The subject of pop icon Taylor Swift has helped a student from the University of Chester send her dissertation global – and make headlines of her own.
Esther Humphries made the singer, who has been playing to packed out stadiums in the UK as part of her international Eras Tour, the subject for her final year project.
Esther, who grew up on the Wirral, wrote her English Language degree dissertation on Taylor’s accent changes between her country and pop music styles.
She considered how her earlier music was performed with a Southern American or Tennessee accent, while her more recent music has graduated towards a more Northern American accent.
Earlier this year, Esther and Dr Helen West, Senior Lecturer in English Language/Linguistics, jointly presented a paper on the subject online – the only speakers to discuss accent or speech – to the Swiftposium academic conference at the University of Melbourne.
They were along only 130 people selected from more than 400 submissions to speak at the event – and their story appeared in media around the world.
Organisers of the Swiftposium have shared how despite a career spanning more than 17 years, being one of the highest-earning and most-celebrated artists of all time, with millions of fans worldwide, intense media attention, being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year and groundbreaking awards success academia has not always taken Swift seriously.
But they add that ‘Swift’s influence, fanbase and general mainstream popularity, have become too big for academia to ignore’.
Papers at the Swiftposium looked at everything from the effect on the local economy of where Swift tours and how she keeps her sound relatable yet fresh, to the feminism of anti-heroism and how her music can be used to improve cardiovascular health.
Dr West and Esther’s presentation – titled ‘Everything has Changed’ or has it? A real-time sociophonetic analysis of Taykor Swift – shared an analysis of contrasting phonetic features of the words ‘price’, ‘kit’ and ‘dress’ and the suffix ‘ing’, said by Swift in Northern and Southern American English.
Comparisons were drawn between Swift’s speech during interviews from 2006 and 2012 and twenty of the most streamed songs from four of her albums.
Dr West said: “Taylor’s accent changes between her country and pop music styles has generated quite a lot of public attention but, until our research, had not been analysed in any depth.
“The results reveal significant stylisation dependent on the musical genre Swift performs, with Southern American English accent forms more prevalent in her earlier country-style music. Her popular-style performances demonstrate a transition to North American accent forms.
“The changes could be attributed to a range of factors, including her emersion into the Nashville/South American English speech community, having moved to Nashville at the age of 14, and they could also carry some social meaning about ‘countryness’, youth culture and lack of pretention.
“I was a very proud supervisor of Esther’s fantastic dissertation, which started what was to follow. Since our presentation we have been super excited to find snippets of our story splashed around various news sources around the world, from the UK to Singapore.
“We knew that there may be some attention to our work after Swiftposium 2024 due to the magnitude of her popularity, but we did not expect this amount of buzz. It’s great.”
Esther, 22, who has been working as a speech and language therapist assistant in a special school in Reading since she graduated, said: “Seeing the response to what started off as my final year dissertation has been a huge surprise.
“I was out and about with a friend when she spotted one of the first stories about me on the BBC.
“I’ve always loved Taylor Swift’s music and was fascinated by how her accent has changed through her career. So when it came to choosing the subject for my dissertation, she was a natural choice.
“When my supervisor floated the idea of publishing my work as a paper I was thrilled. It was great to speak at the Swiftposium. It was a big conference in Australia and very academic and Dr West and I gave our talk virtually.
“I’ve not seen Taylor in concert although they look really good fun and I’d love to know if she’s heard about my dissertation.”
- On July 4th 12-4pm, Dr West and Esther will be appearing at the Festival of Ideas in Chester, where they will be presenting their results as an interactive exhibition, which invites attendees to listen to Taylor Swift’s music and offer their valued opinion.
