# Can someone explain the Taylor Swift phenomenon to me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [March 19, 2023, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339 "2023-03-19T02:50:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 42
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/822 "2024-01-27T20:55:25Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I want grit and anger. I’m quietly hoping that’s next. ETA: we had _Reputation_ of course, but I think she’s angry about a lot more than Kanye West sniping at her on social media, and a Sinead O’Connor turn could happen. Not that I’d wish on her the burden of what would come with it. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/823 "2024-01-27T20:57:59Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Perhaps we could _completely_ drop this straw man that anyone is telling anyone they _should_ do anything, or that everyone _will_ like her music I’m certainly not taking it like that. I see a vast difference between, “I love this, and maybe you will, too” and, “you’re an idiot and a misogynist if you don’t.” Of course, many people do come at Taylor Swift with the “teen girls like this, therefore it must be vapid” sentiment, and that was dealt with in probably the first 15 posts of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/824 "2024-01-27T21:14:15Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I want grit and anger. Does it have to be Alanis Morisette style musical rage, or can it be seething behind a calm musical background (which, in ways, is even more frightening). Try “mad woman”: (She even swears!) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6DP4q_1EgQQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Taylor Swift – mad woman (Official Lyric Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DP4q_1EgQQ) My 8-year-old recommends the 10 minutes version of “All Too Well” when I asked her what Taylor’s angriest song was. That’s a very country-tinged pop tune, but, man, that anger builds and builds in her lyrics and voice. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/825 "2024-01-27T21:37:24Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > seething behind a calm musical background This is one of the _folklore_ tracks tracks where Dessner wrote an instrumental piece, sent it to her and she built a song around it. It’s interesting that she heard that piano part and got “female rage” out of it. I lol-ed at “It’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together”. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/826 "2024-01-28T01:31:30Z")
David Letterman approves of Taylor Swift. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wcWAXaWbqt0/maxresdefault.jpg "David Letterman👍 on Taylor Swift") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcWAXaWbqt0) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/827 "2024-01-28T02:17:40Z")
David Letterman taught Jerry Garcia how to play Proud Mary on guitar. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WYT72wJYkgE/maxresdefault.jpg "Dave Teaches Jerry Garcia How To Play Guitar | Letterman #Shorts") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYT72wJYkgE) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/828 "2024-01-28T03:07:00Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Try “mad woman”: (She even swears!) She wrote _Champagne Problems_ (evermore) also in the lockdown, and said a couple of times in interviews that one thing she was especially looking forward to when touring again was singing the bridge live. Sure enough it’s a (sitting at piano) fixture on the _Eras_ tour, and of course the entire stadium belts out that line with her. > “She would’ve made such a lovely bride > What a shame she’s fucked in the head,” they said ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/829 "2024-01-30T14:02:21Z")
Apparently her popularity is all a psy-op. (I wish I was making this up) > **[Taylor Swift draws ire of conservatives after Chiefs win AFC championship](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/taylor-swift-draws-ire-conservatives-chiefs-win-afc-championship-rcna136185)** > > Some right-wing pundits have suggested without evidence that all the hype around Swift could be part of an orchestrated plot to drum up hype for the Democratic Party. > One of the most viewed posts came from the right-wing X account End Wokeness, which describes itself as “fighting, exposing, and mocking wokeness.” The account [shared a post](https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1751755176602378746) Sunday suggesting that Swift’s overwhelming popularity over the past year was due to malign forces. > > “What’s happening with Taylor Swift is not organic and natural. It’s an op,” the account posted. “We all feel it. We all know it.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/830 "2024-01-30T14:07:45Z")
The utter insanity that social media creates is legitimately beginning to frighten me. People believe this madness, in the millions. Flat earth nuttery is spreading. I’m seeing posts claiming that basically every female celebrity, including Swift, is secretly a man. Everyone’s a satanist. The conspiracy theory that Swift dating Kelce is a huge psyop is probably one of the LESS insane ones. For the first time in my life I’m actually pessimistic about the future. Every generation has a pop star or two who is, to coin a term, hyperfamous; a person who the public goes so apeshit for that it defies logic and they can no longer live a normal life. The Beatles were like like, as was Michael Jackson. Precisely WHY it happens is hard to pin down, but it does. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/831 "2024-01-30T14:56:33Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Every generation has a pop star or two who is, to coin a term, hyperfamous; a person who the public goes so apeshit for that it defies logic and they can no longer live a normal life. The Beatles were like like, as was Michael Jackson. Precisely WHY it happens is hard to pin down, but it does. If Swift comes out tomorrow and claims she’s bigger than Jesus, I’ll be her fan for life. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/832 "2024-01-30T15:10:35Z")
As long as she doesn’t start molesting kids, I’m in. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/833 "2024-01-30T15:28:34Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Apparently her popularity is all a psy-op. (I wish I was making this up) > > [Taylor Swift draws ire of conservatives after Chiefs win AFC championship](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/taylor-swift-draws-ire-conservatives-chiefs-win-afc-championship-rcna136185) > > > One of the most viewed posts came from the right-wing X account End Wokeness, which describes itself as “fighting, exposing, and mocking wokeness.” The account [shared a post](https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1751755176602378746) Sunday suggesting that Swift’s overwhelming popularity over the past year was due to malign forces. > > > > “What’s happening with Taylor Swift is not organic and natural. It’s an op,” the account posted. “We all feel it. We all know it.” The prospect of annoyance due to endless Kelce/Swift comments and reaction shots during the Super Bowl is tempered by the extreme angst this is causing Trump supporters (who predict the two will endorse Biden at halftime) and antivaxers (since Kelce publicly supported Covid vaccination and is a Pfizer spokesperson). More general conspiracy theorists are convinced the AFC championship game was rigged so that the Chiefs would win and perpetuate the Swift phenomenon for ratings and other malign purposes. The poor dears are beside themselves. 😂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/834 "2024-01-30T15:38:40Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Apparently her popularity is all a psy-op. (I wish I was making this up) That’s been a talking point for some time now, so nothing new. I know it’s come up in other threads. That whole “non-organic” quote goes back a bit. Lemme see if I can dig up an early sighting of that. Ah, actually it was upthread, post 640: [![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAs7_LMXUAA_cep.jpg) ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAs7_LMXUAA_cep.jpg) So they’ve been chirping on it for a bit. ETA: Apparently Fox took the conspiracy theory mainstream (it seems to have started with QAnon from my brief research) in one of their programs back a couple weeks ago. [Link here](https://newrepublic.com/post/177990/fox-news-conspiracy-theory-taylor-swift-psyop). ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/835 "2024-01-30T17:20:49Z")
This may not be everyonrs cup of tea, but i enjoyed it: its a video essay on Taylor Swift by a young Queer social commentator. Hes basically exploring Taylor Swift in her cultural context, but also grappling with how important and relatable her music was to him and others like him in their youth, despite the fact that she is really pretty alien to a gay Hispanic intellectual. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Mdmhiv7O5m8/maxresdefault.jpg "This Video Isn't Just About Taylor Swift. It's About You.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdmhiv7O5m8) I really liked it, but I like lefty video essays. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/836 "2024-01-30T17:29:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > If Swift comes out tomorrow and claims she’s bigger than Jesus, I’ll be her fan for life. I realized recently that she’s playing in London when I go through the UK to visit my family in June, so I’m taking my niece to see her. Aftermarket prices are less insane than for any US show. I was conflicted about it because I don’t like big crowds and I’m not much for dancin’ - I literally have not been to a large-scale concert since Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden in 1986, before Taylor was born. Kind of fitting though, I really do think she’s as good a songwriter as old Bob. I’m trying to maintain some dignity that I’m going for the music and I’m not going to dress up like a ghost or a mirrorball, but the concession to agreeing to wear some kind of relevant tee-shirt may backfire on me. I share with my niece a history of serious conflict with parents over their nasty religious beliefs, and the current front runner for tee-shirt is “We tried worshipping Jesus but Taylor Swift is real”. Joking aside, although I don’t think it’s in her nature to be anything but earnest, I do think she’s trying to move away from the “aw shucks” bit, in part because it’s so obviously silly now, but more importantly because she is such an huge role model for young women. She has talked about the difficulty of training herself out of her own ingrained sexism, feeling the urge to apologize for speaking her mind, that kind of thing. You should check out the opening set of Eras if you haven’t seen it. She does a bit leading into _The Man_ where she demonstrates her mind control superpowers with the audience. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/837 "2024-01-30T17:31:55Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Apparently her popularity is all a psy-op. (I wish I was making this up) You’d think that the people who can make Swift so popular and sell so many tickets and albums and elevate NFL viewership could also figure out how to win the House, but here we are. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/838 "2024-01-30T17:54:23Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > could also figure out how to win the House Maybe if they could find someone half as smart and a third as charismatic as Swift to put in charge, they could win. To keep this from being a hijack, I really hope she starts with some explicit political messaging. I’m sure she’s done some, but I mean Rock the Vote style voter registration applications in her albums and straight up endorsement of the candidates I would support. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/839 "2024-01-30T18:03:00Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > someone half as smart and a third as charismatic as Swift But that would imply that Swift’s popularity was “organic” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/840 "2024-02-02T00:59:11Z")
Jimmy Kimmel, responding to the idea that Trump is more popular than Taylor Swift said that if Trump held a rally at sofi stadium in LA, there would be enough empty seats to hold a Taylor Swift concert. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339/841 "2024-02-03T15:27:57Z")
I am now officially a fan. Not because of the way she looks, and not because of her music (which I’ve never listened to), but because the MAGA-verse [has lost their tiny little minds over her](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/us/politics/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-trump.html). She’s being slandered and libeled by Trump, Fox and Friends, the Trump Nazi Youth Corps and all the rest because they are terrified by her popularity and the fact that she told her fans to register to vote. They’re convinced that the Superbowl has been rigged for the Chiefs and that Swift and her boyfriend will appear at half-time to endorse Biden. You go, girl. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339.md?page=41) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-the-taylor-swift-phenomenon-to-me/981339.md?page=43)