It was November 2021 when I truly entered the Taylor Swift Universe.
Already a casual fan, the release of Red (Taylors Version) piqued my interest as I learned of her campaign to retain ownership of her music. As someone who studies fans and fandom for a living, this hit me in a deeply powerful way.
I was fascinated by the idea that Taylor Swift had amassed a community so loyal and powerful she could re-release existing albums and her devoted fan base would follow. In a world where attention is power, she was wielding it to have a conversation about an artist’s right to own their music and I was hooked.
Having previously researched and written pieces on the power of Harry Styles fans and the modern day deity of Dolly Parton, I assumed stepping into the fandom of Swifties would be no different. Oh how wrong I was.
What Taylor Swift does with and for her fans is a singular and unique relationship that remains unmatched in live entertainment. She is a once-in-a-lifetime example of an artist meeting the moment, building an extraordinary community that has only grown stronger and more connected as they became the pandemic generation.
To them, she has become the poet laureate.
This vast global cohort, for whom the internet is a native language and central unifier, is powerful enough to influence elections, demand senate hearings and change the machinations of the music industry. Across her current US tour, Taylor is connecting the power of an online community to a real world event so effectively that it inspires 20,000+ people, who couldn’t get a ticket, to gather outside an arena each night in a “Taylorgate party” just to share in the experience.
Megan Whittle, Christy White, and Emma Pizzi react to the beginning of Taylor Swift’s set, which they are listening to from the parking lot outside of Lincoln Financial Field, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 13, 2023. Rachel Wisniewski / The Washington Post via Getty Images
Swifties have a direct and deeply emotional relationship with Taylor. She is, yes, an incredible performer and songwriter. But to these fans she is comfort, a shoulder and an inspiration in one. They lean on her as a big sister/aunty/bestie. She plays with them, consoles them, makes them laugh and sends them surprises. And through all of this, she is also a master marketer. Taylor Swift rivals Disney with the level of brand evolution, control and mass commercialisation of her IP.
As a member of an early digital native generation, she’s done it in a completely authentic way. Taylor was an early adopter of social media. In 2005 she started a MySpace blog that would run for years. This became a place where fans could meet and connect. A platform that provided content for her growing fanbase that they couldn’t get anywhere else. Moving from MySpace to the likes of Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and now TikTok, Taylor continues to meet her fans where they are, sometimes at their own weddings, and speaks their language. In doing so, she has hacked the algorithm of mass pop culture.
As Dr Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell put it in her brilliant recent New York Times article Taylor Swift Has Rocked My Psychiatric Practice: “Swiftmania is a very different kind of high from what I experienced listening to music as a teenager… It’s not just the plethora of songs to discover, but the nonstop Swiftie culture itself — the constant access to the music, the news, the scrolling for swag, the shout-outs on the street, the sharing of songs and lines of poetic code via text or passed bracelet — a party that is raging all day and all night.”
There was a time when I would have said these fans were strictly teenage girls, but that’s now an outdated assumption. Not just because of a generational shift but because, much like evolution of marketing beyond the singular demographics, Swifites are a cohort that are behaviourally led:
Garfinkel’s article goes on:
“Who is the Swiftie? In my practice, these patients share certain characteristics. Raised on a healthy diet of kindness and fairness, she is sensitive, ambitious and a bit of a perfectionist. Like Taylor, she dresses to be pretty and cool…but inside, she is in all kinds of pain. Her self-doubt perpetuates a vicious cycle. Where others may assume she knows nothing. She’s hard-working and frustrated, and wonders if she’d get there quicker if she was a man… She finds in Taylor Swift an actual hero who meets her where she is but also shows her the badass place she could get to — so intoxicating precisely because it is within reach.”
As Taylor matures, so does her audience and their points of connection. This cohort’s identifying elements are now just as relevant to a teenager as they are to a retiree. Therefore, the net of the Swfities is growing ever broader and increasingly powerful.
As I delved deeper into the Swifties, I did have to question if this bright and bubbling pop culture community was also, on some levels, a religion? As someone who spent some time in Pentecostal churches as a teenager, much of it felt eerily familiar. The rituals, beliefs, chants and moral codes. The secret messages, conspiracy theories and eras of aesthetics.
There are factions and sub-groups within the group and much like other fandoms, and religions, the Swities exist on a spectrum that span from the casually engaged fan to the all out evangelical.
The Fundamentalists deem themselves the decision makers on who is or isn’t the most loyal fan and chastise those who do not follow the code. They launch online campaigns to demonize her ex-boyfriends and attack any critical journalist with such ferocity, the media now reports on a hesitation to comment for fear of their wrath.
The Conspiracy Theorists “clown” together online to crack the code of her secret messages, their obsessions leading to comparisons to Qanon followers. The Gaylors are convinced she is Queer, the Hetlors believe she is straight and the Haylors are praying for the day she reunites with Harry Styles.
There are the Evermore and Folklore “girlies”, the OG Fearless and Tim Mcgraw gang and the ones that love that she’s “ultimately just a theatre kid”.
Of course, Taylor is simultaneously all and none of these things. These fans project whatever they want onto her to create the version they love.
Like any charismatic leader of a movement, Taylor looms large in their collective imagination, but there’s only so much they truly know about her. She keeps the reins on her identity tightly controlled, ensuring that much is left perfectly opaque. Taylor decides how much we see and each cohort finds something that connects to their identity.
But even under those tight controls, the fandom knows that Taylor is not perfect. They will call her out when she makes mistakes. She’s been dubbed “Little Miss Capitalism”, they were not happy about her hesitant and belated stand on Trump era US politics or about the cost of her private planes or her carbon footprint. Most recently, they have not been delighted that she’s been romantically linked to the “problematic” lead singer of The 1975.
The quibbles come and go but the central point is, the Swifties feel that they can tell her directly. Like a friend who’s hurt them or let them down, they’ll have a difficult conversation. Then, where appropriate, Taylor will show them that she’s listened and they love her all the more for it. “She’s just like us. She makes mistakes too.”
For some, their relationship with her has been going for eighteen years. They’ve grown up together, been through hard times. They’ve had hearts broken, called out sexual assault, taken on tech giants and adopted multiple cats. Her success is their success. Her evolutions, their evolutions.
Taylor Swift fans are a powerful and passionate bunch. They are a microcosm of the world as we know it. The US leg of The Eras Tour has become a place for IRL meet ups of online friends, the trading of friendship bracelets and the hunting for selfies with her parents. They are a family and a movement that, for better or worse, will be a sight to behold should the tour make it down under.
Through all of this research and studying, the thing that surprised me the most was just how much I love the Swifties. They are a technicolor community and masterclass in fan engagement and marketing. I regularly check in on my favourite #swfitokers and I followed the lead up to the release of her latest album and tour announcement so passionately that I now give keynote speeches about it.
“It’s research! I told myself. “I’m the Jane Goodall of Swifites!” I would proclaim as I started listening to her wider catalog. Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Fearless TV, Red TV, 1989, they got their catchy choruses into me and I found I was listening not just on repeat, but as a default. “Just play Taylor Swift” I would tell Siri in the car… and at the gym… and in the kitchen.
It wasn’t until I was texting friends about pre planning cash flow to allow for a potential Australian tour announcement that l realised the researcher has become the subject. By immersing myself in the world of Swifties, two years later I’ve become one. This is the power of Taylor and her fans. Their passion is infectious, the identity compelling, the moral code admirable. It can feel fun to be part of a group with a shared identity.
So this is where I now find myself: standing tall with a metaphorical Swiftie friendship bracelet sparkling on my wrist, proclaiming that I am now a fan. A fan of her, or a fan of her fans, I’m not sure. Both things can be true. But I do know this: I am busting to see Taylor Swift live, I desperately want to be in the crowd with 80,000 people screaming the bridge to Cruel Summer. I cannot wait for the tectonic announcement that the Eras Tour will (hopefully) travel to our shores.
Laugh at me if you want, I don’t care. To be a fan is to love something without shame and I do so wholeheartedly. In fact, I’ll go one step further and dare you to try it. Next time you have a tough day, get in your car, crank up the volume and sing your heart out to the full version of All Too Well.
Trust me – it’s cheaper than therapy and just as cathartic.
UPDATE: approximately 6 hours after posting this, Taylor announced Australian dates. She really does listen to her fans 😉
Aims Maids 