Twenty years ago, 16-year-old Taylor Swift released her debut single, Tim McGraw. To understand everything that has come since – the confessional genius, the brand strategy, the carefully constructed persona – this three-minute-and-fifty-two-second country ballad is a good place to start.
As we argue in our edited collection Taylor Swift: Culture, Capital & Critique, Swift is a cultural phenomenon worthy of critical attention – a lens through which we can examine culture and power in contemporary life.
