Taylor Swift's Genre Fluidity
Disturbing the order of the (musical) universe in "State of Grace"
When people analyze Taylor Swift’s discography – which is a surprisingly common hobby – they often focus on her transition from country to pop music. As the podcast Hit Parade put it, “Taylor Swift’s career is basically unprecedented now, a chart topping pop star, she is the only artist to not only cross over from country music, but also a teen pop success commensurate with her country success, in some ways bigger.” Swift accomplished the impossible, abandoning the staples of country music – like twangy acoustic sounds, references to country’s biggest names (like Tim McGraw, the title of her first single), and themes of small town love, Americana culture, and Midwestern landscapes that dominated her first album– for a more mainstream style of music that topped the Billboard pop charts with her second and third albums.
On her fourth album, Red, Swift demonstrated that she defies genres. As Swift described, “There are like 14 different genres on the album. It’s a real patchwork quilt of genre.” Though Swift was a country-pop star, the album’s opening track, “State of Grace,” is a rock song through and through. Beginning with the lines “I'm walking fast through the traffic lights/ Busy streets and busy lives/And all we know is touch and go,” the song eschews Swift’s early country landscapes – the old dirt roads and starlit lakes of rural America – to situate itself in an urban environment of traffic lights and busy streets. And the upbeat, electric music makes for an arena-rock sound, one that critics described as “sounds heavily influenced by U2 (or even Switchfoot),” a far cry from Swift’s country roots. Even the acoustic version of the song, stripped to vocals and a guitar, sounds more like a rock ballad than a folksy country song or acoustic pop anthem.
The lyrics of “State of Grace” embrace the importance of changing genres. The song describes a romance that allows Swift to change and grow, and that gives her the freedom to explore. “We are alone with our changing minds/ We are alone just you and mean/ Up in your room and our slates are clean,” she celebrates that the relationship allowed her to change her mind just as she changes her music styles. And she notes that the desire to change was a surprise, saying “And I never/ Saw you coming/ And I’ll never/ Be the same/ This is a state of grace.” The song reads like a metaphorical note to her fans, urging them to give her the grace to change her persona and explore new genres of art by praising the opportunity to change.
Swift’s decision to transition between genres allows her to flourish where T.S. Eliot’s character J Alfred Prufrock floundered. Prufrock, obsessed with how others perceived him, highlights how he must “Prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.” In other words, Prufrock must alter his personality to meet the expectations of others – he would have stuck with country music if that was the expectation.Paralyzed by the question, “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?” Prufrock would not have disturbed the structure of the music industry by refusing to fit into a genre like Swift.
After all, as Prufrock understands, Swift’s refusal to conform to a genre represents a massive risk for a young artist. It demonstrates not just a change in the style or content of her work, but also a shift in her public persona and the characteristics of her fanbase. Extensive work into the psychology of musical preference highlights how individual psychological factors, as well as group norms, shape our music tastes. Psychologists posit that our musical preferences reflect deeper personality traits: For example, people who demonstrate stronger degrees of empathy tend to prefer soft rock, while those who prefer heavy metal tend to prioritize logical problem solving over empathy. This makes sense– the art that speaks to us often reveals something about who we are, what we relate to, and our emotional states. In addition, our preferred genres of music reveal a lot about our social circles, ideologies, and class. And, we even tend to share music preferences with our friends. As Oscar Wilde notes, the art we prefer tells us more about ourselves than it does about the artist. He wrote that “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.” Thus, our genre of choice says a lot about who we are and how we act in the world.
By refusing to conform to a genre, Swift encourages her audience to listen to a variety of styles, to dabble in country as well as pop as well as rock as well as rap, even if a particular genre is not aligned with their personality, politics, or social grounds.As more and more people live in homogenous bubbles, Swift’s seamless transition between genres pushes her fans outside of their comfort zones. Though this means that it’s not uncommon for fans to hate one Swift song or album while adoring another, Swift’s diversity of genres fosters disagreement and discourse that can only come with great art. As Wilde goes on to argue, “Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, vital. When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.” When Swift’s fans can disagree vehemently about her work, because they have different backgrounds, personalities, social circles, and therefore genre preferences, it shows Swift’s talent at teasing out the complexities of art and life.