While on a family drive this past week, the Wife commented, “I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift, but I still can’t understand why she’s so popular.”
With the help of my razor sharp whit, I quipped, “Because she’s fun.”
“Not the songs I’ve been listening to. They’re all about how life sucks.”
At that point, I had to stop and think (always dangerous, especially while driving). It turns out, there is no single reason why Taylor Swift is so popular. There isn’t even a singular Taylor Swift, as far as her music is concerned. The Wife had been listening to her pandemic albums, which flowed with the authenticity of the moment in all their folksy charm…and malaise.
Go back a couple albums, and you’ll find the pop/dance charm that set her apart from all the EDM slums of the 2000’s. Go back a bit further and you’ll find a country girl generating sweetheart, narrative ballads. The crazy thing is that fans from all three reincarnations still claim her as their own. It turns out the only person who can unite middle America and the urban coasts is Taylor Swift. The only person who can unite the Grammy and the Lombardi is Taylor Swift.
But why? How? Google the topic and you’ll find everything from discussion boards to academic treatises. Per my gifting, let me break it down for you.
She’s talented, smart, and good looking. The trifecta. Can I repeat her success? No. I’m decently smart, not very talented, and midland to boorish in the attractive department. So my chances of unifying the planet over anything? Zilch. Turns out if you don’t have all three in spades, you got no chance. Once a generation, someone comes along who puts it all together. In this case, her name is Taylor Swift.
To top it all off, she seems like a decent individual as is reflected by her authenticity and lack of overall smarminess. Being authentic, in general, causes people to relate to you. Being a shill, in general, causes people to agree with you. This means Taylor Swift is able to change her music genre without losing fans, because her change in music style doesn’t make her any less authentic or relatable. She’s not changing genre to make money (or at least it doesn’t feel like she is).
On the other hand, being a shill means that whenever you change your opinion you will lose followers because they no longer agree with you. And their manipulated loyalty via agreement was all you held over them. Because you’re a shill!
But what, you may ask, has made Taylor Swift a pop culture goddess?
Well, that’s a whole other matter. This part of the equation has less to do with Taylor Swift and more to do with the Swifties themselves. As followers of anyone, whether we agree with them or relate to them, if we try to fill a deep felt need via fandom/following of this person, then the person will take on the role of savior. This is when you go from relating to Taylor Swift to needing her to save you. Or this is when you go from agreeing with (fill in the blank with your favorite infotainer or politician or commentator) to needing them to save you. Bill Maher, save us! Donald Trump, save us! Taylor Swift, save us! Dallas Cowboys, save us! (Ehem, like that’s ever gonna happen…)
Problem is, that isn’t their job. And it isn’t in their capability. None of these people can save us. Or save you. Or save themselves, for that matter. But when all the chatter coming from every direction seems to imply we are doomed. DOOMED I tells ya! Then the natural response is to look toward someone, anyone to be a savior.
As for Taylor Swift, I think I’ll enjoy her as a songwriter and a singer, and leave it at that. I don’t think she needs the burden of Messiah in addition to pop idol.
From the Desk of DMB
This week, my young protag has almost reached the hinge point of the story. He’s about to meet up (more in length) with the key sage character of the story who will impact him tremendously as he attempts to navigate reality. So far, I’ve been playing around with a very repetitive pacing that models itself after the protag’s personality (along the autistic spectrum). Even there, I’ve slowly dropped the degree of repetitive rhythm in an attempt to show the character’s growth simply by having initially encountered the sage character. Slowly, the protag is growing more “in sync” with his perception of the world, as contrasted by the majority perception of the world that is thrust upon him but never seems to fit. My current thought is to have the second half of the story accelerate rapidly to reflect the internal changes of the protag’s perception. I’m still not totally set on this idea, and will update as I go. This is all pretty meta, and for the most part I’m not sure readers will even consciously notice. But I’m aiming for a bit more of an arthouse novel here, so hey! I’m almost 40K words (160 pages) in and to the halfway point. Longer than I thought it would end up, but it’s all part of the ride.
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