walking upstream…
Taylor Swift
photo: iheartradioca · cc by 3.0 ↗Taylor Swift
sourcesWikipedia
Taylor Swift arrived in Nashville as a teenager chasing the 1990s women of country radio and became one of pop music's defining songwriters, moving from confessional country (Fearless, 2008) through synth-pop reinvention (1989, 2014) to indie-folk introspection (folklore, 2020). Her music leans on hyper-specific, diary-like detail and narrative songwriting, and she has become the most commercially dominant live and recording artist of her era.
the sound in question
2008
Love StoryTaylor Swift
walk the tributaries ↓
Shania Twain1990s · Country pop / Pop / Country
Swift has repeatedly named Twain as her single biggest musical influence, crediting Twain's country-pop crossover songs with making her "want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything" as a kid, and with pointing her toward Nashville in the first place.
listen: upstream & heresource: Taylor Swift on Faith Hill, Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes ↗
1997
You're Still the OneShania Twain
2006
Our SongTaylor Swift
listen forPlay "You're Still the One" and notice how a plainspoken country lyric rides a glossy, radio-ready pop production, then put on "Our Song" — Swift's debut single runs the exact same trick, a homespun story dressed in an anthemic country-pop chorus.
Faith Hill1990s · Country pop / Country
Swift told CMT as far back as 2007 that the reason she ever picked up a guitar and a pen was the great female country artists of the '90s, naming Faith Hill specifically alongside Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks as music that "completely drew" her into the genre.
listen: upstream & heresource: Taylor Swift on Faith Hill, Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes ↗
1998
This KissFaith Hill
2008
FifteenTaylor Swift
listen forListen to the big, aching vocal hook on "This Kiss," built for both country and pop radio at once, then play "Fifteen" — Swift chases that same widescreen, string-swelled balladry, just aimed at a coming-of-age story instead of a love-at-first-sight one.
The Chicks1990s · Country / Bluegrass / Country pop
Swift has said the Chicks (then the Dixie Chicks) showed her "female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show," shaping both her insistence on writing and playing her own songs and her arena-scale live-performance ambitions.
listen: upstream & here
1998
Wide Open SpacesThe Chicks
2008
FearlessTaylor Swift
listen forPlay "Wide Open Spaces" and hear the close vocal harmonies and acoustic-string interplay under a wide-open, anthemic chorus, then put on "Fearless" — Swift keeps that same guitar-forward, big-chorus country-pop structure while pushing the storytelling into her own diary.