Where would I be without Taylor Swift’s productivity?
An analysis of my 2020-21 Spotify data no one asked for
Being a Taylor Swift fan is a divisive subject. But I’m not one of those cool, obscure music listeners, so I standby the fact Taylor Swift is immensely talented and will try to convince anyone who thinks otherwise.
From the country twang to cottagecore and all the drama in between, I’ve remained a steadfast Swiftie. It’s a life-long title I share with my older sister, who prioritized travelling 4,318 km to London for the Reputation stadium tour just weeks before her wedding. It was unsurprisingly a conversation we had that inspired this project.
While I probably can’t answer the all-important research question “Would I have survived the last year without the extreme productivity of Taylor Swift?” I obviously tried. I downloaded my Spotify music listening data from January 2020 until April 17th, 2021 and looked into just how much I listened to Taylor Swift.
Peak Taylor in a pandemic
Taylor typically came out with an album every two years from 2006 to 2014. Pretty standard for a global pop superstar. Then the pandemic hit. While most of us struggled to put on pants in the morning, Taylor Swift had the most productive year of her career. She gave us the gift that was Folklore in July, 2020 then a mere five months later sister-album Evermore dropped.
Just when we thought we couldn’t take anymore, we were blessed with Fearless (Taylor’s Version), complete with a collection of never-before-heard ‘From the Vault’ tunes. There’s also whispers 1989 (Taylor’s Version) may be just around the corner. While Taylor’s productivity puts everyone to shame, it’s the fruit it bore that’s been a wide-spread source of comfort through some of the darkest days.
For over 10,000 minutes, Taylor Swift was there for me
Even though the pandemic hit in March 2020, I turned to Taylor near the end of the first lockdown when I binged almost 12 hours of her music over four days. But it wasn’t until the albums started to roll out that my listening increased consistently.
December 2020 was a hard month. It was also the month I listened to the Taylor the most. It was a perfect storm of Evermore, a two week quarantine and being home with my sister — and fellow Swiftie — for Christmas.
20% of the time, it’s Taylor Swift every time
After Folklore, if I’m listening to music, there’s a 1 in 5 chance it’s Taylor.
The longest year’s perfect line-up.
It’s pretty normal to binge your favourite artist after they drop out an album. But when three drop consecutively, the binging lasts over 10 months (with no sign of stopping).
To the ones that got me through
I’ve listened to Exile feat. Bon Iver for almost six hours of my life and no, I’m not sick of it. Mr. Perfectly Fine (From The Vault) only came out a month ago and it’s already one of my most listened to songs. No, I’m not embarrassed.
Although Folklore, Evermore and Fearless (TV) dominated my Spotify, a few oldies made their way in. I can’t explain why, but Getaway Car, All Too Well and Mine will always be timeless Taylor to me.
She struck a match
and blew my mind
So, would I have survived the last year without her extreme productivity? It’s hard to say for sure. But a world without Folklore, Evermore and Fearless (TV) is not one I want to be living in, which is an answer in and of itself.
Everyone had something that got them through this year. Mine evidently was Taylor Swift music. Even though she has no idea who I am, and this article probably borderlines on creepy, I don’t know what I’d do without her. Through this year and the last fifteen for that matter.
…and just because I know this made you want to listen to Taylor Swift.
See the process
Although it’s clear I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan, the main reason I did this project was to teach myself python (I swear). Read about the process of working with Spotify data and my first time using python for data analysis.