2023 Recap: The Year Of Taylor Swift Was Much More Than Relationship With Travis Kelce

It' s Taylor Swift's world and we're all just living in it.

It may seem strange to hear but if you really think about it, 'Taylor Swift' wasn't 'Taylor Swift' just a short 12 months ago.

Sure, she was a popular name up there with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Pink and Rihanna... but she wasn't part of the upper echelon of pop culture and notable current day musicians.

Now however?

She still has two names but the power is as symbolic as the greats with one. 'Cher,' 'Prince,' 'Michael...' regardless what you think about her music or her as a person, Taylor Swift is part of the GOAT conversation in popularity alone. And 2023 was the year that it all happened where Taylor Swift went from a war with Ticketmaster and being the savior against the monopoly of scalpers to just a year later practically invading the National Football League.

Let's take a look back in the year that was all Taylor.

TAYLOR AND TRAVIS... TRAVIS AND TAYLOR

We'll start with the story that originally started as "Oh - good for them!" to "get the hell off my football screen."

What originally started as Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce shooting his shot for Taylor ended up in being constant, nauseating-at-times, relentless coverage of their relationship.

The initial hysteria was wild. It was minute-by-minute, move-by-move, dinner date-by-dinner date coverage of what the two were doing. Even here at OutKick we tried not covering it to relentless coverage like that of Entertainment Tonight and others - but it was hard not to considering Taylor and Travis were EVERYWHERE.

As I accurately predicted in the first days of their relationship, the buzz would soon turn to boos because of the oversaturation that would come from it. Taylor Swift jumping into the new and unfamiliar lane of sports meant that every single entertainment journalist and entity would now be trying to discuss and give opinions on a game they didn't know about. For example - did you know Travis Kelce had to attend mandatory practice during game week and couldn't go to Taylor's birthday?! Shocking!

CHIEFS FANS AREN'T TOO PLEASED

On the flipside, sports media executives and broadcast networks RAN with the Taylor hype, much to the chagrin of Al Michaels. 'Taylor Watch,' became a big thing as they realized the short-term profit that could be brought in by millions upon millions of Swifties tuning into Chiefs games... as well as those glorious football jersey merch sales that helped see Kelce jerseys skyrocket over 400 percent when their relationship went official. And how about those soaring gameday ticket prices.

For her and Travis Kelce's sake as well as Chiefs fans everywhere however - they better hope Kansas City can start getting some wins after losing three of its last four. Otherwise, the Bad Blood from diehard football fans is only going to grow.

But if you thought you were getting rid of Taylor and the NFL relationship anytime soon, just wait until I predict she plays the Super Bowl in 2027 when it takes place in Nashville at the Titans Stadium. Just remember to credit me.

IT WAS ANYTHING BUT A CRUEL SUMMER

Whereas the Chiefs have been losing since Taylor Swift decided to show up, she wasn't anything but a winner when it came to what she does - play music.

Swift's 'Eras' Tour was an absolute SMASH this summer. Every big city in the country nearly shut down when she would come through for her two- or three-day stadium stints. Parents hated it because of how much it would cost, while Swifties were lining up for days just to buy merchandise. Others chose to sell rainwater for hundreds of dollars because of Taylor Swift.

Oh, and the lovely psychopath Swifties also went into such a frenzy during her Seattle concert that they registered an earthquake.

Still don't believe it was Taylor's year? Tell me another artist that did this in recent years.

WELCOME TO THE BILLIONAIRE CLUB

2023 was also the year that Taylor Swift entered the billy club as she broke through over a billion dollars in profit.

Swift's Eras Tour became the highest growing tour of all time according to Pollstar bringing in a billion dollars alone - and that's before it goes on its international run next month!

The video version of the tour was released in theaters and broke AMC Theaters' presale record. Whereas Disney can't get a hit movie to save its falling share prices, Taylor was able to come in and save the movie industry for the month of October. To date, the live tour has brought in more than $250 million in sales.

From an album standpoint, Swift became the first artist ever to have all Top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as broke the all-time Spotify listening streams in a single day.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR TAYLOR?

With so much success in 2023, how does Taylor top it next year?

Well, if she and Travis decide to get married, you can expect the media and tabloids to cover that as if it was a damn Royal Wedding over in the Britain.

You can expect another album or two of 'Taylor's Versions' albums to be released next year as well - cementing herself atop the Billboard charts every few months.

Will she enter into the film world? I doubt it simply because she doesn't need to.

One thing that will be interesting to see is if she delves into politics with next year's Presidential election. America is extremely divided right now and she and her team clearly know that if she says something political at the Presidential level that the other 46 percent to 50 percent of the country is going to disagree with her.

Or who knows, we could always get a breakup song if she and Travis Kelce don't work out.