Why It’s the Best and Worst Time to Be A Swiftie (From an OG Swiftie)

By Kayla

Taylor Swift has always been a global phenomenon.  However, this past year has seen her influence and stardom expand bigger than ever before—which has meant both good and bad things for the fans who have been there since Swift’s early days as a country music star.  Here is why this is both the best and worst time to be a Swiftie, delivered to you from an OG Swiftie.

 

Why it is the Worst Time to Be A Swiftie:

I’ll start by getting the worst of it out of the way so that we can end off the article on a positive note.  I’ve notice being a fan of Swift has gotten increasingly frustrating as the hype around her grows.  There are multiple reasons for this, however, they all seem to stem from one thing and that is what I like to call the “bandwagon fans.” Now I don’t want people to get the wrong idea and assume I’m saying that all new fans suck.  That is not it at all.  Bandwagon fans are not necessarily new fans, but people that have just followed the trend and hype.  They will most likely be gone once it all dies down.  They’re the ones who became a fan because all of a sudden it was “cool.”  I’ve seen many other Swifties have the same experience as me, where somebody who used to bully you for liking Taylor Swift back in the debut-reputation/lover era now are collecting all of her CDs and somehow scored eras tickets when they don’t even know the lyrics to “Tied Together With A Smile.” (I would also like to say to be a fan you do not need to know/like every song, this is just an example). We saw this happen during the original 1989 era and I am seeing it again now!

Further, the amount of people trying to secure tickets to the Eras Tour is massive compared to any other tour Swift has ever done. This has made it extremely difficult for fans to get tickets at decent prices and many people who end up getting tickets don’t really want to go and are trying to profit off of the hype by reselling these tickets for insane prices!  Of course anyone can go to a concert regardless of when they became a fan of an artist or if they are a fan at all, but that doesn’t change the fact that the sheer amount of “bandwagon” fans going to the concerts is making it a lot more difficult for OG fans to go, or even buy exclusive merchandise offers.  I would like to clarify the better portion of this issue is Ticketmaster’s fault, however, part of it does have to do with the demand—buying tickets for the Reputation Tour was never a stress-evoking experience.

 

The increasing popularity of Swift and simultaneous expansion of her fan base (some legitimate, but many “bandwagon” fans) has created a new dynamic around her name and within the fandom itself.  What started out as positive recognition of her talent is quickly becoming an overused name to draw attention to brands, news stories, etc.  The general public may have finally been swayed into appreciating Swift’s abilities whether they like her music or not.  However, those same people are now rolling their eyes at the mention of her name because they are getting tired of hearing about her, but it is not her they are tired of; it is her fans.

Of course what the tabloids choose to write about is outside most of our control, but the fandom has become annoying not only to those who tolerate it, but also those who are a part of it that have watched it morph into what it has become.  As a long-term fan I have seen the fandom go from a considerate community which bonded over our love for Swift’s music and ingenious lyrics, to an immature cult dominated by people who spread toxicity and hate online to people who like anything else other than Swift, or debating and sending hate to whoever she wrote that song about.

Swift addressed this issue herself multiple times throughout her Eras Tour last year:

 

“So I was hoping to ask you that as we lead up to this album coming out, I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our internet activities. Right?” (Swift, 2023)

“But my hope in all of this is that at the end of the day, these songs will be songs that you think are about your life and that you feel genuinely are about your life.” (Swift, 2023).

 

Multiple times throughout her career Swift made it clear how misogynistic and offensive she found it when people only cared about WHO she wrote a song about rather than appreciate her actual craft and relate it to their own lives.

In an interview when asked who “Style” was about Swift explains, “everybody has that person, who, they float in and out of your life and I was comparing that to trends in fashion and things you see in pop culture that never really go out of style.” (Swift, 2014).  Swift repeatedly tries to divert the medias attention from who she was writing her songs about, to the cleverness she puts into crafting them.  Such as her analogy of this person in her life and fashion trends.

However, when the interviewer continues to probe into the “who” aspect of the song, Swift gets frustrated and replies, “one of the things about writing music and the only way that I can actually be vulnerable with this many people is to never name names…I want these songs to go out into the world and become whatever my fans want them to be, I want them to picture their ex boyfriend, not mine.” (Swift, 2014), she continues, “and I know there’s going to be a media guessing game whenever I put out music but that does not mean that I have to confirm or help them.” (Swift, 2014).

It was the media she was annoyed at because back then they were the ones doing it, not the fans. Now, it seems that the fans have jumped onto the media’s misogynistic guessing game and seem to minimize Swift’s work to the men she’s involved with; exactly what she hates us doing.  What about discussing the album titles, aesthetic and theorizing about lyrics and how they relate to our own lives? Or the new creative aesthetic and angle Swift seemed to take?

Of course it is unreasonable to assume we will ever live in a world in which people do not minimize female artists to the men they write about and proceed to either shame or praise whichever party they align with based off one-sided, minimal evidence in the form of song lyrics and click-bait headlines.  However, it is reasonable to assume that true fans of an artist will not be the ones doing that, leave it to the media and shallow-thinkers to gossip about people.  As fans who appreciate and understand the depths of Swift’s lyrics, let’s talk about them, let’s discuss how clever her allusions and analogies are, how they relate to our own lives, etc. As fans we can do better and should before we enter into 2016 2.0.

 

Why it is the Best Time to Be A Swiftie:

Despite the first portion of this article making it sound like I absolutely despise this fandom, I do not!  Of course there are good and bad aspects of everything and since I would like to leave this article off on a positive note I am now going to delve into reasons why it is the best time to be a Swiftie!

After being somebody who was harassed both online and in school for liking Swift almost my entire life, I found it refreshing that for a certain portion of 2023 it seemed like it was finally “cool” to be a Swiftie.  Swift was finally being praised and acknowledged, even by people who are not particular to her music, for her talents in songwriting, performing, and who she is as a person.  Clips of the singers three-and-a-half hour Eras Tour Show went viral, showcasing her versatility as she played songs ranging her entire career, this included country, folk/indie rock and pop.  Additionally, people soon became appreciative of the amount of effort and detail Swift puts into her shows; quick-changes, stage design, visuals, dancers, light-up wristbands coordinated with the show, etc.

There is no doubt that The Eras Tour is Swift’s biggest and most iconic concert tour to date.  Swift plays a 45-song-setlist, moving through each musical era of her career, playing the hits along with fan favourites. The tour has brought old and new fans together in various ways that is inclusive to even those who have yet to make it to the concert.  Swift released an Eras Tour Concert film in theatres worldwide which presented fans with an affordable way to experience the show with other fans.  Many dressed up, wore and exchanged friendship bracelets and screamed and danced as if it was the real deal.

Lyrics from the song “You’re On Your Own, Kid”, track five from Swift’s Midnights album, sparked a new trend amongst fans, of creating and trading Swift-themed friendship bracelets.  The lyrics are: “So make the friendship bracelets / take the moment and taste it / you’ve got no reason to be afraid.”

If the iconic Eras Tour was not enough, Swift has also proven herself as an inspiration in the industry along with her love of creating music with her admirable drive for artists to own their own work. During the first ten years of her career, Swift was signed to Big Machine Label Group, in which she was on what seemed to be a strict album release schedule, releasing one album every two years.  She also did now own the master recordings to any her first six albums on this label.

However, when Swift signed with Republic Records in 2018, she finally got to own the work she created and got total creative freedom.  Since signing in 2018, Swift has released nine albums, including the re-recordings of her original six so that she can own them.  In 2023 alone, Swift released two albums along with alternate versions of her 2022 album, Midnights, and various singles.  However, her music has maintained the same quality it always has.  Swift is the main writer, if not the only writer, on all of her songs and has continued to explore genres.  I believe any fan is excited when their favourite artist consistently releases new music that is just as awesome as their previous work.

 

Here’s to another great year of being a Swiftie, I cannot wait to hear Swift’s eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, coming out April 19th.  As well as, see what other surprises Swift has in store for us this year!