base talk Why is there such a massive gap between Taylor and every other girl?

[chaklux]

Her music are largely safe, non- polarising, easily digestible, basic and relatable which makes it easy it got to connect to large audience.
Although her fanbase age group is more diverse than people give her credit for, among the current pop stars , she still has the highest number of Gen z and Gen alpha stans, and that’s where the sales and chart success lies.

Imagine being a 12 year old and you like Taylor Swift and want to go for her concert. One of your parents will also want to go with you to create memories and as chaperone. This is partly why are eras tour is massively successful. 
 

Someone like Beyonce for example, her fan base are mostly millennials who are older. They are not buying 4 copies of one album to form a clock. They don’t have time to stream her music on repeat like Gen z will do. They can go to her concert alone and don’t need chaperones , hence less tickets. Most will find the idea of going to a cinema to watch a concert movie ridiculous compare to Gen z. 

[wildsidenormani]

The wise Azealia Banks once said "McDonald's sells a lot of burgers but no one is telling them that they're the pinnacle of cuisine and taste". 

 

Make of that what you will 

[BrandNewBrandon]

This isn't anything new. Adele was doing it to everyone (including Taylor) in her imperial phase. How is doing over 3 million PURE copies sold in her first week compared to the average doing 300k not even a bigger gap than Taylor's current 

 

When there's a #1 pop girl there's usually a gap between her and the rest. 

Edited March 10 by BrandNewBrandon

[Communion]

Most acts either die or lose commercial standing by the time they enter 'legacy' status where their discography is given a kind of one-over by the public.

 

By Scooter approaching the situation how he did, she was effectively able to frame it as though that saga of her career died. She was able to pivot from someone she was at odds with buying her music to forcing a public discourse of her work (with the added benefit of a more sympathetic light given the politics at play with a sleazy male exec buying a woman's music out from under her). She  used the new curiosity for future re-recordings to do an artistic pivot that started renewed interest in her after Lover had (slightly) diminished returns compared to reputation. 

 

She as a musician and businesswoman knew what levers to pull to spark further public interest (surprise release and then a surprise sister album to said release, a blockbuster return to form) and keep her fanbase continually plugged in (mythical 10 minute version of a long-time fan classic) to optimize it all. 

 

The opportunity rarely ever comes for artists to take this path (and labels have actively made recording contracts tighter in the wake of her re-recordings, to no fault of her) that the constant comparisons now seen of her and others are silly and largely redundant, but navigating said success and the cliff's edge she was slowly approaching with Lover requires a business savvy that has to come directly from her at the end of the day.

Edited March 10 by Communion

[Carla Rosón]

21 minutes ago, Blue. said:

Yes, because her multiple sold out stadiums in South America were full of rich white girls of course.

In fact, yes

[Rep2000]

Great talent, beautiful talent

Great work ethics, beautiful work ethics

[Gorjesspazze9]

I mean she has always been a top artist. She was selling Diamond records even in 2010. It’s Really the way she maneuvered during reputation era and with the whole Re-releases & Folklore Blowing up during the pandemic. I give credit to how she knows what her core fanbase likes, and responding quickly to criticisms. 
 

think about it, I was sure her dominance was gonna slow down with the rumors of her dating that 1975 guybut she flip that narrative around quick and got Ice Spice on a rushed remix. Then then she dates that likable football player. Like it’s very obvious she knows how to clapback fast. She is the perfect pop star for this Modern age. The new pop girlies could never have conservatives, casuals, and Stan’s all come together with the level of pop appeal and lyricism. So in short it’s a lot of factors like consistency, quality, and her fandom is as parasocial as Kpop Stans.

[Rep2000]

9 minutes ago, wildsidenormani said:

The wise Azealia Banks once said "McDonald's sells a lot of burgers but no one is telling them that they're the pinnacle of cuisine and taste". 

 

Make of that what you will 

Joke on you, since out of all the popgurls, Taylor is the only one she stans. Wise one indeed.

[Material Girl]

i know she was doing numbers before folklore/the pandemic happened but that album and just that moment in time in general when everyone was isolated really solidified an intense parasocial relationship between her and her fans that changed the trajectory of her career and lead to how massive she is now imo 

 

she has also a very safe image and makes very safe inoffensive music so she has a huge demographic reach

Edited March 10 by Material Girl

[Strawberry Bubble]

29 minutes ago, Odette Violet said:

She's palatable, non threatening and easy to digest

 

Like any other mpg? We are talking about pop music, you don't need to be sophisticated or pretentious in order to have good music. 

[Strawberry Bubble]

12 minutes ago, wildsidenormani said:

The wise Azealia Banks once said "McDonald's sells a lot of burgers but no one is telling them that they're the pinnacle of cuisine and taste". 

 

Make of that what you will 

We stan pop girls; they are not good examples of sophisticated music, omg. You can make the 'McDonald's argument' for ANY big artist, literally.

[CallumDavies]

She’s clearly popular and talented

 

But the narrative the injustice that led to the rerecordings is also an important factor. People are invested in that as a multi-year project. A lot of people associated buying her albums with sending a message to the music industry etc. 

[Comedor]

Have you seen pics of her concert + movie theater? A big part of her fan base are children.

[NEX]

The strength of her catalogue and the relatability and the universality of the experiences that she sings about together with the ability to consistently craft great melodies. It makes you come back again and again to her songs depending on the mood you're in, and everytime you do you find something awesome in those lyrics. 

 

Beyonce kinda should be up there with her for similar reasons (very strong catalogue, hard working, super talented), but Beyonce is either extremely unrelatable or pretty disingenuous in most of her lyrics. It's either she's the super-goddess that nobody can touch (super unrelatable) or she's some struggling, underpaid peasant like the lyrics of 16 carriages might suggest (i.e. very disingenuous lyrics that are not the reflection of her billionaire status life). So listening to her causes me to roll my eyes quite often, so I don't come back to her music as much. 

 

Other pop girlies are generally too vague and faceless in their approach to their lyrics, so there's no strong bond between the listener and the music - it's easy to move on to the next best thing once you are tired of any particular songs, because those lyrics didn't touch you deeply enough. I mean listen to Houdini or Training Season... it's like umm ok - literally not a single line to hold on to. 

 

Taylor brought something from country music into pop music that hasn't been done before - the specificness of lyrics which are genuinely about her own personal experiences, but which are universally relatable. More and more people discover her appeal and her popularity keeps growing. She won't fade anytime soon, because her popularity is not based on a personality cult and it's not based on quick little hits either. Her audience dives deeper into her rich catalogue to search for more hidden gems of which there are plenty. That's why she consistently charts half a dozen of albums in the upper reaches of the charts.

[nadiamendell]

I mean I’m not really a fan of her music but she clearly works very hard and is super driven with her career and music. The other pop girls are taking 4+ years to release new music while she releases multiple albums a year, which is smart in the age where the public has such short attention spans.

Edited March 10 by nadiamendell

[PrudenceHCharmed]

Because teenage girls are listening to her singing and thinks they can relate to her songs singing about her exes or some kind of fairy tale love story; it's crazy because we have songs about female empowerment and yet they choose to be sad over a guy 

[Mocha]

when all the other pop girls retired and were replaced, she kept going 

 

she never takes a break longer than 2 years 

[NEX]

8 minutes ago, CallumDavies said:

But the narrative the injustice that led to the rerecordings is also an important factor. People are invested in that as a multi-year project. A lot of people associated buying her albums with sending a message to the music industry etc. 

Didn't Kesha have a similar narrative of not being able to record/release/own her music + the whole Dr Luke scandal? Anyone could have had that kind of battle with their label and re-release their music, but to 0 success. Taylor's case is not pity streams or pity sales. People are genuinely invested in her music and so far she hasn't let people down. 

[Dialamba]

Taylor was at one point of her career where she was stagnant until Folklore. 
The re recording era helped so much because it was a “tribute” to her peak era, a win for the old fans and the new fans/ audience who weren’t into Taylor during her pre-1989 era. 
Also let’s be honest she releases more music than the other girls who take break every 4 year while she doesn’t give the time the GP to move on from her. 

[Mitsuki]

There's just so many factors lining up, It's hard to give a proper answer without leaving behind a reason or another. 

 

But, in my opinion, the core of all is because narrative and marketability sells more than music itself. We've seen many cases of artists  who had explosive returns or debuts due to anticipation built around something the public was curious to know what they had to say after something going on their personal life gaining visibility and even viralizing. The thing is, the hype often lasts just one song or one album. 

 

However, Taylor consistently has a different narrative to sell her albums. There's always a different situation gaining exposure in her life or something people are curious about her that feels like each album is a book from a saga where she's the main charater. It's a different romance or a different break up, or "enemies" she found out along the way wanting to bring her down or how she overcome hardships. Somehow, even through singing about personal experiences is nothing new for singers-singwriters, Taylor makes It extremely marketable and interesting to listening to songs and building theories about her life up. 

 

And It does help the songs are easy-listening, good and relatable topics to a big part of the audience, regardless of It's generation, demography. 

[MidnightsAtPeace]

She's an extremely talented MUSICIAN, she has insane work ethics, she is also passionate about music and her career. She's a very smart businesswoman who is fully familiar with the industry and how it works. 

She listens to her fans more that all of the other pop girls (maybe combined lmao), she just knows what her fans want from her and she delivers.

She's also super unpredictable in term of her moves, she never tries one thing twice, she's polite, sweet, and minds her own business and supports other artists.

Edited March 10 by MidnightsAtPeace

[Josh]

36 minutes ago, Erreur2 La Nature said:

She is extremely basic, bland and relatable, which is what the gp loves the most.

Then why didn't that work for the other basic, bland and relatable? 

[Erreur2 La Nature]

2 minutes ago, Josh said:

Then why didn't that work for the other basic, bland and relatable? 

Which ones ?

[futuresuperstar2023]

Because she is  a YT lady that makes safe music and appeals to teenagers and Basic human beings. Taylor swift is actually a pretty woman but she is not a threat because she doesn't sell sex or have sex appeal. We can't just act like the reason why she is so popular is all because of talent.

[BrandNewBrandon]

11 minutes ago, =NEX= said:

Didn't Kesha have a similar narrative of not being able to record/release/own her music + the whole Dr Luke scandal? Anyone could have had that kind of battle with their label and re-release their music, but to 0 success. Taylor's case is not pity streams or pity sales. People are genuinely invested in her music and so far she hasn't let people down. 

Kesha has never been in the tier of MPGs. She was very big but always trailed behind Gaga, Katy, Taylor, Rihanna, Beyoncé. If someone like Beyoncé or Gaga had such a fight with their label it would cause massive traction and attention as well and success in one way or another. 

 

You simply cannot compare Kesha to Taylor. Two different leagues.