On T Swift

Dear Reader…

Let me take you on a journey explaining the events that led up to Taylor Swift’s most conceptualized project, and my favorite album, reputation.

In 2016, The Call™ happened – and if you don’t know what that is, watch this quick explainer video here – and the whole world #Canceled Taylor Swift on July 17, 2016. The trending hashtags of the week were “TaylorSwiftIsOver”, “TaylorSwiftIsALiar”, and the infamous “TaylorSwiftIsASnake, thanks to Kim Kardashian adding fuel to the fire (as if posting an edited video between Kanye West and Taylor wasn’t enough) by more petty tweeting.

In response, Taylor posted the below message to her social media (which received a lot of nasty kickback and the internet deemed her a villain - sigh).

This resulted in Taylor “hiding,” meaning, she wasn’t seen in public for a year. Blondie™ was hiding away with her now-ex-boo (more sighing) Joe Alwyn in London.

A little over a year later, after much speculation of where she disappeared to, Taylor announced her reputation album after posting three Instagram clips that combined created a snake (marketing queen!). She then announced her first album after three years, reputation, which came along with the first single and music video, Look What You Made Me Do — full of snakes, mocking what the press had presumed of her, taking indirect shots at Kanye, Kim and their tomfoolery — becoming her fifth number-one single. It’s pretty genius, honestly, she could have moved on silently but decided to take back her narrative and dominate the charts simultaneously.

Taylor and Tree Paine (publicist and my PR queen) knew exactly what they were doing with this release. It generated so much press, chatter, and the single amassed the most plays in a single day on Spotify. Commercially, the album sold roughly two-million copies in its first week – almost unheard now of as streaming has taken over compared to buying physical albums. Additionally, The reputation Stadium Tour grossed $345.7 million in revenue, making this Taylor’s most successful tour-to-date. It is also the third highest-grossing female concert tour of all time and was the highest-grossing tour ever in the United States and North America (2018-2021).

reputation itself is authentic, raw, self-reflective, petty, cathartic, and all around details her finding love during the chaos while learning to let go of petty shit. If you haven’t listened to the album, you’re missing out.

In the words of Taylor Swift, “There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation.”

Thank you for coming to my TED TALK.