Taylor Swift

Artistry: Music Style

Taylor Swift's "Les Paul" guitar and cordless microphone on exhibit in the Artist Gallery of the Musical Instrument Museum of Phoeinx

Music Style

Swift's music contains elements of pop, pop rock and country. She self-identified as a country artist until the 2014 release of 1989, which she described as a "sonically cohesive pop album". Rolling Stone asserted, "[Swift] might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days". The New York Times noted, "There isn't much in Ms. Swift's music to indicate country—a few banjo strums, a pair of cowboy boots worn onstage, a bedazzled guitar—but there's something in her winsome, vulnerable delivery that's unique to Nashville". According to The Guardian, Swift "cranks melodies out with the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory".

Swift's vocals have been described by Sophie Schillaci from The Hollywood Reporter as "sweet, but soft". In studio recordings, the Los Angeles Times identified Swift's "defining" vocal gesture as "the line that slides down like a contented sigh or up like a raised eyebrow, giving her beloved girl-time hits their air of easy intimacy". Rolling Stone, in a Speak Now review, remarked: "Swift's voice is unaffected enough to mask how masterful she has become as a singer; she lowers her voice for the payoff lines in the classic mode of a shy girl trying to talk tough." In another review of Speak Now, The Village Voice noted that her phrasing was previously "bland and muddled, but that's changed. She can still sound strained and thin, and often strays into a pitch that drives some people crazy; but she's learned how to make words sound like what they mean." The Hollywood Reporter opines that her live vocals are "fine", but they do not match those of her peers. In 2009, they were also described as "flat, thin, and sometimes as wobbly as a newborn colt". However, Swift has received praise for refusing to correct her pitch with Auto-Tune.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Swift characterized herself primarily as a songwriter: "I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across." A writer for The Tennessean conceded in 2010 that Swift is "not the best technical singer", but described her as the "best communicator that we've got". Swift's vocal presence is something that concerns her and she has "put a lot of work" into improving it. It was reported in 2010 that she continues to take vocal lessons. She has said that she only feels nervous performing "if I'm not sure what the audience thinks of me, like at award shows".