Sound Recording and Popular Music
SOUNDS AND IMAGES 4 Sound Recording and Popular Music Taylor Swift has become such a music-industry 115 The Development of phenomenon that the only artist in the world able Sound Recording to compete with her isn’t even human: It’s Elsa, 122 the cartoon ice princess from Disney’s Frozen, who U.S. Popular Music and sang the smash hit “Let It Go.” Even with Elsa on the Formation of Rock her heels, Swift still had the No. 1 album in the 129 United States in 2014, with her 3.66-million-selling A Changing Industry: Reformations in 1989 edging out the 3.57 million copies sold of the Popular Music Frozen soundtrack. No other artist was even close; 136 the next-biggest release was Sam Smith’s smash The Business of Sound Recording release In the Lonely Hour, which reached album sales of 1.2 million in 2014.1 144 Sound Recording, Since her debut release of Taylor Swift in 2006, at Free Expression, and Democracy the age of sixteen, Swift has become one of the best-selling singer-songwriters—not only of the past decade but of all time, transitioning from a country-based artist to a top pop-chart star. Her songs often tell personal stories and have gained a stronger feminist perspective over time, exempli- fied in such hits as “Love Story,” “You Belong with Me,” “Fifteen,” “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad Blood.” Jun Sato/Getty Images for TS CHAPTER 4 • SOUND RECORDING AND POPULAR MUSIC 113 4 SOUND RECORDING AND POPULAR MUSIC Swift’s career has blossomed in the midst biggest among many artists dissatisfied of a changing music industry, and she has with the company’s low compensation for been a pioneer in terms of maintaining music creators.
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