Top 13 Reasons I Love Taylor Swift

Today is Taylor Swift’s birthday. Little known fact: Taylor Swift is exactly one month older than me. She was born December 13, 1989. I was born on January 13, 1990. This isn’t the first time I talked about Taylor Swift on this blog and it probably won’t be my last.

Here are the Top 13 Reasons Why I Love Taylor Swift. Why Top 13? Because 13 is her lucky number (as well as mine).

She writes all of her songs. Excluding her cover performances and recordings, 99.9% of Taylor’s music was written by her and a handful of others. But these songs are never “written by committee.”
She’s a fangirl. She loves cats and watches shows like Gray’s Anatomy and Law and Order: SVU. (I still remember my Law and Order phase.) And now she has a tumblr. But I really wish she could delve into tumblr’s geeky side and get into the craziness that is SuperWhoLock.
She’s never afraid to be herself. With album titles like Fearless and Speak Now, Taylor had confidence that I wish I had back when I was in college. And she continues to show that same bravado now by writing off her critics and making fun of herself. Speaking of which…
She has the kookiest sense of humor. Not only does Taylor love to laugh at herself, she goes out of her way to do so. Like her performance as Natalie on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show and taking on Tumblr’s joke about how she’s actually named Becky. I consider “Shake It Off” to be a comedy act in and of itself, especially the rap bridge. How is the rap bridge a joke? Because now that she’s fully in the pop genre, she’s poking fun of songs with the obligatory rap bridge without the need to rent a rapper to make the song sound tough. Plus, I can’t resist the line of “the fella over there with the hella good hair.”
She knows how to turn a bad situation around. Back when Taylor performed with Stevie Nicks at the Grammy’s, her live performance was less than stellar. One particular critic was particularly scathing. But instead of giving up, she wrote a song. And then she won a Grammy two years later for that very song. And she performed that very song at the Grammy’s.
Her secret messages. I love the secret messages. Each message told a story underneath the song it came from. But by far 1989 has the best hidden messages because for the first time, they tell a story of their own.
The specific lyrics. Taylor is a master storyteller, plain and simple. And whenever I listen to her songs, I imagine a story in my head. Even the very pop-sounding “Shake It Off” tells a story in spite of the lyrics being less specific.
Her fashion sense. Taylor is a girly girl and makes no apologies for it. I love that her outfits never tend towards the stripperific (excluding the most recent Victoria’s Secret concert). She dresses smartly and sensibly, but it’s never boring or trashy.
She loves her fans. She always goes out of her way to make sure that each fan that shows up at her concerts gets a small moment with her. That being said, why are the tickets for the 1989 tour so gosh darn expensive?!
She’s smart about money. Expensive tickets aside, Taylor has some business savvy. Her parents both work in the financial industry, after all. By removing her music from Spotify, it prompted fans to buy her album in its physical form. Taylor is currently the only artist of 2014 whose album hit platinum. Try beating that, Beyonce!
She always represented women’s empowerment, even before she took on the label of feminist. She’s one of the highest paid singers in the industry. She knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to get it. She stands up for herself and isn’t afraid to call people out on their actions.
She’s not afraid to try new things. Her songs were genre-breaking, going beyond country and pop. Not to mention deciding to go full pop after 4 albums of being “country-pop.” She took a huge risk in moving to New York City and embracing this new image, but it paid off.
She learns from her mistakes. In spite of what the media says, many of Taylor’s songs actually apologize for whatever she did. She failed so many times in love, but learned something from each heartbreak. And now she embraces the single life and focuses on making good friendships.