It seems inevitable at this point.
Love or hate her, there’s simply no denying that Taylor Swift has a special and unique place in country music history. Before she became the pop megastar that she is today, she had a LOT of success in the genre. Simply put, she took the genre by storm as a teenager with the release of her self-titled debut album in 2006.
Throughout her limited time in the genre, which mainly spanned four albums and six years in total, she snagged an impressive 12 CMA Awards, six ACM Awards and seven Grammys. Notably, she won Entertainer of the Year not once but twice at both the CMAs and ACMs as well. This doesn’t even mention all the Billboard records she broke along the way — most of which have now been broken recently by none other than Ella Langley.
Of course, these wins were propped up by smash hits that still remain key pieces in her discography today, such as “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me,” “Our Song” and “All Too Well,” which would receive even more love after the 10-minute-long “Taylor’s Version” was released back in 2021.
Her sudden departure from country music in 2014 with the release of her Grammy-winning 1989 album obviously left a bad taste in many mouths. Though you won’t see me calling myself a Swiftie, a lot of the criticism was ultimately unwarranted. All things considered, she handled the transition gracefully, never bad-mouthing the genre and ultimately returning on multiple occasions.
This was highlighted back in 2020 when she performed the severely underrated track, “betty,” from her alt. folk album, folklore, at the 55th ACM Awards. Additionally, she’s collaborated with the likes of Chris Stapleton and Keith Urban upon the “Taylor’s Version” re-release of both Fearless and Red in 2021, teaming up on “vault tracks,” “I Bet You Think About Me” and “That’s When.”
Recently, Swift has continued to firmly cement herself in the pop world, scoring massive albums with Midnights, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT and last year’s The Life of a Showgirl. Despite the mind-boggling success over the past decade, it’s always been speculated whether she’d ever make a full-fledged return to country music.
She added more fuel to the return to country music rumors earlier in the year when she released “I Knew It, I Knew You” for Pixar’s Toy Story 5, which was specifically marketed by Disney as the star’s “return” to the genre.
Undeniably, the song has been successful for Swift. Upon its release, “I Knew It, I Knew You” would become the first song by a female artist in Mediabase history to be added by every country radio station in its first weekend. The push ended up paying dividends. Not only did it become the second song in history to debut inside the Top 10 on country radio, it would also score Swift her first #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart since 2012’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (excluding “Taylor’s Version” re-releases). More importantly, it would go #1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 for two consecutive weeks at the end of June, being the last song to dethrone Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” as of writing.
In case the release of “I Knew It, I Knew You” wasn’t enough, Swift sat down for a rare interview with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. as part of the Icon Sessions. Here, Swift would admit that she’s growing to “love” her country origins more and more at this stage in her career, noting she’s “more loyal” to them now.
“I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get, and I want to honor them more and more. I feel more tied to them, more loyal to them. The people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer, that all happened in Nashville.”
While, of course, this isn’t a direct confirmation that she is, in fact, returning to the genre outside of one-off releases such as “I Knew It, I Knew You” and “Taylor’s Version” re-releases of past records, including her debut album which is speculated to be on the horizon soon, it makes a whole lot of sense.
Undeniably, country music is, for better or worse, at its absolute peak right now commercially, highlighted by the fact that five “country” songs populated the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in history earlier this month. While there’s a lot to be desired among those hits, such as Morgan Wallen’s egregiously pop-influenced “Be By Now” and Stella Lefty’s incredibly controversial “Boston,” the fact remains that the U.S. is incredibly favorable to country (or country-adjacent in these cases) songs at the moment.
Given Swift’s history with the genre and the simple fact that she’s always been one of the most savvy artists from a business standpoint, a return to country music doesn’t just feel need; it feels like a must for her at this point in both her career and the music industry.
Watch the full interview here:
