American pop star Taylor Swift has made history by becoming the first musician to earn over one billion dollars solely from her singing career, though her popularity in South Korea remains low compared to her global success.
On Apr. 2, Forbes announced that Swift had become the first musician to accumulate over one billion dollars solely from her singing career.
Swift has also dominated the Billboard weekly album chart, a leading global music ranking, by topping it for 69 weeks—the highest for any solo artist worldwide. She broke the previous record of 67 weeks held by ‘the King of Rock and Roll’, Elvis Presley.
Swift is set to release a new album on Apr. 19, and there are high expectations for her to achieve even more success in the future.
Although Taylor Swift has achieved great success in her music career, her popularity in South Korea is relatively low.
According to Kakao Entertainment, on Melon, the largest online music service in S. Korea, Taylor Swift’s highest ranking ever on Melon was the 174th in March.
Even on a chart specifically for foreign music, including pop songs, her highest ranking was the 15th in the same month.
In the Korean music market, Swift’s presence is particularly minimal among pop artists. In fact, there is even a video circulating on the internet from 2011 showing Swift riding the Korean subway for a concert tour and looking embarrassed as no one recognized her.
Swift is widely recognized for her exceptional ability to compose and write songs. Her storytelling skills have received particular acclaim, as she often conveys personal experiences, such as relationships and dilemmas, through metaphorical lyrics.
This has been a great source of comfort and support to her fans. For instance, her song ‘Red’ from 2012 is based on her experience of dating a famous actor, while ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ from 2017 uses criticism she faced as lyrical material, with her responding boldly to her haters.
In addition to her musical prowess, Swift has built a good public image by making significant social contributions. She has visited young fans battling cancer, offering her support and helping to cover their treatment costs. She has even sung at a fan’s wedding.
Swift is also known for her generosity, having donated one million dollars to tornado victims last year and one hundred thousand dollars earlier this year to the families of shooting victims. Her philanthropy is highly regarded and has further contributed to her popularity.
Experts believe these strengths should also resonate well in Korea. Music critic Kim Do-heon noted, “From her debut, Taylor Swift actively communicated with her fans through social media and inherited the legacy of various popular music genres, which makes her universally popular compared to other artists and shows the ideal image that a singer-songwriter of our times should have.”
Nevertheless, the reason for her lower popularity in Korea, according to music critic Jeong Min-jae, is that “her composition style does not follow the strong narrative structure preferred by Koreans, and Korea already has its own emotive singer-songwriters like IU, which is why she’s less popular here. Taylor Swift represents the lineage of past superstars.”
