Changing image

Can an artist change their image without loosing their fans?

Many artists have a certain image to represent, sometimes decided by them and sometimes decided by their record labels. These images are also mainly influenced by their genre of music. Many artists keep the same image and genre of music throughout their career, as changing it risks them loosing fans. However, this is not the case for many artists, as some (such as Kanye West, David Bowie and Michael Bolton) managed to change their genre, but keep their career.

Taylor Swift is also another popular artists who has changed multiple times but still kept her career. She started off as an opera singer when she was younger, after following in her grandmothers footsteps. She then decided to become a country singer and released her first song called Tim McGraw which became a top ten hit in the country charts.



She then went on and decided to start changing her genre by creating country pop music. In 2008 she created the album 'fearless' which stayed at the top of the charts for 11 weeks. This shows that even early on, as she was developing she could still change her genre.


In 2009 at the music video awards Taylor Swift's speech was interrupted by Kanye West which helped boost her career, as it gave her more publicity.

In 2010 she released 'speak now' and then 'red' in 2012, both of which stayed with the country theme, but still moved closer towards the pop genre. These helped her to receive the CMA pinnacle award in 2013 for her positive impact on country music.



She then moved even further away from her country roots and released 1984 in 2014 which was a pop album. However, changing her genre had managed to help her keep her music new and not outdated. This helped her win album of the year.




And in 2017 she released 'Look what you made me do' which completely changes Taylor's image. She's changed to pop music completely and decided to change her image to show that she shouldn't be messed with.