Whether you love her or hate her, everyone is talking about Taylor Swift in one way or another. It’s pretty much unavoidable at this point — she comes up in a variety of circles: music, football and most other social situations one can think of.
I have been in restaurants before where I have overheard people talking about how much they don’t like Swift, despite not being able to name a single true fact about her. She is always being talked about in some way, regardless of context or setting.
In October 2023, Swift became the first person to reach billionaire status from exclusively being a musician. However, her impact extends far beyond the music industry. Her albums almost always top the charts, but she also has a significant influence over politics, the economy and even people’s lives.
When she released her album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift broke a variety of records. For example, it became the most pre-saved album on Spotify, broke records regarding the most single-day streams and became the fastest album to reach one billion streams in Spotify history.
But Swift did more than just break records with this album release. At 2 a.m. on the release day, Swift released 15 additional tracks on top of the standard album, including a track titled “thanK you aIMee.” The capital letters spell out Kim, which many fans assumed referred to Kim Kardashian.
Swift and Kardashian have a long history, dating back to when Kardashian was with Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West). West and Swift had their existing issues, but Kardashian added fuel to the fire when she recorded and edited a phone call with Swift. West was releasing a song that mentioned Swift in a negative light, claiming that he was the reason she was famous, and Kardashian leaked the edited phone call to convince the public that Swift was OK with this.
Eight years later, in 2024, Swift released the “thanK you aIMee” track, which talked about how the Aimee figure — presumed to be Kardashian — bullied Swift and attempted to ruin her life.
Fans did not take this lightly. Not long after the album’s release, Kardashian lost hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, and people began flooding her Instagram with comments like “thanK you aIMee,” “just apologize,” “aIMee you’re doing amazing sweetie!” and more along those lines.
Kardashian isn’t the only celebrity to be impacted by the Swift effect.
Kayla Nicole, who formerly dated Travis Kelce, Swift’s current boyfriend, has faced backlash from Swift’s fans. On April 18, the day before Swift’s album release, Nicole shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) that she is unproblematic and wants to be left alone.
A fan account for Swift responded to the post, saying, “‘Unproblematic’ is not liking tweets hating on your ex boyfriends who you can clearly not move on from, new girl who is successful, as you are too.” Other accounts replied calling Swift’s fans a “truly toxic fanbase.”
What Swift may be most known for, though, is the "(Taylor’s Version)" movement, where she re-recorded her old songs to get back the rights, while also releasing an additional few tracks she wrote along with the album but never released.
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Even Swift’s re-recordings topped the charts, getting more streams than the originals that she put out in years prior.
“The Eras Tour,” Swift’s stadium tour that takes fans through all of her eras in its three-and-a-half hour runtime, is said to have had a significant economic impact, earning more money than any other concert in U.S. history.
Swift’s impact on the music industry is undeniable, but her impact on the world as a whole is significant, as well.
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