Taylor Swift to descend from Mount Pop Star and perform for lowly country music fans once again – The A.V. Club

Taylor Swift at the ACM Awards in 2010Photo: Ethan Miller (Getty Images)

Taylor Swift started her musical career as a country music sensation, singing about high school drama with an acoustic guitar and a bit of twang in her voice, but right when she started to enjoy some crossover success outside of that genre, she effectively turned her back on the country bullshit and embrace full pop stardom. Since then, because pop music is more popular than country music, Swift’s career has gone better and better, to the point where she’s starring in Cats and asking her fans to vote out a fascist demagogue—two things the traditionally right-leaning world of country music would never approve of.

But now, having become so good at making pop music that she’s circled back around to something approaching her take on folk music, Swift has decided to return to the world of country music (if only for one night and one song). As reported by Deadline, Swift is going to be performing her song “betty” off folklore at this week’s Academy Of Country Music Awards, making this the first time she has stopped by that particular show in seven years. She’ll even be performing it from the Grand Ole Opry House, as if to say “yes, I remember when I did country music.”

The ACM Awards are happening on September 16 and will feature a bunch of other country performances that aren’t from artists who have transcended the limits of that genre and become pop icons (though Gwen Stefani will be there with Blake Shelton, and she’s definitely famous outside of his circles).