{"id":821079,"date":"2026-07-23T15:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821079\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T15:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:27:12","slug":"swifties-dubbed-them-the-taydaughters-now-theyre-wrestling-with-taylor-swifts-double-edged-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821079\/","title":{"rendered":"Swifties dubbed them the Taydaughters. Now they\u2019re wrestling with Taylor Swift\u2019s double-edged influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

In Olivia Rodrigo’s, a so-called taydaugther, new album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love Swift’s influence still lingers.Xavi Torrent\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

What constitutes a Taydaughter?<\/p>\n

As in all the most vexing of slang \u2013 \u201crizz,\u201d \u201clooksmaxxing,\u201d \u201ccap\u201d \u2013 the term has roots in TikTok, where a Taylor Swift fan could ostensibly scroll for millennia without running out of like-minded videos to consume, about anything from the singer\u2019s cats to her music to, most recently, her gargantuan wedding at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

Enter the Taydaughters, among the most crucial of players in the Taylor Swift Cinematic Universe. According to TikTok, the term applies to young artists \u2013 female, usually \u2013 whose music and marketing have somehow been influenced by Swift. Some Taydaughters have collaborated with Swift directly, opening for her on the record-shattering Eras Tour; some have seemingly rejected the title altogether, stoking rumours of a feud or some other snub.<\/p>\n

This summer, three so-called Taydaughters \u2013 Maisie Peters, Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams \u2013 released studio albums that suggest an impasse for the musicians, who came of age in the glow of Swift\u2019s career. At one extreme, there\u2019s Rodrigo, who now avoids speaking about Swift in interviews despite once claiming to be the auteur\u2019s biggest buff; at the other, there\u2019s Abrams, seldom written about without mention of the most famous woman in the world. (Guilty as charged, I suppose<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s better? To accept existing in Swift\u2019s shadow, waiting for crumbs of the attention lavished on her and her work? Or to live in exile of her fandom, her influence? It\u2019s an impossible choice, and one in which only Sabrina Carpenter, the Eras Tour opener with a sound and style all her own, seems to have found a manageable middle ground. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

On Florescence, Peters\u2019s explores the fallout of opening for the Eras Tour, and the subsequent bullying from Swifties which all but drove her into hiding in 2024.Joel C Ryan\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

On Florescence, Peters\u2019s third studio album, the British singer-songwriter vividly explores the fallout of opening for the Eras Tour, and the subsequent bullying from Swifties which all but drove her into hiding in 2024. Of this summer\u2019s three Taydaughter releases, Florescence is by far the most explicit in its ambivalence toward the Eras queen\u2019s sycophantic queendom: \u201cSometimes when I sing I get the big note wrong, the teenagers held onto that all summer long,\u201d she murmurs on Mary Janes, referring to a minor vocal hiccup that occurred during Lost the Breakup at Wembley Stadium. \u201cMy skin isn\u2019t thick,\u201d she confesses, adding that the incident made her cry before opening for Noah Kahan in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Why is everyone so fascinated with Taylor Swift\u2019s wedding?<\/a><\/p>\n

The album that follows marks a pivot for Peters, who since her 2021 debut album has chased the radio-friendly fizz of four-chord pop songs, complete with the sort of infectious, stream-of-consciousness bridges that once made Swift stand out in the musical landscape. <\/p>\n

On Florescence, Peters employs a few Swiftisms \u2013 the extended metaphors seen in Houses, the piercing accusations heard in Old Fashioned \u2013 but on the whole, the album seems to reject Swift\u2019s fame-conscious brand of writing, experimenting with a more acoustic style of folk storytelling. \u201cI hate the afterparties, I want forests, I want fires,\u201d she confesses on Audrey Hepburn. <\/p>\n

Rodrigo\u2019s place in the Taydaughter debate, meanwhile, is looser, rooted more in fan speculation \u2013 in the Swift-verse, as deadly a weapon as an atom bomb \u2013 than in overt lyricism. When Rodrigo released her first album, Sour, in 2021, the relationship between Swift and her prot\u00e9g\u00e9 seemed rosy and vaguely maternal, with the former even quoting her own mother when praising Rodrigo for her early success.<\/p>\n

But something soon shifted: Swift was granted a songwriting credit on Deja Vu after Rodrigo admitted to being inspired by Swift\u2019s anthem Cruel Summer. The singers stopped posting about each other, fuelling gossip of an intergenerational rift between Gen Z\u2019s newly anointed pop princess and the megastar who laid the first bricks of her castle. When Rodrigo released her second album, Guts, a song titled The Grudge lent credence to TikTok sleuths: \u201cYou have everything and you still want more,\u201d Rodrigo sings to no one \u2013 or, maybe, a very blonde someone \u2013 on the album\u2019s 10th track.<\/p>\n

But even as she\u2019s turned her back on Swift, the latter\u2019s influence still lingers. On Rodrigo\u2019s latest album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, the Swiftian clich\u00e9 of sad things being \u201cblue\u201d makes multiple appearances; My Way, about a possible interloper in a romantic relationship, sounds awfully similar, premise-wise, to Swift\u2019s 2010 track Better Than Revenge. <\/p>\n

Like Swift, Rodrigo has also deployed frequent rebrands, segmenting her career into \u201ceras\u201d rather than mere albums: 2021\u2019s Rodrigo seemed afraid to admit to drinking an occasional glass of wine. This year\u2019s Rodrigo, 23, wears teeny baby doll dresses and sings freely about the friends who \u201csmoke blunts in the bathroom\u201d at jam-packed clubs. From her earliest records, Swift set a precedent for measuring age not by birthdays, but by collections of songs \u2013 it seems Rodrigo, loath as she may be to admit to it, has found value in doing the same.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Gracie Abrams.<\/p>\n

The daughter of film director J.J. Abrams, the 26-year-old is no stranger to nepo baby discourse: With each new release, she\u2019s fought to be heard on her own merit, on her own name. Only recently has she begun to speak freely<\/a> about the advantages she had early on in her journey, the doors that opened a little more easily for her than they might have for her peers.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

On Gracie Abram’s latest release, Daughter from Hell, the former eras tours opener somewhat reverts to the bedroom-pop angst of her earlier, pre-Swiftian work.Mario Anzuoni\/Reuters<\/p>\n

It\u2019s thorny, then, that Abrams\u2019s career has become so intertwined with Swift\u2019s. Unlike Peters, Abrams didn\u2019t \u201cget the big note wrong\u201d as an Eras Tour opener: Her stint touring with Swift exploded her stage presence. She even recorded a duet with Swift on her last album \u2013 in the fifth slot, of course, borrowing the titan\u2019s tactic of putting a record\u2019s most emotional ballad in the coveted number-five spot.<\/p>\n

Taylor Swift makes history as the youngest woman inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame<\/a><\/p>\n

On her latest release, Daughter from Hell, Abrams somewhat reverts to the bedroom-pop angst of her earlier, pre-Swiftian work. Her voice, which so easily filled the Rogers Centre during the Eras Tour\u2019s Toronto dates, once more sounds small, whisper-quiet in its exploration of what it means to be a daughter (or even, perhaps, a Taydaughter?). <\/p>\n

\u201cYour words to kill are evergreen,\u201d she claims on Death Wish \u2013 a poetic description of song lyrics, maybe? A cutting description of \u201cwalls built on teenage dreams\u201d seems similarly damning. But, just like Swift, it\u2019s doubtful she\u2019ll ever confirm what that track, or another suspect, Men Like You, is about \u2013 even if, to fans, it feels obvious.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it seems the pop industry has a choice to make, at least for as long as Swift continues to make music: Should young artists spend their time and creativity attempting to curry favour from pop culture\u2019s reigning monarch? Evidently, they risk becoming the subject of endless comparison if so. Is that better than gambling with obscurity? Would creating a new album \u2013 one critics have called \u201ctoothless\u201d and \u201cbloodless\u201d in equal measure \u2013 have been easier for Abrams if Swift hadn\u2019t doused the rising star in her own limelight?<\/p>\n

At a certain point, it\u2019s inevitable that these artists will stand on their own two feet \u2013 they\u2019ll have to, if they aspire to emulate Swift\u2019s singular staying power. But for now, they are daughters from hell, wrestling with an inheritance that will either immortalize their creative work or kill it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: In Olivia Rodrigo’s, a so-called taydaugther, new album You Seem Pretty Sad for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,2922],"class_list":["post-821079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}