I know what you are all thinking: "Are you crazy? Taylor Swift? Underrated? Do you live under a rock or something?" To answer your burning questions: I might be a little crazy, but I don't live under a rock.
Taylor Swift is arguably one of the most famous singers in the world. With over 100 million followers on Instagram, over 80 million followers on Twitter, a worldwide sold-out stadium tour, album sales that break countless records within 24 hours, 10 Grammy awards and constant media coverage, she's basically music royalty. Regardless if you like her or not, you know the words to 90 percent of her songs and you can't escape her no matter how hard you try.
If you're not a fan of hers, maybe the word that comes to mind is "overrated," instead of underrated. And I won't lie, I can understand why you'd use that word to describe her, but you're wrong.
Taylor Swift's talent is completely overshadowed by the narrative that the media has created surrounding her. Her love life seems to be a hot topic, mostly because she allegedly writes fairly obvious songs about her ex-boyfriends. It's kind of a running joke that whenever she is pictured with a new guy, her entire next album is going to be centered around him. She is constantly taunted by media over this fact, painting her in a light that makes her seem like she's an *insert incredibly demeaning insult about women who like to date.*
On top of that, media outlets constantly portray her as someone who likes to "play the victim" and use that manipulation to her absolute advantage. Everyone knows what happened between Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian West and Kayne West; it was all over the news. From that incident, she gained this reputation of being a "snake," which of course the media ran with. Then there was this whole internet fiasco where everyone was attacking Taylor on social media, claiming that her career was over and whatnot.
Those are the types of things that people tend to focus on when it comes to Taylor Swift, which, as I mentioned earlier, completely overshadows just how talented she is. What the media should be focusing on is the fact that almost every single song on every single album is either co-written by her or written solely by her. Now, I haven't done any extensive research, but I can guarantee that there aren't many, if any, artists out there who write that much of their own music. If you ever take the time to take a look at her lyrics, they're pure genius. I'm serious, some of them are just so poetic, clever and gives you chills.
Also, people are aware of the fact that she used to be a country artist. Now, not to beat an already dead horse, but females in country music have it rough. The gender-bias in that genre of music is clear in radio airplay, the yearly nominations for their award shows and who said awards eventually go to. If you compare the careers of the most popular male artist in country music to the most popular female artist in the country, their careers are significantly different. It is just more difficult for a female artist to blossom in that genre of music. (Which, my anger around the situation is a story for another time). Yet, Taylor Swift had basically broken that stereotype, quickly becoming one of the most popular country artists of all time in her young, short career. That is another thing the media fails to write about.
To make a long story short, Taylor Swift's talent isn't appreciated enough; she's everywhere, but she's everywhere for the wrong reasons. The drama and slander surrounding her name takes away from her talent and who she is as an artist.
