No, I was not raised on a Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, nor did I date Joe Jonas from July to October 2008. But I still relate more to Taylor Swift than any other artist of this generation and continue to have her songs on repeat. And I'm not alone; Swift currently has over 47 million monthly listeners on Spotify and continually breaks records with her chart-topping hits.
But maybe you're not a Swiftie. Perhaps you think that 10 minutes is far too long for anyone to listen to a single song. Perhaps you're still obsessed with Ultraviolence by Lana del Rey or can't get over Harry Styles' release of As It Was. But I want to tell you, non-Swiftie, why Taylor means so much to Gen Z and why you should respect her (even if you don't like her).
In 2006, Swift released her debut album, Taylor Swift. Her first recording off that album was "Tim McGraw." We hear 17-year old Taylor recount her first time falling in love under Georgia stars at night. Then, she looks back years later at the now-failed relationship, hoping only that her memory will last in his mind whenever he thinks of Tim McGraw. Taylor Swift also included hits like "Teardrops On My Guitar" and "Our Song," which feature her slight Southern drawl and a childlike naivety. At this time, most of Gen Z was in early elementary school, just as wide-eyed and impressionable as young Taylor. This was the beginning of our journey of growing up with Taylor's music.
2008 Taylor achieved global fame with her album Fearless and Fearless Platinum Edition. I have memories of listening to "Fifteen," "White Horse," and "The Best Day" as a third-grader, all of my friends gathering around a portable CD player. In an interview that year, Taylor explained that at this point, "I had become much more comfortable writing about myself," a level of confidence that shows through lyrically.
In "Fearless," Taylor asks, "And I don't know how it gets better than this/You take my hand and drag me headfirst/Fearless." Taylor's narrative reflects an essential shift in her life; she is no longer simply a child wondering what love would be like, and she's experienced a few heartbreaks and is now fearlessly in search of her one true love.
It seemed at the time that these songs spoke straight to the heart of our generation as we related to nothing more than nerdy Taylor in the "You Belong with Me" music video, dying for the person we like to realize that they too belong with us. In "Love Story," she plays off a Romeo and Juliet theme to display what an emotional rollercoaster the progression of falling in love can be. These hits contributed to her fourth Grammy win in 2010 when Taylor also became the youngest musician to win Album of the Year and Entertainer Of The Year at the CMAs.
But nowhere is Taylor's all-American high school romance story more on display than in 2010's Speak Now, which featured hits like "Sparks Fly," "Last Kiss," "Mine," and "Dear John," an ode to her relationship with fellow musical genius John Mayer, who played "dark, twisted games" during their time together.
At this time, Gen Z was just entering high school years, learning alongside Taylor what it means to be disillusioned with love, be afraid of change, and suffer losses of different kinds. In "The Story of Us," she tells an ex-boyfriend, "I'd tell you I miss you, but I don't know how/I've never heard silence quite this loud."
These universally-relatable yet deeply profound lyrics are part of Taylor's lyrical charm. For many of us, Taylor's songwriting becomes even more relatable as we get older and experience more of life. We recognize that we used to sing lyrics that we can only now truly appreciate and understand.
The release of Red allowed us to fully embrace our angsty teenagerhood in all of its hormone-driven glory with songs that you can't help but scream like "I Knew You Were Trouble," and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Many lyrics from Red are simply masterful, like those that convey the deepest pains of heartbreak like "And I know it's long gone and that magic's not here no more/And I might be okay but I'm not fine at all," to celebrating the joy of finding someone truly special "We blocked the noise with the sound of 'I need you’/And for the first time I had something to lose."
Musically and lyrically, Red allows Swifties to embrace their rebellion while still holding their grief and hopelessness at the same time. In Taylor's world, it is quite alright to be "Happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time."
1989 brought us back to where it all began. Not only did this album include three Billboard Hot 100 number ones with "Shake It Off," "Bad Blood," and "Blank Space," it served as a unique reinvention of Taylor from a young country artist that the world fell in love with to an adult pop star. This rebirth of Taylor's musical image shaped many of our high school years. When discussing 1989 with a few Covenant friends, several mentioned how they remember "I Know Places" as their favorite song in 10th grade and "Clean" getting them through their devastating high school breakup.
It takes a unique combination of skill and awareness in an artist to capture the hearts and minds of so many people for so many years, to write songs that people listen to and with which they resonate. While space limitations prevent me from explaining the genius of Reputation, Lover, Folklore, or Evermore, rest assured that these albums are just as masterful as the ones discussed above.
Swift's music encapsulates every aspect of the journey to find love, at times in a storybook fairytale way and in a crying-on-the-bathroom-floor mental breakdown. As 18-25 year-olds, her melodies allow many of us to feel understood, validated, and even comforted on a profoundly personal level. This is why Taylor deserves our respect; themes from her different genres of songwriting, the way that she talks about love, and even the way that we think about key milestones in our life (like turning 22) are influenced by her music.