Swift's impact on my life goes back to when I was about 10 years old. I have loved and connected to her music for a long time, and the significance of her gender has never been lost on me. I remember being in middle school and feeling embarrassed by the emotional connection I had to her music. To my classmates, she was annoying, and her music even more so. As young girls, we feel judged for the things we're interested in. Taylor Swift's music and pop persona spoke to me. She was unabashedly feminine, unapologetically dramatic, and a clever songwriter. She used the misogyny she experienced to create the song "Blank Space" off of 1989. I adore this performance of this song. Even if you don't like her music, at least hear her out in the beginning.
Swift is no stranger to the obstacles women in particular face in the public eye. As a young adult she was praised for knowing her place as an entertainer, staying out of politics, not expressing concrete opinions. Female artists are often expected to uphold their "good girl" image. And when they can't, as is expected of a growing, changing human, it is judged by the whole world. She is certainly not the first to have these experiences, but she has in recent years used her music to express her frustrations explicitly. Here she is talking about the writing process of "mad woman" off of Folklore.
From a personal standpoint, Swift's music wouldn't be as important to me if she weren't a woman. From a business standpoint, her femininity makes her music what it is. But I think most importantly, she has inspired a generation of young women to write their own shamelessly emotional music. Even now, as I write, I often use the excuse, "you don't wanna hear it, it's so dramatic" to avoid sharing music. I am afraid I will not be taken seriously. But if we are to exist in the music world as non-male musicians, then we need to be ourselves and learn not to apologize for it. We need to take up space. We need to express ourselves without reservation. Taylor Swift's music will always inspire me to write authentically as a woman.
This post made me rethink how I view Taylor Swift! I have never been a huge fan of her music, but I do think that she is a master storyteller which is what gives her music such emotional impact. I loved your comment about being shamelessly emotional when writing. There definitely is this pervasive idea that to be emotional or dramatic is somehow bad as a woman, that instead we should be polite and "good". It is so exciting to see influential women break out of that and start to be authentically themselves, creating space for others to do so as well!
ReplyDeleteYES YES YES. I'm so ecstatic you addressed this. Taylor talks about this too in her song "The Man." It's really cool to have grown up with Taylor Swift because we can see how far she's come and how she's grown!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Fay! Not gonna accidentally mansplain anything here. Just complimenting your wording and spreading positivity!
ReplyDeleteThank you for digging deeper on Taylor Swift! I didn't know that much about her besides some of her songs, but learning about the origins of her music was really inspiring! Seeing her grow as a musician is so awesome!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't listen to Taylor Swift, I now have a deeper understanding of her thanks to your blog. Awesome. Her music aside, I admit she is genuinely strong-hearted after dealing with what Kanye West did to her on stage all those years ago during that award ceremony. She handled it very well and continued to succeed anyway.
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