Taylor Swift grew up with dreams of making it in Nashville, handing out demos blindly to anyone who would take them. Fast forward a few years and Taylor is now being crowned the princess of country music with a multi-platinum album and the awards to go with it. In country music today you could argue that Swift has a lockdown on the industry bringing in many young fans that would not have given country music a chance before she came. Along with the young rabid fan base she has attracted many traditional country music fans with her hybrid of country, folk, and pop. Since the introduction and success of Taylor Swift’s debut album there has been many imitations that have opened up the world of pop country.

Swift has set record after record with her debut self-entitled album from being the first country artist to have five singles from her debut album reach the top-40 in the Billboard Hot 100, being the first country music artist to host TRL, to being one of few artist in 2007 to have a multi-platinum album joining the ranks of Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts, whom she is touring with as we speak. Aside from all of the awards the thing that is different about Swift is that she is a leader in a transition of country music that also can appeal to a younger fan base. From her songs being played on radio Disney to the hundreds of comments from young adoring fans on MySpace daily, it is no wonder that she is also attracting the attention of corporate America as well. It is not often you see country music artists made into action figures and dolls, which is exactly what one of the latest deals will do for Taylor Swift. Usually set aside for pop music icons and movie characters, this marks a milestone in country music to have one of their own pushed into the mainstream toy merchandising market this way. Not only is she being made into toys, she also signed an endorsement deal with L.E.I. Jeans, a Wal-Mart brand as well as released an exclusive CD through Wal-Mart of previously unreleased music entitled “Beautiful Eyes”.

Swift has seemingly brought her style of country music to the mainstream and allowed many others to follow in her footsteps, but is this something positive for the genre or something that will open up Pandora’s Box on what is and what isn’t country. Not only might it start a negative trend in country becoming too mainstream and watered down but could Swift quickly overexpose her brand like LeAnne Rimes did in the mid-90’s after becoming a teen superstar. On the other hand done right she could retain her millions of fans as they grow with her keeping a large loyal fan base into her later years. The backlash of pop country can be heard from many older country music fans as well as by many older artists who just can’t seem to sell anymore. Is this something for country music fans to be worried about or is this just a revolution and so called “changing of the guard” in country music. It is hard to say what the future holds for Taylor Swift but as many can see month after month she remains on the top of the sales chart for country music bringing thousands of new fans weekly to a genre that was before seen to be outside of the mainstream music culture.