A strong theme throughout Swift’s work is her need to draw from personal experience in order to author her music – a theme, which many would argue makes her relatable, authentic, and the key to much of her success. For this discussion it is beneficial to look at Swift’s role as author through the eyes of theorist Roland Barthes: “(b)ook and author stand automatically on a single line divided into a before and an after. The Author is thought to nourish the book, which is to say that he exists before it, thinks, suffers, lives for it, is in the same relation of antecedence to his works as a father to his child. ” The ideology presented by Barthes furthers the total idea of how Taylor Swift has maintained a successful career and that is through
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It is important to comment how I believe Swift has altered the amount of press materials available on the web from this first period of her career. This might be because her transition from country darling to pop queen has been drastic and if one were to find original interviews with Swift they may be startled by the unbelievable change in persona; almost to the point where it should be disregarded as a byproduct of maturity, but instead makes one question who really is Taylor Swift? Regardless, this portion of Swift’s career is commonly overlooked and instead it is often contested whether or not Swift actually writes her own music; even fellow singer/songwriter Imogen Heap questioned Swift’s authority: “I had assumed Taylor didn 't write too much of her own music (as is the case with many young, extremely successful artists these days who sell a shed load of records), and was likely puppeteered by an aging gang of music executives.” Given the nature of the music industry it might be rightfully so to assume Taylor Swift like her female counterparts who perform lyrics but do not write them, instead Swift has worked diligently to highlight her role as songwriting author. Although this comment from Heap was blogged back in 2014, this is a discrepancy in Swift’s work that she has been battling since the start of her career and potentially proved influential in Swift’s decision to write her third album, Speak Now, entirely by herself with no co-writers
It is important to comment how I believe Swift has altered the amount of press materials available on the web from this first period of her career. This might be because her transition from country darling to pop queen has been drastic and if one were to find original interviews with Swift they may be startled by the unbelievable change in persona; almost to the point where it should be disregarded as a byproduct of maturity, but instead makes one question who really is Taylor Swift? Regardless, this portion of Swift’s career is commonly overlooked and instead it is often contested whether or not Swift actually writes her own music; even fellow singer/songwriter Imogen Heap questioned Swift’s authority: “I had assumed Taylor didn 't write too much of her own music (as is the case with many young, extremely successful artists these days who sell a shed load of records), and was likely puppeteered by an aging gang of music executives.” Given the nature of the music industry it might be rightfully so to assume Taylor Swift like her female counterparts who perform lyrics but do not write them, instead Swift has worked diligently to highlight her role as songwriting author. Although this comment from Heap was blogged back in 2014, this is a discrepancy in Swift’s work that she has been battling since the start of her career and potentially proved influential in Swift’s decision to write her third album, Speak Now, entirely by herself with no co-writers