Taylor Swift is obviously the Jake’s Takes Person of the Year for 2023. Taylor Swift is also the Jake’s Takes person of the decade, century, and millennium.
pic credit: me
I’ll admit that when I saw that TIME picked Taylor Swift as their person of the year, I was a bit shocked. Taylor Swift is not a world leader, she’s not a business executive, she’s not the inventor of some technology, and she’s not the leader of a social movement. But, in a way, she basically is all of those things. Taylor Swift was the absolute correct choice for the 2023 person of the year.
With this designation, Taylor Swift joins a list of other famous (and infamous) household names, including 14 U.S. presidents, 3 popes, the Apollo 8 astronauts, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Adolph Hitler, “the computer,” and planet Earth. She becomes only the sixth individual woman to be named person of the year in the nearly 100 years the honor has been given. (A number of other women have held the title in pairs or groups, such as VP Kamala Harris who was awarded the title along with President Joe Biden in 2020 and the “American Women” who were recognized as a group in 1975 to highlight the rise of the feminist movement.)
No one captivated conversation in 2023 like Taylor Swift. She impacted music, film, television, sports, economics, government affairs, and more. In a year when people wanted nothing more than to avoid political discourse and when Hollywood was largely shut down due to strikes, Taylor Swift filled the void and dominated…everything. Oh, and she also became a billionaire this year.
I don’t need to run through all of the records Taylor Swift set this year. You already know she made history with the “Eras” stadium tour, which then dominated the box office as a concert film. But one record has solidified her as the most dominant force in the music industry. Earlier this month, Taylor Swift became the first living musical artist in history to have five albums simultaneously in the top 10 on the Billboard 200.
Taylor Swift’s impact also reaches beyond the music industry. She is a cultural phenomenon who creates social trends and is a role model for many people, especially young women. As Taylor Swift said in her TIME interview, her Eras Tour was part of “a three-part summer of feminine extravaganza” alongside the Barbie movie and Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. Women ran the world in 2023. And TIME selected Taylor Swift as the 2023 person of the year because, at least, part of her brilliance is inextricably linked to her unique ability to create spaces for others to celebrate, and commiserate with over, their combined experiences as 21st century women.
Here’s how writer Sam Lansky explained the phenomenon in Swift’s TIME profile:
Maybe this is the real Taylor Swift effect: That she gives people, many of them women, particularly girls, who have been conditioned to accept dismissal, gaslighting, and mistreatment from a society that treats their emotions as inconsequential, permission to believe that their interior lives matter. That for your heart to break, whether it’s from being kicked off a tour or by the memory of a scarf still sitting in a drawer somewhere or because somebody else controls your life’s work, is a valid wound, and no, you’re not crazy for being upset about it, or for wanting your story to be told.
It really is Taylor Swift’s world, and we’re just living in it. That is why Taylor Swift is the 2023 person of the year.
Here are my favorite things of 2023:
Albums:
1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift
Rolling Up The Welcome Mat by Kelsea Ballerini
GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
AudioLust & HigherLove by SG Lewis
chemistry by Kelly Clarkson
THINK LATER by Tate McRae
Snow Angel by Reneé Rapp
Something To Give Each Other by Troye Sivan
Heaven knows by PinkPantheress
JAGUAR II by Victoria Monét
Blood Orange by Freya Ridings
The Show by Niall Horan
AR by Addison Rae
Barbie The Album
Songs:
“Is It Over Now?” by Taylor Swift
“bad idea right?” by Olivia Rodrigo
“Feather” by Sabrina Carpenter
“In The City” by Charli XCX & Sam Smith
“favorite kind of high” by Kelly Clarkson
“Dance The Night” by Dua Lipa
“Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice & Aqua
“AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM” by Beyoncé & Kendrick Lamar
“Witness Me” by Jacob Collier, Shawn Mendes, Stormzy & Kirk Franklin
“greedy” by Tate McRae
“Mona Lisa” by Dominic Fike
“Rush” by Troye Sivan
“Jaded” by Miley Cyrus
“One That Got Away” by MUNA
“Dial Drunk” by Noah Kahan & Post Malone
TV Shows:
Dance Moms
The Last of Us
The Other Two
Abbott Elementary
Queen Charlotte
Heartstopper
Fellow Travelers
Jury Duty
Loki
Dancing with the Stars
Movies:
Barbie
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé
Saltburn
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Red, White & Royal Blue
Bottoms
May December
No Hard Feelings
M3GAN
Memes/Viral Things:
Barbenheimer
Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski lawsuit
“Angela Basset did the thing.”
Britney Spears’s memoir, “The Woman in Me,” and Michelle Williams’s recording for the audiobook
Grimace shakes
Beyoncé’s Dubai “Drunk in Love” riff
Gag City
Met Gala cockroach
Josh Hutcherson renaissance
“He’s just Ken” // “I’m just Ken”
Scandals:
The Titanic submersible
Nepo Babies
Paul Mescal running away from women in parks
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Feather” church music video
Colleen Ballinger’s ukulele apology video
Paris bedbugs
Austin Butler’s Elvis accent
Orca attacks
Ariana Grande dating SpongeBob
Scandoval
The People Who Won 2023:
Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar win
Coco Gauff winning the U.S. Open tennis
SAG & WGA
EGOT Viola Davis
Blue Ivy’s Renaissance Tour dancing
Travis Kelce
Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show
The Flops of 2023:
Donald Trump
Elon Musk
George Santos
Kevin McCarthy
Rudy Giuliani
Jamie Lynn Spears
Jonathan Majors
2024 Predictions:
Oppenheimer will dominate the Oscars, but Barbie will get the most nominations
Taylor Swift will join the Marvel Universe
Zendaya & Tom Holland will get engaged (or married? secret wedding?)
Regé-Jean Page will be cast as James Bond
Miley Cyrus will win her first Grammy
Jacob Elordi will leave Euphoria
Rihanna won’t release a new album
Vanessa Hudgens will join The White Lotus season 3 cast
What’s your take?