The millennium’s most excitingly successful and successfully exciting pop queen, Taylor Swift, recently had a chat with GQ about her astronomical rise in 2014, with her fifth studio effort: 1989.
It can be said that the 25-year-old has always been “famous” but 2014 was truly the year when you could look up “mega star” and Taylor Swift’s face would be there. Joining an elite selection of records, 1989‘s sales surpassed 1 million units in a single week. In February the following year, the album had sold over 8.6 million copies worldwide.
So it was about time someone sat the hit-penning artist down and extracted her secrets to success.
One of Swift’s musings that will floor many – she is as wise with her conversations as she is with her lyrics – goes to show what a game changer she has been for pop music and the music industry as a whole.
“To me, the safest thing I could do was take the biggest risk.”
With her wise words and power, this hit-maker pioneered the music industry towards a more equal balance between the artists and streaming services. Just this year, she expressed her distress towards Apple Music‘s three month free trial, which was set to come at no direct financial benefit for the artists and producers behind the material. In a Tumblr post, Swift articulated that “three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing.”
This sentiment shines a light on the music industry’s indecisiveness as to whether a free, digital age of products is really the best step forward, or if products shouldn’t be incentivised in such a way that would disadvantage independent and start-up artists.
Indeed, the safest thing for the songstress to do was to take a big risk, in speaking out against a company that is so embedded in music and entertainment culture today. Her wisdom is admirable and with that wisdom, she has changed the game for a new wave of artists and producers.
As if her musical talents were not enough, Taylor is a pioneer.
She also recently revealed that had she not pursued a career in music, she would be working in marketing. It doesn’t take a professor to connect the dots between a woman who has a way with words and a career in word manipulation.
Her seeming timelessness has kept her singles at the top of the charts – or at least, very close to it – even after an entire year has passed since her most successful album yet.
Such a monumental peak at music stardom begs the question: “What next?”
The songstress has since spoken out about future plans following such a game changing year in 2014.
“I think I should take some time off.” she said, “I think people might need a break from me.”
Pondering her leisure activities during her proposed break, Swift suggested “[hanging] out with my friends, [writing] new music – maybe not… I don’t know.”
The news comes at a time when several other acts of her calibre – namely Ed Sheeran and One Direction – have also planned to call it quits for now.
With all these global super acts putting their feet up momentarily, we can all take a breather and perhaps focus on an upcoming artist.
No matter what happens in the future, one thing’s for sure:
Taylor Swift has set the record straight.
Take a look at Taylor’s recent photo shoot for GQ magazine:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUoOdDXDEow]
Comment below or tweet us what you think about Taylor’s words at @CelebMix!