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Allows fans to buy a piece of Swift's image and history.

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Shop the Official Taylor Swift Online store for exclusive Taylor Swift products including shirts, hoodies, music, accessories, phone cases & more!

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Swift's Reputation Tour Netflix show aids her star image as it allows fans to feel closer to her as if they were present at her concert, and this Netflix partnership is a lucrative source of income.

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Fans used to reading into every small detail of the singer's life may chose to see these butterfly shoes as a symbol of transformation, much like a butterfly transforms from a caterpillar.
Swift's social media posts as of March 2019 seem to be reflecting her star image evolution, and aiding the public to see that too.

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Taylor Swift on Instagram: "🦋 💗 📸 @presleyannphoto"

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2M likes, 0 comments - taylorswift on March 14, 2019: "🦋 💗 📸 @presleyannphoto". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

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Captioned: "Step into the daylight and let it go."

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Captioned: "Step into the daylight and let it go."

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This cryptic caption may allude to the previous feuds and dramas she has been involved in, and how she is yet again transforming into someone free of these hardships.

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Swift's recent activity on social media uses a pink aestheitc featuring hearts and butterflies.
Whilst some fans are theorising that this may link to new music, it is clearly hearkening back to her youthful, innocent image.

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I love you guys. So much. 📸: @presleyannphoto @gettyimages

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1.5m Likes, 0 Comments - Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Instagram: "I love you guys. So much. 📸: @presleyannphoto @gettyimages"

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Just Like Us: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Taylor Swift, America’s Relatable Sweetheart by Devon Maloney, Medium.com, October 2017.

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Just Like Us: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Taylor Swift, America’s Relatable Sweetheart by Devon Maloney, Medium.com, October 2017.

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"Even more than Red, the record was framed as Swift’s crossover; she’d completely jumped the country singer-songwriter ship and planted her feet squarely in the world of mainstream pop. Her image as America’s Sweetheart was supercharged, not only through songs — which drew from myriad genres to construct a charismatic, skilful representation of pop cultural touchstones — but also through one of the most bizarrely aggressive guerrilla marketing campaigns in recent memory."

Maloney highlights the singer's evolution, noting that the Red album was particularly important in her move into mainstream pop. The "aggressive guerrilla marketing" was not only an attempt by her team to drive record sales, but also to rebrand her image as mainstream- as Maloney says, the start of her reign as "America's Relatable Sweetheart".

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In the history of pop music, there have been few Greek tragedies quite as epic - or as strange - as that of Taylor Swift and her image.

As late as mid-2016, few would have believed a prophecy predicting the pop star would one day announce a new album, release the first single with its corresponding video, and be met with a tsunami of derisive Twitter glee. When Swift released her previous record, in 2014, she was America's Sweetheart, nearly universally adored - at least, in mainstream public life - for her dorky-cool-girl-next-door brand. She was so real, with her ugly purebred cats named after prime-time soap characters and her relatable sense of humor. When Kanye West and Kim Kardashian dared challenge that image by claiming Swift had signed off on West's song "Famous" - "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous"-and then lied about it to portray herself as West's victim again, it seemed like sour grapes of the highest order. Until it wasn't. And things began falling apart.

Suddenly, it had been revealed, beyond a shadow of a doubt - by one of the most gloriously superficial celebrity couples on the planet, no less - that America's Sweetheart was hardly as sweet, as real, as she claimed. Besieged by an avalanche of triumphant tweets and snake emojis, courtesy of Kanye/Kim supporters (and others who simply never believed her act anyway), Swift went almost entirely radio silent, online and in public. Where she once played the paparazzi like a world-class virtuoso, now Swift was pointedly avoiding them. A brief fling with Tom Hiddleston was immediately labeled as a PR stunt; the relationship fizzled not long after.

When Swift finally reemerged this past August with an album announcement and a first single, the internet - beyond her most die-hard ring of stans - immediately tore into the presentation. "Look What You Made Me Do" was dramatic, almost entirely spoken in monotone; screenshots previewing the video were uncomfortably similar to Beyoncé's Lemonade, a resemblance that spawned countless memes. It was even suggested, not without precedent, that Swift made the announcement on the 10-year anniversary of the death of West's mother on purpose. In short, she had become a villain, but not the goth antihero she claimed to be embracing: Now, without a good-girl façade and the copious public good will she once used to obscure them, Swift's sins shone brightly in every move she made. This Taylor Swift is no longer at the wheel of her own brand. And it could crush her.

None of it - her extraordinary record-breaking highs, her inevitable free fall, and whatever this next chapter may ultimately become - would have been possible before the age of social media. Swift's direct access to fans has been both her greatest weapon and tragic flaw; its power made her an unstoppable force - until she got too cocky, and it sent her reeling. (Her refusal to endorse or condemn either candidate during the 2016 presidential election did her no favors, either.) Just before her Reputation announcement, complete with a full-blown and heavily referential new style, Swift set the stage, phoenix-like, by obliterating her social media feeds.

However unsuccessful that plan may have been, hitting the reset button in such a way was a none-too-subtle symbolic gesture. But to understand precisely why, you'd need to start at the beginning.

Nearly every working pop star uses social media, of course. Online followings have become behemoths of influence, and over time, celebrities have learned how radical fan engagement can be beneficial. In the past few years, this online behavior has grown so popular that it's easy to forget it was once exceptional, unheard of, for any A-lister but Swift.

The Swift approach - on Tumblr, Instagram, and sometimes Twitter - was personal, apolitical, lovably awkward ("weird"), and seemingly un-self-aware (see: surprise face). It engaged fans on their level, responding directly to their lives and feelings in ways that, on the surface, had nothing to do with Swift's music. She showed up at a fan's bridal shower, took sick fans as dates to award shows, paid off a fan's student loans, invited them for pizza at her apartment. She reblogged fans' posts, remembered their names, laughed at their silly posts about her, and created inside jokes with them. Taylor Swift became the ultimate BFF, one now worth an estimated $280 million.

This behavior reached its fever pitch in 2014, with the release of 1989. Even more than Red, the record was framed as Swift's crossover; she'd completely jumped the country singer-songwriter ship and planted her feet squarely in the world of mainstream pop. Her image as America's Sweetheart was supercharged, not only through songs - which drew from myriad genres to construct a charismatic, skillful representation of pop cultural touchstones - but also through one of the most bizarrely aggressive guerrilla marketing campaigns in recent memory.

Leading up to release day, Swift went on the offense, inviting random fans to, per Gawker, "a series of private parties at her various home modules across the world." She baked them cookies, let them play with her cats, and played the record for them.

Then, two months later - after the album debuted at number one, with nearly 1.3 million copies sold in its first week, and was well on its way to becoming the top-selling album of 2014, with 3.66 million units - Swift began selecting Tumblr followers at random, observing their posting habits and leaving emojis in the comments. Then, she bought, wrapped, and shipped them Christmas presents, like makeup kit and a porcelain Japanese tea set, each accompanied by a long, handwritten note. Finally, as the girls began posting their hyperventilation fits on social media, Swift took care to reblog and retweet each one, piling on affirmations and tagging the teens' Tumblr accounts in cute animal photos, all intermingled amid agog posts about 1989's record-breaking sales and her recent Time cover story ("PS WHAT IS LIFE RIGHT NOW"). Then she uploaded a supercut of all the reactions to her official YouTube account.

It required a lot of labor, creating that lovable-older-sister image, for someone who simultaneously was shedding reasons to interact with the suburban, teenaged world by the dollar. Even in January 2016, when Swift's legal team trademarked more than 70 1989-related memes, it was still hard to articulate exactly why these philanthropic displays were so unnerving. The feeling didn't last.

To understand the context in which Taylor Swift first came to digital prominence, let's rewind. As early as 2008, the concept of celebrity was shifting dramatically as a result of platforms like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. On top of the more obvious transformations, including direct access to consumers and the devaluation of major media, the "micro-celebrity" - relatively "normal" people who, thanks to self-publishing platforms, had gathered massive followings for the content they produced - was suddenly a major force to contend with. What made someone famous was changing.

Social media academics Alice Marwick and danah boyd saw this happening and, in 2011, wrote about it. " To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter" describes how the traditional concept of celebrity has been radically altered by the Twitter age. The pair argue that the rise of self-branding micro-celebs like MySpace's Tila Tequila and YouTube's Jenna Marbles - not to be confused with reality stars, whose constantly observed behavior birthed its own brand of over-the-top fame - proved that contemporary celebrity must be viewed on a spectrum, as opposed to a static, famous/not famous binary, as a fluid performative practice that one learns, rather than achieves.

That new definition, at the very least, still had roots in traditional sociological theory. Symbolic interactionism -a concept proposed by social psychologist George Herbert Mead around the turn of the 20th century, then fleshed out by his protégé Herbert Blumer in the mid-1930s - suggests that our identities are not inherent; instead, they're entirely formed through social interactions. Through others, we learn what is "good" and "bad," acceptable or unacceptable, what produces positive or negative results. From there, we build our "selves" around what we learn from these cause-and-effect encounters.

With the rise of Web 2.0 and youth internet culture came these figures who cultivated fan bases by directly interacting with followers, largely because they, too, were plebes - normal people who just happened to command the attention of hundreds of thousands of people "just like them." Consumers found this kind of "authenticity" extremely attractive, especially comparing it against A-list celebrities, who, before social media, enjoyed a luxurious sheen of mystery that left fans with only their imaginations to determine whether megastars were nice or down-to-earth. As Marwick and boyd point out, this shift toward the bourgeois was so dramatic that it eventually prompted stars to shift their own behavior, adopting micro-celebrities' familiar tone when connecting with fans online-because, they quickly realized, the strategy worked.

Thus, the priceless commodity of "relatability" took hold. Publicists and mainstream media now can do only so much to craft a celebrity's image if she can't easily reproduce it on Twitter or Instagram; just like anyone else with Internet access, the celebrity must build her own brand. Whether she's "being herself" is beside the point; Marwick and boyd highlight another fascinating theory from Yale celebrity sociologist Joshua Gamson, who proposed that the uncertainty of authenticity - "Is this all an act?" - is actually a powerful component in and of itself. For the most part, though, the more " normal" and relatable a celebrity is widely acknowledged to be, the general wisdom now goes, the more successful they will be.

But here's where we get to Taylor Swift's unique schtick. While Rihanna's Navy and Beyonce's Beyhive certainly best other fandoms in terms of sheer enthusiasm, Swift's relationship with her "Swifties" has been by far the most intimate. Perhaps due to her music's thematic bent, she has actively and visibly bucked aristocratic behaviors usually afforded pop stars with fanatical followings. As Swift's online voice evolved, it became a pointed, if not conscious declaration of exceptionalism, a way of distinguishing herself from superstars who request that fans " bow down, bitches" or " get on [their] knees." Her deliberate, overempathetic interactions with individual fans on Tumblr and Instagram elevated her value as a superstar.

Yet as much effort as Swift puts into engaging with her fans on their level, it's still a parasocial relationship (a mass media studies term coined in the mid-1950s to describe the one-way emotional connection people have with artists and movie and TV stars). Relatability isn't a way to get closer to fans; it's a way for Swift to set herself further apart from them, to wow them with her generosity, to keep them following along.

"She can only prove her down-to-earthness because fans interact with her in visible ways," Robin James, author of Resilience and Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, and Neoliberalism and an associate professor of philosophy at UNC Charlotte, told me in 2015. Echoing Marwick and boyd, James pointed out that for Swift, being publicly acknowledged as relatable is more important for her image than actual intimacy. "[The gift giving] is a totally calculated marketing move, which is sort of the opposite of remembering where one came from."

Calculated or not, being on the receiving end of Swift's perceived generosity was almost obscenely flattering for these die-hard fans. They likely hadn't read the Wall Street Journal op-ed Swift penned in July, three months before 1989's release, when she unceremoniously pulled her catalog from Spotify. The essay would have certainly put the gestures in a new light: Ultimately, it showed that Taylor Swift measures how generous - how relatable  - Taylor Swift needs to be to benefit from that kindness. "Music is art, and art is important and rare," she wrote. "Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for." In this light, her altruism looked different; now it became a tactic to maintain the loyalty and buying power of longtime fans, while simultaneously inspiring newcomers - who saw Swift rewarding only those most dedicated fans - to go hard or go home. The essay betrayed the artifice of her reblogs and baked goods, revealing an artist who demands her value be both recognized and delivered in the currency she sees fit.

By underlining this oddly libertarian insistence on maximizing her own profit at the expense of fan accessibility, Swift implied that fan labor - voluntarily informing streaming algorithms that encourage others to play artists' songs, enthusiastically building promo machines via fandoms, essentially building artists' careers for free - is not, or is at least less valuable than what she has to offer. Swift is far from the first artist to implicitly devalue the manual and administrative (and, especially in the case of Swift's fans, the unpaid) labor that brings that art to market, but the way she did so-at the top of her game, when money had ceased to be even a minor obstacle to her success - certainly foreshadowed Swift's fall from relatable grace.

In light of all this, it would be easy to identify Swift's ways as Machiavellian. After all, she chose to position herself as a normal girl, untouched by the trappings of her enormous wealth, because it benefitted her. Then again, this can be argued of nearly every social interaction any of us ever have.

For those who skipped Sociology 101, the argument primarily comes from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, a seminal text by Erving Goffman, one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century. Using a theater metaphor, Goffman theorized that all social interaction is, essentially, an exercise in impression management: Like an ensemble cast, society performs as a group "onstage," helping one another maintain the illusion of our collective interpretation of a given situation. (Like actors, when someone forgets a line, social groups will work together to keep the play moving.) However, when we exit and walk backstage, each of us is alone; we ostensibly stop performing. Because we're no longer taking social cues from anyone else, our "selves" become irrelevant and virtually nonexistent.

In a way, Goffman's theory set the stage for the personal brand phenomenon that has now come to define the social web: Even more than real life, social media engagement must always be a calculated performance, conscious or no, for anyone and everyone who uses these platforms. When all social interaction is performance, observing a pop star "putting on an act" in a social space isn't in itself an indictment.

But what has made Taylor Swift exceptional in this context is that she has rejected this framing entirely. Her public existence, especially online, seems to implicitly insist that her "stage" is no different from her "backstage," that her "brand" is synonymous with her private, personal identity. The way Swift jokes with fans, even hosting them in her home, implies that this is what she would do with any friend (and does, if you glimpsed her star-studded Instagram account before she wiped it clean). Had she not been so adamant in this insistence, perhaps we might never have witnessed the humiliating revelations that led to her 2016 hibernation - and the bizarre self-rebrand that has followed.

But we've nevertheless ended up here, at a juncture where Swift's future has become unclear, all because she committed too hard to crafting the illusion that there was no illusion - until the world was provided with irrefutable proof to the contrary. Now stripped of that illusion, Swift seems to have presented Reputation as the dawn of a new era - "The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now, 'cause she's dead" - in which Taylor Swift drops the act and becomes the "villain" the world believes she is. Yet even on "Look What You Made Me Do," she blames the transformation on everyone but herself - and rehashes the exact victimhood positioning that started this whole mess in the first place.

Has Swift learned anything from her fall from grace? She'll no doubt still succeed financially - she's reached permanent critical mass on that front - but will she break as many records this time? Will the public remain as trusting? And if not, what will Swift become if, in an America torn apart by existentially dire issues, she can no longer be its sweetheart without fully coming clean? Attempting to act naturally in an entirely unnatural environment might be a habit that dies hard, if ever. When you perform regularness in the extreme limelight for as long as Swift has, it can become virtually impossible to identify where your brand ends - and where you begin.

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Just Like Us: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Taylor Swift, America's Relatable Sweetheart

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In the history of pop music, there have been few Greek tragedies quite as epic - or as strange - as that of Taylor Swift and her image. As late as mid-2016, few would have believed a prophecy predicting the pop star would one day announce a new album, release the first single with its corresponding video, and be met with a tsunami of derisive Twitter glee.

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Ultimately, these accusations haven't permanently stained her star image. 

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Ultimately, these accusations haven't permanently stained her star image. 

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At times, cracks in Swift's star image have appeared. 

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At times, cracks in Swift's star image have appeared. 

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"Shake it Off" Music video, Taylor Swift, 2014. 

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"Shake it Off" Music video, Taylor Swift, 2014. 

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Swift was again accused of racial stereotypes and appropriating black culture through the use of twerking and dressing in traditionally black, urban clothing.

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Are you hating Taylor Swift for the right reasons? Swift's history of racial insensitivity often gets swept up in the backlash against her perpetual victim narrative, her "Famous" feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, and whether or not her new music is any good. Antis have a lot of reasons to draw on to fuel their Taylor Swift rage fire, but her past cultural appropriation never seems to make the top of the list - even though that's the huge, glaring issue with the singer as a person.The fact that she continues to make the same racial missteps is something that she hasn't addressed - ever. Worse, even when she apologizes, she never actually seems to change.

It all started back at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with the infamous "I'mma let you finish" moment. Swift was horrified, we were horrified, and Beyoncé was horrified. Though he would later apologize for his behavior, West clarified in a 2016 interview that what frustrated him about the moment was not Swift's win, but the systematic racism that led white artists to receive more praise and accolades for their artistry than black artists. "The only reason I drank the Hennessy in the first place is because I said, 'I'mma just have to get drunk to deal with all the lies I'm about to see,'" he said of the ceremony.

At the time, it seemed like one of those pop cultural instances that would go down in infamy, but the moment would become a turning point in Swift's career. Because, in retrospect, it led to one of the three main reasons why racial sensitivity and Taylor Swift aren't exactly synonymous.

1. The Scary Black Man And Fragile White Woman Narrative

Christopher Polk/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

You see, that was not the last we heard of the feud between Swift and West. The singer mentioned it during her Saturday Night Live monologue later that year and wrote "Innocent" about West in 2010 (featuring the lyrics "left yourself in your warpath, lost your balance on a tightrope, lost your mind tryin' to get it back"). Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe criticized the song in 2010 as a " patronizing, condescending sermon" that seemed particularly hypocritical of Swift since it appeared on an album that wasn't exactly the pinnacle of morality ("Better Than Revenge" condemns a boyfriend "thief" while "Speak Now" contrastingly begs an engaged man to leave his almost-wife at the altar). Slate writer Jody Rosen pointed out in 2011 that Swift was creating a patronizing narrative in which a white woman musically "offer[ed] 'absolution' to a 32-year-old black man." Even NPR writer Linda Holmes wrote in 2010 that the song lyrics "who you are is not what you did" and "you're still an innocent" as applied to West for interrupting her on stage - rather than to a "reformed criminal" - was kind of "creepy."

At first, Swift seemed to internalize some of these red flags, even if she didn't respond to them. After all, by 2015, she and West had buried the hatchet, and Swift even presented him with the Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 VMAs. That should have been the end of it, but then the "Famous" feud began and went down in infamy.

"Kanye did not call for approval," the original statement from Swift's rep read. "She... cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message." Whereas everything to this point was arguably not her fault,Swift, in defiance of all precious criticism, deliberately pointed fingers at West as the aggressor in their renewed feud. That's why, after Kim Kardashian posted the partial Snapchat video that revealed that Swift had been called and had approved of at least part of the lyrics to "Famous,"people began to realize that for years Swift had been, unintentionally, playing off of an incredibly harmful racial stereotype: that of fragile white femininity being threatened by a scary black man.

America's fear of black men as aggressors and brutes is such that, as Cosmopolitan writer Kendra James points out, black men are " jailed, beaten, and killed" to this day due to the "simple words of white women." Now, it's true that, by discussing West's actions against her in her songs, interviews, and issued statements, Swift is hardly doing anything as serious as police brutality or the imprisonment of black men for crimes that white men get off easier for. However, the narrative she perpetuated plays into the systematic racism that leads to these more serious consequences for black men on the street. And for someone who curates her image as carefully as Swift does, it was dangerously ignorant of her in 2016 to miss the racial implications of playing the blameless victim here on purpose.

However, that's not the only racial issue that she's been dangerously ignorant about.

2. The Cultural Appropriation And Whitewashing Controversies

TaylorSwiftVEVO on YouTube

When Swift kicked off her 1989 era with her 2014 music video for "Shake It Off," the scene of her twerking along with her multi-ethnic dancers led to intense backlash from viewers. Just as when Miley Cyrus twerked at the 2013 VMAs and became the white face of a dance that the black community had been doing for years, many people were not amused to see another blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girl once again sexualizing and appropriating black culture, even for a music video cycling through many different kinds of dances. "Shake It Off" director Mark Romanek denied that the video was perpetuating racist stereotypes, telling Vulture that it had a "larger, humanistic, and utterly color-blind message" and that it was "innocently and positively intentioned. And - let's remember - it's a satirical piece." Swift, as you might expect, did not comment.

Another of her 1989 music videos, 2015's "Wildest Dreams," also faced criticism for its racial insensitivity. Set in 1950s Africa, fans criticized the video for not only whitewashing Africa, but also seeming to give an idealistic view of colonialism. Director Joseph Kahn issued a statement that it would have been "historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors" but that there were "people of color in the video" and the "key creatives" behind the video were people of color, as well - including himself. Again, Swift did not comment, but Kahn did note that the singer would be donating the proceeds from the video to the African Parks Foundation.

But, just in case you thought the past might be in the past, Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" music video drew criticism for a preview shot that looked like a recreation of Beyoncé's "Formation" era - right down to the pose. Considering the fact that "Formation" was a celebration of black women and black culture on a visual album that was more of the same, fans were once again not amused with Swift seeming to trivialize and appropriate the black woman's struggle. The director - Khan - denied the similarities, saying on Twitter, "I've worked with Beyoncé a few times. She's an amazing person. The #LWYMMDvideo is not in her art space." (Again, Swift didn't comment.) The final video was not the shot-by-shot remake of "Formation" that fans had feared, but, given the above controversies and some of the apparently accidental references to Beyoncé, the BeyHive can't be blamed for worrying.

The worry is even more justified given Swift's silence every time in the face of the backlash. They're her music videos with her name on them and her starring in them - so why are the directors the ones refuting the racial insensitivity and not her? Swift said in a 2015 GQ that interview that she is the one in control of her career and that she thinks about things carefully before she does them, saying, "It's less about reputation management and strategy and vanity than it is about trying to desperately preserve self-awareness." But letting men talk for her about the backlash that she is facing and the missteps that she has made in her self-professed tightly-controlled career shows a startling lack of self-awareness. And it makes her silence, when it matters, as deafening as if she had shouted.

3. White Feminism

Christopher Polk/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

And that brings us to the most infamous way in which Swift has been accused of being racially insensitive: her white feminism. After declaring herself to be a feminist in 2015, Swift's brand of the movement took the form of "women supporting women" and a gang of predominantly white, predominantly thin girlfriends that soon became synonymous with the word squad and #squadgoals. (Oh, and by the way, "squad" is a black slang term that, once again, caught fire in the public sphere thanks to a white woman.) However, it seemed that Swift's feminism meant supporting only a certain kind of woman - a white woman, and usually a rich white woman, aka herself.

The most famous example came when the nominees for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards were announced, and Nicki Minaj tweeted about her frustration that "Anaconda" had not been nominated for Video of the Year. Minaj pointed out that it was common for videos featuring black women and women of different body sizes to be excluded from award ceremonies' lists. Swift interpreted this as a slight against her and her Video of the Year nomination, and jumped into this discussion to chastise Minaj for "pitting women against each other." When Minaj denied this and asked Swift to speak on this racial issue, Swift bizarrely said nothing more than, "If I win, please come up with me! You're invited to any stage I'm ever on." Suddenly, Minaj's original point about race and prejudice was buried by another one of Swift's headline-making feuds.

Now, to be fair, Swift can't control which parts of the conversation become the lead story. And, two days later, she apologized to Minaj, tweeting, "I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke. I'm sorry, Nicki."Finally, as promised, Minaj did go on stage with her at the VMAs. But in inserting herself into a conversation to speak out in defense of herself, but not in defense of black artists like Minaj even when directly asked to and even after apologizing two days later, Swift became the poster child for white feminism.

But there's a difference between being racially insensitive and being racist. Swift, like Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry before her, is the former.And the criticisms are justified considering that Swift professes to think about everything before she does or doesn't do it to the point where she's been called "calculating" ( a word she told that she hates).

Now that the old Taylor Swift is apparently "dead," what we need to see from the new Taylor Swift is that she has listened to these criticisms about her handling of race, that she has educated herself, and that she will try to do better going forward. Because if the new Taylor Swift can't show that she has learned from the old Taylor Swift's racial missteps, then she might just be dead to us, too.

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If You're Mad At Taylor Swift, Be Mad For The Right Reasons

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Are you hating Taylor Swift for the right reasons? Swift's history of racial insensitivity often gets swept up in the backlash against her perpetual victim narrative, her "Famous" feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, and whether or not her new...

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As early as 2009 Swift was accused of appropriating black culture, rapping with T Pain.

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Taylor Swift feat  T  Pain   Thug Story + lyrics

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Swift's next album after the Kanye West incident marked her transition into pop. It became the highest-grossing tour of all time by a country artist, grossing over $150 million, retaining country elements whilst strongly moving into mainstream pop.
It can be viewed that West assisted Swift's ascent to pop culture success, and the incident in 2009 actually benefited the star and her image.

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Redmond, S. (2014). Celebrity and the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p.87.

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Redmond, S. (2014). Celebrity and the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p.87.

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Swift's star image has becomes entwined with teen popular culture, as Redmond remarks is common for celebrities. Teens build their relationships and wider view of the world based around Swift's lyrics and the ideal she presents.

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Swift's Blonde Hair is intrinsic to her image

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Swift's Blonde Hair is intrinsic to her image

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It represents her inoocence and naivety, as well as he American look.

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Swift dies her hair platinum blonde for a short time, yet ultimately this look does not last. Perhaps because it symbolises a falsity to both her look and nature, something which she did not want to maintain.

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The blonde hair began with trademark curls, symbolic of being natural and unaltered.

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Swift's hair is slightly darker, perhaps signifying her transition into adulthood, yet her long curls remain.

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Swift's 2018 image looks similar to her hairstyles from a decade before. Perhaps she is trying to maintain her youthful image and retain her innocent, pure image.

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A sleeker, straighter style emerges, marking her star image as more refined, yet the fringe hints at youthful innocence.

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By outing her own friendship squad as inauthentic, and reflects on moments of not staying true to herself, Swift re-stabilises her image before the media can destroy it.

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Yet, Swift has maintained her authentic image, and has seemingly recovered from these moments of destabilisation of her star image. 

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Yet, Swift has maintained her authentic image, and has seemingly recovered from these moments of destabilisation of her star image. 

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"The only evidence of Swift and Hiddleston initiating a relationship was their Met Gala "dance-off," which later led to him gushing over Swift in the press. Let's think about that. How many celebrities hang out together and have one-off, goofy moments with each other? All of them. How many immediately agree to do interviews about it? None. It's weird.

Also — why are they so out in the open? All. The. Time. Why isn't Swift posting any pictures of herself on social media? She loves updating her fans with pictures. This is so very unlike her.

So, I present you with my strongest theory yet on why Hiddleswift exists: It's all for a love song"

More rumours circulate that Swift's "relationship" with Tom Hiddleston was constructed to garner publicity around her next single. This article presents Swift as inauthentic once again.

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Hey, have y'all heard that Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston are a thing now? They've been jet-setting all over the world just flaunting their picture-perfect romance.

I'll admit, at first I thought that Swift and Hiddleston were using each other as PR props. But it didn't really make sense.

Swift is surely famous enough on her own, and even Hiddleston isn't unknown in the slightest. Many of Swift's fans were also anticipating the singer's single life, and all the girl-power encouragement that would be thrown their way. But instead, she started dating again. Like, immediately after breaking up with Calvin Harris, which is just a bit out of character for the diehard romantic.

The only evidence of Swift and Hiddleston initiating a relationship was their Met Gala "dance-off," which later led to him gushing over Swift in the press. Let's think about that. How many celebrities hang out together and have one-off, goofy moments with each other? All of them. How many immediately agree to do interviews about it? None. It's weird.

Also - why are they so out in the open? All. The. Time. Why isn't Swift posting any pictures of herself on social media? She loves updating her fans with pictures. This is so very unlike her.

So, I present you with my strongest theory yet on why Hiddleswift exists: It's all for a love song.

I would not be surprised if all this were for a new T. Swizzle production, a.k.a. a music video, starring Swift and Hiddleston. Maybe it's not fake; maybe it's completely brilliant.

And the plotline feels on brand for Swift, who seems to use movie settings as inspiration for many of her videos. She gave us the Sin City-esque "Bad Blood," the Narnia journey "Out of the Woods," and the rockumentary-style "New Romantics." And now, she's giving us The Talented Mr. Ripley 2.0 with "Undisclosed Name of New Single That Surely Exists."

The queen of relationships - and breakups - is no doubt flipping the switch on the popular media's obsession with her dating life. We are so consumed with celebrity dating culture, it's hard to realise when something is way too cookie-cutter to be true.

Below is all the evidence that will no doubt convince you of my bullet-proof theory. Alternately, this list could also be titled, "Behind-the-Scenes of Taylor Swift's New Music Video."

I just wonder what the single will be called.

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Hiddleswift Is One Big Song Promotion - A Theory

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Hey, have y'all heard that Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston are a thing now? They've been jet-setting all over the world just flaunting their picture-perfect romance. I'll admit, at first I thought that Swift and Hiddleston were using each other as PR props. But it didn't really make sense.

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Kim Kardashian releases THAT phone call between Kanye and Taylor Swift- Heatworld, 2016

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Kim Kardashian releases THAT phone call between Kanye and Taylor Swift- Heatworld, 2016

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Swift is famed for her tightly controlled image, but at times cracks appear in this facade, revealing an imperfect pop star.
When Kim Kardashian West leaked a phone call between Swift and Kanye West, proving that Swift did in fact give West permission to mention her in his song, after she claimed that she hadn't.

wift's controlled image of the "innocent good girl" has been temporarily tainted, yet almost three years later,  this doesn't seem to have had a lasting impact in her public perception.

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Kim Kardashian releases THAT phone call between Kanye and Taylor Swift

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by Emmeline Saunders | 18 07 2016 Remember all the controversy about Kanye West's song Famous and how it claims he and Taylor Swift "might have sex"? And remember how when Taylor accepted her Album Of The Year Grammy she subtly called him out in front of the audience, warning young women that "people along the way will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame"?

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Cullen, S. (2016). The Innocent and the Runaway: Kanye West, Taylor Swift, and the Cultural Politics of Racial Melodrama. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 28(1), pp.6-9.

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Cullen, S. (2016). The Innocent and the Runaway: Kanye West, Taylor Swift, and the Cultural Politics of Racial Melodrama. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 28(1), pp.6-9.

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"the mise-en-scene of her “Innocent” performance suggests Swift’s purity and authenticity. She begins it sitting down. Although she is wearing an elegant white dress and diamond jewelry, and although her hair is coiffed in an old-Hollywood style, Swift is barefoot, singing into a microphone that also appears to be antique, and strumming a dobro, not the rhinestone encrusted guitar she had previously preferred in concert. The dobro is a special kind of resonator guitar closely associated with the country music genre, a genre which is typically associated with the US south and the white working class....She reverts to the conservative identity of the white evangelical and seeks to render West’s actions a year earlier legible as evil"

Cullen presents Swift's performance at the 2010 VMA's, a year after West's interruption, as a careful orchestration of Swift as the triumphant victim. This performance reaffirms her "innocent" status, which Cullen links to her whiteness, with West being the black, unfair disruptor.

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Feminism and the Female Superhero

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Associating with females, friendship, girl power

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Durham, M. (2003). The Girling of America: Critical Reflections on Gender and Popular Communication. Popular Communication, 1(1), pp.26-27.

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Durham, M. (2003). The Girling of America: Critical Reflections on Gender and Popular Communication. Popular Communication, 1(1), pp.26-27.

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"But the girls are more than thin:They meet every standard for conventionally defined beauty in American society. These standards, as we are well aware, are racialized and class-based. The critics, in their enthusiasm, seem not to have noticed that the new girl heroes are overwhelmingly White, fine-featured, and almost always blonde. Blondeness, as hooks (1992) has observed, is “the quintessential marker of racial aesthetic superiority” that sustains White supremacy (p. 158); it is the sign that differentiates the beautiful from the non-blonde Other. To be a successful girl hero, to have the ability to transcend and challenge the limits of ordinary female existence, it is necessary to be White, and preferably blonde. "

Durham discusses the 21st century shift to the female heroine, but notes that this newly empowered role model present in all forms of media is almost exclusively white, and often blonde. Swift falls into this category, so although her star image is that of an empowered female, this is solidified by her WASP background and young girls of colour are excluded from her narrative. Swift has, however, incorporated women of colour in her Bad Blood music video, potentially in an attempt to distance herself from this white, blonde image and appear more diverse.

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The Girling of America: Critical Reflections on Gender and Popular Communication: Popular Communication: Vol 1, No 1

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The upsurge in media vehicles aimed at adolescent girl audiences has given birth to a "new breed" of teenage heroine, one whose embodiment of nontraditional gender roles has drawn widespread acclaim. This essay offers critical perspectives on this new genre, situating the figures of the new girl heroines in their sociopolitical contexts and examining them through the lens of critical feminist theory.

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Chittenden, T. (2013). In My Rearview Mirror. Journal of Children and Media, 7(2), p. 190.

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Chittenden, T. (2013). In My Rearview Mirror. Journal of Children and Media, 7(2), p. 190.

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"I collected approximately 200 postings across two threads: “We Love Taylor” and “What Taylor Song Relates Most to You?” It is interesting in the latter to note the orientation—the originator of the thread does not ask which of Swift’s songs teens relate to as things in their own right, but asks which of the songs relates most to them, as if each teen’s individual experiences are an integral part of the song content, and this begins to suggest a nostalgia in reverse because teens cannot yet relate their own experiences to Swift’s, but can take Swift’s experiences as a template or precursor for how they look at the world".

Swift's romantic lyrics not only build speculation around the men they are written about, but are also used by her predominantly female teen fanbase to reflect on their own relationships and even their "prospective memory" of events that have not yet occurred. The singer's star image has developed into a relatable role model for young girls to base current and future relationships around.

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Understanding how young teen girls use music to navigate the emotional dramas of first love presents an important insight into the part media play in teens' processes of identity formation. Through analysis of forum postings on the official Taylor Swift website, I explore how teen girls "talk" about Swift's music in an effort to understand how these girls use the lyrics of Swift songs in a prospective remembering of their future relationships. While many of Swift's lyrics reinforce social norms around the search for a Prince, I argue that they also highlight the complexity of relationships and foster a sense of nostalgia in reverse for young teen girls. My analysis draws attention to the integral role of this online forum as a safe space for the self-disclosure of feelings and as a key mechanism of emotional support during the teen years.

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Understanding how young teen girls use music to navigate the emotional dramas of first love presents an important insight into the part media play in teens' processes of identity formation.

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Preece, C. (2015). The authentic celebrity brand: unpacking Ai Weiwei’s celebritised selves. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(5-6), p.619

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Preece, C. (2015). The authentic celebrity brand: unpacking Ai Weiwei’s celebritised selves. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(5-6), p.619

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"As Dyer (2003, p. 2) suggests, the public seeks to understand who the star ‘really’ is, so although they are primarily ‘a case of appearance’ co-constructed by the media, they are judged by what they are perceived to be ‘really’ like in their private as well as public lives. Authenticity is therefore central to the meaning-making process as it is through a negotiation of authenticity that the public engages with celebrity" (Preece, 2015, p.619)

Swift furthers her "authentic" brand and star image, building trust and relatability with her fans. By allowing the public into her life in this controlled manner, she is aiding their "meaning-making process" and is seen as an authentic star.

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The authentic celebrity brand: unpacking Ai Weiwei's celebritised selves: Journal of Marketing Management: Vol 31, No 5-6

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This research extends prior work on celebrity brands to focus on the issue of how authenticity is constructed, communicated and managed in the manufacturing of celebrity. Using a case study approach, this paper explores the branding of contemporary artist-activist Ai Weiwei, who has emerged as a heroic celebrity figure.

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Kanye West interrompe Taylor Swift no VMA 2009

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Kanye West interrompe Taylor Swift no VMA 2009

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Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift at the VMAs 2009
Swift was praised for maintaining her dignity and staying "classy" by not causing a scene when Kanye burst onto the stage as she accepted her award.

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Kanye West interrompe Taylor Swift no VMA 2009

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"Taylor Swift's Tom Hiddleston Breakup Song Is Here and SHE WENT IN" (Marie Claire, November 2017)

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"Taylor Swift's Tom Hiddleston Breakup Song Is Here and SHE WENT IN" (Marie Claire, November 2017)

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Publications such as Marie Claire are known for analysing Swift's lyrics and linking them to men. Here, the author says "Someone please give Tom Hiddleston a hug, because this is just...wow", essentially demonising Swift for ending yet another relationship, and firmly favouring her ex. This furthers Swift's image as someone unable to keep a partner and settle down (and thus not conforming to heteronormative expectations)

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Reputation is finally here, and one of our burning questions has been answered: YES, Taylor Swift did write a Tom Hiddleston breakup song. Thank god. It's called "Getaway Car" and ohhhh boy, she really went there.

In essence, Tom was the "getaway car" that allowed Taylor to escape her failing relationship with Calvin Harris-but the song begins with Swift explaining that nothing *good* happens in a getaway car. Already not a great sign for Hiddleston, bless his heart.

Then, Taylor launches into what can only be a description of the couple's meeting ( and dance session) at the Met Gala.

"It was the best of times, the worst of crimes / I struck a match and blew your mind / But I didn't mean it / And you didn't see it / The ties were black, the lies were white / In shades of grey in candlelight / I wanted to leave him / I needed a reason."

Then, Taylor goes on to describe knowing that the famously short-lived relationship was doomed from the start:

"I knew it from the first Old Fashioned, we were cursed / We never had a shot, gunshot in the dark."

There are also several references to flying, something Taylor and Tom did a lot of during their brief courtship. Like:

"You were drivin' the getaway car / We were flyin', but we'd never get far."

And:

"We were jet-set, Bonnie and Clyde / Until I switched to the other side."

Someone please give Tom Hiddleston a hug, because this is just...wow. Listen to the song right over this way.

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tom hiddleston taylor swift breakup song

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Taylor Swift's Tom Hiddleston Breakup Song Is Here and SHE WENT IN

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Reputation is finally here, and one of our burning questions has been answered: YES, Taylor Swift did write a Tom Hiddleston breakup song. Thank god. It's called "Getaway Car" and ohhhh boy, she really went there.

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"She's got a blank space, baby! As another one of Taylor Swift's relationships bites the dust, FEMAIL asks just why CAN'T the stunning chart-topper hang on to a man?" (Daily Mail, June 2016)

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"She's got a blank space, baby! As another one of Taylor Swift's relationships bites the dust, FEMAIL asks just why CAN'T the stunning chart-topper hang on to a man?" (Daily Mail, June 2016)

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Swift's star image has becomes intertwined with her various relationships. The media often theorise over her supposed inability to retain a relationship, and label her as a player, immature or as a bad girlfriend.

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This week, the 26-year-old chart-topper split from Scottish musician Calvin Harris, 32, whom she had been dating for a year

Taylor has also had high-profile romances with Harry Styles, Joe Jonas, Conor Kennedy, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner and Jake Gyllenhaal

A relationship expert tells Daily Mail Online her romantic flops could be due to the pressure of the public eye and not seeing each other often enough

Even the doubters who teased Taylor Swift for her 'serial dating' habits - and her penchant for penning songs about 'long list of ex-lovers' - began singing a different tune about her affair with fellow musician Calvin Harris.

After all, the couple started things off slowly, and the 26-year-old seemed older and wiser. But following her split with the 32-year-old producer and songwriter this week, fans can't help but wonder: What exactly is going wrong in Taylor Swift's love life?

Here, FEMAIL takes a look back at nearly a decade of the Grammy winner's incredibly high-profile relationships in an effort to unearth just where and why things go south.

Some might argue that Taylor's relationships are doomed as soon as she pulls them into the public eye. The star doesn't take too much caution to keep her private life private, and often happily parades her beaus in front of the paparazzi.

'It's very hard to date in the spotlight. Because Taylor's so famous, people are fascinated by what goes on with her,' professional matchmaker Samantha Daniels, who founded The Dating Lounge app, told Daily Mail Online.

Dating so publicly has its drawbacks. For one thing, there's a lot of pressure when strangers constantly have something to say about your love life - and you always have to be on your guard.

'Having other people notice what you do and comment, you might begin second guessing,' Samantha explained. 'You also can't really be yourself. If you think about being affectionate, you have to wonder if someone is taking your picture.

'You think, "If we get in a sarcastic disagreement, are people gonna think we're fighting when we're just being playful?"

'You constantly have to watch how you behave, which makes a relationship less organic.'

With Calvin, though, Taylor at least tried to keep a few details under wraps. In April, she told Vogue: 'I'm in a magical relationship right now. And of course I want it to be ours, and low key...This is the one thing that's been mine about my personal life.'

However, some stars go to great lengths to keep the details of their relationships private, refusing to even acknowledge that they are attached and rarely appearing with their significant others in public. Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes are hardly ever pictured together. Kerry Washington got married in secret. Mary-Kate Olsen still hasn't uttered a public word about husband Olivier Sarkoszy.

But Taylor had often been spotted with Calvin, hugging him at the Billboard Music Awards in May of 2015, sharing vacation snaps on Instagram, and telling him 'I love you' on stage at a concert on her 1989 tour.

And even when they weren't in front of the cameras, they likely had fans to contend with. Samantha noted: 'When people are in the public eye, they get used to people interrupting intimate times. If Taylor goes out for a romantic dinner, she gets interrupted 47 times for photos... it's hard to have an intimate evening if that happens.'

Having his relationship written out about was 'interesting' for Calvin, who told DJs on KISS FM UK last August: 'Obviously there's different things written about it every day and even if we don't do anything sort of publicly for a while, someone will make something up, and there will be some sort of story.'

Of course, there could be a million other factors at play that ultimately led to their split, too, from general differences in personality to conflicting schedules.

Both stars are busy and often jetting off to different cities - Taylor spent nearly half of their relationship on the road with her 1989 tour - and being apart so often can put a strain on any couple.

'They both had really busy schedules. Being in different places at different times, it's hard to have a regular relationship that people have,' said Samantha. 'And when you haven't seen someone in a while, the first 24 hours can be spent getting to know each other again. You have to get back into your groove.'

Being in the public eye and constantly traveling may very well have impacted her past relationships too - though most of her failed flings could very well be chalked up to the star being young and simply dating around.

'You know, I went out on a normal amount of dates in my early 20s, and I got absolutely slaughtered for it,' she told Vogue. 'And it took a lot of hard work and altering my decision-making. I didn't date for two and a half years. Should I have had to do that? No.'

That dry spell was between the start of her relationship with Calvin and the end of her fling with One Direction's Harry Styles, whom she was linked to from December 2012 to January 2013.

After Taylor and Harry split, a source told Life & Style: 'They are both really busy and never in one place for long.'

Speculation over why Taylor's previous relationship ended was quite different, however: Before Harry, she dated Conor Kennedy for about three months in 2012.

With a four-year age-difference between them - Taylor being the older party - many thought the teen was too young and likely too immature for the her.

A few skeptics also questioned Taylor's motives, pointing out that she made no secret of her admiration for the famous family.

'The only time in my life I have ever been star-struck was meeting Caroline and Ethel Kennedy,' she told Vogue that year. 'I got to spend the afternoon with Ethel a couple of weeks ago.

'She is one of my favorites because you look back at the pictures of her and Bobby, and they always look like they are having the most fun out of everybody.

'You know, eleven kids, all these exotic animals on their property,' she went on. 'I've read a lot about them.'

For a short time from 2010, Taylor was linked to Jake Gyllenhaal, an unlikely match given that Taylor was just 21 at the time, while Jake was 30.

And once again, it seemed to be the cameras that got in the way of romance - and that pesky age difference.

'[Jake] said he wasn't feeling it anymore and was uncomfortable with all the attention they got. He also said he could feel the age difference,' a source told US Weekly in 2011.

Another 'insider' added: 'Jake cares about her, but [the publicity] was a lot for him. He wants to keep his private life private, and that's hard to do dating Taylor.'

He also admitted to Howard Stern in 2015 that he has commitment issues, which is why he's yet to settle down.

Most of her other failed relationships before Jake - with Twilight star Taylor Lautner in 2010, her You Belong With Me music video love interest Lucas Till in 2009, and singer Joe Jonas in 2008 - may also have been affected by fame and crazy schedules, but likely were just the result of being young and dating around.

After all, she was still a teenager when she dated Joe and Lucas, and only 20 for the few months she was seeing Taylor - and in the celebrity world, like the real world, it's rare to be forever tied to your teenage boyfriends.

Even now, in her mid-20s, Samantha says of Taylor: 'She's really still learning how to have a long-lasting relationship.'

The one exception to the pattern might be John Mayer, whom she was romantically paired with in 2009 and 2010. In her song Dear John, Taylor implied that John 'messed with' her and played 'dark twisted games' even though she was 'too young'. She sings that she was 'in love' and he left her crying 'the whole way home'.

John, though, publicly challenged Taylor's version of events, telling Rolling Stone: 'I didn't deserve it. I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.'

Taylor, of course, still has plenty of time to pair off - and could even afford to take another break from dating to enjoy being at the pinnacle career.

'She's young,' said Samantha. 'This is her time in her career, so maybe she should think about embracing that and be happy to be on her own and with her friends, and dating more casually. Maybe the timing's not right now.'

But if she is looking for love again, the matchmaker suggests that she try choosing some one who is successful without being famous.

'If she could find someone who complements her in some of the ways that Calvin did and maybe isn't in the spotlight, they wouldn't have to deal with the challenges of both their situations. Someone who is successful, but maybe more low key.,' she said.

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Why don't Taylor Swift's relationships last?

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This week, the 26-year-old split from Calvin Harris, 32, whom she had been dating for a year. Taylor has also had high-profile romances with Harry Styles, Joe Jonas, Conor Kennedy, and John Mayer.

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"30 THINGS I LEARNED BEFORE TURNING 30" An essay by Taylor Swift  for Elle Magazine

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"30 THINGS I LEARNED BEFORE TURNING 30" An essay by Taylor Swift  for Elle Magazine

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The notoriously private image Taylor Swift usually portrays is eroded here (at least temporarily) as she gives the public a glimpse into her private life through 30 lessons she has learnt.
By sharing details of her life such as her parents' cancer battles and her love for cooking, she portrays the image of an ordinary, down to earth woman- far removed from the illusive pop star image depicted previously.

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Taylor Swift reflects on all the things she’s learned leading up to her 30th birthday.

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Swift has been known to reinvent her image- these reinventions have often coincided with album releases marking a new era for the singer. Although no new music has been announced, based on the image Swift has created of someone who ties their music to their shifting identity, a new album could be expected in the near future.

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For many years Swift remained publicly apolitical, however she is now vowing to take a stand: "I’m finding my voice in terms of politics.... I’m going to do more to help. We have a big race coming up next year"
Swift's star image is beginning to evolve yet again into a politically active celebrity.

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Taylor Swift vows to be politically active and speak out against 'disgusting rhetoric'

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Pop singer writes in magazine essay: 'I'm going to do more to help. We have a big race coming up next year'

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Some fans even track the technical changes to the music she has produced, marking the progression with each album.

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Why reputation sounds so different, at a glance (A key-signature analysis)

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Post with 170 views. Why reputation sounds so different, at a glance (A key-signature analysis)

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Swift's fans on forums like Reddit (over 51 thousand "Swifties"decide which songs relate to which men and discuss their preferences. Swift rarely confirms or denies these rumours, adding to the suspense and interest.

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It just occurred to me that lots of my favourite songs are the songs which are ( / rumored to be) about Joe Jonas:

Forever & Always, Better Than Revenge, The Story Of Us and Holy Ground

This made me start thinking about which boyfriend inspired the best songs? I would say Joe Alwyn also has inspired lots of great songs (Delicate, KOMH, Call It What You Want etc.). What do you think?

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r/TaylorSwift - Which boyfriend has the best songs based on them?

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It just occurred to me that lots of my favourite songs are the songs which are ( / rumored to be) about Joe Jonas: Forever & Always, Better Than Revenge, The Story Of Us and Holy Ground This made me start thinking about which boyfriend inspired the best songs?

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Over the last decade, the singer has been linked to numerous men. She is notoriously private during the relationship, and then known to write songs about her exes. This Billboard article from 2017 tracks 12 songs and the men they are supposedly about.

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Taylor Swift's Boyfriend Timeline: 12 Relationships & Their Songs

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Like a snitch that won't identify a culprit by name, but will tell anyone listening where they live and when they'll be there, Taylor Swift is very descriptive with her songs. The country...

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Swift seems to address her public perception as having a bad "reputation" (ties in with her album and tour), especially when it comes to men.
Themes: Loneliness/ isolation whilst surrounded by people, paparazzi and glamorous events. Rips off dress into a shorter dress but still not too revealing. Makes playful expressions in the mirror still reminiscent of her young, playful image.

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Bad Blood ft Kendrick Lamar music video (2015)

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Bad Blood ft Kendrick Lamar music video (2015)

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Themes: Revenge, empowerment, girl power, super heroes/ villains. Featuring many of Swift's girl friends- most young whit celebrities but some people of colour and older women too.
Swift wearing latex clothing and underwear.

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Taylor Swift - Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar

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I Don't Wanna Live Forever ft ZAYN music video (2017)

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I Don't Wanna Live Forever ft ZAYN music video (2017)

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Created for Fifty Shades of Grey movie franchise.
Themes: dark, moody, hotel rooms. Swift wearing underwear only slightly visible under a blazer or exposed in very short clips. Seen on a bed with multiple people yet no one in the bed itself, everyone fully clothed.

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ZAYN, Taylor Swift - I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker)

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Themes: God, love but only to the extend of spending time together and having a song together, dressed in feminine tulle dresses surrounded by flowers.

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Themes: Romance, Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet,  unrequited love, fairytale imagery. No actual kiss, but male actor love interest seen with faces close together implying a kiss or intimacy. Begins and ends with high school clips, implying it is a teenage fantasy.

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Themes: naivety, innocence, dressed in white. "Vanilla" themes of unrequited love, teenage romance, cheerleaders, geeks and other American high school stereotypes. Has progressed to kissing her love interest.

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Another 4th July Party, this time her featuring bikini-clad squad- many of whom are models. The group has evolved, however, to feature Alana from the band Haim, actress Halston Sage and some returning members such as Lively and Karlie Kloss.

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This afternoon, Taylor Swift posted her full, curated Fourth of July party album. There were matching friendship swimsuits! A pregnant Blake Lively! A scared looking Ryan Reynolds! A bouncy slide! And of course, the requisite bikini portrait, which was full of some familiar squad members and some newbies.

So... who made the cut for this year's bestiegram?

A Quick Breakdown of Who's Who (And Just Why They Got an Invite)
1. Alana Haim | @babyhaim
One third of the Haim sisters (Danielle and Este are the other two members, who were also there), longtime friends of Taylor Swift. Haim opened for her 1989 World Tour last year. Their public friendship began with a string of girl crush tweets back in October 2014.

And an Insta-official hangout in December 2014:

They went to Swift's Fourth of July party last year, too.
2. Britany LaManna (née Maack) | @britmaack
A childhood friend of Swift's, or as Swift describes her, "my partner in crime at Brownies sleep-away camp."

If you recall, Swift was the maid of honor at LaManna's wedding this March, where she made this speech that went viral on their friendship and love. It starts at the 6:40 mark:

LaManna was also at Swift's party last year, tagged with Haim in the same towel jump Insta.
3. Martha Hunt | @marhunt
A Victoria's Secret Angel who Swift met while performing at the 2013 and 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows. They were first seen out in public together in January 2015.

Hunt appeared in "Bad Blood" and attended Swift's Fourth of July party last year. She also got media attention for defending Swift on Twitter last July, when singer Edward Droste posted a pic of a tabloid column and accused Swift of being a mean girl:

Swift has since given Hunt an Insta birthday tribute, the mark of VIP girl gang status.
4. Halston Sage | @halstonsage
A 23-year-old actress who appeared in Neighbors and Paper Towns alongside Swift BFF Delevingne. She first was spotted hanging with Swift last April at a barbecue Swift and then-boyfriend Calvin Harris threw. Sage was a new inductee alongside Empire's Serayah.
5. Cara Delevingne | @caradelevingne
A top model-turned-actress who, like Swift, once dated Harry Styles ( or so it was rumored). They had a saucy moment at the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show:

Delevingne then appeared with Swift again in February 2014, where they and Ed Sheeran sang at the U.S. ambassador's house.

But their public friendship started in December 2014 when she and fellow Styles ex Kendall Jenner were spotted leaving Swift's NYC apartment after spending the night there, post-Victoria's Secret Fashion Show viewing party.

The friendship has been pretty steady since with Delevingne appearing on the 1989 World Tour with Swift and starring in "Bad Blood."
6. Taylor Swift | @taylorswift
The star of the show and the forever queen of Fourth of July.
7. Abigail Anderson | abigail_lauren
Swift's best friend who just got engaged. As Swift once told Oprah, "We met when I was 15. First day of school freshman year we sat next to each other in English. She wanted to be a swimmer and go off on a college scholarship for swimming and I wanted to be a singer." Both happened. Anderson has been there for everything-Grammy dates! Party photo booths! The ups and the downs!

She made news recently for her card to Swift post-Calvin Harris breakup.
8. Ruby Rose | @rubyrose
DJ, Orange Is the New Black star, and the Internet's crush. Swift and Rose were first spotted hanging out during New Year's Eve. They partied together in Las Vegas while Swift's then-BF Calvin Harris performed.

In April, Swift made a surprise appearance at the GLAAD Awards to present her with an award. The appearance brought Rose to tears.

Rose wrote a lengthy post seemingly defending Swift and, more broadly, other people who have been shamed for "moving on too quickly from an ex" last week.
9. Harley Gusman | @harleygusman
A model and the co-founder of Truly Organic personal care products and Ruby Rose's girlfriend. They were first linked together in June.
10. Blake Lively | @blakelively
An actress who now fights sharks and previously fought with frenemy Blair Waldrof as Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl. Lively and Swift surprised everyone when they posted a photo jumping around together in Australia.

Lively followed that up by baking Swift a very special birthday pie, which as Ryan Reynolds and Leonardo DiCaprio can attest, is her foolproof way of winning everyone's heart.
11. Gigi Hadid | @gigihadid
One of Swift's very best friends, who she frequently spends time with. Swift has been with Hadid in the worse of times ( taking her on a post-breakup hike), the best of times ( taking her on a private jet to Coachella for her 21st birthday), and all the times in between ( lip syncing with her on a couch while watching Grease! Live, for one).

Hadid starred in "Bad Blood" but their friendship goes all the way back to March 2014. The first public trace was this photobomb of Swift with Karlie Kloss and Hadid at a pre-Oscars party.
12. Karlie Kloss | @karliekloss
A devoted, longtime friend of Swift's who officially met her at the 2013 Victoria's Secret fashion show and became BFFs straight after. A year before they met in January 2012, Swift mentioned how much she loved Kloss and wanted to bake cookies with her. Kloss responded then "Your kitchen or mine?" on Twitter.

Since, they've done two Victoria's Secret fashion shows together, shared a magazine cover, and had many other outings together.

Kloss famously fifth-wheeled on Swift's London date with Calvin Harris, Gigi Hadid, and Hadid's then-boyfriend Joe Jonas, the mark of the truest friend.

Notable People Not in That Portrait Who Were There:

Tom Hiddleston: Swift's new boyfriend of two weeks and/or music video star. He wore a tank that said "I Heart T.S." which sent the Internet in a frenzy.

Ryan Reynolds: Blake Lively's husband.

Benjamin LaManna: Britany Maack's husband.

St. Vincent: An indie singer and Cara Delevingne's girlfriend.

Este Haim and Danielle Haim: The other two Haim sisters.

Matt Lucier: Abigail Anderson's fiancé.

Josh Kushner: Karlie Kloss's boyfriend.

Austin Swift: Taylor Swift's very handsome brother, who once threw out Yeezys to defend Tay's honor.

Rachel Platten: A country singer best known for her hit "Fight Song" who appeared on Taylor Swift's 1989 World Tour.

Uzo Aduba: Orange Is the New Black actress who appeared on the 1989 World Tour.

Kennedy Raye: A model who last hung out with Swift at Coachella.

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A Who's Who Guide to Taylor Swift's Fourth of July Party

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This afternoon, Taylor Swift posted her full, curated Fourth of July party album. There were matching friendship swimsuits! A pregnant Blake Lively! A scared looking Ryan Reynolds! A bouncy slide! And of course, the requisite bikini portrait, which was full of some familiar squad members and some newbies. So...

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As well as operating within a private space such as Swift's parties, the squad also appear together at public events. Rumours constantly circulate regarding which friends are in or out of the squad- this article calls it a "laserlike focus on, if not an obsession with, which friends are currently in and out of her good graces

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As we've known ever since she unveiled the title of her current album, Taylor Swift's latest era is all about dealing with any damage done to her reputation. Thought she was the secretly evil cheerleader-type who played the victim in public? Oh, actually, she'll fess up to being a little bit of a mean girl, and, yes, she will directly acknowledge her enemies. Did she seem perhaps a little too innocent, naive, and sheltered, or at least tried to make us think she was? Well, now she drinks, occasionally curses, and literally told her old self to shut up. Was her never-ending stream of way-too-public relationships starting to grate on you? Well, now she has an uncharacteristically low-key relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, and the only thing anyone seems to really know for sure about it is that it's serious.

With a few years away from the spotlight and a single album rollout, Swift had seemed to counteract all the criticism of her public persona she had assuredly read on Tumblr in one fell swoop. What else was there left to even gossip about? She'd addressed it all, if in a roundabout way.

Well, almost everything. There's still that pesky matter of the state of her squad, and it seems her way of dealing with criticism of the way she portrayed her exclusive friendship circle on social media may have unintentionally created another PR crisis for the music star. Because now the gossip and social media focus have a laserlike focus on, if not an obsession with, which friends are currently in and out of her good graces.

As we all know, Swift's girl squad was once the thing of legend. There were nights out, mutually adoring quotes in interviews, surprise concert appearances, joint selfies, and red carpet appearances, and most infamously those legendary Fourth of July parties that involved coordinating swimwear and inflatable waterslides. The list of members included a veritable who's who of modern It girls: Cara Delevingne, Gigi Hadid, Blake Lively, Lily Aldridge, Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Ellie Goulding, Serayah, the sisters Haim, Lorde, and Karlie Kloss to name just a few. Reminders of the friendships were everywhere, until, one day, it suddenly stopped. Surprisingly sad paparazzi photos of Swift's Hamptons estate sitting empty and unpopulated by VIP shenanigans emerged over the last Fourth of July, seeming to signal an end to an era we didn't even realize we had been living in.

Ever since, speculation about the state of the squad has been rampant. The group is like Project Runway contestants, and we are all Heidi Klum, forever wondering who is in and who is out. If she tried to downplay the squad, it seems it has only backfired.

The U.K. edition of the Spanish tabloid Grazia brought that notion home today by running an article that may be a journalistic scoop, or, perhaps more probably, a semi-informed fan fiction (though, we can't rule out the possibility of an intentional plant, can we?). The magazine quoted two unnamed members of Swift's squad who conveniently illustrated competing theories about what has become of the squad.

"Taylor's been keeping a low profile, but there hasn't been a big fallout," said one unnamed supposed friend. "She was stung by claims her squad was elitist, and prefers to spend time with close friends one-on-one at the moment." The source also added that it is somewhat understandable that her social situation has changed since Alwyn entered the picture.

The other possible friend sounded a little bit more pressed.

"Celebrity friendships are weird. You don't see each other for forever, and you accept that-but Taylor's gone off-grid in a big way since meeting Joe," said the other. "I even heard about people getting requests not to mention her in interviews. It's hard when that's all you're asked about, but Taylor is hypersensitive. I guess you have to be high-maintenance to become the biggest pop star in the world."

Yikes!

Questionable sourcing aside, the fact that the current situation may be dicey for all involved rings true. Online superfans have busied themselves with keeping their eyes out for any clues about the status of various friendships, and gossipy media is always quick to broadcast their findings to a larger audience. More than a few squad members have been asked about their status in interviews, and some have deemed their answers unsatisfactory. Take Lorde, for example, who while promoting her own album got into a few minor-controversies over the summer when asked about Swift. During one interview she seemed to say she was no longer part of the squad, but quickly walked them back.

After squaring away so many PR issues with Reputation, how does Swift confront this one? There's no easy answer. Even a Fourth of July reunion would cause drama. The Internet would comb over the guest list and then create backstories of blood feuds involving anyone who wasn't there...even if, say, that person had merely promised their mom they'd spend time with the family over the holiday.

And, likely, there are at least some natural shifts in relationships, the kind we've all experienced. How often do you go on Facebook now and the website reminds you of the anniversary of some party, or friends gather and you've realized you've lost touch with or grown apart from half the people involved? It happens to us all, but the rest of us don't have to worry about how to handle the ensuing tabloid and Twitter fallout.

Related: A Quick Update on Lorde, Karlie Kloss and the Rest of Taylor Swift's Illustrious Squad

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How Does Taylor Swift Solve a Problem Like Her Squad?

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As we've known ever since she unveiled the title of her current album, Taylor Swift's latest era is all about dealing with any damage done to her reputation. Thought she was the secretly evil cheerleader-type who played the victim in public?

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Taylor's "All American" Image, reinforced by her girl squad of friends

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Taylor's "All American" Image, reinforced by her girl squad of friends

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Celebrities such as Cara Delevingne, Blake Lively, Gigi Hadid all make regular appearances as part of Swift's tight knit social group.
The predominantly caucasian group gather to celebrate American holidays such as her annual 4th July party- reinforcing her American WASP image.

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Images such as this one on Instagram strengthen the image of Taylor and her squad as fun, friendly, loyal. All portrayed as innocent fun- no sexualised fancy dress costumes. Many children's characters.

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Taylor Swift on Instagram: "Mary Poppins, Audrey, Ariel, Ms. Frizzle, Cinderella, Gwen, Mr. Toad, Avril, Nancy Drew, Posh Spice, Rizzo, Frida Kahlo, Steve Irwin, Dorothy.. This new year we decided to dress up as our childhood heroes. Sending you all love and hope going into 2019 💗"

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3M likes, 0 comments - taylorswift on December 31, 2018: "Mary Poppins, Audrey, Ariel, Ms. Frizzle, Cinderella, Gwen, Mr. Toad, Avril, Nancy Drew, Posh Spice, Rizzo, Frida Kahlo, Steve Irwin, Dor...". 

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

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"Classy not trashy" aesthetic, not too revealing, All-American imagery, music focusing on love and relationships.

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Qualities associated with Swift 10 years ago:
Purity, innocence, Christianity, patriotism, fairytale imagery.

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Qualities associated with Swift in 2019:
Feminism, empowerment,  strength, resilience and girl power.
She doesn't apologise for having multiple partners, enforcing sexual agency.

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We expect Swift to: make music, (a decade ago, country music, now pop music) participate in meet and greets, perform live concerts, engage in wider promotion for tours and album releases.

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Swift's 2017 music video, "Look What You Made Me Do"

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Swift's 2017 music video, "Look What You Made Me Do"

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The video features themes of revenge, violence, wealth and excess. She has moved into not just the pop genre, but a type of "dark" pop.

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Over a decade later, Swift has successfully transcended genres and her image has changed too

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Over a decade later, Swift has successfully transcended genres and her image has changed too

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Billboard claims that Swift changed the face of Country music: now, the genre looks to younger singers like Swift, is often mixed with pop (as Swift has successfully done), and uses social media.

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It might surprise some of Taylor Swift's fans, but country music had a long and remarkable history before her 2006 debut album, and that grand tradition will continue, even if Swift ends up leaving the genre for good. But there's no doubt that she changed the business of country music in several ways.
Billboard Woman of the Year Taylor Swift on Writing Her Own Rules, Not Becoming a Cliche and the Hurdle of Going Pop
COUNTRY WENT POP
Not since the mid-'70s, when Olivia Newton-John and John Denver were winning country awards, has traditionalism been less evident in Nashville. "For decades, there's been an ebb and flow in country music between traditional sounds and pop," says Chris Parr, who co-manages Jason Aldean. "Taylor has certainly helped to push that pop boundary out a little bit further."
How Taylor Swift Has Ruled the Charts: From 'Tim McGraw' to 'Blank Space'
YOUNGER ACTS GOT SIGNED
With a few exceptions -- most notably Tanya Tucker and LeAnn Rimes -- country labels didn't sign teenagers. But lately, country is spotlighting younger, less grizzled faces, including Maddie & Tae (both 18), RaeLynn (20), Kacey Musgraves (26), Lucy Hale (25) and Hunter Hayes, who signed to Atlantic Records Nashville in 2010 when he was 19.

Swift at her Grand Ole Opry debut on Sept. 1, 2006.

SINGERS WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS
For years, even excellent writers like Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney recorded songs written by other people. Now, says a Nashville insider, labels are "increasingly interested in singers who write their own songs. If you have an artist signed to a 360 deal, the label gets an extra revenue stream from their publishing." Swift tour opener Joel Crouse co-wrote all 10 songs on his Show Dog-Universal Music debut, while reigning CMA new artist of the year Brett Eldredge co-wrote all but one track on his bow for Atlantic Records, Bring You Back.
Taylor Swift's '1989' Aiming for Fifth Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200
ARTISTS EMBRACED SOCIAL MEDIA
In 2008, Big Machine used an aggressive marketing campaign in which it promoted Swift as "the first bona fide country superstar of the Myspace generation." As Myspace receded in importance, Swift adapted; in October, after she used multiple digital platforms to announce and promote the release of 1989, CNBC called her "a maestro of social media." "She saw the power in being actively engaged with fans," says Dawn Gates, VP digital media marketing for Universal Media Group Nashville. "All artists are able to do that. But not all artists are willing."
This article first appeared in the Dec. 13 issue of Billboard.

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4 Ways Billboard Woman of the Year Taylor Swift Changed Country Music

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It might surprise some of Taylor Swift's fans, but country music had a long and remarkable history before her 2006 debut album, and that grand tradition will continue, even if Swift ends up leaving the genre for good. But there's no doubt that she changed the business of country music in several ways.

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Taylor Swift's Grand Ole Opry debut, 2006

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Taylor Swift's Grand Ole Opry debut, 2006

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The singer debuted at this iconic Nashville venue, famous for hosting emerging and iconic country singers.

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We expect Swift to present as a young female musician.  Several years ago, this expectation would have been of a country singer, as her early music and image reflected this.

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Taylor Swift is predominantly a music artist. Although her early career began in country music, she has since progressed and become a hugely successful pop star.
Attached: Taylor's discography, highlighting her musical change over time.

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Explore releases and tracks from Taylor Swift at Discogs. Shop for Vinyl, CDs and more from Taylor Swift at the Discogs Marketplace.