I actually don't think she'll start to see a decline until she's in her mid-50s. Most pop girls today won't have to experience ageism in the same way earlier generations did, since the world is less ageist today than it was back then

Of course she will. I'm sure she'll always been in the limelight, but she won't be mainstream forever. Mainstream culture itself is fracturing because we have curated media and entertainment feeds. You don't have to be exposed to anything you don't want to be exposed to. I've never heard Fate of Ophelia.

The older she gets the less likely she will have the ability to reinvent herself like she did for Folklore and capture a new audience. She will obviously always have her core base who will grow older with her. Will probably take her a decade or so to flop as long as she doesn't do anything truly bad in her personal life to betray her fans.

For the sake of some ATRLers sanity, I guess I'd sure hope so! But I have my doubts.

A lot of you guys are citing Taylor's fascination with youth as a major flaw for the future of her artistry? Yall are fundamentally misunderstanding what that represents to the fanbase. It's not going to be embarrassing when she's 45 singing about being 15, it's going by to be magical, and nostalgic, and comforting, and reflective, introspection in retrospect is her specialty. The older she gets, the better her tales will age. Like fine wine fables.

she will one day, just not now.

Yea lol it happens to all legends.

54 minutes ago, Aaron said:

Every single artist in pop history has flopped eventually. In Taylor's case it might not happen for another decade or longer, but time comes for everyone I fear. It's all relative, though, and I'm sure her eventual 'flop era' will look like other artists' peak.

Exactly, Invincible was a flop for MJ in 2001 and 30 was an underperformance/huge decline for Adele, even though they would've been successes for other artists.

I think Taylor will "flop" for her standards in her early 40s but won't have a big flop until her 50s.

I think Taylor will be releasing platinum-certified albums until she dies to be honest. It's just a matter of them debuting with 100-200k copies instead of 4 million.

She CULTivated the most fickle fanbase. Girls in their teens, and girls in their twenties by and large right now.

Once the braces come off and they stop writing in their diaries every night before bed with a mug of hot chocolate as they skim through their sticker book collection, and actually discover real cock, and start having kids, Taylor will become an afterthought for them.

I do think it's true that ageism is not as much of a factor for her because she hit new career peaks in her 30's, but still, if she continues to release music until she's in her 50's and 60's, I do feel it's inevitable that eventually her sales will start declining. That won't take away from her legacy in any way though, it's just historically happened to every legend before her.

6 minutes ago, BJ1998 said:

She CULTivated the most fickle fanbase. Girls in their teens, and girls in their twenties by and large right now.

Once the braces come off and they stop writing in their diaries every night before bed with a mug of hot chocolate as they skim through their sticker book collection, and actually discover real cock, and start having kids, Taylor will become an afterthought for them.

She started her career 20 years ago and most of those teen girls are currently pushing 40 and still supporting her. I would say her fanbase is the opposite of fickle

Of course she will, and considering how she's so obsessed with charts and numbers, it's going to be glorious.

Yes, but we will never know because she will cover it with bots on digital and her staff buying physicals then being paid back as "bonus".

Edited January 19Jan 19 by MrMayhem

5 minutes ago, Toxic Love said:

She started her career 20 years ago and most of those teen girls are currently pushing 40 and still supporting her. I would say her fanbase is the opposite of fickle

Lets not act like during the pandemic she didn't garner a huge amount of young girls as fans. For whatever reason all those endless hours stuck inside, girls flocked to Taylor and boys flocked to Joe Rogan and Qanon.

Edited January 19Jan 19 by BJ1998

No. Not in the literal sense.

Relative to her current standard, ofc she will. But Taylor won't have trouble sending albums to number 1 and to platinum status for the rest of her career/life. She also won't have trouble adding billion+ grossing tours. She's built the most dedicated, engaged fanbase in history. That fanbase is now having and raising children on her music the way fathers/sons were raised on Star Wars.

People still commenting that people will outgrow her when her career is 20 years old always sends me .

Edited January 19Jan 19 by DevilsRollTheDice

everyone flops, eventually... it's just part of the industry and it comes with being so successful–no one gets to be on top forever

the moment she is deemed uncool to stan to, yes

1 hour ago, Superhero said:

Critically she already has with Poets and now TLOAS.

Next album will be #13 so stans will be extra hype for it but unless she pulls another Folklore (which Taylor didn't even expect to be so massive), there will be a decline. How fast it happens depends on how Billie's career will go and any other new artist who tries her style and shakes up the charts.

Even if she declines, there's a massive gap between her declining from her current state to outright flop

If it's not measured by her own standards, she has seemingly a very long mainstream career ahead. I mean she could decine 90% from her first week sales, it would be a 400k opening, bigger than almost anyone opening these days. She could chart just 3 weeks at #1 with a brand new album instead of 12 or 17, that would still be top tier accomplishment. Or just have a mid tier hit instead of a smash hit, but mid tier in your 40s is still a big deal all considered.

Taylor would have a soft landing, basically having a career on industry norms, like Adele going down from 25 to 30.

Well this is her peak.. She'll start to decline from here.. although it'll be a slow decline. Plus she's 36 and engaged- possibly about to start a family soon and shift the focus off music.

Her fans know this which is why they went so hard for the Show Girl album.

32 minutes ago, James_Joint said:

I do think it's true that ageism is not as much of a factor for her because she hit new career peaks in her 30's, but still, if she continues to release music until she's in her 50's and 60's, I do feel it's inevitable that eventually her sales will start declining. That won't take away from her legacy in any way though, it's just historically happened to every legend before her.

I mean even Michael Jackson, the guy who people say has billions of fans, only sold a fraction of Thriller, with Invincible when he was 43 years old.

She already flopped with her past 3 albums

She will flop in the next 5 years. I just can't imagine high school teenagers seeing Taylor music as relatable when she is in her 40s. Will she still get hit singles and successful albums? Yes but not in the same level she does now for sure. Why would teenagers support Taylor in her 40s? When they could easily support Billie or Olivia or a new generation of pop girls by then.

Yes.

Her tours will still be huge though.

She has several flop singles to her name ??