Taylor Swift's wedding at one of New York City's most iconic buildings Friday represents what she sees as the culmination of a deep love affair with the city. Yet the celebration underscores an asymmetrical relationship: while Swift has spent over a decade attempting to secure her place within New York's celebrated musical tradition, the city has largely responded with indifference, a sharp contrast to her hopes of joining the ranks of the city's storied artists.

Swift's integration into New York's cultural fabric has proven complicated despite her early welcome when she purchased property and released "Welcome to New York" in 2014. What initially seemed like an authentic transplant story was complicated by the scale of her arrival—two adjoining Tribeca penthouses for $20 million—and public statements that sometimes struck locals as oblivious to the city's character, such as explaining bodegas as though making a novel discovery. This tone-deafness, combined with her existing fame upon arrival, appears to have created an unbridgeable distance between Swift and the New York audience she has sought to embrace.