base talk Is Taylor Swift a legend?

[What_A_Mess]

Duh 

[KatyPrismSpirit]

Yes of course. She one of the biggest female artist ever with one of the most iconic discographies. 

[Lemon]

Considering how much her music has been consumed so far and continues to be used, she is on path to become a musical legend. 

[Brooklyn Baby]

No because she can't dance

[LOTF]

I may be one of her biggest detractors but there is no denying she has definitely carved her way into legend status

[dumbsparce]

Yes but she lacks a flop era. Notice how most girls that are inarguably legends had a low point in their career and only after that people started calling them the title. An oxymoron, I know, but it's legit.

[littlebodybigheart]

she is 100% a legend

[Steve Johnson]

8 minutes ago, dumbsparce said:

Yes but she lacks a flop era. Notice how most girls that are inarguably legends had a low point in their career and only after that people started calling them the title. An oxymoron, I know, but it's legit.

Even if it isn't a flop by any means, you can consider evermore a flop (by Taylor's standards) just to meet your criteria. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Steve Johnson

[James_Dean]

[dumbsparce]

2 minutes ago, Steve Johnson said:

Even if it isn't a flop by any means, you can consider evermore a flop (by Taylor's standards) just to meet your criteria. 

That's why I specified "era" instead of "album". 2020 was another massive year for her. I'm talkig about a Bionic situation that was a distinguishable era of its own that came years after the previous one.

[BGKC]

Even if you insist on saying no, what’s stopping her from reaching that status within the next 5 years? Saying “not yet” knowing she’s full speed ahead is redundant at this point. She has the kind of demand we haven’t seen in decades.  I don’t think she has the cultural significance as someone like Beyoncé or Madonna, but it’s still something significant from a commercial point of view. 

[Aethereal]

She's the most successful female artist in America and the biggest touring force of all time. If she is not a legend then neither is any girl that debuted after Mariah. 

[GreatestLoveofAll]

By technicality yes as much as Id rather not admit it. I'll kiki at her still but she's in uncharted waters career and legacy wise.

[Cruel Summer]

She has been for a while now. The only people that deny it are people who are mad she’s still so huge or who genuinely do not get it. Her discography is acclaimed and widely respected, her commercial stats are at this point without any true equal, she’s culturally relevant and has the media constantly wrapped around her finger, and above all else she’s peaking 17 years into her career, after already having one of the most impressive careers in pop music before that - there’s no real question anymore.

 

As another legend once said: “if you get it you get it, if you don’t you don’t, if you know you know” 

[FightDragonsWithMe]

Yes, she's a legend. 

[By the Water]

That's too small of a title for her tbh

[Goaty]

27 minutes ago, BGKC said:

Even if you insist on saying no, what’s stopping her from reaching that status within the next 5 years? Saying “not yet” knowing she’s full speed ahead is redundant at this point. She has the kind of demand we haven’t seen in decades.  I don’t think she has the cultural significance as someone like Beyoncé or Madonna, but it’s still something significant from a commercial point of view. 

To Taylor’s credit, cultural influence and legacy are much more clearly defined as the decades go on. She’ll always be disfavored on that front when comparing her with the likes of Madonna and Beyoncé because they’ve been around so much longer. 
 

I think it’ll take years for us to fully understand what kind of legacy Taylor is currently carving out for herself.  

[4Real]

Yes.

[JaXXXon]

2 hours ago, Obsession said:

She was already a legend the moment she became the first artist to debut with 1m+ copies four times in a row. And even if you SOMEHOW disagreed at that point, Midnights selling 1m+ copies in the streaming era and her becoming the first artist to debut 10 songs in the top 10 cemented that.

 

But people will argue nevertheless because they don't want to believe she's a legend, but her success is unprecedented and that alone makes her a legend. It doesn't really matter how old she is, or what she goes on to do from here on out. Her name will permanently be in the history books. That's a legend. 

That 10 songs in the Top 10 was impossible to do before streaming because A) buying every single song off an album on iTunes counted as an album purchase for Billboard, so they couldn't chart all at once and B) back in the physical era for that to happen an artist had to release 10 official singles at once and hope people would pay for each individual copy instead of the album but no one even released all songs as singles. 

 

So that little accomplishment can't be compared. That's also why The Beatles' similar feat is more impressive because they had five official singles charting all at once despite being released months apart. The equivalent of that would be if during Taylor's 1989 era, Shake If Off was #5 when Blank Space was #4 and Style was #3 while Bad Blood was #2 and Wildest Dreams was #1 all at once in like 2015 months after 4 of those 5 were released as singles.   

Edited October 21, 2023 by JaXXXon

[on the line]

Legend feels like a downgrade for her actual level.

[JaXXXon]

2 hours ago, shookspeare said:

She's not relevant in the Czech Republic so no

This is such a dumb statement considering Taylor is relevant everywhere and even if she wasn't there are local artists who are legends as well. 

 

And it's not only the Czech Republic. Taylor isn't as big as some of her peers in overall sales and chart performance in Poland, Germany, France, Spain and Japan. But she's still big there so I don't know why you're implying she's not popular in Czech Republic. 

[JaXXXon]

1 hour ago, Chartman said:

Her commercial career will go down in history. 

 

170 Million album units so far and she is pacing to join a top5 with the Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson and Queen in that regard. That would make her the #1 female recording artist of all time. 

 

The Rolling Stones sold north of 35 Million concert tickets in their career, the biggest total in the history of music live entertainment. After the eras tour Taylor‘s total will be 18 Million tickets sold. She can beat them in the future with large global stadium tours.

Taylor is an album seller as most of those you mentioned but had they also incorporated how many times fans listened to their music at home into their units for most of their career (as is the case with streaming nowadays), you'd have them quadruple their sales. 

Edited October 21, 2023 by JaXXXon

[Selenasworld]

Let her retire first or worse

[Cruel Summer]

15 minutes ago, JaXXXon said:

That 10 songs in the Top 10 was impossible to do before streaming because A) buying every single song off an album on iTunes counted as an album purchase for Billboard, so they couldn't chart all at once and B) back in the physical era for that to happen an artist had to release 10 official singles at once and hope people would pay for each individual copy instead of the album but no one even released all songs as singles. 

 

So that little accomplishment can't be compared. That's also why The Beatles' similar feat is more impressive because they had five official singles charting all at once despite being released months apart. The equivalent of that would be if during Taylor's 1989 era, Shake If Off was #5 when Blank Space was #4 and Style was #3 while Bad Blood was #2 and Wildest Dreams was #1 all at once in like 2015 months after 4 of those 5 were released as singles.   

To be completely fair, the Beatles' record is also not analogous to someone doing it in the 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, or 10's. The music industry and market were markedly different in the 60's to any other point afterward. Regardless, I don't think anyone thinks a single chart achievement defines a legend, so nitpicking it misses the point a little - the other member was probably just using it as a landmark moment in her career, breaking an all-time record, that should signal that she's a unique force, commercially.

 

1 minute ago, JaXXXon said:

Taylor is an album seller as most of those you mentioned but had they also incorporated how many times their fans listened to their music at home into their units for most of their career (as is the case with streaming nowadays), you'd have them quadruple their sales. 

Nobody talks about counting things that way because playing a CD in your car or a record at home doesn't generate additional revenue for the artist or label. Streaming does.

[on the line]

1 hour ago, BGKC said:

Even if you insist on saying no, what’s stopping her from reaching that status within the next 5 years? Saying “not yet” knowing she’s full speed ahead is redundant at this point. She has the kind of demand we haven’t seen in decades.  I don’t think she has the cultural significance as someone like Beyoncé or Madonna, but it’s still something significant from a commercial point of view. 

I'd have agreed and said the same thing prior to the Eras Tour but now everything has changed. The Eras Tour infiltrated American culture since the Ticketmaster disaster in 2023, nearly an entire year and still everywhere. She still has a ways to go but this changed it. Taylor Swift today is different.