Taylor

Taylor Swift has become a uncommon pop sensation: A star who strayed completely from traditional music into pop culture and became a pop icon that will be around forever, and will conquer every corner of the globe. Swift removed herself from country music as if she was a second skin and showed that she was the most refined pop sensibility of her generation. Swift was the only musician/singer to take the popular zeitgeist out on the road. Swift's talents were apparent in some of the first songs she released, most notably the neodue Tim McGraw. But on her sophomore album Fearless that came out in 2008, she discovered the person she was and reach audiences across the globe. Fearless wound up having considerable reach not just in the U.S. where it racked up six platinum singles due to the Top Ten hits Love Story and You Belong with Me but throughout the world performing particularly well within the U.K. Canada and Australia. Swift's second album Speak Now, released almost two years after the previous one, built on this success. The album propelled Swift into the spotlight. Her popularity only increased over her next three albums -- Red (2012) 1989 (2014) as well as Reputation (2017) -- and saw her move confidently into a pop realm in which she was already a part. It was not long before she reformulated her approach in 2020's more streamlined siblings Folklore (and Evermore) and stayed in the forefront of pop culture.