On October 24, 2006, Taylor Swift emerged as a country pop artist. After gaining a large following, and years later “going dark” on Instagram, Swift rose to fame. As of 2023, she is gaining keys to cities, earning titles of honorary mayor, and becoming the most famed woman of the decade. As many “Swifties” believe, Swift is taking over the world.
Swift, so far, has a total of 13 albums, otherwise known as “eras” of different parts of her life. These albums are Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, reputation, Lover, folklore, evermore, and Midnights, as well as her re-records of Fearless, Red, Speak Now, and 1989.
With strands of natural curls and strums of her guitar, the “Debut [Taylor Swift] era” was born in 2006, and so was the start of her country music career as she signed a contract with Big Machine Records. Her first studio album gave Swift an image of innocence and a stereotypical schoolgirl. This image, as well as the country music genre, persisted into her Fearless era.
Swift began accumulating thousands of fans, dubbed “Swifties,” after songs such as “Tim McGraw” and “Love Story” played on radio stations everywhere. Shortly after, Swift won Album of the Year, amongst other awards, for her hard work. Swift was making headlines, and taking the country music world by storm.
With the Fearless era, and many songs taking the world by storm, so came the attention of fans and fellow celebrities. Specifically, the attention of man-child Kanye West at the 2009 MTV Music Awards, changed Swift’s reputation forever. During Swift’s acceptance speech, West came onto the stage and proclaimed that Beyonce deserved the award for “Best Female Video.” Although Swift had many loyal followers, Kanye’s followers were quick to hate her.
Over the next few years, Swift rose above the situation and released the albums Speak Now, Red, and 1989, quickly moving into the pop genre. On the other hand, West began acting childishly, writing the song “Famous” about her in which he claimed that he “made Taylor Swift famous.” Through this claim, he added fuel to the fire, and made it hard for Swift to rise above.
During 2016 and into 2017, many news outlets were turning their backs on Swift, calling her obscene names, boy crazy, saying she was the problem. On August 18, 2017, Swift vanished online, seemingly “going dark.”
On November 17, 2017, Swift released an album that put West to shame. Swift entered her reputation era confidently, recklessly, and vengefully, announcing that she was the Taylor Swift. Swift wrote a song [“This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”] about West, detailing her past admiration of West, and how he betrayed her and failed as an idol.
Although Swift had a reputation for being boy-crazy, or “not being able to hold a boyfriend,” she began a long-term relationship with Joe Alwyn in May 2017, before the release of her sixth album. This relationship was big for Swift and is detailed in her song “Delicate,” mentioning that her reputation has “never been worse, so he [Alwyn] must like me for me,” showing the love that Alwyn had for her despite the mass amount of hate she got.
Swift continued her reputation era with her new man, shaping her as a person and growing her fame.
After this album dropped, Swift split with her record label, Big Machine Records over their decision to sell her music to Scooter Braun. This meant that all rights to Swift’s music would now be owned by Braun. From then on, Swift decided she would reclaim what she lost.
Although facing her worst-case scenario, Swift released three more albums: Lover, folklore, and evermore. In comparison to reputation, these albums focus more on peace and healing. During this time, Swift was unable to go on tours due to the pandemic, leaving fans wondering what she would do to compensate for lost time.
In 2021, Swift decided to begin re-recording her albums. These albums all have a “(Taylor’s Version)” tag after them, to show everyone that they are rightfully hers. First was Fearless (TV), then Red (TV), Speak Now (TV), and, most recently, 1989 (TV). To this day, Swift is still rereleasing, and Swifties are hypothesizing which albums are next with crazy theories.
After releasing Red (Taylor’s Version), Swift began “Midnights Mayhem with Me,” a series releasing the song titles for her upcoming album Midnights. This was a way to gain traction for her album but also send Swifties into a craze working to decode Swift’s famous puzzles. Midnights was where her career took the turn to greatness.
Midnights sold rapidly, becoming Swift’s fastest-selling album so far. It held the top spot on popularity charts for five weeks after its release. Not to mention, it was also taking over many fans’ and non-fans’ TikTok “for you pages.”
Midnights gained popularity from the amount of people commenting on Taylor Swift-related TikTok posts and posting videos with her music. Her fanbase and listener demographic grew exponentially as Swifties who listened to her in 2008 have grown up and are raising their own mini-Swifties.
Swift’s music reached nearly all continents of the Earth, and people wanted to see her in the flesh. The only issue: she had a lot of albums to cover, and fans had no clue how she would perform them all.
Shortly after Midnights was released, Swift posted that she was “enchanted” to announce her next tour, The Eras Tour. This concert would last three and a half hours, covering all of Swift’s eras, or albums, including the ones produced during the pandemic. The next issue was tickets, which were set to be available for purchase as early as November 15.
Swift made her tickets available on Ticketmaster. On the day fans could buy pre-sale tickets, the website crashed multiple times, as so many were rushing to get their spot at the tour. Since tickets had been sold out during the pre-sale, the general sale was canceled, leaving fans disappointed.
Swifties were in disarray over tickets, planning outfits, making friendship bracelets, and preparing for the Eras Tour became a big trend on TikTok and other social media platforms. Starting in November 2022, at the announcement of her tour, and still going on today, Swifties are coming together to share all things Eras Tour.
All Swifties know that Swift plans things years in advance. The Eras Tour is just the beginning of her plan to take over the world. On March 17, 2023, Swift began the U.S. leg of The Eras Tour, marking the beginning of her reign.
Throughout the tour, Swift has been honored in certain ways. In Santa Clara, she earned the title of honorary mayor during her time there. Again in Tampa, she was invited to be honorary mayor. In Arlington, she was given a key to the city and her own street name. Although it may be unplanned, she is gaining serious power over major cities, all due to her fame.
On September 19, 2023, the U.S. Travel Association released an article referencing Swift’s economic impact. It reported that Swifties everywhere have directly spent five billion dollars traveling to her “concert cities” and boosting the local economies. It’s obvious that not only is Swift gaining that huge following daily, but she is influencing the things that matter most to the country, such as the economy.
Aside from the economy, politics tends to be a hot topic in the United States, especially with the 2024 election quickly approaching. The View co-host Alyssa Farah-Griffin, who used to work in the White House under Donald Trump, said that if Swift ran for president, she would likely win. She also mentioned that she may be the only one to defeat Trump and use her platform [cultural and political] for good. With all the things she has already conquered, I, and others, trust her to run the United States and potentially mend relationships with other countries.
On October 26, 2023, Billboard reported that Swift reached billionaire status due to the profit of her world-famous concert and merchandise. Swift donates money to many charities and people in need. Being somebody who cares for the minority and sticks up for the underdog is only one of the many reasons why she deserves to take over the world. Not only would we have a crazy successful leader with Swift in charge, but we would have one who is caring and thoughtful.
Even though Swift has many haters, she should take over the world nonetheless. I suggest that she should first involve herself in political office while still managing her musical career to further benefit the economy. Although that may seem ridiculous to some, Swift is irreplaceable and is the only one I would let take over the world.
