Taylor Swift: a cross-generational icon

Debuting as a 16-year-old independent singer-songwriter in 2006, Taylor Swift has had a long-lasting career throughout almost her whole life. She has released 11 studio albums and four re-recorded albums, she has a movie and she is everywhere.

In an industry ready to discard a woman by the time she’s thirty-five, Swift says, you have to keep constantly finding new facets of yourself that people find to be shiny. That means she’s been long enough under the spotlight to become an icon to more than one generation of fans. Let’s see them.

Millennial era: Her first cluster of fans were millennials - people generally born from 1981 to 1996. This generation came of age in a time where the entertainment industry, including music, began to be affected by the Internet.

Taylor Swift was born in 1989, and she has lived this change as an artist. She has seen both the peak and end of the album era and the rise of the Internet in the industry. From making most of her profit on selling albums, she has moved to investing on big-production live shows, streaming services and having an online presence.

Her fans have also built complex communities in digital places, empowered by social media like Twitter or Facebook to connect and to share their fandom. Fandom might be shared online, but its effects are felt in person, when women travel to meet each other or hang out before their favorite artist's show.

Interestly millennials were taught to buy into their passions thanks to growing up in the golden age of franchises, from Harry Potter to Twilight to the Hunger Games. As these fandoms grew, millennial women increasingly found themselves playing a major role as audiences and consumers. This is especially true regarding Taylor’s music - as a millennial herself she tells the stories of American millennials through her songs in the manner Bruce Springsteen represented American baby boomers. There’s no wonder why her fandom workships her lyrics with such passion.

Fans turn to Taylor’s music to soundtrack their biggest life milestones or events — breakups, graduation day, birthdays, weddings… or any moment at all, really.

Gen-Z era: Her most recent group of fans are Gen-Z - a group most frequently being defined as people born from 1997 to 2012.

Although nostalgia is normally associated with the elderly, this sentiment is now commonplace among those who came of age during the 2010s and 2020s. Struggling with present realities, Millennials and Generation Z long for the past, when life seemed simpler and less stressful, even if they have themselves never experienced it. Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore had a huge role in this movement, and the creation of a subculture amongst this generation called “cottagecore” that found its peak during COVID.

Most importantly of all Taylor Swift is an artist who has been a constant in the lives of Gen-Z for as long as they can remember, one who has connected them to music, and one whose words have changed meaning as they grow older. Her second studio album, Fearless, was a commercial success when older Gen-Z were just 11 years old. Her songs about love and heartbreak were there for them to discover when they were just starting to connect to those feelings.

Not many young musical artists can boast more than two or three albums in their career. Taylor Swift has released 11 studio albums and four re-recorded albums. Re-recording the albums was the only viable option to gain full ownership of her music, but it also helped bring back to life her older songs and make younger audiences rediscover them. Her superpower is being able to write lyrics that so many people can identify with at various points in their lives.

Gen Z, not millennials, hold the title now as the most fervent supporters of Taylor Swift in many countries. This may be because older millennials have stepped away from fandom and are now focusing on newer steps in life like family and work. Also most Gen Zers say Taylor Swift could sway their vote, which has been influential in US elections.

Generation Alpha: Gen Alpha refers to the cohort born from the early 2010s to the mid-2020s. They are babies, toddlers and pre-teens that are growing up in a world dominated by Taylor Swift’s music. Despite being this young, many of them have gone to her Eras tour shows all around the globe, and are learning how to speak or a passion for music through her lyrics.

Taylor’s music has been everywhere, as her success is growing every year. And if these kids haven’t found her songs through streaming services or friends, they have been listening to her with their millennial or gen-z mothers.

And that is because there is something different about this artist. Something about her lyrics and shows cuts across generations, especially bonding mothers and daughters in a way that is rarely seen. Millennial mothers like Swift’s music, and see her as a role model. She reclaimed her music catalog, stood up for herself against sexual assault, encouraged tens of thousands of people to vote, got them reading poetry again, and became a powerful woman hosting the world's largest music tour all while seemingly staying a kind person.

She’s also creating the kind of community and world they want for their daughters. Her fans are encouraged to feel their feelings, share their emotions, work hard, and have fun. And her music opens the opportunity to share moments together before and after shows by making and exchanging friendship bracelets and creating elaborate and clever outfits.