True, I see what you mean. Maybe she just thinks that while she's young, she wants to try some popper sounds, because she can do more singer/songwriter stuff whenever. I think Taylor just likes to do a lot of different things and try different sounds, and she's spacing it out a bit.

Good article. I agree, she has the same album rollout campaign everytime, and it's gotten really predictable. I personally wanted her 5th album to not come out in October just so she would shake things up a bit (pun intended).

Hopefully her 6th album is released in a less conventionally Swift manner.

Best thing to come out of this thread, to be quite honest.

Well, when you've built a career in country music with country fans, it is a risk to move to Pop. Especially since most country fans will jump ship the second an artist steps out of their genre.

WANEGBT & IKYWT hardly received any backlash.

I will say her blatantly going pop and kind of abandoning country is a huge risk for 1989, though. But "risk" is subjective. I imagine with Max Martin, the pop she's doing will be highly hook-centric and ready for radio.

You obviously haven't heard Speak Now

From country fans, she absolutely got backlash for those two songs. When she went to Country award shows during the Red era, if you searched her name on twitter, you would see tons of tweets saying "Why is she here? She isn't country anymore." "She sold out, she shouldn't be here" etc.

Taylor's sold more Albums in the US over the last 8 years than any other artist. Seems pretty stupid for criticising her over her album release campaigns. Obviously she is doing it right. If it's not broke then why fix it? It is those who are struggling who need to try something else. Beyonce only tried something different because her previous album disappointed.

Why would Taylor change her release strategy when Red has gone 4 Plat and is one of the biggest selling albums this decade in the US? Her release strategy obviously works.

I think some of you are thinking she's putting out Pop music because she is intentionally trying to get hit songs and play it safe, and I completely disagree with that. She's built her career as a country artist and she wants to do some Pop....I wouldn't expect her to come out with some left field, completely groundbreaking Pop stuff since its not what she usually does.

Taylor's never been about breaking ground sonically though, she's very much a songwriter type who puts her feelings on paper and turns them into hits.

I think the whole pop edge is definitely her taking a risk - not that big of one, given that she's flirted with the genre too closely for it to be wholly jarring, but risky enough that she can't be sure her entire fanbase will be here for it. She's young and she wants to have some fun - let the girl do just that. Everyone bashes her for writing songs about love - though as a young adult, there's hardly anything else personal she could write about effectively - and now when she cuts loose, people still bash her. And yes, this is cutting loose - it's a song about just dancing.

Like honestly, people who expect Taylor Swift to put out some sort of Ray-of-Light-esque transformative pop album are in need of a serious reality check. Taylor is all about lyricism and genuine feelings and apart from some flirtations here and there, she has never been about introducing new sonic concepts to mainstream music. It's perfectly okay to form a career based on putting out genuine heartfelt material - it's still artistry, it's still admirable. Not everything has to be about changing the music industry.

Yes she plays it safe but it works for her so...