Taylor Swift is a pop star, but she’s also much more than that. She’s a brilliant writer, an excellent storyteller and one of the most successful female entertainers in history. And she’s managed to do all of that while maintaining a level of transparency with her audience that few other artists can manage. That combination has made her a beloved figure around the world and earned her the title of America’s Princess of Pop.
Swift’s rise began in 2005 when she won a local talent show and caught the attention of Nashville music producer Scott Borchetta. He formed Big Machine Records and signed Taylor to their roster. She quickly found success, with her self-titled debut album reaching number five on the US Billboard 200 and spawning four more hit singles.
In early 2017, she co-wrote and performed a duet with Zayn Malik on the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack, which reached number two in the US. And later that year she wrote a song for the Little Big Town album The Breaker, which peaked at number two on the country charts.
As if that wasn’t enough, Taylor’s latest album, Reputation, debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in just three weeks. It’s her most commercially successful release to date and marked a departure from the folk-inspired pop of Red and Fearless. This time she leaned more toward heavy electronic production and incorporated R&B and hip hop influences into her sound.
And despite all of the success, Taylor hasn’t forgotten her roots. In 2018, she released a charity single for Maya Thompson, whose 3-year-old son passed away from cancer, and it’s one of the most heartbreaking songs in her entire catalogue. It’s also one of the rare moments in which Swift reaches beyond the confines of her own experiences and grasps for insights outside her own life, as she sings about soldiers and frontline health-care workers in this tearjerker.
It’s a testament to Swift’s skill as a songwriter that she can take such a broad musical direction and still turn out hits like this. She expertly skewers an unworthy ex with a comprehensive evisceration of his lies, pretensions and tiny dick, while a snarling chorus sounds every bit as good as it needs to. The result is a track that’s just as good now as it was in 2020.
