Though her romantic relationships went less smoothly than her career, they still inspired hits like “We Are Never, Ever Getting Back Together” (reportedly about Jake Gyllenhaal) and “Dear John” (as in Mayer, it is widely assumed). She landed endorsement deals with brands including Diet Coke, American Greetings, Keds and CoverGirl. And she was on magazine covers from Rolling Stone, to Elle, to this month’s Vanity Fair.
And therein, perhaps, the trouble began.
Her ubiquity, not to mention her dating history, has begun to stir what feels like the beginning of a backlash (including both a Tumblr account and Facebook page titled “I Hate Taylor Swift,” the latter with 5,912 “likes”).
At the Golden Globes in February, the hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler warned Ms. Swift to “stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son,” who had accompanied his father to the ceremony, and joked that she could use “some ’me time’ to learn about herself.” Ms. Swift counterattacked in her Vanity Fair interview by quoting Katie Couric (who was quoting Madeleine Albright): “ ’There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’ “
The incident quickly became a much-followed story on the Web and Twitter, with Ms. Poehler and Ms. Fey gently chiding Ms. Swift for taking things too seriously and others, like the talk show host Chelsea Handler, suggesting that she was fair game. “They were clearly making a joke just about her demeanor, which is embarrassing,” Ms. Handler told Andy Cohen on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens“ last Tuesday. “I mean, she’s just dated so many men.”
Can Ms. Swift, 23, take a joke? Has she been overexposed? Worse, is America’s reigning golden girl, sweetheart, country-pop crossover star and breakup-song specialist going through a quarter-life crisis?
Ms. Swift, through a publicist, declined to comment for this article. But Scott Borchetta, founder and chief executive of Big Machine Records and the man widely credited with her rise, said he believed the Vanity Fair quote was taken out of context, and voiced confidence in her staying power. “She’s so grounded,” he said. “This isn’t a person who’s going to wake up half-naked, drunk in a car somewhere in Hollywood.”
According to the marketing evaluations company Q Scores, Ms. Swift’s popularity rating, which takes into account familiarity (about 8 out of 10 people surveyed knows who she is) and appeal, peaked in 2010 at 30 out of 100. Presumably, Ms. Swift was reaping the benefits of the Kanye West debacle, when he interrupted her acceptance speech for Best Female Video by barging onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2009.
But her popularity score has since dropped by a third, to 20 this year, the lowest it’s ever been, though still 4 points higher than the average score (16) in the performer category.
“She’s not doing the kind of numbers that an advertiser would really love to see,” said Steven Levitt, president of the marketing company, noting her trajectory.
CoverGirl has let Ms. Swift’s contract expire. “We routinely evaluate our CoverGirls,” said Paige Cali, a company spokeswoman, adding that she couldn’t divulge further details except that the contract expired recently.
A Women’s Wear Daily article this week stated that Ms. Swift’s magazine covers sell fewer issues than those of her contemporaries, like Adele, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Lauren Conrad, Scarlett Johansson and Zooey Deschanel.
Mr. Levitt pointed out that this year Ms. Swift’s negative Q score, a 21, topped her positive number for the first time.
“It’s not the scores of an extraordinary performer that has substantially more positive than negative, like Tom Hanks or Will Smith,” he said. “There’s almost an equal number that rate her fair or poor. What you can surmise from that is that her rating is a function of age groups. The positive must be coming from younger age groups. A good part of the negative is from older people.”
To quote Ms. Swift’s single about middle school: “Why you gotta be so mean?”
Yet, even for her critics, it would be hasty to write off Ms. Swift. Her fourth album, “Red,” broke sales records in its first week, before going quadruple platinum. She kicked off the album’s corresponding tour on Wednesday, already having sold out several shows. And she got five nominations, including Entertainer of the Year, for the coming Academy of Country Music Awards on April 7.
And though relationships with the teenagers Harry Styles of One Direction and Conor Kennedy may have inspired ribbing that she is a cradle robber (along with providing even more song material), Ms. Swift, unlike Britney Spears at the same age, has mostly maintained an air of innocence until now.
“It’s Taylor’s back story,” said Janjay Sherman, the publicity and talent-relations director of Extra Extra, an events and marketing company that recommends celebrity pairings to corporate clients. “The whole ‘I was raised on a farm, I’m a country girl’ kind of thing was established before she crossed over to pop and mainstream,” Ms. Sherman added. “And with country, there’s a really clean wholesomeness that attaches to her.”
And controversy just might make her more interesting, particularly to high-end beauty and fashion companies. MAC Cosmetics, for one, doesn’t use marketing scores when selecting its outspoken celebrity collaborators, like Rihanna, whose first installment of her makeup collection with the brand has its debut this spring, said James Gager, senior vice president and creative director of the company, whose ambassadors have included hardly uncontroversial personalities like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj.
Designers are increasingly willing to lend Ms. Swift red-carpet gowns, said Alana Varel, a founder of Starworks Group, a company that pairs celebrities with clients like Miu Miu, Prada and Bulgari, including Kirsten Dunst, Rachel Weisz and Julianne Moore for the jeweler.
Ms. Swift has already registered approval among fashion commentators this year, particularly when in white, like the Grecian-style gown with metallic beaded straps by J. Mendel that she wore to the Grammy Awards in February, and a plunging Ralph Lauren cap-sleeved dress at the People’s Choice Awards in January.
