Taylor Swift? A Hall of Famer at the age of 36, and for songwriting no less? That’s what the Songwriters Hall of Fame has decreed, with Swift being inducted in the class for 2026.
They’ll 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.
Nonetheless, it’s a very swift rise to Hall of Fame status for Taylor, who’s making us all feel old by realizing she’s 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?
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’s officially eligible for the Country Music Hall of Fame too, though I wouldn’t hold your breath for that one just yet. The backlog there is so bad, it could be a decade before that’s even a concern.
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’s and crossing T’s, with Swift doing the lion’s share of the work. Then came Taylor’s 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.
Is Taylor Swift good for a bad song or three, and material that isn’t exactly Hall of Fame worthy? Of course. What’s that new song she’s got about her fiance’s junk? No doubt you’ll have some seething over this distinction simply because they’re tired of Swift clogging up their information feeds. And now your favorite country music website is even talking about her again.
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 “song” than they were before the Taylor Swift era. Previously, the average passive music listener didn’t 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.Taylor Swift very much seeded the age of the songwriter that we’re 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.
And incidentally, if we’re 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’t? Alanis Morissette is great, but it’s really the tale of one big album. Country fans should be more exercised about why there isn’t 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. As for Taylor Swift though? It’s not just about the songs. It’s about her ambassadorship for songwriters everywhere that in previous eras were laboring away in the shadows—folks like Walter “Baby Love” Afanasieff, Terry Britten, Graham Lyle from Scotland, and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, who are all also 2026 Songwriter Hall of Fame inductees, but few reported on because they’re not household names. Taylor Swift made songwriting cool. And even if she’s no longer cool to certain segments of the population because it’s easy to hate on front-running billionaires that are constantly clogging people’s information feeds, she deserves this accolade, and in the first year of her eligibility. – – – – – – – – – – –
Just because she doesn’t write stuff that we are interested in listening to doesn’t mean we can’t recognize that she is a serious songwriter both in volume of output and quality. 12 whole albums of work? 14 Grammys? 54 million albums sold? And she wrote basically all of it? That’s rare air for any artist or songwriter. I think the only real question if which hall(s) of fame decide she belongs.
Source: savingcountrymusic.com