To the surprise of no one, corporate media darling Taylor Swift was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” on Wednesday. In the lead-up to the announcement, Taylor Swift and her Eras Tour have dominated media headlines. Her hype has gotten so out of control that Harvard is now offering a class on Taylor Swift.
The question we all should be asking ourselves is why? Sure, her concerts have gone gangbusters this year, she has an undeniably devoted fan base, and her music is wildly well-known. As a 24-year-old woman, I know a thing or two about the Taylor Swift effect. Like every other female around my age, I listened to “Shake It Off” and “Our Song” in high school. Taylor Swift’s music, particularly the older stuff, evokes a palpable nostalgia shared by millennial and Gen Z women everywhere. But just because her music is popular, and for some sentimental, does not mean it’s good.
Swift’s melodies are objectively uncomplicated and repetitive. YouTuber and pianist David Bennett found that she’s used the same chord progression in more than 20 of her songs. “It’s not that uncommon for a songwriter to write more than one song using a particular chord progression,” Bennett explained in one video. “They might write three, four, maybe even five songs using the exact same order of chords. However, Taylor Swift takes this to a whole new level.”
Even hard-core Swift fans can admit there’s some truth to this. Watch the below and tell me it doesn’t sound like every Taylor
