You’d have to be cloistered in a monastery with no web connection, encapsulated in a survivalist bunker, caged in a hamlet with no electricity deep in a primeval forest. In short, you’d have to be totally disconnected from earthly reality not to know of Taylor Swift’s existence. So that’s why we’re talking about it too… from another angle, as you’d expect!
Time Magazine personality at the end of 2023, formidable businesswoman, entrepreneur of her own success, bulimic of creation and production, empress of the song hook, absolute conqueror of pop culture;
Taylor Swift is clearly the most influential Caucasian singer and songwriter in the solar system.
It has tens of millions of dedicated fans, including a sizeable portion of cultured humans who have little to do a priori with its culture. It’s clear that her influence extends far beyond the circles of her “natural” market: generic pop, or what used to be called “variété”.
What’s going on? Avoiding or denying the swiftie mega-phenomenon deprives anyone of understanding a fundamental part of today’s cultural reality.
Released in January, the Luminate report indicated that listening to Taylor Swift’s songs last year accounted for 1.78% of 4100 billion listens on streaming platforms.
Do the math : 72 billion 980 million wiretaps were devoted to the American superstar.
Continue the exercise: if she earned $4,000 per million listens as the average Spotify artist does, she would have pocketed 291 million US$ in streaming revenues last year.
But let’s not forget that she renegotiated the amount of clicks she was awarded, which could well double the stakes…. So? 400, 500, 600 million US$, not to mention an even larger sum for her concerts and merchandising? We won’t know, as these agreements are private.But let’s not forget that she renegotiated the amount of clicks she was awarded, which could well double the stakes…. So? 400, 500, 600 million US$, not to mention an even larger sum for her concerts and merchandising? We won’t know, as these agreements are private.
Where are we now? Not half a day goes by without hearing about Taylor Swift.
Time Magazine named her Personality of the Year at the end of 2023, and more recently, the New York Times analyzed her possible queerness, American soccer, to round it all off. Since the fall, we’ve been the spectators of this romance with Chiefs star player Travis Kelce, who isn’t exactly a celery stalk – and who only earns 12 million a year… poor guy!Time Magazine named her Personality of the Year at the end of 2023, and more recently, the New York Times analyzed her possible queerness, American soccer, to round it all off. Since the fall, we’ve been the spectators of this romance with Chiefs star player Travis Kelce, who isn’t exactly a celery stalk – and who only earns 12 million a year… poor guy!
Via the NFL, the Taylor Swift brand has just taken on even greater proportions, culminating on Sunday February 11, not at one of the stadiums and arenas she fills by snapping her fingers, but at the Las Vegas stadium where Superbowl LVIII will be held.
Travis Kelce would normally be at the top of his game to lead the Chiefs to victory over the Niners… which isn’t going to happen because San Francisco has a better team than Kansas City this season… on paper. Wasn’t that also said about the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens?Travis Kelce would normally be at the top of his game to lead the Chiefs to victory over the Niners… which isn’t going to happen because San Francisco has a better team than Kansas City this season… on paper. Wasn’t that also said about the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens?
The best tight end of all generations will be doing his best to win a 3rd SB after beating the odds in the playoffs. In the last two games in which he shone, the connection was just about perfect with Patrick Mahomes, still the NFL’s best quarterback. Gambling against this tandem at the next SB is at your own risk !
If her Tokyo-USA flight is on time, as we’ve been told several times, Taylor Swift will be helping to light up with her presence a game watched by over 115 million viewers last year. Add to this audience all the Swifties newly interested in the NFL, and let’s predict that the ratings will be higher than 2023 because of the Taylor/Travis relationship. What a boon for the professional league.
On est donc loin, très loin de la pâle midinette des années 2000, aujourd’hui âgée de 34 ans.
Ever since childhood, she’d been creating these colorless, odorless, tasteless songs, but…Ever since childhood, she’d been creating these colorless, odorless, tasteless songs, but…
She was a conqueror, determined to become the biggest star in the known universe. She did country, but then folk, Americana, pop-rock, electro-pop, synth-pop and even hip-hop, to the point of including the brilliant Kendrick Lamar in her song “Bad Blood”..
She has churned out hundreds of songs, most of them predictable, but with a deep knowledge of popular culture in music. The lyrics, the harmonic choices, the catchy melodies, the references to musical genres – everything is mastered, everything is efficiently constructed, oiled to perfection.
In her namby-pamby country days in the 2000s, she was that pretty girl next door, raised in an upper middle-class suburb somewhere between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Remember when Kanye West maligned her at the MTV Awards in 2009, when she was just 19 years old? ” Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’ll let you finish (your thanks), but Beyoncé had the best music video of all time.”
Like the indelicate Kanye, who missed another opportunity to shut up, many of us believed that Beyoncé had a far more interesting and innovative pop culture signature. Many of us also believe that Beyoncé is far superior, that Taylor Swift’s repertoire is made up of generic, pre-digested songs with no real artistic signature.
And… of course, there are many more of us who think just the opposite, exchanging friendship bracelets and sticking their tongues out at us.And… of course, there are many more of us who think just the opposite, exchanging friendship bracelets and sticking their tongues out at us.
Unsigned, Taylor Swift? Let’s put it another way. She quickly explored sonic territories other than country-pop. She set out to master an ever-expanding songwriting lexicon, even to the point of working with more than credible artists from the indie movement that preceded her. Let’s remember the Folklore album released in July 2020, with landmark contributions from Aaron Dessner (The National) and Bon Iver.
So nothing, absolutely nothing, about this kid star among so many others suggested that she would become the army general she is today.
No matter how indifferent we may be to the singer and her imperial brand, we can’t deny Taylor Swift’s values in the current context: feminist, centrist, pro-democrat, pro LGBTQ +. Could her personality and socio-political stance be more interesting than her art? To ask the question…No matter how indifferent we may be to the singer and her imperial brand, we can’t deny Taylor Swift’s values in the current context: feminist, centrist, pro-democrat, pro LGBTQ +. Could her personality and socio-political stance be more interesting than her art? To ask the question is answering it.
As you can imagine, the attacks on Taylor Swift have been multiplying in this embryonic phase of the presidential campaign. On the web, far-right conspiracists see her as a fabrication of the Democratic establishment.
The completely schizoid narrative of these clueless millions also consists of denying her romantic relationship with Travis Kelce, a Deep State fabrication needless to say, and that the Chiefs-Niners game would be rigged to benefit the Chiefs and the US government. And how about that disgusting deep fake of the singer in a fake porn movie.
And what else? Much, much more.
The next chapter, by the way, could be political. It’s unlikely that she’ll be a politician at this stage of her existence, but then we can only applaud (paradoxically) her real power to influence the American nation in a direction other than that of Trumpist neo-fascism… which may well triumph next autumn.The next chapter, by the way, could be political. It’s unlikely that she’ll be a politician at this stage of her existence, but then we can only applaud (paradoxically) her real power to influence the American nation in a direction other than that of Trumpist neo-fascism… which may well take over next fall.
Photo FB Taylor Swift
