that's where the joke started

Incorrect, the avatars were a thing for a while, and there were actual discussions going on. The April Fools' joke came from that, it didn't start anything (though it was phenomenally well-executed).

the thing is none of this seems like a joke, people are saying they're just plain looking forward to her new music

We are. As far as I know, everyone who uses those avatars is an actual fan.

and I'm curious why because I always thought she was a generic pop star, the kind the music industry pumps out every 5-10 years

Again, incorrect. While certainly business focused at times, she does actually bother to make her own music. Personally, my tastes generally lean towards punk rock, and I used to be someone who claimed I didn't listen to popular music at all, but Taylor changed my mind.

But they've been an in-joke for a while, now, I think. I remember checking in one April Fools and seeing swift.bungie.org, at the very least.

that's where the joke started
the thing is it's not a joke, or if it is it's got extremely thick sarcasm on it
everyone's saying they're just plain looking forward to her new music, and why they like it and which tracks are good and so on
I'm curious why because I always thought she was a generic pop star, the kind the music industry pumps out every 5-10 years

Taylor Swift has been masterful in manipulation of her image. She was a young teen when she broke out in the country scene, writing inoffensive and relatable pop country with lame lyrics other highschoolers like.

Her second single was her first crossover hit, Teardrops on My Guitar, which peaked at #13. It was about unrequited love. Her first single was Tim McGraw which also hit top 40. It was about thinking about people while listening to a song you share. Relatable and dumb.

Her second album was more poppy country, and was even more successful, with You Belong With Me reaching #2, and the rest of her singles sitting comfortably in the top 40. This pop country was working well for her, so she did a similar album, Speak Now, in 2010, with similar success, and a few top ten hits.

She had been slowly going more and more pop with her country, and slowly stopped being the victim, the lover who's rebuked or going through drama, and started to get angrier. The poppier her songs were, the better she did.

She released another album, Red, which was a sellout album, literally. She made Red a double album, where half the tracks were standard pop country, and quite good. The other half we're huge pop hits with synths and electronic bits. With this album, she had her first number one with We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, but her other singles also did well, none of which were country, or even pop country, but straight up pop. These were so different that she was utterly unrecognizable to me at that time, and I asked who she was when I heard the song on the radio.

Compare this song (skip to about halfway through) to Tim McGraw.

Still, she was trying to keep her image vaguely wholesome.

Again, Red, her fourth record, was a double album where half of it was country.

For 1989, her fifth album, she did something great. She went on TV, a late night show iirc, to announce it and her tour. This was in the same year that other popular pop star released her album with no notice. Taylor Swift talks to her fans directly, running contests and making all her moves public and does them in the most popular venues she can, in an extremely reasonable manner, but with cunning business sense. So she went on Fallon to announce her album...but she didn't. She announced a livestream she would do, all over the world, so she could announce to her fans what the announcement was. She partnered with Yahoo for this, so she got money just on ANNOUNCING her album, and also got fan credit for livestreaming it right to them, and with a premier of Shake It Off, her biggest single yet. She also said 1989 would be entirely pop, and it was. That record was her most successful yet, and it wasn't close.

She shifted her singing to be more angry, attacking, and petty, less sad and lovey, but that's okay. Some of the most venomous songs out there are the best. She meets her critics head on, and insults them.

What Taylor Swift has seemingly pulled off is astonishing.

She was a lame country singer, who made some successful pop songs, while maintaining a completely wholesome Disney Channel style image. As time went on, and she began to be criticized for her endless series of boyfriends and seemingly hypocritical behaviour, she completely changed genres, with even more success, and simply attacked those critics in her songs, essentially silencing them. She turned into a bad girl pop singer, but her origins as a nice girl country artist serve her well, and she has inexplicably made music everyone who likes pop enjoys, plus some crossover fans. She is not like other pop stars.

I don't like pop. I like pop punk, but dated a girl who liked country music, so I've been following Taylor Swift, unfortunately, for a decade. I can understand liking Taylor Swift's country phase. Her pop albums are absolute dogshit IMO. I listened to 1989 and was astonished at how bad all the songs were. The singles are genuinely I can't believe people like this bad. Her new single is also bad, but her success remains undeniable, and as far as I can tell, unstoppable.

As far as I can remember, it was just because some of us started using her for our avatars. I don't even remember who did it first. I was definitely early, not sure I was first though.

It was either you, me, or Cruel, probably. I did after Funkmon mentioned his Avril avatar in some random post, and I thought it'd be funny (and I do genuinely love Taylor Swift's music).

I still rock the Swifty theme, and I will until Beorn pries it from my cold, dead hands. The execution of that April Fools was perfect.

- No text -

because you want to have sex with her? you can just say that

I'm not sure whether you're so dense that you've actually misinterpreted that GIF as something sexual (if that's the case, I'll explain it: Breitzen was figuratively winking at you and saying "you know" because he KNOWS that you actually don't know - it's a joke), or if you really believe people aren't capable of appreciating anything else about a hugely accomplished artist other than her looks.