She is very blatantly a pop star. She started out with more country oriented songs but she now she is a just a diva that sometimes plays acoustic guitar.
That's not even remotely fair. For starters she still writes more of her material than Gaga or Adele, and those are supposed to be the "genuine" pop artists. Secondly she doesn't
occasionally play guitar, there is guitar in
all of her songs. I can't think of one studio song that doesn't have guitar except for a few solo-piano outtake versions. Even when she did her so-called "modern pop" album, the whole thing is guitar-based. There's electronic accompaniment on
one song (while the main rhythm is still guitar), and well over half the album is still the same organic folk-rock instrumentations she's been doing since her first record. Not even to mention all the solo-acoustic songs she performs
at every show of rare tracks, not exactly what I'd expect from a typical diva.
I get that because Taylor's music appeals predominantly to 13 year old girls, and because she's obnoxiously huge, and because she doesn't kiss up to the country crowd, people want to write her off as a mindless drone corporate sugar act. But the facts just don't support that at all. Now if you want to tell me her first three releases (s/t, Beautiful Eyes and the Christmas album), are the only ones that are country-oriented, I agree with you 100% wholeheartedly. She was only ever "full" country for that first record really. But as for her being "just a diva who occasionally plays acoustic guitar," that's simply ridiculous. Her music
is guitar music. While almost everyone in the pop world continues to do EDM-based dance pop, Taylor has always and continues to exclusively play organic, live band styled material. That's probably why some people still insist on calling her country even though she hasn't released a song about trucks since 2006.