Happy Birthday To Taylor Swift!!!

An appreciation post for 'The Music Industry'.

Dear Reader,

Today’s 13th December aka Taylor’s birthday. A very happy birthday to her! May she enjoy her day to the fullest. As a small gift, I’m writing this post to appreciate her as a person, singer, and overall a bonafide celebrity. This post will also be an answer to anyone who tries to demean her in any sorta way. Just read this once and you’ll understand the hype about her. If not, fine, at least I was able to write all the good things about her in a single piece.

I’m writing this on 12th December. Just got to know that Taylor’s celebrating the eve of her 35th birthday by meeting the little ones at the Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas. She’s literally the kindest, sweetest and generous human being on earth. Despite her being a billionaire, she’s always ready to help others. She’s always so genuine and welcoming while meeting anyone. Like today!!

Taylor Swift celebrating the eve of her 35th Birthday with children.

Taylor Swift had a pretty normal childhood but she always had that spark. The spark to do something big, something different and always try to be better at everything she does. She started writing songs and poems during her school years, then became a country singer and eventually, the biggest pop star of the 21st Century. Everything happened organically for her. Yes, her father played a huge role in giving her a kickstart but to be the icon she is, right now, says a lot about her talent, dedication, hard work and supernal intelligence.

She is a writer first and then a singer, so she has always worshipped the art of writing and has never tried to treat it in a shallow or casual way. Even when she was a teenager who was just starting to write songs, no-one could argue about how mature and well written the songs were, given her young age. Argue with the wall on this, but she was, is and forever will be a prodigy, because she’s always, and thinks, ahead of everyone else. As she says in one of her songs called this is me trying, “I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere.” It’s sad but at the same time lets us know that she has always been one step ahead.

Let’s talk about her legendary discography. A hit after hit!! From her self titled album to ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, she has always been at the top of her game. Why?Oh! ‘cause she has always told stories which have been relatable to many. Be it her personal stories or made up ones, she has never failed to impress us by her excellent talent of story telling. To anyone who says, “I don’t think Taylor should be this famous!! She’s just a basic white girl singing about her boyfriends. Why are people crazy over her?”, my answer is, “because she’s RELATABLE!!” Even if you don’t live the kind of life she lives, you haven’t fallen in love, like ever or you’re just not a girl, believe me when I say this. She, will make you relate to her songs through her lyrics. Her songwriting is so good that even if you can’t fully relate to the songs, you can (and should!) appreciate her lyricism (which is unmatched by the way!).

Coming to her songwriting, she has a unique way of writing songs. Most of the artists today, have a bunch of writers to help them in writing a single song. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing but when it comes to Taylor, she has the ability to write a song all by herself without any help from some other person. She’s an artist by all means. She knows how to play instruments like the piano, and the guitar. She has the talent to write catchy hooks and sing striking melodies which makes her songs perfect! She doesn’t need any other’s opinion because she is just as good, all by herself. Speak Now, her third studio album is an answer to all those who said that she doesn’t write her own songs. It’s an entirely self written album. You might have seen many artists doing so in the past. Kate bush is one of them. She’s the sole writer for almost every song she has ever written.

‘Some’ people and by some I mean a lot have always had a problem with her love life. Like, they always have to know who is she dating. And once they know, they try everything to end that relationship through rigorous media scrutiny. Personally speaking, I just can’t understand why does everyone get so mad about who she’s dating? Just because she is dating and breaking up with famous people, should she be attacked on tabloids? Don’t other artists, be male or female have dated and broken up with many people too? Yes, they have and they also sing about their relationships in their songs but the media can always see Taylor doing the wrong thing for singing about her love life. Seriously, the hypocrisy!!!!

Well… she used to get a lot of hate earlier. Now, and especially after 2020, she has always been the media’s favorite ever since. Why? because it’s the popular thing to do now. She did get some hate in 2023 when she started dating Matty Healey, which was in my opinion pointless. The public hated the man for his actions and started attacking her for she was dating him. First of all, she can date whoever she wants. That’s her personal life. We are no-one to lecture her about her love life. Secondly, how is she the bad person when his boyfriend is the one acting like that? But, the news outlets did their thing again. Obviously, it didn’t affect her at all. She’s the biggest celebrity who doesn’t give a damn about what others think about her anymore. As she should. And, don’t get me started on that whole private jet drama. It looks like she’s the only celebrity who uses it. And please try to understand, she can’t fly like us because she’s THE Taylor Swift. The plane would crash with all the commotion and madness which would take place.

In the march of 2023, Taylor swift embarked on the biggest and most successful tour of all time. Yes, I’m talking about ‘The Eras Tour’. In the prime of her career, she decided to do what no-one could ever think of doing. Performing a three and a half hour show, while celebrating each ‘era’ of her life and giving the old and the new fans a moment to enjoy and reminisce the memories they have with her songs. She began rerecording her music after the masters of her first six studio albums were sold to Scooter Braun. This rerecording saga is a big reason for the eras tour to come into fruition. Her re-recorded albums have been more than successful than the original ones, which shows how much her fans (swifties!!) love and support her.

Some people call her a witch because they can’t tolerate a successful woman who’s outperforming everyone in the industry. It just shows the mindset of people who still think, “How can a woman be so successful, intelligent and smart? There’s definitely something wrong with her.” And we swifities, are deemed as a cult (LOL!). Honestly speaking, I would love to be in a cult like this where people are always smiling and supporting everyone irrespective of anything. A cult where music is celebrated for not being just a vocal performance but an emotional, relatable and honest masterpiece. She might not be the best vocalist in the world, but she’s the only one who can sing her songs the best. Her voice is unique and she has improved a lot since the beginning. She has sung all her 46 songs every night all by herself with almost no backing track or lip-sync. That says a lot about her conviction and honesty.

She has a great relationship with her fans like every other artist does. But, she always tries to connect with everyone on a personal level. Every performance and tour she has ever done, she makes it her job to acknowledge every single person in the audience. Trust me when I say this, she’ll make you feel that she’s only talking to you at one moment when in reality she’s talking to a million. That’s how you know she’s real. She can make genuine connections. I’ve never seen her live but whenever I watch her on screen, I feel she’s talking to me, and that’s the best feeling.

Not gonna lie, some swifties are quite dumb. They will always attack anyone and everyone who even say something remotely wrong about her. And that’s understandable. But, constructive criticism should always be appreciated. And this is where some of my favorite swifties come in,

Zachary

,

Madeline Rubicam

, Ally Sheehan, Lauren Lipman and Chats and Reacts. Out of them, Zachary (THE swiftologist!) and Madeline are probably the most critical about Taylor but all of it is in good fun, and let’s face it, we tend to criticise things we love the most for them to become perfect, right? So, that’s a good thing!!

Taylor swift is a comedian. Her dry sense of humor always cracks me up. She doesn’t try to be funny and that’s what makes her such a person to laugh at. She doesn’t hold herself back from being unserious, silly, childish, or even stupid just for the sake of maintaining a persona. That makes her even more relatable ‘cause let’s be honest, aren’t we all like that as well? Well…yes!!

She loves hiding clues in her songs since her country days which gives yet another reason for her fans to always be invested in her discography and lore. They are called easter eggs. They can be a hint about a future project or something from the past or just anything related to her, like her cats(LOL!!) Yes, she’s a proud childless cat lady and what about it? Anyways, she also loves making her fans restless. She has done that a lot during the eras tour by literally edging her fans when it comes to announcing reputation (taylor’s version). We have been clowning about it since I don’t know, maybe three years, and have AGAIN become clowns when she didn’t announce it during her last eras tour show that is, on 8th December. As much as we love to listen new music from her, we also want her to rest for a good amount of time after such a massive tour.

At last, I want to talk about how I became a swiftie. So, I’ve been listening to her songs since 2014 when she became a pop singer. Before 2020, I used to listen to her singles only. I loved them but never felt the need to listen to her albums. However, when folklore, her eighth studio album released on 24th July, 2020, my life changed for the better. Somehow, I felt the urge to listen to it during lockdown. I slept during my first listen and was yawning the entire time during my second attempt. But, there was something about the lyrics that were forcing me to listen to it again and again, even though the production style was not my cup of tea. So, I decided to watch a reaction video on YouTube to understand the lore behind the album. I stumbled upon this video by Ashley Ippolito, click here to watch. She is funny as hell in this but is also trying to make sense of the lyrics and her brilliant artistry. That made me care more about the lyrics (which I never did before. I would listen to radio singles. They are all about the catchiness, not the lyrics). And, during my third listen, it hit me like a truck!! Literally! I was sobbing, praising her lyricism and applauding for her masterful storytelling. After folklore, I decided to listen to her entire discography, and it was the night things changed. I was transformed into a swiftie.

I’m also very thankful to her and her album folklore, that made me fall in love with writing. Without folklore, I would have never gotten inspired to write my first ever poem and today I wouldn’t be on substack. So, I am, and will always be deeply grateful to her. Once again, a very happy birthday to Taylor Swift, who is and forever will be my most favorite billionaire.

Farewell.