Taylor Swift is an inherently complicated figure. Speaking about Taylor Swift feels like speaking about so many things far beyond her – it’s a discussion of a musician, yes, but it’s also a discussion of gender roles, politics, race, cultural impacts, and misogyny. Simply saying that liking a recent album or a song you enjoy suddenly puts the speaker in a minefield of other topics they may or may not want to even get into, and its especially tricky if someone doesn’t even know the mines are there. Therefore, when we talk about the stories of Taylor Swift and the mythology created, we’re talking about not just the stories she has crafted, but also the stories crafted by others around her.

Essentially, then, the mythology this book studies is a complicated web of narratives which include the stories she writes, the interpretations of these stories by those who like her music, and the story of her as a person and an idol. The mythology is not just in the songs, but in the way these songs live for those who hear them, and the way others have come to hear and understand the idol herself as an important and all-encompassing figure. It’s hard to talk about Taylor Swift’s stories without talking about her – not as a person, but as a story also.

Some of the main topics of the book will therefore explore these three interdimensional aspects of the narratives. Topics will include, but are not limited to, discussions of myth and what it means, and how this relates to Taylor Swift and her music; Taylor as both a person and a symbol; her songs, the stories they tell, and the stories we hear, all of which may not always be the same thing; the fandom, and the anti-fandom, which has formed the core of her existence in popular culture.