Taylor

Taylor Swift was a rarity in pop culture: she was the only celebrity to have moved from the country to mainstream and then to be an international icon of pop culture. Swift removed her roots in the country like they were a second skin, revealing she was arguably the smartest populist singer/songwriter of her generation one that could tap into the zeitgeist make it personal and just as impressively perform opposite. This was evident in her earliest hits especially the Neo-Tribute Tim McGraw but her second album, 2008's Fearless showed a writer discovering who she was and in the process finding a mass audience. Fearless became a massive success and not just in the US, where six of its singles have been certified platinum in the wake of Top Ten hit songs Love Story and You Belong with Me. But it also smashed records across all over the world. Swift reached the heights of stardom after the release of Speak Now. She grew in popularity over the course of her three subsequent albums - Red (2012), 1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017). Swift was now firmly established within an industry she felt was hers to be. When she reduced her sound with the stripped-down releases of 2020, folklore and Evermore, she still remained in the top spot. It was a position that was confirmed with the re-recordings she had made from her earlier catalog, as well as Midnights which was her chart-topping synth heavy 2022 album.