Taylor Swift: Global “fever” and center of the media

When the Taylor Swift “fever” spread worldwide, the media could not help but mention the female singer in their articles.

No one can deny the influence of Taylor Swift at the present time, when the female singer is still proving herself to be the biggest American superstar, continuing to be the topic of discussion among the audience with her trips. epic tours, broken records and appearances at NFL games and the Golden Globes.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the media always favors the name Taylor Swift for their newspaper headlines. They take advantage of the name and popularity of the star born in 1989 to attract the attention of global audiences. And sometimes the stories in the articles aren’t really related to the Grammy award winner.

Taylor Swift and the influence of the title “world music representative”

(Photo: JOHN SHEARER/TAS23/GETTY)

Taylor Swift began releasing her debut song in 2006, which was at a time when the music industry was in “free fall”. Taylor was only 16 years old at this time and could not imagine the epic career she would have in the future. The only thing the female singer has are country songs about broken relationships, about the insecurity of being part of a new generation. And this simplicity was successful, helping Taylor Swift stay on the Billboard 200 chart for 275 weeks.

Nearly two decades later, the singer born in 1989 has still not left the charts. Her influence is even greater as she dominates the streaming era, achieving more streams on Spotify and Apple Music than any other woman in history. The female singer continues to release new albums, is still eagerly awaited by the audience, and up to now, her albums have sold more than 200 million copies, helping Taylor Swift become one of the best-selling artists. best of all time.

When Taylor released Midnights in 2022, the album sold 1.5 million copies in its first week of release. This is an unprecedented achievement in the digital age. The only album to break this record is actually another album by Taylor Swift, the re-release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version).

(Photo: KEVIN WINTER/TAS23/GETTY)

Part of Taylor’s appeal is her ability to erase boundaries between musical genres, geographies and generations. Starting with the title “country music princess”, the star from Nashville reinvented herself to fit as a pop artist. For a music industry that clearly divides genres, Taylor Swift is a singing machine that only plays within her own genre, jumping from style to style and constantly experimenting with new material. .

By 2023, Taylor Swift has truly proven her position worthy of what fans are still proud of, that Taylor Swift is the definition of a music industry. The pop star kicked off 2023 with great success with a record-breaking pre-sale of tickets on the Ticketmaster website. Audience excitement reached its peak when the sold-out Eras Tour began in March of the same year. Notably, although the tour has not ended yet, it has broken records, becoming the highest-grossing music tour of all time with 1 billion USD and recognized by Guinness World Records.

Accompanying the historic tour is a film of the same name about this tour itself. Once again, the owner of the hit Look What You Made Me Do set a record when the film became the highest-grossing concert film of all time in just three days of opening. Not only was it a commercial success, this film also received a nomination for the 2024 Golden Globe Awards in a new category called Box Office Achievement. And despite losing the award to Barbie , no one can deny the global influence of the Eras Tour concert film and what Taylor Swift has brought to theaters around the world.

On the year-end charts, the name Taylor Swift continues to be named at the top positions. On Forbes, the pop star was honored as the 5th most powerful woman in the world, recognized as a billionaire with an estimated net worth of 1.1 billion USD. In People magazine, Taylor topped the list of Most Attractive People of the Year, Billboard also named the female singer the best pop star of 2023. And finally, TIME selected Taylor Swift as Person of the Year 2023. .

‘No one else on the planet today can influence so many people. Achieving this feat is something we often attribute to the alignment of planets and fate, but to say so is to ignore her skill and strength’ – TIME about Taylor Swift.
The influence of modern stars not only stops at entertainment but also spreads to the education industry. Courses about Taylor Swift have been launched at many universities, the most notable of which is the “Taylor Swift and Her World” course at the prestigious school. Harvard price. Students will receive credit for an in-depth study of the singer’s lyrics, music, and influence, along with assigned literary works that explore themes of race, class, and Black Americans. white. “We’re lucky to live in an age where one of the great artists is also one of the most famous people on the planet. So why don’t we have a course on that?”, English professor Stephanie Burt – who is responsible for teaching about Taylor Swift at Harvard – shares the reason for this course.

How to engage your audience in an article: Mention Taylor Swift

Bond Benton – Associate Professor of Communication at Montclair University – has studied the effects of mentioning Taylor Swift in media stories. Without talking more deeply about the Associate Professor’s research, there is a truth we need to admit, which is that the mere fact that this topic deserves to be evaluated and considered by experts is clear evidence. shows the strength and position of Taylor Swift.

According to this study, the presence of a pop star in any media content can increase the visibility of that content.

The most typical case given is a post from September 2023 by CBS News. This post is about a stingray that weighs 181kg and is “almost as long as Travis Kelce – Taylor Swift’s rumored boyfriend”. Although the story about the Connecticut sea creature has nothing to do with singer Cruel Summer or her athlete boyfriend, the female star’s name still appears twice in the article. What is more surprising is that the post has reached nearly 3 million views on platform X.

“While I’m sure part of the reader’s interest is related to the unique stingray, these 2.8 million views still most likely come from the integration of Taylor Swift into the story,” Pho Giao Professor Benton commented.

(Photo: MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY)

The truth is that articles with headlines related to Taylor Swift not only attract fans but also attract the attention of those who hate the female singer. Both audiences will debate and analyze Taylor on social media platforms in both positive and negative ways. The thing is, no matter how they feel, they are still talking about Taylor Swift and this further elevates her status in the entertainment industry today.

Kate Blanton – Lecturer at the University of South Carolina – said in a course on Taylor Swift’s “publicity”: “No one can attract a larger audience than her at the moment.”

Of course, the details of a celebrity’s life are always an interesting topic of discussion, but for Taylor Swift, mentioning the singer in articles can become a huge marketing opportunity. All the places this star visits, from restaurants, clothing stores… attract the attention of fans and can help increase that store’s revenue.

(Photo: chrispearson20/Instagram)

Other celebrities are also constantly asked about Taylor Swift. In an interview for W magazine, actors Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman and Da’Vine Joy Randolph were assigned the “task” of reciting the lyrics of Blank Space – a song by Taylor Swift released in 2014. Even many politicians joined the Taylor Swift “fever”, mentioning the singer in speeches to attract more public attention.

Articles related to Taylor Swift are so “sought after” that America’s largest newspaper publisher Gannett decided to recruit its own reporters to report on her. This decision made the audience extremely surprised because media companies rarely send their own teams to post information about a specific artist, but the exception was Taylor Swift’s name. In the job description, the publisher said it was looking for someone who has an in-depth understanding of the female singer and identifies “why the pop star’s influence is expanding,” and is looking for understand “what Taylor Swift’s fandom represents in popular culture”.