Taylor

Taylor Swift, the rarest pop star, is one who has managed to cross over from country music to mainstream pop culture, becoming an iconic figure in the pop world. Swift also took on every continent in the process. Swift shed her country roots as though they were part of her skin revealing that she was perhaps the savviest popular singer/songwriter in her generation someone who was able to harness the current zeitgeist and make it personal and also perform opposite. It was apparent from her first songs, especially in her neo homage towards Tim McGraw. On her second release Fearless (2008) Swift revealed a singer/songwriter who was beginning to understand herself. The album was hugely successful and not just in the US and six of the singles were declared platinum, on top of Top Ten hit songs Love Story and you Belong with Me. But the album also enjoyed a great reception across all over the world. Swift was able to consolidate her progress through Speak Now almost two year after. The popularity of Swift only grew over her next three albums - Red (2012) 1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017) -- and found her moving assuredly into the realm of pop that she had already been a part of. Even when she scaled back her approach with 2020's stripped-down siblings' folklore and Evermore she continued to be atop of the world of pop, a position that she maintained through re-recordings from her earlier catalog, as well as Midnights which was her top-charting synthesizer 2022 collection.