It’s going on two entire hours since Taylor Swift showed up in any of my social media feeds. Not a single mention of her music, her man or her making the far-right mad about … well, I’m not sure.
I am sure, however, that it’s a break many of us want and even need from the pop sensation who, post-Grammys and post-Super Bowl, is still mid-world tour. If there’s such a thing as too much Taylor Swift, America may be reaching a saturation point with America’s sweetheart.
Lynda Gorov Courtesy Lynda Gorov
I say this as a mom whose daughter is exactly the right age to have been an original Swiftie. The bop “You Belong with Me” still reverberates in my brain (“She wears short skirts / I wear T-shirts.”)
We watched her music videos, sang along to her CDs (yes, CDs) in the car and awaited each new release. She was a major part of our elementary school soundtrack.
And that was before Swift became a billionaire businesswoman with a sold-out world tour and football hero boyfriend, never mind the focus of right-wing conspiracy theories regarding the presidential race. If she was a musical presence in our lives a decade-plus ago, she is internationally ubiquitous now, unavoidable to anyone online or off. The woman is everywhere, including the Jumbotron. She’s huge in Brazil, China, the Philippines, New Zealand.
As a sorta fan who feels slightly maternal toward Swift, I worry she’s not doing herself — or us — any favors at this point. Oversaturation isn’t good for anyone, even the in-love, in-demand, ever-adorable Swift. Plus, she just announced a new record for release in April. “The Tortured Poets Department” will be her 15th album altogether, and eighth in five years. Taylor Swift is 34.
Now I’m not putting Swift down here, so don’t come at me, Snake Fam. It’s impossible not to admire her business acumen and her charitable instincts, be it in the form of huge bonuses for her tour truck drivers or quiet donations to struggling food banks in the cities she plays in. Then, there’s the baller move of reworking and recording her own music after someone else acquired rights to the songs. Fans bought in all over again.
Those Tay-or-die fans don’t just love her for it; they flat-out obsess, searching for hidden meanings that they call “Easter eggs” in her lyrics, videos and photographs. I swear I do not know how I know that. Meanwhile, haters gonna hate.
As for me, I land somewhere in the middle: I like some of her music, haven’t bought any of it in years, considered buying tickets to the Eras Tour, decided to spend the hundreds of dollars elsewhere. I admire her good acts, don’t care much for gossip about the rest of it and could probably stand a Taylor timeout.
