A closer look at the Taylor Swift effect • FRANCE 24 English

A closer look at the Taylor Swift effect • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] [Applause] [Music] problem she spent more weeks at number one than any other female artist in history her latest tour is the highest grossing string of concerts ever to be performed and at 34 she became the youngest person on Forbes billionaire list last year Taylor Swift is a cultural phenomenon a global pop star whose mest suggestion can mobilize her millions of fans as she touches down in Paris for the latest leg of the eras tour we’re taking a look at the girl next door who became the reigning Queen of Pop and for that I’m joined by Morgan juliani author and journalist you wrote the book Taylor Allison Swift The Rebel who became an icon and you’re time Swifty yourself of course welcome to the show now as the title of your book says Taylor Swift is an icon today but what do you think this is down to is it marketing her brand or her pure musical talent I think it’s a mix of all these uh of course she has like Magical Musical Talent um she’s been writing songs since she was like 12 years old which is a very young age uh she has really like mastered this craft of uh writing lyrics but also like creating Melodies producing her songs and also I think she’s kind of a genius at marketing but also she’s very Earnest and honest like she really appreciates her fans she feels grateful to them and she created this bond that is very special in particular well they’re they feel like thick thieves you know they feel very close to her like she’s their best friend yeah absolutely well it might be impossible to quantify Talent or personality but there’s plenty of data to confirm Taylor Swift Stay at the top of the industry her most recent album The tortured poets Department immediately became the most Listen to album on Spotify ever in a 17-year career she sold some 200 million albums won 14 Grammy Awards and her wealth is now estimated at1 billion US now the financial dimension of her success is obviously immense other artists however at the same time say it’s really hard to make a living from music today so when they say that Taylor Swift is the music industry is this an exaggeration you know what does she represent for that economically actually like Business Week used to say that she was the music industry like 10 years ago already and they were they were already right because she’s selling so many albums it’s so hard to sell albums it’s been like that for like 20 30 years now and she still manages to like rally her fans to go to stores and buy her cities by vinyls as well she’s been one of the major reasons why vinyls are knowing such a comeback actually yeah and um and yeah she is the music industry but she’s also like an anomaly I think that many people would like to think that she just created this recipe that you can replicate infinitely but it’s not the case it’s very particular to her and her way of seeing business of doing business of doing marketing and also of staying true to herself and I think just she manages to to check all the boxes it’s certainly been really lucrative they call it the Taylor Swift effect in fact now the US has long been the largest music Market in the world and one key part of that industry is country music where Taylor Swift started out let’s take a look at her trajectory in this report by Natasha M and Oro chlo dupi Taylor Swift the tale of a young American Girl Turned Global Superstar born in 1989 she grew up in the part of Pennsylvania with her loving family she’s always had a knack for music at 8 she strummed her first guitar playing the hits of country icons by [Music] heart at 14 she packed her bags for Nashville Tennessee persuading her parents to live in the country music capital a smart move for a rising star in 2006 at only 16 she released her debut album titled Taylor Swift selling 500,000 copies only this video is basically about you know unrecorded love you know liking someone and they have no idea it was about this guy who I used to sit next to in class and I had the biggest crush on him Universal themes that turned her into a teenage Idol I love screaming it’s my favorite Sound by 2008 her second album Fearless became the top selling record in the US with over 3 million copies sold 4 years later in 2012 she left her country songs behind and turned to pop music and it was a winning bet Taylor Swift officially became the record-breaking Queen with hits like Shake It Off going viral [Music] worldwide enthusiastic swifties even caused seismic activity at her concerts but in every success story there are some rough patches her personal life is under constant scrutiny and she’s also a victim of cyber bullying despite her country background traditionally conservative and Republican leaning she Champions women’s rights and the LGBT [Music] community in 2020 she urged Americans to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential race 3 years later aged 33 she was crowned Person of the Year by Time Magazine and guess who’s topping the Billboard charts at the moment Taylor Swift with a record for team spots Moran we see there the lengths that the swifties the fans go to to defend her and often even to visit places mentioned in her songs recently a pub in London was mobbed because she referenced it on her recent album as someone who started off as a fan yourself what is it that inspires this loyalty I think they feel very like loyal to her because she feels like she I think for them it’s like she opens her heart to them so they feel that they they have to have this gratitude and loyalty to her and I think as well like they think she’s her she’s their best friend sorry so they will defend her all the way and they will go to Great length to do that and I think it’s also linked to all this um Scandal around Kya West like the the the fights they had between 2009 and 2016 um he suggested that yeah beonce should have won an award that she won in the end that she won and then he said that he made her famous that she was like um she should be grateful to him you know which is just false I mean KY West didn’t make t Swift as she is today and um since then I think her fans have always felt the the duty to really defend her and show the world that she’s an important artist an artist that matters and that should be respected and that’s also why I think that they are so drawn to uh always buy her CDs her vinyls and go to her concerts even when the ticket prices are very high uh of course because they love her music but also because they feel this duty to defend her all the way well that loyalty could indeed seep into the political sphere as a recent poll says that some 18% of Americans could follow Taylor Swift’s endorsement in next year’s presidential election going against the mainstream pop tradition of staying silent on political issues Taylor Swift has already spoken out against former president Donald Trump in the past as the behind the scenes Miss Americana documentary revealed take a [Applause] [Music] look I want to do this I need to be on the right side of History tlor Swift broke her silence on politics over the voice in a whole new [Music] way so as we see in that documentary Taylor Swift backed a democrat in the 2018 midterms in Tennessee do you think Donald Trump should be scared of her uh going into this presidential election and her opinions yeah I think he’s already scared of her um because like clearly conservatives are talking about her a lot it’s the fact for example on Fox News where they tell her like you should stick to the music you don’t belong in politics which is like just telling a woman just stick to the kitchen you don’t belong outside of your home you know and because they know that she has this power to rely especially young voters to register to vote and then to vote progress so he is afraid of her because he knows that she’s such a massive Force right now that um she could really maybe change the game change the outcome of the presidential election just by herself which is also a great deal of pressure for a single artist yeah absolutely I mean there’ll be pressure on her in the coming months to say something or not say something now you mentioned that uh Taylor Swift includes quite a lot of personal references in her songs Clues Riddles In Her songwriting she references her own body of work her relationship ship there’s this sort of transparency about her what do you think this says about the state of pop music in 2024 has she launched this as a genre I think she kind of did because um she really just you know like puts her heart on the table and but also her songs still remain quite mysterious in some way she also knows how to blur the lines and so as not to reveal everything from her private life but also I think her fans they always want more and more from her her and she manages to like I think keep this balance between telling them what she’s been through her struggles but also um keep some things private as well um but it’s very rare I mean like she’s writing her own lyrics which is very rare in pop music uh also it’s a genre that is very um like looked upon seen as superficial um thoughtless superficial and the fact that she’s writing her own songs so singing her own perspective on things sometimes it’s very about her intimacy sometimes it can be political sometimes it can be both uh it really just makes her so particular and I also think that’s what makes her such a rare artist compared to others who will just like try to you know like get the right gimmick and get the right chorus and have like 10 different writers on the songs she’s not it’s not what she does it’s there’s really still um a craft to her pop music and after 17 years we haven’t seen the end of the Taylor Swift era I don’t think no no no I don’t think either yeah no Mor again thank you so much for joining us today we’re going to wrap up the show with some of that music here is Taylor Swift’s fortnite featuring post Malone that’s the first single from her latest album do stay with us here on France 24 though there’s more news coming up just after this the miracle move on drug the effect were down and I love you it’s ruining my life I love you it’s ruining my life I touch you for only a fornite I touched you but I touched you and for a fortnite there we were forever run you sometimes as about whoever now you’re in my

The incontestable reigning queen of pop, Taylor Swift has broken dozens of records on her way to the top. As she heads to Paris for the latest leg of her Eras tour at the La Défense Arena, author and journalist Morgane Giuliani joins us to discuss the cultural phenomenon the US musician has generated in a 17-year career. We explore some of the secrets to her success and discuss why the loyalties of the “Swifties” extend beyond their steadfast support on social media and could even affect the next US presidential election.
#TaylorSwift #ErasTour #TheTorturedPoetsDepartment

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