Considered the top among the top universities in the world, Harvard announces for this year the course “Taylor Swift and her world” taught by professor, poet and critic Stephanie Burt.
“The objective is to investigate the impact of her music and her lyrics, not only in literature, but also in everyday life
,” she announces.
“We are lucky to live in a time when one of our leading artists is also one of the most famous people on the planet,” Burt declared. “Why not give a course on that?”
According to Harvard “we will learn to study fan culture, celebrity culture, adolescence, adulthood, and appropriation;
how to think about white texts, southern texts, transatlantic texts, and queer subtexts.”
The University of Florida also announced the course “Musical Storytelling with Taylor Swift and Other Female Icons.”
And similar offers come from the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University in Houston, the universities of Arizona, New York and Stanford, Berklee College of Music in Boston and Ghent University in Belgium.
Melbourne Connection
But the truly unusual thing happened a few days ago in Melbourne, shortly before Taylor Swift offered the most massive shows of the Eras Tours (96 thousand people per night) on the Australian stage: the city's Capitol theater was the venue for the Swift-Posio , the first international academic event dedicated to analyzing “how Taylor Swift became such a powerful star.”
There were 400 presentations presented, coming from institutions around the world.
“It is not a fan convention, but an academic event,” they clarified, although the Swifties still approached.
They addressed multiple themes, from the economic impact of the shows at each venue to the singer's themes (loneliness, mother-daughter relationships) or her romance with American football champion Travis Kelce.
Among the debates, academic Aimee-Sophia Lim addressed the topic of “how the artist is inspiring political activism in Southeast Asia.”
Although she said she is a big fan, she often feels disappointed by Swift's “white, American-centric feminism.”
“Perhaps black people and those from the Global South should be the ones defending their interests and their communities (...), but Taylor's reach is undeniable,” she assured the BBC.
“It would be great if she could broaden her activism, so maybe she could give a platform to other people so they can speak on behalf of themselves.”
Georgie Carroll, who promoted the event at the University of Melbourne, concluded that the basis of the phenomenon is “the intense connection that Taylor Swift cultivated with her fans, many of whom feel that they have grown up with her.
She has spent her entire career making her fans believe that they can be her friends.
Although she admits that it is difficult to compare her to artists from different eras, “she is the most popular artist on the planet right now and will be considered the best songwriter of her generation.”
The power game
When Swift argued with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, about the inclusion of her songs on the Apple Music platform, Forbes nominated her as one of the “most powerful people in the world” along with Xi Jinping and Pope Francis.
That “almighty” profile was extended even more with the tour since last year and the cover of Time ended up symbolizing it.
National or communal governments, in their country and around the world, and whatever their tendency, became involved in the movement.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a play on one of the most famous songs, asked him to include Canada in the tour (“don't let it be another cruel summer, we hope to see you soon”).
Gabriel Boric, in Chile, proclaimed himself a “swiftie,” as did the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, and many more.
A few days ago, in the run-up to the shows in Australia, the head of the Queensland House of Representatives, Andrew Wallace, also asked him to add his capital, Brisbane, to the tour: “I ask you, I beg you and I will kneel if it is necessary.
Please come to Queensland.
"There are so many Swift fans in Queensland, I'm one of them."
According to California Governor Gavin Newsom, “Taylor Swift will be a key character in the United States presidential election.”
As soon as that possibility was hinted at, Trump and those close to her began to attack her on social media and even questioned her attendance at the Super Bowl: they saw it as “a conspiracy.”
Taylor Swift had been cautious in her political positions, but there is no doubt that she will be closer to the Democrats in the face of the Trump danger: she showed solidarity with the movements against the free carrying of weapons and also in the defense of minorities, among others. topics.
But this week, the political intervention led to controversy: the Thai government accused the Singapore government of investing “millions of dollars” to ensure the exclusivity of the singer's shows in Southeast Asia.
“There has been speculation about the amount of the subsidy.
"I can say that the speculation is not without accuracy and that the investment is not as high as people think
," admitted Singapore's Minister of Culture, Edwin Tong
. "Due to a commitment to commercial confidentiality, we cannot reveal the exact amount of the subsidy or conditions
," he added. The minister also stated that the economic benefits to Singapore "
are considered significant and will exceed the amount of the subsidy
. "
300,000 people are expected to attend the shows.
Analysts
Numerous articles in cultural and sociological magazines are addressing the Taylor Swift phenomenon.
On the JotDown site, Sebastián Grandi wrote that “its power and influence touches everything from human relations to politics, from the entertainment market to the export of typically American values.
The Nashville singer has such a reach into the hearts of millions of people in the world that her power is enormous.
Almost like when The Beatles revolutionized the world, we are witnessing profound changes that are led by a 34-year-old singer who apparently only writes love songs.”
Even neuroscience addressed the effects of Swift's actions when it stops to observe how the need to identify with each other grows in her fans and consume almost everything she proposes as a way of being part of something.
And a study from the State University of New York at Albany showed that the degree of excitement that a Taylor Swift fan experiences during a concert is such that afterward he suffers a period of amnesia, since excess emotion and stress makes it difficult to creating memories.
Another of those who addresses the phenomenon is the Spanish journalist and teacher Yeray Iborra, who has just published the book “Taylor Swift Phenomenon.”
He confesses that at first he was surprised:
“I didn't understand the magnitude of the matter: clearly, I didn't have the best voice, nor the most successful melodies, nor the stories told with the most mastery, nor the most attractive choreographies;
she definitely didn't even have the best songs.
But she had broken all records in charts, sales and followers.
In fact, what fascinated me most was her community: the Swifties.
The phenomenon absorbed me completely
.”
His definition:
“His stories are not good or bad, they are his.
She is the daughter of the century of the self.
In her public appearances and on her social networks, she demonstrates that she maintains a way of life that is not light years away from that of her fans.
Much less in her songs, an open diary where she is moved by very normal feelings (in the best of senses): love, heartbreak, emptiness, desires, confusion.
In the book
Yesterday I Dreamed of Taylor
, which the Planeta publishing house published during Taylor Swift's first visit to Latin America last spring, the writer Tamara Tenembaum maintains that
“the main difference with respect to the great pop icons of today is that their career is based on 20th century values.
It is not on social networks or in 15-second videos where she earned her fame or from where she conquers the public.
She is not a Youtuber, a Tiktoker, a Twitter star or any effect of the spillover of virtuality.
She is a woman of a beauty of hegemonic terms by today's standards, but that is not the most distinctive quality” of her.
Taylor Swift builds, according to Tenembaum, from effort and dedication:
“She has been shown the innate ability to compose intelligent and precise rhymes that connect directly with millions of listeners around the planet, whether they speak her language or not.
His music is versatile and genuine and his intelligence allows him to build friendly sounds and enveloping choral bridges that build a sound that is pleasant to the ear (…) His success is sustained by the power of music, in the same way that global artists have sustained it. and enduring like Louis Armstrong or Frank Sinatra.”
To the museums
While Taylor Swift takes her new crowd baths in Asia and Oceania during these weeks, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will hire a fan of the singer for its advice.
It is for the “Superfan Advisors” project, which will try to provide data about the artist before her presentation in London, on August 17.
They justified it like this: "
These new advisory positions will help us celebrate and discover more about the enormous, and often surprising, creative diversity on offer at the V&A, as well as helping us learn more about the design stories that are relevant to the today's hearings"
.
Among other things, the V&A swiftie will be in charge of advising on the world star's collection of memorabilia.