“Feminine media, either way you’re crucified” – Harris; the dangers of idolizing billionaires.
Kate Henderson (she/they) // Crew Writer
Jordan Richert (he/him) //Illustrator
Taylor Swift has become a name that permeates every conversation, like how a family gossips about an estranged cousin that everyone is secretly jealous of. With Swift’s bombshell Eras Tour of 2023–2024, the polarity surrounding her has only grown. She exists on many fronts: a musical entrepreneur with a net worth of $1.6 billion, a ‘successful’ woman confronting internalized misogyny, or even just another rich, white celebrity to be held accountable by anti-capitalist and green communities. Everyone seems to have chosen a side and has something to say about Swift, regardless of how much they legitimately follow or listen to her. So what’s that all about? Furthermore, what is she all about? Come with me, as a person who religiously listened to her 1989 album in my mom’s minivan at 12, and also a person who used to make jokes about her private jet carbon emissions at 18, I’m off to find a reasonable impression in this polarizing space of T-Swift.
With Justin Trudeau going as far as comparing “Swiftmania” to Beatlemania of the 1960s, Swift has undoubtedly made a mark on the music industry. Starting with Big Machine Records in 2005 at the ripe age of 16, Swift began her professional music journey in the country genre. She seamlessly transitioned to pop in the 2010s, most notably with her album 1989 (2014). Lola Peverly told the Courier that she attended this tour at the age of seven. “[M]aking shirts out of puffy paint, [she] made cat ears out of random furs [they] found in [their] basement,” even getting invited to sit front row when concert staff saw their enthusiasm at the concert.
I remember watching her performance of “Shake It Off” from this album on a talk show. The Courier also spoke with Harris, whose first experience with Swift “was her “Love Story” music video, it was like old YouTube, it felt like I was watching a video sent in an email, weird and janky but so exciting.” Swift’s rise to success only continued to grow, with her 1989 tour being the highest-grossing tour of 2014 overall, making over 250 million in total revenue.
With Swift’s success came the unfortunate misogyny of the 2010’s—a notable instance being her interactions with rapper Kanye West. During the 2009 VMAs, West hopped on stage to announce he thought Beyonce had one of the best music videos of all time while Taylor was receiving best female music video. Then in 2016, he released his song Famous, lyrics including “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous,” and his music video for the song included a naked silicone body of Taylor Swift in bed with him alongside other American public figures…? What the fuck? Harris relates this event to the Courier, “when fans get put into a box of being crazy or weird, it just feels so dated, it takes me back to the misogyny around the time of all the Taylor and Kanye stuff, it’s really worrying” encompassing this as “feminine media,” Harris continued, “either way you’re crucified.” After all this drama, Taylor was born into her Reputation era, releasing the album in 2017. Reputation was defined by Swift taking “ownership of her narrative in a way listeners haven’t heard before,”USA Today claimed. This newfound command continued with Taylor’s release of her “Taylor’s Version” albums in 2021 when Megamusic manager Scooter Braun bought Big Machine Records in 2019, along with the master rights to Taylor’s earliest albums. Taylor re-recorded her earliest albums with her new label Republic Records, releasing in 2021.
It’s pretty clear Taylor is one of the biggest players of the music industry today, with her PR corporation TaylorNation making moves such as re-releasing Tortured Poets Department hours before Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ would have reached the No.1 hot spot in the UK to “snag” No. 1. At this time, she also made waves after it was revealed that her private jet is responsible for 8,300 tonnes of Carbon Emissions in 2022 alone. Even worse, during the “Eras era,” many fans found themselves traveling and even paying four figures for their tickets alone. Cities like Toronto saw an economic boost of $282 million from the Eras Tour. In terms of carbon footprint alone, for every 25,000 fans who bought merchandise at Taylor’s Eras shows, 19,370,000 kilograms of carbon emissions will be made, with 10,168,008 attendees globally, Both Harris and Peverly were some of these attendees, sharing their unique approaches to buying Eras tickets. Peverly’s “thrifty” attitude led her to never spend more than 300 USD on a ticket, while Harris compiled their birthday and Christmas gift from their mother for an Eras tour ticket, allowing them to go on the floor for the Vancouver concert.
Taylor Swift is much more than a songwriter, she’s a business entity. Criticism she receives for carbon emissions or decisions such as ‘blocking’ Charli XCX can be applied to any capitalist business that any billionaire celebrity can permeate. Harris agreed, “she’s just one of several people whose wealth we should be weary of,” with Floyd Mayweather and Jay-Z’s Carbon Emissions tight behind Swift, “I mean unless you’re boycotting every single billionaire you can’t really speak to me listening to her.” Peverly agrees, saying “people’s hate has a lot to do with idolizing celebrities, but at the same time I also know the good she has done for a lot of people.” Peverly references her experience of meeting Swift, courtesy of TaylorNation inviting her and her best friend to the Los Angeles premiere of Taylor’s ERAs Tour film. While Taylor exists as any billionaire does, she also creates a community amongst many non-men spanning years, Peverly sharing “I am not a musician whatsoever, but I love writing, as I got older, I noticed how much storytelling was in her albums […] since I was younger it’s been ‘this woman understands me,’ and it’s being able to connect to other people over that […] this feels like it’s written about me and so many others.” Harris shared further, “there’s such an organic culture with fans […] when Michelle and I found out we were going it was the night before, and in our class our whole table made bracelets with us” Harris encompassing that “it’s bigger than Taylor Swift, it’s that kind of stuff that I cherish.”
