CfP: Special Issue of Popular Music and Society on Taylor Swift (Deadline: 15.03.2026)
Special Issue of Popular Music and Society on Taylor Swift
guest edited by Sarai Brinker, Kate Galloway, and Elizabeth Scala
Popular Music and Society invites article proposals for a special issue examining the cultural, artistic, and societal significance of Taylor Swift, with emphasis on exploring the many languages of her work. Swift’s songwriting, album releases, videos, and performances employ a number of languages: musical, poetic, literary, and visual, among others. Through examining these languages, we aim to consider ways in which Swift’s work is made meaningful in different contexts of reception, contributes to shaping identities, and resonates with global communities.
Taylor Swift has emerged as one of the most defining cultural figures of our time. Since her debut album in 2006, Swift’s artistic output has explored wide-ranging musical genres from country to pop to acoustic folk. She began her career as a teenage country music sensation with Taylor Swift (2006). She continued showcasing her talent as a singer-songwriter and storyteller with subsequent albums Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), and Red (2012). Swift’s pop album 1989 (2014) showed her transition to pop music. As Swift has matured, her albums have “slinked” through an array of musical styles, including rap and R&B on reputation (2017) and the more acoustic, introspective, and narrative-driven approaches heard on folklore (2020) and evermore (2020). More recently, Midnights (2022) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024) feature synth-pop and electro-pop. Language, lyricism, and narrative figure prominently throughout Swift's discography, the success of which establishes her status as one of the most prolific, critically acclaimed, and influential storytellers, artists, and songwriters of our time.
The global impact of Swift's work is profound—so much so that Sam Lansky referred to her as the “Poet Laureate of Pop Culture” in his profile of Swift for Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” issue in 2023. Much of Swift’s success is rooted in what is conceived as her authenticity and commitment to storytelling through her art; her work is often considered as reflecting her own lived experiences in ways that resonate with audiences around the world. As she tells her stories, Swift invites listeners to examine their own lives, sparking broader conversations related to gender, power, identity, relationships, and legacy. Yet, her work has been interpreted in divergent and strikingly contradictory ways. It has been embraced and critiqued by feminist and queer communities, opportunistically appropriated by far-right groups, and condemned by religious organizations. These contradictions raise important questions about the sociopolitical function of music, the limits of authorial control, and the entanglement of art and commerce in a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.
These questions underscore the significance of Swift’s work, which is explored in a growing body of scholarly works, such as the special edition of Contemporary Music Review, "Taking Taylor Seriously." Scholars across fields, including musicology, literary studies, sociology, media theory, linguistics, and cultural studies are working to study Swift’s influence on contemporary culture and society, and we welcome multidisciplinary approaches and interpretations.
In this special issue, we invite contributions from a broad spectrum of disciplines examining the varied attributes and usages of language in the music of Taylor Swift and related media. We invite articles that engage with Taylor Swift’s body of work and its societal implications, providing analysis of her work and its impact on music and society.
Contributions are welcome on topics including, but not limited to:
Language Studies: lyrical style, poetic analysis, narrative voice
Media Studies: media representations, digital presence, music videos, social media discourse
History, Memory, and Legacy: Swift’s role in cultural memory and heritage, impact on future generations
Archives, Collection, and Cultural Heritage: archival practices, re-recordings, music as cultural preservation
Analytic Perspectives: musical and sonic analysis, literary analysis, album structure
Intersectional studies (gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, disability, etc.)
Expression of Identity: authenticity and self-representation through art
Literary Studies: storytelling, narrative form, intertextuality
Narrative/Storytelling through Music: thematic unity, song cycles, narrative arcs
Music and narratives of social and cultural change: cultural critique, activism, social discourse
Swift’s contribution to and impact on the music industry
Music Videos, Documentaries: visual narratives, cinematic approaches
Prospective contributors should submit a 350- to 500-word abstract and a brief CV by October 1, 2025, to s[dot]brinker[at]ttu[dot]edu. Selected authors will be notified by December 1, 2025. Full manuscripts, written in English and between 6,000 and 10,000 words, will be due by March 15, 2026.