NEW YORK, June 12 -- The institution that exists to honor songwriting handed its highest recognition on Wednesday to a 36-year-old who has spent two-thirds of her life doing it, and the person who walked her to the podium was not a musician at all. Steven Spielberg inducted Taylor Swift into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the choice of presenter said as much about where Swift now sits in the culture as the award itself.

Swift became the youngest woman ever inducted and the second-youngest person in the organization's history, trailing only Stevie Wonder, who entered in 1983 at 32, Variety reported from the 55th annual gala at the Marriott Marquis. She teared up during a speech that thanked the family who moved her from Pennsylvania to...