It's never happened before. Never before has Time Magazine ever named an artist as its Person of the Year. But in 2023, the choice fell on pop idol Taylor Swift. The 34-year-old singer and songwriter is being celebrated for being both an amazing writer and the heroine of her own story. By Claus Vesterager Martinus Photo: Getty Images
Taylor Swift is in good company. Every year since 1927, the American Time Magazine has chosen a person who - for better or worse - has made headlines during the year. In 1949 it was Winston Churchill, in 2008 it was Barack Obama, and in 2017 it was the #MeToo movement.
The 95 previous awards have all gone to politicians, presidents, kings or organizations that have made a difference. Usually men. Wallis Simpson (Duchess of Windsor and wife of King Edward VIII), Queen Elizabeth and Greta Thunberg are the few women who have won Person of the Year honors.
In 2023, it was Taylor Swift who got her portrait on the cover of the prestigious Time Magazine. The final issue of the year chronicled her life - and the many records and groundbreaking manifestations she has managed to create in her relatively short career. And perhaps her efforts to get young Americans to vote in the presidential election. Perhaps that's why she's certainly not loved by former President Donald Trump. Not least because she has been highly critical of his policies - and because she gets thousands of young people to register to vote.
Taylor Swift is in good company. Every year since 1927, the American Time Magazine has chosen a person who - for better or worse - has made headlines during the year. In 1949 it was Winston Churchill, in 2008 it was Barack Obama, and in 2017 it was the #MeToo movement.
The 95 previous awards have all gone to politicians, presidents, kings or organizations that have made a difference. Usually men. Wallis Simpson (Duchess of Windsor and wife of King Edward VIII), Queen Elizabeth and Greta Thunberg are the few women who have won Person of the Year honors.
In 2023, it was Taylor Swift who got her portrait on the cover of the prestigious Time Magazine. The final issue of the year chronicled her life - and the many records and groundbreaking manifestations she has managed to create in her relatively short career. And perhaps her efforts to get young Americans to vote in the presidential election. Perhaps that's why she's certainly not loved by former President Donald Trump. Not least because she has been highly critical of his policies - and because she gets thousands of young people to register to vote.
She is also the highest-earning American artist of the last 10 years. She's the artist who has sold the most tickets on opening day of a tour (she sold over two million tickets when sales for her tour, The Eras Tour (2023), started!), she's had more number one albums on the charts than any other female artist - and she's managed to create a fortune of over 1.1 billion dollars. Not bad.
But first and foremost, she's an artist. And despite the fact that pop culture is hardly considered Fine Arts, perhaps Taylor Swift's music and stage performances have had a massive impact on the entire music industry, popular culture and, most importantly, the US economy. She dominates cultural developments on the American, and perhaps even global, stage. Her music, life and public image make headlines around the world. And many media outlets describe her journey from teen idol to pop icon - and how it's the first time since the 20th century that an artist has achieved such immense popularity. As early as 2013, New York Magazine proclaimed Swift to be "the world's biggest pop star" and argued that her stardom has defied all established patterns. Swift "falls between genres, eras, demographics, paradigms, trends."
Time Magazine compares her unflinchingly to other pop stars such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Madonna. As a songwriter, the comparisons are Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell. These are certainly not small shoes to fill.
Country-star
Taylor Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Her parents were big music fans. In fact, she was named after one of her parents' favorite musicians, Carole King, known for hits like You've Got a Friend and Something in the Way She Moves.
From a very young age, her parents spotted an unusual musical - and perhaps especially linguistic - talent. She loved the various Disney movie soundtracks. "My parents realized early on that when I ran out of words, I would just make up my own words instead." Her mother, in particular, has had a huge impact on her artistic development. "She gave me confidence and reinforced my fascination with writing and storytelling."
Storytelling was the element that drove her towards country music in her early years, where she drew inspiration from big names like Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton and Joni Mitchell. Mitchell's album Blue (1971) in particular is one of Swift's favorites. "Rarely has the human mind been explored so precisely in music," she says.
In her teenage years, she often traveled to New York for singing and music lessons. And after an audition at RCA Records, she was signed to a 'development contract' at the age of 13, which meant regular trips to Nashville, Tennessee. It was still country music that drew the young Taylor Swift.
And in 2006, she released her first single: Tim McGraw. A country ballad she got the idea for in a math class at Hendersonville High School. Taylor Swift knew that she and her boyfriend, who was a senior at the school, would break up at the end of the school year when he left for college. A song that accurately describes the complicated emotions she was harboring.
It also became something of a signature hit for her, which she often performed quietly, sitting on stage with her guitar. It was a song that spoke to a teenage segment that didn't exactly love classic country music.
But the image of the blonde teenager alone on stage with her guitar and her pure mezzo-soprano voice immediately had all the other record labels looking for talent that could do the same. This made Taylor Swift realize she had to come up with something new. "Anyone can imitate you. Then you have to change yourself." And so, she did. Moving away from the clean-cut country style to a more exploratory and experimental pop. But she still spans many genres. Capable of delivering quiet ballads and fast-pumping dance music. On stage, it's as if her high school drama lessons really come through with a fast-paced stage show that delivers every time.
The retrospective
Her first single - and subsequent albums - were all released via a small label: Big Machine Records. A total of six albums were released before she signed with Universal Music Group in 2018.
But this was to be the start of a grueling battle. Big Machine Records - almost 80% of whose revenue was attributable to Taylor Swift - was at one point acquired by a rival company. And they retained ownership of the master recordings of her first six albums. This led to a long-running dispute.
The solution for Taylor Swift was to embark on a retrospective project where she simply re-recorded those albums. And with massive success, in fact. Last year, the Billboard 200 reported that she was the only living artist ever to have five albums in the top 10!
The Kanye West feud
And despite the artistic success, it was a bit of a crisis. But perhaps not as big as the feud she's had with Kanye West for almost a decade, with Kim Kardashian on the sidelines. It all started back in 2009 when Swift won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video. During the ceremony, West shouted that Beyoncé's video was better and that she deserved the award.
That moment set off a chain of events: Swift's song Innocent, West's song Famous, a leaked - and heavily edited - video from Kardashian and an album by Swift that addressed her own reputation. As Time magazine describes it in Swift's 'Person of the Year cover story' published on December 6, 2023, the moment went on to "shape the next decade of both artists' lives."
"Public opinion has been pulled up and down the flagpole so many times in the past 20 years. But it took a toll on me when Kim Kardashian took an illegally recorded phone conversation, edited it and used it to say I was a liar. I moved to a foreign country. I didn't leave my house for a year. I was afraid to talk on the phone. I pushed most of the people in my life away because I didn't trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard," Taylor Swift told Time Magazine.
But one of the things that brought some light into the darkness was the many fans, the Swifties, who supported her and left thousands of negative comments on Kardashian's Instagram profile.
Economic impact
But regardless of the feud with Kanye West, there is no doubt that the Taylor Swift brand is exceptionally rich. The fortune is gigantic. 1.1 billion Dollars. But she also comes from a family that is not only super rich, but also knows a thing or two about money. Her father was a stockbroker for a large, well-known American financial firm, while her mother has a background as a marketing manager.
She often jokes that she "owns a small family business." But it's not so small. In fact, the economic impact of a Taylor Swift concert with 70-80,000 people in attendance is so huge that it affects the US national economy. And of course, it also gives the local economy a not insignificant boost.
When she kicked off The Eras Tour in 2023 at a large stadium in Glendale, Arizona, she generated more revenue than Super Bowl 2023 held at the same venue. Fans flew in from all over the country, stayed in hotels, ate and drank, and bought everything from sweatshirts to limited edition LPs, with the average concertgoer reportedly spending nearly $1300. Swift sees the expense and effort that fans have incurred as something she needs to pay back: "They had to work really hard to afford the tickets," she says. "I wanted to deliver a show that was longer than they ever thought it would be because it makes me feel good when leaving the stadium."
The "Taylor Effect" was noticed at the highest levels of government. "When the Federal Reserve cites you as the reason economic growth is up, that's a big deal," says Ed Tiryakian, a finance professor at Duke University.
Taylor Swift is riding a wave of success. Her epic Eras tour has already delivered 66 critically acclaimed concerts in North and South America. This May, it kicks off again with concerts in Paris and concludes with three concerts at Wembley Stadium in London in mid-August.