Taylor Swift named Time magazine's Person of the Year: Who else was considered?

Time Magazine named pop superstar Taylor Swift as its annual Person of the Year.

In the past, other recipients of the recognition include Barack Obama (2008 and 2012), Donald Trump (2016), Richard Nixon (1971, 1972), Mark Zuckerberg (2010), Mahatma Ghandi (1930) and Adolf Hitler (1938).

Sometimes the winner isn't just one person: For example, the like the astronauts of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 and the silence breakers of the MeToo movement in 2017.

Sometimes, it's not a person at all: the computer won in 1982.

Do we really believe Taylor Swift belongs with this group?

An artist has never been Time's person of the year. Isn't culture as much a part of our lives as politics and science?

The fact that it's an unconventional pick is why it works.

Let's look back at some previous winners.

Wallis Simpson was person of the year in 1936. She wasn't a politician or a religious leader, but she's the reason we got Queen Elizabeth II

King Edward VIII wanted to marry the divorced American Wallis Simpson so bad that he gave the crown to his brother, Queen Elizabeth's father.

Time's first ever female pick led to the longest reigning English monarch in history.

Other candidates Time could have named its Person of the Year

Let’s consider some other people who could've been Person of the Year.

There are two people tasked with pulling Americans out of inflation: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

In November, the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for a second consecutive meeting, leaving the central bank’s benchmark lending rate at its highest level in 22 years.

However, since March 2022, the Fed has raised its key rate 11 times from near zero to roughly 5.4% in its drive to curb inflation.

Also, Time could have considered the U.S. Supreme Court, which ended affirmative action, upheld liability protections for the big social media companies and maintained state court power on elections.

The emergence of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT could have also received consideration. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is responsible for the artificial intelligence that's changing the world. Altman won Time’s CEO of the Year.

Another consideration: How many other people can match the economic impact of Swift?

We are talking billions of dollars worldwide.

Foreign leaders begged Taylor to bring her shows to their countries.

Time Magazine even quoted a Duke University finance professor Ed Tiryakian in its piece.

“When the Federal Reserve mentions you as the reason economic growth is up, that’s a big deal,” Tiryakian told Time.

Does money make someone the most influential or important person?

By that measure, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink should be Person of the Year. BlackRock is a money management firm worth $10 trillion.

Regardless, Swift’s impact has even reached the NFL ever since she started dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The NFL drew 27 million viewers, the second-most-watched matchup this season, when the Chiefs played the New York Jets on Oct. 1.

“To discuss her movements felt like discussing politics or the weather—a language spoken so widely it needed no context,” Time West Coast editor Sam Lansky wrote of Swift. “She became the main character of the world.

“If you’re skeptical, consider it: How many conversations did you have about Taylor Swift this year?”