with millions of people,” says the woman who has an Instagram account dedicated to her favorite singer and began following Taylor Swift in 2009. “There is a very authentic side. Her songs are almost a diary that takes people with her,” also underlines Gaël Sanquer, deputy director of musical media for the NRJ group.

A proximity supported by the storytelling talents of Taylor Swift. “I write all my songs,” the artist confirmed on Twitter in 2022. She also composes most of them and plays many instruments (drums, piano, banjo, etc.). “When I have an idea, I record a voice memo singing the melody, or I write the lyrics in the notes on my cell phone,” she detailed in 2016 in an interview for Vogue. Enough to add to this authentic side, appreciated by his fans.

(to be continued)