Taylor Swift is America’s Artist of the Year: So, What’s Next?

by The Cowl Editor on October 18, 2018


Arts & Entertainment


A Record-Breaking Tour and a Successful Discography Set High Expectations

by: Anne DeLello ’20 A&E Staff

After taking a few years off from touring, Taylor Swift has come back this past year with a vengeance. Her sixth album reputation has been wildly successful, selling over two million copies in the United States alone. She also wrapped up her tour that began in May, which brought her across the country performing to sold-out stadiums. 

Taylor Swift performing on the reputation tour.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN SHEARER/TAS18/GETTY

This past Sunday night, fans across the country watched as Swift won Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards (AMAs) for her most recent album. 

This has been a pattern for Swift since she came onto the music scene at just 15 years old: write albums, tour, win awards, repeat. However, as Swift wraps up touring for her fifth album, fans cannot help but wonder what will come next.   

Taylor Swift performing on the 1989 tour.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL BOCZARSKI/LP5

 Swift started her career with her self-titled album Taylor Swift in 2006, and after that she released an album every two years until 2014: Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989. According to the Inquirer, all but the first of these albums sold over two million copies, like reputation, within months of coming out. Fans were drawn to her right off the bat, and this popularity only grew as she continued to come out with new music.  

With her reputation stadium tour, Swift has hit a new high, being both the first performer to play back-to-back nights at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, and the first female performer to play three nights in a row at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. 

According to Billboard, Swift also broke attendance records at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona to kick off the tour, and Forbes said that she topped Billboard’s Hot Tours list due to her stellar performance at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. With all these records, and her win at the AMAs, if Swift decides to get out of the game now, she would go out on top, but she is not quite ready to retire.  

Reputation seems to be a jumping off point for a new type of music, and a new, more confident Swift. In her acceptance speech for Artist of the Year Swift said, ”I like to think of albums as chapters in my life and I am so excited to see what the next chapter has in store.” Not only does she indicate here that she is going to capture the next chapter of her life in another album, but Billboard reported that she claims,“the next album will definitely be out before I’m 30.“ 

Fans around the world can breathe a sigh of relief as the industry begins the wait for America’s top artist’s new album.