Like it or not, Taylor Swift transcends pop and her ubiquity can no longer be ignored
This week’s Taylor Swift news includes:
- accusations that she is involved in fixing the outcome of the Super Bowl;
- a threat from Donald Trump’s election team to wage “holy war” against her;
- calls for AI legislation in the US after deep fake naked pictures of her flooded X;
- yet more rumours that she is the author Elly Conway; and
- accusations that she is a Pentagon PSYOP asset.
Not one of these stories involve actions by Swift herself, who spent the week rehearsing for her appearance at tomorrow’s Grammys.
So what? There’s no hiding from her. Swift’s ubiquity has become a central pillar of her brand. It’s also a call to action for those – like Trump – who recoil from her values or see them as an opportunity, or both.
Like her or not, she transcends pop. The PR guru Mark Borkowski says there hasn’t been a star like her since John Lennon or Princess Diana; someone who occupies “a position of obsession”, now “hugely amplified by the splinternet, which means almost everybody is seeing something about her almost every day”.
To wit: there are eleven months left in her “Eras” tour, already the highest-grossing musical bonanza of all time having banked her $1 billion last year. Anyone hoping to tune her out in those eleven months probably hopes in vain.
Living in the Swiftularity:
- Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential contender, suggested this week that the “deep state” has rigged the 2024 Super Bowl so that Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, a pro-vaccine tight end and likely future Mr Swift, plays a heroic role in the Chiefs’s victory and then jointly – with his better-known girlfriend – endorses Joe Biden for president. Ramaswamy has been mocked for his theory, but not by everyone. Rogan O’Handley, a right-wing influencer, has begged the San Francisco 49ers to defeat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl or World War III “will likely follow and millions will die”.
- A poll found that 18 per cent of US voters – some 30 million adults – would be more likely to vote for a candidate Swift endorsed. In September, she posted a short message on her Instagram account encouraging her 272 million followers to register to vote. The post led to more than 35,000 registrations on the nonpartisan site Vote.org.
- In the last election, Swift backed Joe Biden, who won 57 per cent of women voters and two-thirds of women between the ages of 18 and 29. Team Biden is anxiously seeking her support for the next election too.
- Elon Musk temporarily suspended searches on X involving the keywords “Taylor Swift” and promised to hire more content moderators after the flood of deep fake images featuring her likeness.
Software helps. Algorithmic feeds syphon users to an increasingly narrow set of subjects. helping Swift and her Super Bowl-contesting boyfriend create an unprecedented fame vortex encompassing country music, pop, hip hop, sports, politics, technology and even barbershops.
Cookware hopes. Swift is a known fan of cast iron Le Creuset Dutch ovens, but did not endorse them in a recent series of fake Facebook ads. Her voice was manipulated with AI and matched to footage scraped from the net. Le Creuset denied all knowledge.
Mom and Pop pop shop. Swift has no entourage except family and friends. “Taylor has changed the economic model of a pop star,” says one US music industry veteran. “She controls everything – she has no label, no agent and no manager and her deal with Universal is unique.” Her Merrill Lynch banker father took a stake in her first label, Big Machine Records, while her 2018 deal with Universal Music gives her unprecedented control over her own master recordings – a lesson she learned after the music mogul Scooter Braun bought and then sold the original master tapes of her early albums without her consent. Swift runs her business with her parents, her trusted PR Tree Paine and the help of a handful of friends.
What’s more… “She has amazing security,” Borkowski says – a detail that serves to remind fans of Swift’s firm grip on reality. She may need it this year more than ever.
Further listening: The Taylor Swift deepfake scandal
