Quote:
Originally posted by Lynx
How is expanding/switching from one popular genre (in the US, anyway) with loyal fans to the most broad and popular genre out there (pop, it's called pop because it's popular) a risk?
That's almost like saying an independant artist is taking a risk by signing to a major label because they might lose their indie fans, but even then that's a bad example because Taylor's country fanbase is hardly comparable to a few indie fans.
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It has been said numerous times in this thread. Fans for each genre are VERY different.
Country fans are very loyal to their artists and support them like crazy. However, they're very quick to turn on an artist if they don't feel they're "truly Country". They see it as selling out. Country music has several of its own award shows, the charts they strictly look at are the Country charts (whereas Pop artists look mainly at the Hot 100), etc.
Pop, on the other hand, relies a lot on the general public for success and hits. It's a broad, mainstream genre...but it is different from Country. The fans are fickle, they aren't nearly as loyal, and they don't buy music as much as Country fans do. General listeners aren't nearly as likely to invest in an artist as Country fans. Taylor was lucky enough to have some of her hits crossover to become Pop hits, but her main foundation throughout her career has always been in Country.
Taylor built a career in Country music, she was highly acclaimed and respected in the Country community. Artists, radio stations, critics, etc all loved her. When she released WANEGBT, she got plenty of flack from Country fans....people were saying she sold out, she isn't Country anymore, etc. When she'd appear on Country award shows, social media was filled with Country fans saying things like "Why is she here? She isn't Country anymore". There are popular Nashville radio DJs who have shown so much bitterness about her since she started releasing Pop stuff (when they used to love her). By releasing straight up, pure pop stuff, she was risking losing Country's support....she was risking having radio not play her Country singles because of all of the Country fans who disliked her after she crossed over, and she was risking not having as much success as she did in the past because they didn't know whether the big numbers of people buying her music were just Country fans, who always buy music more than Pop fans.
plus Dark Horse was Trap. Trap for God's sake. 
