Why Do People Like Taylor Swift? | TaraElla Culture

Taylor Swift's popularity proves that our culture can do better.

Welcome to TaraElla Report Culture, where I take a step back from the more political talk, and look at things from the wider cultural perspective.

Last time, I talked about the appeal of comedian Dave Chappelle. Today, I want to talk about a very different personality: singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

Why do people like Taylor Swift? I think it's because she represents the possibility of a more healthy, family friendly and meaningful culture. I mean, she is not without her controversies, but on some level, she at least represents the possibility of a better popular culture, unlike most celebrities out there. I guess that's why conservatives used to think that she was one of them, at least until 2018. (I also think that, the fact that she's not a conservative says more about contemporary conservatives than about her, but that's a whole other topic and not my focus here.)

My point is that, Taylor Swift's popularity proves that there is great demand for a different kind of popular culture. Of course, we can't rely on individual celebrities or personalities to fix our culture. Instead, we should look at things from a big picture perspective. If there is clear demand for a more healthy, family friendly and meaningful culture, why isn't it reflected in the supply of our cultural personalities, our music, our TV shows, our movies, and so on?

Could it be because our media landscape, including both traditional and social media, provide a distorted platform for our culture, causing the demand to not be effectively translated into supply? One of the ways this could happen is a media landscape that overly favors attention grabbing headlines, meaningless controversies, and viral forms of popularity. This would lead to a superficial, sensationalist, and generally low quality culture over time, whether that is what people actually want or not.

What I want is for us to be having these conversations more, and think more deeply about whether our media landscape and systems are serving us well or not.