Get the latest gossip
Taylor Swift’s Pop Career Turns 10: How She Pulled Off the Perfect Genre Crossover With ‘1989’
As part of Billboard’s Genre Now package, we look at how the superstar — who started out as a teenaged country artist — was able to successfully switch gears in 2014.
It goes beyond her record-breaking albums, the scale of her world economy-boosting Eras Tour, gossip about her love life or even her household name status — in 2023, familiarity with the 34-year-old singer-songwriter’s lyrics, whereabouts and condiment choices is almost required for carrying a knowledgeable conversation about pop culture. And while the Pennsylvania-born musician has always demonstrated mainstream sensibilities and mass appeal, country was an identity she eagerly embodied for several albums as she rose to stardom — from the cowboy boots she paired with every outfit to the now-faded southern accent she picked up after moving with her family to the genre’s Mecca, Nashville Tennessee, when she was barely a teenager. She still went to great lengths to remind her OG Swifties that she was “still just a girl like I am,” says White, touching on Swift’s interactions with fans on Tumblr, her inaugural Secret Session listening parties and maintaining beloved traditions like the coded messages in her lyric booklets.
Or read this on Billboard