Taylor Swfit: the artist Stevie Nicks thinks will save the music business
There are probably many classic rock artists looking at the modern music industry and wondering where all the fun went. As opposed to the kind of wild times that went on in rock and roll’s prime, everything seemed to be way more streamlined around the turn of the century, with the business mindset pivoting more towards the digital age and physical sales starting to die out. While Stevie Nicks may have experienced many versions of the industry while travelling through rock history, she maintains that one artist has the potential to save the industry.
Before she had even had a dollar to her name, Nicks was already finding inroads into the industry with her musical boyfriend, Lindsey Buckingham. Forming the duo Buckingham Nicks, the couple eventually landed a decent deal in the mid-1970s, cutting one debut album that only did modest numbers.
While the sales were disconcerting, one of the few impressed with the album was Mick Fleetwood, who wanted to see if Buckingham would join Fleetwood Mac. Not leaving without his girlfriend coming with him, Buckingham and Nicks would form the backbone of the next version of the group with tracks like ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Monday Morning.’
Then again, Nicks always kept her ear to the ground regarding new music. Outside of her work with ‘The Mac’, Nicks enjoyed an impressive solo career, working with everyone from Don Henley of the Eagles to Tom Petty when sculpting masterpieces like ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’.
Even though Nicks’s unique balance of her solo and band ventures served her well throughout her career, the 2000s saw the industry take a significant nosedive into the digital age, with many artists warring against the streaming services and those services catering to bands that were more style over substance. Out of all the manufactured artists that had come before, Nicks saw some promise when hearing Taylor Swift for the first time.
Having been one of the up-and-coming names in the world of country music, Swift would quickly turn herself into one of the resident giants of the music industry, complete with her original material. Since she wrote most of the tunes, fans could easily find the natural person underneath the art, being more interested in her take on life rather than relying on the catchy tune.
When asked about her favourite artists going now, Nicks would say how much Swift mattered to the music business in the long run, telling TIME, “Taylor is writing for the universal woman and for the man who wants to know her. The female rock-’n’-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it’s women like her who are going to save the music business.”
While the music business has gone through its ups and downs since Swift’s debut on the scene, she has been able to shift the industry on its head based on her decisions. From her lucrative Eras tour to building back the ownership of her songs with re-released versions of her old albums, Swift capitalised on all of the claims Nicks had predicted. Although she may be one of the most recognisable faces in the industry, Swift is the ultimate example of what an artist can do when they carve out their career path instead of going along with the status quo.
