Taylor Swift is the point at which pop culture broke free from its strictures and “lightness” and sharply divided American society
Starting to write an article about Taylor Swift, I find that I don’t know two very basic things: One is how to start writing about Taylor Swift, and the second is her music. It’s not necessarily my fault that I’m Generation-X (which is the immediate aftermath of the Boomers, who have become synonymous with the old). It’s probably due to the fact that I always treated T. Swift as an occasional phenomenon that would soon and sweetly fade into the background, passing into oblivion, like many similar creations of pop culture. T. Swift is getting revenge on me today. She has proved to be much more resistant to time than I expected, while proving to be more than just a “musical phenomenon” of pop culture. To be precise, T. Swift is the point at which pop culture broke free from its seals and its “lightness” and sharply divided American society and especially American politics. And that has more to say about society and politics than about T. Swift.
“Agent” of the Pentagon and the FBI
If your worth is defined more by how much your enemies fear you than by how much your friends love you, then we have every reason to be concerned with T. Swift. A few days ago the Republicans officially declared war on her via the Fox television network. In it host Chassie Waters said that, according to sources (whom he did not name, while admitting that he himself has no evidence on the matter), the singer is part of a “covert operation to psychologically influence public opinion”, which “being used by the Pentagon” to convince her millions of fanatical fans to vote for Democrats. You read that right.
The problem isn’t that a conspiracy theorist says whatever he feels like on American television – it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. The problem is that this theory has been gaining ground lately among right-wing politicians and voters, especially after Swift’s appearances at NFL games, in which her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays. Dr. Kelsey has been one of the main proponents of vaccination, which some Republicans don’t like at all. Tr. Kelsey’s team, the Kansas Chiefs, reached the final of the championship, which “vindicated” the devotees of the conspiracy theory: Not only the Pentagon and T. Swift were members of it, but also American football, which “set up ” the games. As if all that weren’t enough, the US State Department posted travel advice on X based on Swift’s latest tour, while the FBI posted a post encouraging citizens to help by copying the cover of her latest album. The plot thickens…
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy may have retired from running for the Republican presidential nomination, but he seems to have found a new purpose in life: “This artificially giant cultural couple will announce who they’re supporting for president wherever they are,” he wrote. in X. Taylor has officially become an enemy of the Republicans and a potential fixer of the presidential election.
“Who is Taylor Swift?”
The Democrats are not left out: “We don’t know if Mrs. Swift will offer to give us her support, but of course we would love to have her,” said Mitch Landrieu, one of the heads of Joe Biden’s campaign. Joe Biden himself, who loves traditional Irish music, is not clear if he cares about all this or if he even knows who Taylor Swift is, whom he confused with Britney Spears last year. His staffers have been scrambling to explain her feud with her agent Scooter Braun when the latter visited the White House. Yeah, it’s kind of crazy that his re-election might be decided by a singer he doesn’t know.
Beyond crazy, however, it is also very indicative of what is happening in America in general: A very old and completely cut off from the younger part of the population is running for president again, while millions of people are ready to go vote for what a singer will tell them. It makes you think that we’re just very lucky that T. Swift is a feminist and a fighter and has a social conscience and likes Joe Biden. He could just as easily be endorsing Donald Trump. Her audience doesn’t care about politics anyway, so they will vote on “artistic” if not fan criteria.
While Republicans are busy trying to bury T. Swift under tons of conspiracy mud, Democrats are racking their brains over how she should be “convinced” to publicly support Joe Biden. The result is no less funny. Joe Biden’s campaign staff receives hundreds of related proposals every day. A supporter of the current President claims to have drawn up a secret plan with his lawyers, which will soon be filed with T. Swift’s lawyers. Another claims that his brother had played on the same basketball team as T. Swift’s brother in Pennsylvania and maybe that could help the President. Others regularly send Joe Biden’s staff the latest paparazzi snaps of T. Swift and her friends in case anyone knows someone who knows someone who knows the singer… Recently, one of Joe Biden’s die-hard fans (both Joe as well as T. Swift) went to the media and suggested that Joe Biden should surprise one of the singer’s concerts. His proposal gained support and went viral. But this is unlikely to happen for many reasons, the main one of which is that Swifties, as the singer’s followers are called, probably do not want the men of the secret police next to them while they dance to her songs.
The woman who scares the strongest men in the world
Republicans hate her because she is a woman, successful, influential, against the conspiracy of Donald Trump. Democrats worry that he may not make the right post at the right time.
The cooler ones suggest that the Democrats do not make any move: “She will make that move, on her own terms and when she wants to” they say, as she has done in the past. The recent past, because up until a few years ago T. Swift was a young girl who sang country songs and never talked about politics, only letting her opinions shine through her lyrics. Then he became involved in limited-range initiatives, such as that of Tennessee Democratic Senator Phil Brentsen to combat online sexual harassment or Michelle Obama’s campaign for youth health.
In 2014, David Letterman asked her what she was voting for, and Swift replied, “It’s my right to vote, but it’s not my right to tell other people what to vote for.” And, much to the dismay of Democrats, she refused to endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016. Her “political awakening” came in 2017, when she filed a sexual assault lawsuit against a DJ. T. Swift won the lawsuit and says to this day that the incident changed her life. “I thought that the next time I have the opportunity to change something, I should know what I believe and what I want to stand for,” he has said. The next time came soon and was in 2018, when T. Swift openly endorsed F. Brentsen for Senate on Instagram. “My daughter told me that Swift’s support is incredibly important,” he had commented.
In 2020 the singer simply uploaded to her account the announcement that Kamala Harris is running for vice president with Joe Biden, filling in a huge “YES” under the post. Three letters were enough to say what others need hundreds or even thousands of words. This is politics in the age of Instagram. That and the photo he posted a little later of some cookies with the Joe Biden campaign logo “painted” on them in sugar.
In the middle of the yes and the no, there are also some – on both sides – who see things differently. Many in the Democratic camp believe that all this talk has gone into overdrive and has ostracized the real stakes of the election from the public debate (they’re right), while others in the Republican camp believe that the polemic against T. Swift risks backfire (they’re right too). Not all Republican conspiracy theorists are either far-right or misogynists. Like all Democrats, he is not of the opinion that “the end justifies the means” and does not want to identify the claim of the presidency with the preferences of a pop idol. But T. Swift is more than just an idol. It is a social phenomenon bordering on “heresy”. Its influence is taught in universities, while a few months ago the pillar of capitalism Economist published an article entitled “Can Taylor Swift raise inflation?”. Serious article, and the bottom line was that, yes, where he goes for gigs prices shoot up and with them inflation in the medium term. Why can’t he produce a President?
Trump’s followers are calling Swift a “Trojan Horse” and sources in his camp vowed to Rolling Stone that they would launch a “holy war” against her. The Biden administration may not have enlisted her as a “Pentagon agent,” but she is clearly instrumentalizing her preference for the President. Both are afraid of her. Republicans because she is a woman, wildly successful, influential and against Trump’s misogyny and conspiracy. Democrats because they worry about him not making the right post at the right time and staying out of the political game. Her fans are more likely to go vote if she tells them to than if the police go to take them by force.
We are waiting too. Good or bad, listen to any of her songs in between.
