Taylor Swift has had quite the last two years. Picked as Time’s Person of the Year in 2023, breaking sales records by grossing over $2 billion in her 2023-24 worldwide Eras Tour. She was Spotify’s most-streamed artist for over two years, with close to 27 billion streams, just in 2024. And then, to top it all off, she was nominated for six Grammy Awards at the end of this year, including album, song, and record of the year.
After a career of highlights, she is now one of the world’s most renowned and successful musical acts in history. Amazingly, despite the insular nature of the internet, to which much of her success must be attributed, Swift has managed to live a life of travel, adventure, and romance in the real world, enviable to any person her age. As a musician, she has maintained relationships with artists whose music she respects, despite other people’s expectations.
To music lovers who follow music not just for the trends but for the acts who seem fully invested in their music, her decision to be involved with bands like The National, Bon Iver, and Paramore over the last couple of years shows how she not only has her eyes on world domination, so to speak but her finger on the pulse of what she considers to be the best of modern music being made right now.
Taylor Swift knows exactly who to bring along for the ride
Her decision to record her albums Folklore and Evermore with The National’s guitarist Aaron Dessner saw Taylor moving in the direction of a more folk, indie sound in the vein of indie acts like Phoebe Bridgers and Beabadoobee. Including artists like Bon Iver and The National on those releases was a statement of intent: she wasn’t just your pop sweetheart.
She was someone who cared, above all, about the music. And she was rewarded with Album Of The Year at the Grammys, as a result. This year, she continued that relationship by appearing on The National’s record, The First Two Pages of Frankenstein, on the loping piano track “The Alcott.”
Her choices for openers for her Eras’ tour, including indie breakout artist Phoebe Bridgers, longtime emo pioneers Paramore, and the folky angelic Beabadoobee, have helped bring music into the mainstream that usually lies out on the fringes. She is making her way in the world with her tireless work ethic and genius business acumen but also has the heart to bring others along with her.
She is a force to be reckoned with, for sure, but appears to be handling her business also with a generous heart to those in the music industry who might not get the same chances afforded to her.