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Taylor Swift? A Hall of Famer at the age of 36, and for songwriting no less? That\u2019s what the Songwriters Hall of Fame has decreed, with Swift being inducted in a class that also includes Alanis Morissette, Kenny Loggins, and Kiss bandmates Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons for 2026. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ll all be honored in a ceremony on June 11th in New York City. Though some eager beavers proclaimed Swift the youngest ever living Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee upon the news, that distinction remains in the ownership of Stevie Wonder who was inducted at the age of 33 in 1983.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, it\u2019s a very swift rise to Hall of Fame status for Taylor, who\u2019s making us all feel old by realizing she\u2019s now in her mid thirties. But is she really Hall of Fame worthy? Do all her pop songs really stand up to the scrutiny a Hall of Fame induction deserves? Is there still a bad taste in the mouth of country curmudgeons after she skipped out on the genre for the excesses of pop after helping to turn country more pop herself?<\/p>\n
The answer is that of course Taylor Swift deserves this honor, and now is probably a fair time. She was only 16 when she was singing about Tim McGraw and teardrops on her guitar. Yep, that was 20 years ago this year, which is why she is eligible for Halls of Fame in 2026. And yes (gulp), that also means she\u2019s officially eligible for the Country Music Hall of Fame<\/a> too, though I wouldn\u2019t hold your breath for that one just yet. The backlog there is so bad, it could be a decade before that\u2019s even a concern. <\/p>\n Though the great Liz Rose was listed as a co-writer for many of the songs on those first couple of Taylor Swift albums, Rose herself says she was more just dotting I\u2019s and crossing T\u2019s, with Swift doing the lion\u2019s share of the work. Then came Taylor\u2019s 2010 album Speak Now where Swift wrote every single song herself, and co-produced the album while she was between the ages of 18 and 20.<\/p>\n Is Taylor Swift good for a bad song or three, and material that isn\u2019t exactly Hall of Fame worthy? Of course. What\u2019s that new song she\u2019s got about her fiance\u2019s junk? No doubt you\u2019ll have some seething over this distinction simply because they\u2019re tired of Swift clogging up their information feeds. And now your favorite country music website is even talking about her again.<\/p>\n But the simple fact is the American Music consumer is so much more savvy about all of the separate things that go into making a \u201csong\u201d than they were before the Taylor Swift era. Previously, the average passive music listener didn\u2019t understand many performers had someone else write songs for them. Swift took it a step further by making her songs hyper personal, and challenging her audience to look for Easter eggs in her lyrics.<\/p>\n Taylor Swift very much seeded the age of the songwriter that we\u2019re now living in, with so many of the biggest songwriters at the moment specifically citing Swift as an influence, even, if not especially the sad bastard Zach Bryan-style guys.<\/p>\n And incidentally, if we\u2019re judging Swift by who else is going into the Hall of Fame this year, how can you say the KISS guys deserve it but Swift doesn\u2019t? Alanis Morissette is great, but it\u2019s really the tale of one big album. Country fans should be more exercised about why there isn\u2019t a country songwriter being inducted in this class. But they did induct Cindy Walker in 2024, so they bought some latitude for a few years there. <\/p>\n As for Taylor Swift though? It\u2019s not just about the songs. It\u2019s about her ambassadorship for songwriters everywhere that in previous eras were laboring away in the shadows\u2014folks like Walter \u201cBaby Love\u201d Afanasieff, Terry Britten, Graham Lyle from Scotland, and Christopher \u201cTricky\u201d Stewart, who are all also 2026 Songwriter Hall of Fame inductees, but few reported on because they\u2019re not household names. <\/p>\n Taylor Swift made songwriting cool. And even if she\u2019s no longer cool to certain segments of the population because it\u2019s easy to hate on front-running billionaires that are constantly clogging people\u2019s information feeds, she deserves this accolade, and in the first year of her eligibility. <\/p>\n \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n