The Swift Effect

TAYLOR SWIFT'S IMPACT IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, POP CULTURE, AND THE WORLD AROUND US

By: Pedro Louza

In 2025, Taylor Swift isn’t just a household name—she’s a cultural force. From her record-breaking, two-year-long Eras Tour to the ten albums she has released in just six years, Swift continues to redefine success in the music industry. But her influence doesn’t stop at charts and ticket sales. Just how far does her impact reach?

Record Store Day Ambassador

After more than three decades, vinyl sales have picked up and have made their way into customers’ shopping carts and homes. Taylor Swift’s name has been associated with what many call the “Vinyl Revival.” 

In 2022, Swift became the first-ever Record Store Day ambassador. Record Store Day started back in 2008, and it is a day where artists release limited special editions of their albums, only available in independently owned stores. People line up the night before, all in hopes of getting the vinyl they hope for.

“When Taylor Swift gives record stores an exclusive, it’s a blessing,” said Sarah Bledsoe from 3Hive, a local Provo record store. “I believe we got around 80 copies of ‘The Lakes’ and we sold out after about 140 people. So about half of the people in line purchased it.”

Swift occupied five out of the eight spots from the top eight best-selling vinyl albums in 2023; she occupied the list with her rerecording of 1989, occupying the first spot, and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and Midnights occupying the second and third spots, respectively. Folklore is in the fifth spot, and Lover in the seventh spot. She was responsible for 2,589,000 vinyl sales just from the top eight list, this does not count her sales from other albums.

Swiftonomics

Taylor Swift is starting to be associated with economics, especially with her two-year-long tour. She’s not only associated with America’s economy but also with other countries’ economies. Her tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, with an estimated $2.2 billion in revenue. 

Large events such as concerts and sporting games bring in people from all around the country and even the world to cities, introducing locals and new people to local business, generating revenue to the local economy, and creating new jobs.

“Concerts help build the communities,” said Lenna Lentz, a Brigham Young University (BYU) business student. “When people go to a city for a concert, they use the city’s infrastructure; they use local trains and transportation methods, for example, and that gives back to the community to build better infrastructure.” 

Concerts and other large-scale events have the opportunity to boost the local economy in the short term, but it is up to the community and the city to use that momentum to continue growing.

Swift’s Political Influence 

In 2018, Taylor Swift broke her silence on politics for the first time, speaking out and encouraging young people to register to vote in a social media post. Following her post, Vote.org says that nearly 65,000 Americans ages 18 to 29 registered to vote in the approximately 24 hours following Swift’s post.

Since then, she has been vocal in every main election. In the 2020 election, she posted a picture with “Biden Harris” cookies, officially endorsing Biden in his campaign for the white house. Again, in 2024, via a social media post, she endorsed Harris in her campaign to be the first female president.

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. (...)” the post read. She finished her post by singing “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady” a jab at Trump’s vice president JD Vance who in a 2021 interview with Fox News said that the US was being run by Democrats and "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too."

“It is great that her fans have someone with similar views to look up to and learn more from,” said Mylee Smith, a BYU political science student. “Most people aren’t knowledgeable about every political topic, so it’s nice to have someone you look up to like Taylor Swift, sharing what she learned so that her fans can form their opinions.”

HERstory

In 2020, she became the first female artist to win the Album of the Year at the Grammy’s three times with her album folklore; later, with her newest album Midnights, she broke her record and became the first artist ever to win the award four times. 

In 2022, Swift made history again, becoming the first act to occupy the integrity of the Billboard Top 10, and in 2024, with the release of The Tortured Poets Department, she broke her record, occupying the top 14 spots. 

“Taylor Swift is definitely going to be remembered, and she’s going to be remembered positively, especially for her ‘Taylor’s Version’ and artists’ rights fight,” said Jena Lathen, a BYU graduate student writing her thesis on Taylor Swift.

Swift is currently on a break following the release of her latest album, which came out almost a year ago on April 19th, 2024, and the conclusion of her “The Eras Tour.” Fans expect the release of her final two re-recordings, Reputation (Taylor’s Version) and Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version), to be released sometime this year. The singer-songwriter, who is known for leaving clues and easter eggs for her upcoming projects, has hinted at those releases but hasn’t announced anything. New album or not, her influence is in areas beyond music proves her power and connection with fans.