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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)
