One of the most interesting pieces of Taylor Swift lore are these emails written by her dad. Taylor Swift very much is not an industry nepo baby, but what she inherited is something that is scarier and even more powerful, which is intelligent, canny, cutthroat yet protective parents who are deeply invested in her career. This is not Maude Apatow's goofy filmmaker dad and comedy actress mom. This is not Ivy Getty's trust funder parents. They would NEVER make the kinds of mistakes Lori Laughlin did when getting Olivia Jade into USC.
Scott and Andrea Swift are serious people. "Financial advisor/stockbroker" and "marketing executive" sound like normal upper middle class jobs, but those two are far more unhinged than most. They put their minds together to create a project magnitudes greater than the sum of either of their parts.
Taylor Swift was their garage startup. (Their 3 car garage with the Lexus and the Range Rover but a garage startup nonetheless) She would not have been invested in so heavily if there was no white space in the market and she was not a vessel containing enough talent and drive to achieve those ends. Since she was a preteen Scott Swift has kept a P&L sheet, determined her market cap, and plotted the day she would go public. There's some proverb that says that wealth never lasts more than 3 generations, so TBD on Taylor Swift if she has kids, but she as the 2nd gen, absolutely inherited that bloodthirsty capitalistic spirit from her family. What a crazy little bunch! The parents seem caring but toxic in their ambition. I do admit that being tiger parented like that probably made her a better songwriter. She’s lived in a bubble in many ways, but the experience of having a lot of pressure placed on you, filial piety/owing your parents, etc—that’s actually very relatable! Yes, I am a Taylor Swift Has Always Written Her Own Songs truther.
These emails start at exhibit E on page 21 of the pdf below.
