Taylor Swift

Advanced level English 

  Born in the town of Reading, Pennsylvania, on December 13, 1989, Taylor Swift is unquestionably the most influential musician of her generation. Arguably she is the most significant female singer ever, and has had more influence on the music of her age than any other artists since the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan half a century earlier.

       Her success is largely down to the absolute support of her family, and notably of her parents, who were the world's first Swifties. From a very early age they recognized that their daughter had exceptional talents. It helped that Taylor's mother worked in marketing, and her dad was a financial manager; they recognized an opportunity when they saw one, and knew how to develop it.

    As a small child, Taylor was encouraged  to follow her artistic interests. She loved storytelling and singing, and was particularly fond of Shania Twain, the Canadian singer who helped put pop into American country music. By the age of 11, she was already writing her first songs and performing in public. Convinced that their daughter really did have talent, her parents moved the family home from Pennsylvania to Henderson, near Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of country music. For two years Taylor went to Henderson High School, but after that she was home-schooled, as it was becoming harder and harder to reconcile the demands of a regular high school education with her musical commitments.

    Taylor's career took off when she signed with a new independent record company, Big Machine Records at the age of 15. In 2006, she released her eponymous debut album, demonstrating her talent as a singer-songwriter, and quickly gained popularity on the country music scene. The single “Tim McGraw”, about a popular country music singer, which Taylor had written when she was 15, received great critical acclaim. Two years later, Taylor's second album "Fearless" catapulted her into stardom . With hits like “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me,” Swift received multiple awards, including four Grammys.

By the time “Speak Now,” her third album, came out in 2010, Taylor Swift had firmly established herself as a major artist in both country and pop music. The album, entirely penned by her, included hits like “Back to December” and “Mean.” In true country style, many of Taylor's songs told a story and were personal, endearing her to her growing number of fans .

But while country music was largely an American genre, popular in the USA but not so popular elsewhere, Taylor was acquiring fans all over the world. And echoing the way that Bob Dylan, with his album Like a Rolling Stone transitioned from folk to rock, Taylor's  2014 album, "1989," marked her transition from country music to the mainstream of world pop music. The album's lead single, “Shake It Off,” reached no. 1 worldwide and marked the start of a new stage in her career.

As her career flourished, Swift also discovered the downsides to being a celebrity. In 2016, public controversies, including her high-profile disputes with other celebrities, forced her to reflect on the darker side of celebrity culture. Swift used these reflections as fuel for her next album, “Reputation” , a more introspective work that explored themes of love, betrayal, and resilience. Yet in 2019, Swift surprised fans again by releasing "Lover," an album that returned to the romantic themes of country music, while reflecting on important issues such as women's rights and other social causes.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 prompted many artists to reevaluate their music, and Swift was no exception. She released two surprise albums, “Folklore” and “Evermore,” returning to a calmer folk sound that contrasted sharply with her previous works. These albums received widespread critical acclaim all over the world, even though they marked a departure from her mainstream pop sound.

In addition to her musical achievements, Taylor Swift has also made headlines by campaigning for a fairer music industry. Her highly publicized disputes with record labels about the ownership of her music catalog led her to re-record her earlier albums, including "Fearless" and "Red." This move was viewed not only as a reclaiming of her artistic identity but also as a powerful statement in support of artists' rights.

Throughout her career, Taylor Swift has won more major awards than any other contemporary musician.  Yet, beyond the media hype, her true legacy lies in her ability to connect with millions of fans through her music and stories. Whether through her memorable lyrics or through speaking up on important social issues, Swift has become a voice for a generation, a worldwide generation of fans from children and teens to parents and grand-parents.
    "I just love Taylor Swift," says 12-year old Marianne... "And my Aunty Kay's a Swiftie too! She flew over to London from Canada, just to go to her latest gig at Wembley Stadium. She came all that way for the concert!"

Difficult words:
commitments: things that one has to do -  released: brought out, published -  eponymous:  using the author's own name -  debut: first -  acclaim: praise, good reviews -  catapult: throw, project -  award: prize -  to pen: to write -  mean: not generous -  genre: style, type of music -  to transition: to change, to move towards -  mainstream: for everyone -   introspective: inward looking - to betray: to be unfaithful to -  achievement: success -  move: an action - hype:  hyperbole, exaggeration - legacy: what is given to the world



Copyright notice.
This resource is © copyright Linguapress
This text may not be reproduced on other websites nor in printed form without written permission from the publishers. Reproduction is authorised exclusively for personal use by students, or for use by teachers with their classes.

---

 

Student worksheet

Exercises:

    * Vocabulary: Select the nearest equivalent for the following words and phrases used in the article:
     A. unquestionably: 1 probably,  2 certainly, 3  inevitably
     B. arguably: 1 it can be said that, 2 certainly, 3 it is not true that.
     C. reconcile : 1 to respect at the same time  2 to forget  3 to choose between
      D. took off: 1 failed, 2 really started 3,  was not affected
      E. critical acclaim: 1.criticism  2 anxiety 3 approval
      F. endearing her to: 1 making her less popular with 2 damaging her reputation with, 3 making her more popular with
      G. prompted: 1 caused, 2 prevented, 3 delayed.

    * Written expression: Free composition.
Imagine ten questions that you would like to ask Taylor Swift, and the answers that she might give.  For the questions, use each of the following prompts at least once.

Complete the words
Normally exercises ask you to complete words by adding the ending needed; in this extract from the article, it is the beginnings of a number of words, the prefixes or  lexical elements, which are missing. Try to complete the extract from memory. In some cases, choose the correct answer from the dropdown list of suggestions.



Teachers:
Wherever in the world you are teaching, it is unlikely that your students have never heard of Taylor Swift. Indeed some of them may well know a lot more than you do on the subject. As a warm-up exercise,get students in your class who know nothing about Taylor Swift to ask questions about her to those who claim they do know something. If the class is well balanced between Swifties and non-Swifties, this can be done by students working in pairs, or small groups.

Note: expressing years.  For a year like 2016, the normal expression is "twenty sixteen"; however one can also say "two thousand (and) sixteen", though it is less common. The "and" is used in British English, not in American English.

Words: There is quite an interesting usage of adverbs in this text. Look, in particular, at the very first adverb, unquestionably, and ask students to break it down into its constituents:  un - question - able - ly. This word is a great example of how elements combine in English to form words - in this case one prefix indicating negativity, one lexical root (question.... which is actually made up of two elements, the lexeme quest, and the nominal suffix -ion), the adjectival suffix -able, and the adverbial suffix -ly that turns the adjective into an adverb.
    Word completion exercise: the aim of this exercise is to make students think about words or vocabulary: For the gaps with drop-down choices, the choices allow students to discover, or think about, different words that are not connected, but end in the same way...  such as flourish, polish, and finish.... The word flourish will be new for some students, but is an interesting word, as the flour in the word is connected to the noun/verb  flower , but has nothing to do with the noun flour, the substance used to bake bread....

About Linguapress.  Founded as a print media publisher in 1980, Linguapress is today dedicated to providing free high-quality EFL / ESL resources online for all, anywhere in the world. Teachers and students are free to use all our online resources, within the limits of our copyright policy (basically, don't copy our resources onto any other publicly-accessible platform or website). To help Linguapress keep providing our wealth of free resources, and keep them free for anyone to use, teachers and schools (and students too, of course) can support us by sharing Linguapress.com with  friends and colleagues, or liking or sharing our Facebook page, or buying our acclaimed books for yourself or your school.

© linguapress.com