Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Bark louder, little dog.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

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Saturday Evening Open Thread: Pop! Culture

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  5. 5.

    The Thin Black Duke

    The misogynist shitweasels can’t cancel Taylor. They can’t. Even DeSantis isn’t stupid enough to boycott her. (Go ahead. Tell people not to go to her concert in your state. It won’t be the Swifties tearing you into Incel kibble) And it’s driving them crazy.

  8. 8.

    FelonyGovt

    I love seeing these insanely popular culture figures who appeal to young people, pulling for our side. I’m reminded of how K-Pop fans mobilized to “reserve tickets” for TIFG’s Oklahoma rally so it would look disappointingly empty. And it did!

  9. 9.

    Suzanne

    She also makes popular art of quality that is not for men. (They can enjoy it, of course, but it’s not for them.)

  12. 12.

    dm

    Who is in the first tweet covering the Blondie song? From context, I assume Taylor Swift?

    (Also, I understand Taylor Swift has voter registration tables at her concerts.)

  16. 16.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Suzanne: She’s selling pop music the way it has always been sold, but with a little more self-determination and that is good.  It’s for anyone who wants to put the earbuds or the eyeballs onto what she is selling.

  18. 18.

    Mousebumples

    Shake It Off was my gateway TSwift song. I’ll hunt a link, one sec.

    Shake It Off

    I thought she was fine but overrated until then. Not a huge Swiftie by any means, but she makes good music and seems to be a genuinely good human.

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    @TeezySkeezy: Slightly different. She is pretty vocal (pun intended) about having an identity as a songwriter. Not a pop star and not just a pretty performer.

  27. 27.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Suzanne: Do not disagree. Any hate directed toward her is 100% suspect. By which I mean, whatever shit people are throwing her way could be better directed at 1000s of other shitheads, but if they pick her…I wonder why. I think she’s amazing, tbh.

    But…she’s still marketing toward everyone. But I agree, she’s a level above many.

  29. 29.

    raven

    @Lapassionara: Well, as the announcers remind us every second is how many of their starters opted out. As Kirby reminded us, this is not about them it’s about us playing to a standard.

  31. 31.

    Suzanne

    @zhena gogolia: She has some lyrics that are absolutely devastating. That “casually cruel in the name of being honest” line…. If only those lyrics had existed for seventeen-year-old Suzanne.

    This quote from the TIME PotY article gets at what I think is her real effect:

    Maybe this is the real Taylor Swift effect: That she gives people, many of them women, particularly girls, who have been conditioned to accept dismissal, gaslighting, and mistreatment from a society that treats their emotions as inconsequential, permission to believe that their interior lives matter. That for your heart to break, whether it’s from being kicked off a tour or by the memory of a scarf still sitting in a drawer somewhere or because somebody else controls your life’s work, is a valid wound, and no, you’re not crazy for being upset about it, or for wanting your story to be told.

     
    She represents young women with seriousness in a world that still codes young women’s concerns as frivolous.

  40. 40.

    Mousebumples

    Just saw this link on bsky –

    Call it ‘Swiftonomics’: How Taylor Swift brought a gold rush to Kansas City

    the city made about $48 million from Swift’s Eras Tour this summer, while the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City estimates her Kansas City shows had a $200 million impact on the U.S. economy

    Related – the very GOP Wisconsin legislature (thanks, gerrymandering!) totally voted to give money to upgrade the park of the Milwaukee Brewers because, “maybe Taylor will do a concert in Milwaukee.”

    I mean, maybe… But with Chicago 90 minutes away… Probably not?

  42. 42.

    Tony Jay

    Ah, bless their sandblasted little hearts. If Swift was the good little Republican of their dreams they’d be so happy you could see their erections from Space, but the funny thing is, if Swift was the good little Republican of their dreams, she wouldn’t be 1/100th the GLOBAL MEGASTAR she currently is.

    They’ve got to hate that little factoid more than anything else. Democratic virtues are popular and sell like gangbusters. Republican vices are musty old shite you couldn’t give away if you wrapped them in porn and hundred dollar bills.

    The Market has spoken, all praise be unto the Market.

  43. 43.

    Suzanne

    @eclare: Creating serious art for people is an important form of taking them seriously. And again, she is emphatic about writing her songs.

    Which old Boomer dude right-winger wrote a whole essay about how Taylor Swift sucks compared to Paul McCartney?! Someone here linked to it and it was just as old man yells at clouds as you’d expect.

  46. 46.

    piratedan

    @Suzanne: I guess the part that frustrates me the most about her critics is that many of them feel that she has to write songs that THEY have to identify with… it’s like where in the fuck is that is written?

    She writes for herself and she writes to her experiences, that so many of them are shared by her fans speaks a damn sight more to how fucked up just living can be and even just loving someone or putting yourself out there can be both a challenge and brave.  She never minimizes that or the pain that comes from loss, regardless of the type of loss.

    A lot of that is universal if someone takes the time to listen but like so many of us are prone to do (myself included) you label something and if its not a label of something that you choose to embrace, then you miss out.  I think the part that won me over to her side was listening to the control that she used when she decided to help sell Apple stuff but she used a song that influenced her rather than one of her own and how she embraced the message of the song as something that helped her as a person (IIRC it was Jimmy Eat World, The Middle).

    I hope she makes music as long as she wants to, finds happiness and obviously has already found success.  She’s worked her ass off for it.

  49. 49.

    zhena gogolia

    RIP, Tom Wilkinson. But I was reading the comments in the NYT on his obituary, and saw this:

    Well done obit. I did not know much about this man but from reading his obit he certainly was accomplished.

    To all you wokers out there, yes white men can do great things too, just like females, minorities, gay+, migrants and ex cons who usually today get the privilege, promotion and preference in today’s woke society.

    RIP Tom and condolences to the family.

    They just can’t fucking help themselves, can they?

  51. 51.

    zhena gogolia

    @Suzanne:

    That “casually cruel in the name of being honest” line…. If only those lyrics had existed for seventeen-year-old Suzanne.

    Oh, yes!

  52. 52.

    eclare

    @zhena gogolia:

    What a massively fucked up thing to write about someone’s obituary.  I bet whoever wrote that wakes up pissed off and just gets angrier as the day goes on.  Wow.

  53. 53.

    Jeffg166

    If a third rate reality TV “star” can be president why not a megastar pop phenomenon? She maybe laying the ground work for her political career. At 34 she is almost old enough to be president.

  56. 56.

    Suzanne

    @piratedan:

    I guess the part that frustrates me the most about her critics is that many of them feel that she has to write songs that THEY have to identify with… it’s like where in the fuck is that is written? 

    Yes, this is exactly it. But this is a huge axis of male privilege in our culture. Men have historically been the writers, directors, painters, musicians. And women’s stories, women’s art, is this second-tier thing. A “niche interest”. The popularity of T Swift, and Beyoncé this year….. has upended that dynamic. So many men are so used to swimming in media created for them, that caters to and reflects them, that they are feeling women’s art as having more influence as a loss of privilege.

  57. 57.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Jeffg166:

    If a third rate reality TV “star” can be president why not a megastar pop phenomenon? She maybe laying the ground work for her political career. At 34 she is almost old enough to be president.

    I’d pay good money to see her announce her candidacy and watch the rightwing tie itself into knots mansplaining why she wasn’t “qualified”.

  59. 59.

    Tony Jay

    Not being able to dictate what is and isn’t culturally popular is a stake to the heart of The Right. I remember Olivia Rodrigo (another young, female artist with a huge and growing fan base) using her Glastonbury set to send a colossal and unapologetic Fuck You to the wankers on the Supreme Court.

    That simply wouldn’t have happened ten years ago, not without panic over how it might hurt her career, but not anymore. I doubt she lost a single cent in earnings. Republican anger just doesn’t factor into the success these young artists are having. They’re irrelevant.

    Must sting.

  60. 60.

    Suzanne

    @eclare: Oh, absolutely.

    I was an art student, so I got to swim around in “men make art, women make crafts” history for, just, ever. Men have brilliance, women have cleverness. Men tell universal stories in Great Novels, women have their little section of the bookstore. In popular music, men get rock and most of hip-hop, women (and gay men) get pop and dance music (and the producers are always dudes).

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: My 20 y/o marathon running, retired due to injury soccer defender, future teacher niece with a 3.8 gpa is a lifelong Swiftie.  I think a metric shit ton of Swifties are accomplished and self assured young women like my niece.  They grew up with her as the soundtrack of their lives and her songs matured as they did.

    I like Snow on the Beach.

  66. 66.

    Scout211

    @raven: Go Dawgs!

    raven, I believe your dawgs done gone to town all over FSU.  I wonder if the selection committee is laughing now.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: @eclare: @Mousebumples: @FelonyGovt: @eclare: @eclare:

    Wow, they are all so different!  I really appreciate the links.

    The first one made me cry; it’s every break-up.  Definitely tells a story with her songs.  Stunningly beautiful when she was younger, some of those songs were from 15 years ago! It’s especially striking to first see someone when they are all grown up and then to see the videos from when they were young. We were all fresh-faced with amazing skin at one point!

    She represents young women with seriousness in a world that still codes young women’s concerns as frivolous.

    Not just young women.

  68. 68.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Jackie:

    @Nukular Biskits: Easy. She’s never been married. She hasn’t had children. She has the wrong plumbing… and that took 10 seconds to list.

    None of which are even relevant … but we’ll surely hear about it.

    What I’d love to see is the usual suspects try to claim someone who is running a multimillion(billion?) dollar entertainment empire “doesn’t know how to run a business”.

  69. 69.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I think a metric shit ton of Swifties are accomplished and self assured young women like my niece. 

    Yes agree. Some of the younger women I have worked with have been mega-Swifties, and they are all smart, successful, ambitious, achievement-oriented and hardworking. Maybe mildly neurotic. And none of them strike me as pick-me types.

    I think the right wing really misses pick-me girls.

  71. 71.

    Mousebumples

    @Suzanne: Slightly OT, but I’ve made a point of selecting women focused or minority focused shows for Mr. Mouse and I to watch. There’s not as many as I’d like to watch, but it’s fun to try to see what I can all find.

  75. 75.

    Ruckus

    @zhena gogolia:

    White men had the upper hand (and lower hand) for a long time. They shouldn’t have and this is an old white man saying that. Equal is equal, all the attributes that white man have had in this country for longer than I’ve been alive need to end. Many of them have at least gotten closer to the mark, but in many ways it’s still reality. I live in LA County and it has gotten better. I’d say a lot better. Here. But there is still a ways to go and I’d really like to see it far better in my lifetime, especially in some of the places that have not gone as far as highly populated CA. But there as well.

  78. 78.

    Dangerman

    Ouch. I think if Georgia beats Bama, FSU would have been the 4, and the 1 v 4 game woulda sucked.

  79. 79.

    Tony Jay

    @eclare:

    With genuine anger. If the Biden/Harris campaign don’t already have advanced plans to work with people like Swift and Rodrigo to get out Da Yoot Vote, I’ll eat not only my hat but the hats of twenty people of your choice.

  81. 81.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Republicans pretty much treat them as if they’re race traitors, honestly

    This is exactly how Republicans view white Democratic voters.

  82. 82.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: You know what is a trope I see that really bothers me? “Bridezillas”. I am not going to say that there aren’t some women who behave badly around their weddings (as there are people who behave badly at all things). But it’s this whole archetype now…. shitting on women for being particular about their weddings. There’s always some assholes who chime in about how in 1967, they got married at the courthouse in a garbage bag, and they’re still together, so what’s wrong with these young women today? Why isn’t that good enough for them?! I always note that no one seems to dunk on the grooms for being completely checked TF out.

    It’s a cousin of complaining about women for being “high-maintenance”, which is one of the most gendered and offensive tropes in existence.

  84. 84.

    BethanyAnne

    I started paying attention to Taylor Swift’s music with “reputation”, for the song “Delicate”. But her newest album “Midnights” is what sold me completely. It’s insanely good as a full album. “Anti-Hero” is the hook for it, and it’s been linked a couple of times. Right now, the song I’m listening to the most is “Bejeweled“, and the video is very cute.

  88. 88.

    Marmot

    @Jeffg166:

    If a third rate reality TV “star” can be president why not a megastar pop phenomenon? She maybe laying the ground work for her political career. At 34 she is almost old enough to be president.

    That was an extremely bad precedent, and if anything, showed (along with CEO President GW Bush) what a bad idea all that kind of nonsense is.

  89. 89.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: “Pick-me girls” is the name of the archetype for women who seek male validation and approval (“pick me!”) by trying to align themselves with men’s tastes and interests. The kind of girl who says, “I’m not like other girls”.

  94. 94.

    bbleh

    @zhena gogolia: what’s VERY important to remember, though, is that this sort of thing is NOT in ANY way anything LIKE an expression of feelings of INADEQUACY of ANY sort.  Nothing at all.  Nope.

  96. 96.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @eclare: My niece bugs me about Swift a lot since I am into music.  Swift doesn’t really speak to me and that’s fine, but I was happy to be able to tell my niece that there was a Swift song that I actively liked rather than understanding how people could like it.  If that makes sense.

  98. 98.

    Tony Jay

    @eclare:

    I’ll do whatever it takes, but no knitted hats. Can’t abide even the thought of chewing wool. Panamas, Bowlers and Derbys for preference.

    I am a Goddam hero. You don’t need to say it. You can, though. For a while.

  99. 99.

    clay

    @eclare: And you know what?  It completely earned that billion.  We went to the Tampa show (birthday gift for our 15-year-old) and it was THE most impressive live show I’ve ever seen.  All aspects — the music, the lighting, the choreography, the costumes, the little LED bracelets they gave everyone that lit up in syncopation with everything — were astonishing.

  100. 100.

    SpaceUnit

    I know exactly two Taylor Swift songs, but if she’s going to make a stand for democracy you can consider me a member of the fan club.  MAGA rage is sweeter than nectar.

    And I hope her security team is top notch.

  105. 105.

    Mike in NC

    @FelonyGovt:  That move was pure genius. One of my favorite photos of Fat Bastard showed him walking dejected with his necktie askew and a stupid red MAGA hat crushed in one hand. One right-wing pundit called him “Toxic in Tulsa”.

  109. 109.

    Jackie

    @Nukular Biskits: My list was purposefully superficial – as is any argument the GQP would make. Also, too, her current boyfriend – Kelse is a traitor to Kansas state’s by advertising Bud Lite and Covid/flu vaccinations.

    But, ya, let’s see them say a “girl” whose  business empire made her a TRUE billionaire wouldn’t know how to lead a country successfully…

  110. 110.

    Suzanne

    @clay: I took Spawn the Younger to the Eras Tour, and it was just fantastic. Totally above and beyond anything I had ever seen before. (I really wanted to go to Renaissance, too, but Beyoncé canceled the Pittsburgh shows.)

    I was getting freaked out, though…. we were in the upper deck, and the stadium was absolutely packed, and I could feel the whole structure of the stadium swaying as everyone danced. Unreal.

  112. 112.

    Another Scott

    I really enjoyed her on SNL, what, a decade or so ago? I could see that she’s a great talent though I’ve never bought her music.

    Her Tiny Desk Concert (28:58) is very good. (“Lover” had just come out.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  113. 113.

    BethanyAnne

    Oh, and notice that Taylor Swift wasn’t one of the celebrities caught up in the FTX mess. She met with Sam Bankman-Fried, and didn’t buy what he was selling. She asked him directly if she would be selling unregistered securities. Didn’t get an answer she liked, and noped out. (That came out in discovery, and was a minor story).

  114. 114.

    EarthWindFire

    @BethanyAnne: Delicate hooked me too. I thought that was the song where Taylor grew up, like her audience, as so many have pointed out.

    Lyrically, TS’ recent releases remind me of Springsteen. Her song lyrics are chapters and her albums are like novels in the same way. I’m not a Swiftie by any stretch but her lyrics tell poignant stories.

  118. 118.

    BethanyAnne

    @EarthWindFire: Midnights turned me into a Swiftie. You are spot on about the albums. They are just *so* good. And I don’t even really know her discography yet. Evidently there are all sorts of call outs to other albums in them, and easter eggs, and I haven’t dived all the way down that rabbit hole.

    Oh, here’s another link about her that I loved. Seth starts talking about her more halfway in (3 minute clip total). Link

  125. 125.

    RaflW

    @Suzanne: I know almost nothing about her, but this is really nice!

    And has the word ‘patriarchy’ in it, so, uh, conservatives are surprised?

  126. 126.

    SuzieC

    Don’t have a link but “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s version)” as theme song of Prime miniseries Wilderness was awesome.

  127. 127.

    Quadrillipede

    @Jeffg166: At 34 she is almost old enough to be president.

    I’m not sure this timeline is worthy of President Swift, but I’m not going to rule it out 100%…

  129. 129.

    Searcher

    Taylor Swift pisses them off — besides the fact that she is a woman (I was going to add adjectives like “strong” or “independent” but honestly “woman” is enough for that crowd) — because she is “all-American”, and proves that isn’t synonymous with “Republican”.

  130. 130.

    geg6

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My 22yo niece, who is about to graduate with a degree in nuclear medicine and has been offered a pretty high paying job at the region’s top drawer children’s hospital along with an offer to pay for her graduate studies, is also a lifelong Swiftie.  Her first Swift concert was during the Red Tour.  She also saw 1989 and the Reputation tours.  And, of course, Eras.  She takes her Taylor fandom very seriously.

  131. 131.

    RaflW

    @zhena gogolia: Shorter version “I did not know much about this man but … I needed a hook to make the same boring complaints about my sense of injury I always make.”

    All these guys are just so damn whiny. It’s wretched.

  133. 133.

    wjca

    @Jeffg166: If a third rate reality TV “star” can be president

    I don’t know that such a thing has ever happened.  (Even 7th rate would be giving TIFG too much credit.)

  135. 135.

    Citizen Scientist

    With all the TS chatter here, just wanted to put in a plug for Ryan Adams’ cover of her entire 1989 album a few years ago, and it’s what made me appreciate her music.  It’s more of a straightforward rock and pop/americana-tinged vibe but really well done.  And, yes, I know he’s had his issues over the last few years (and was kind of canceled for a while), but TS has publicly said she likes what he did with that cover.

  136. 136.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Nukular Biskits:

    What I’d love to see is the usual suspects try to claim someone who is running a multimillion(billion?) dollar entertainment empire “doesn’t know how to run a business”. 

    Oh, the slapdicks will find a way to fuck that chicken.

  139. 139.

    Brachiator

    How much right-wing anger toward Taylor Swift is also anger at the fact that for years, she was incredibly red-state coded as a Country Music singer and then (surprise) she turned out to be like many millennial women and more liberal?

    I’m not much into pop music these days, but I may have to buy a Taylor Swift album.

    And I guess I will watch her concert film if that’s available.

    I wonder how conservatives who have children who are Swift fans have the nerve to attack her. This just would be double stupid.

  140. 140.

    Suzanne

    @RaflW: The original version (on the album now owned by Scooter Braun) was much shorter and didn’t have that verse. She released the 10-minute “Taylor’s Version” as part of the re-recording effort. The full version is really great.

  143. 143.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I think the most bizarre thing about Taylor Swift is the way the press is shocked to find out someone in the arts is a liberal.  One would think the dearth of conservative comedians would be the clue that being a rage filled reactionary pining for the glory days of Hernando Cortes were a man could be man by destroying an entire civilization for the LUZ isn’t conductive to the arts.

  144. 144.

    geg6

    @Suzanne:

    That whole power move of taking back her art is such a badass move.  It’s what moved me from a casual listener to a big, if old, Swiftie.  Amazing amounts of talent and killer business instincts.  What’s not to love?

  147. 147.

    Chris T.

    @Suzanne:

    Which old Boomer dude right-winger wrote a whole essay about how Taylor Swift sucks compared to Paul McCartney?!

    But … isn’t McCartney woke now anyway?

  148. 148.

    tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)

    Happy early New Year’s Eve. I will be happy to see 2023 in the rearview mirror.

    I’ve got tickets to see Taylor Swift when she comes to Tokyo in February. Mr. Tokyo’s career has been as a global investor. Anybody capable of moving the economy like TS has is someone he wanted to see. I know some of TS songs but not as many as she’s going to sing. I’m going to be listening to a lot of TS in the next few weeks. We’ll probably be the oldest folks there, but I plan on enjoying the show of this talented woman.

  150. 150.

    Brachiator

    @zhena gogolia:

    I didn’t know that Tom Wilkinson had died. So many wonderful performances. Among his many roles, I really liked him in Shakespeare in Love and Belle.

    He played both complex villains and decent men very well. He was one of those actors who would make any film just a little bit better just from his presence in it.

  151. 151.

    geg6

    @p.a.:

    The big hit of the summer was Miley’s Flowers, another strong song from a female viewpoint.  The chorus is so empowering.

    I like these young women.  I wish I’d had more women like these to admire when I was young.  I had Heart ( the Wilsons!  ❤️) and Pat Benatar, which is certainly not nothing, but they never dominated the culture the way these women do.

  152. 152.

    BC in Illinois

    @Another Scott:

    Her Tiny Desk Concert (28:58) is very good.

    Yes! As a registered Septuagenarian, I am not a natural part of her fan base, but I have recommended the Tiny Desk Concert to anyone who wants an introduction to her talent. Just her, her songs, her introductions to her songs, her voice, and her piano or guitar. Outstanding.

  153. 153.

    RaflW

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: They’re long-term angry that music/arts/movies/TV appeals to a mass audience to the left of their precious feefees. With rare exceptions, when conservatives try to put out anything in those segments it’s usually only mildly popular and rarely a blockbuster. Even in the book world, they end up fluffing their sales numbers with bulk-buys via their dark money groups.

    Conservative ‘values’ make boring art & culture. So sad, too bad.

  154. 154.

    Scout211

    @Suzanne: The original version (on the album now owned by Scooter Braun)

    He sold them in 2020  Wiki

    In October 2020, Braun sold the old masters to the Disney family’s investment firm, Shamrock Holdings, for $405 million under the condition that he keeps profiting from the masters.

  156. 156.

    Yutsano

    May Taylor never have a gaffe go so badly that Alexandra Petri basically destroys your entire campaign in one column.

    Seriously, read this. Haley should ignore this, but I doubt she will.

    EDIT: I still think Ms. Swift will never be known for her voice. But her songwriting is the Joni Mitchell for the Gen Z. Prove me wrong.

  158. 158.

    Brachiator

    @Chris T.:

    But … isn’t McCartney woke now anyway?

    I think McCartney may always have been woke. And I think I read once that he is a vegetarian who has not eaten meat since 1975. Isn’t that like a badge of wokeness?

  159. 159.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: I know Swifties in their 50’s and 60’s. My Jazzercize teachers have done whole sets of routines to her music. A bunch of them reserved the theater to see her concert movie so they could dance in the aisles to her songs. Conservatives underestimate her popularity at their peril.

  160. 160.

    bbleh

    @NotMax: obviously a hotbed of Woke.  One of Real President Trump’s dictator acts on Only The First Day will be to wipe it off the map.  MAGA!!

  161. 161.

    zhena gogolia

    @Brachiator: Yes, he was fantastic in everything. I also love him in Shakespeare in Love, and he is excellent in a small role in Sense and Sensibility — his scene sets up the whole movie. Plus many more!

    I learned from the NYT comments that I really have to watch Michael Clayton.

  162. 162.

    New Deal democrat

    Way late to this thread, but somebody took the recent “Now and Then” Beatles release, which is based on an unfortunately typical , plodding John Lennon tune, and remade it in the style of the “1964” (really more like 1965 or 1966) Beatles sound.

    it is excellent! I prefer it way more than the original. Give it a listen:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rER9RPHN3g

  165. 165.

    Splitting Image

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I think the most bizarre thing about Taylor Swift is the way the press is shocked to find out someone in the arts is a liberal. One would think the dearth of conservative comedians would be the clue that being a rage filled reactionary pining for the glory days of Hernando Cortes were a man could be man by destroying an entire civilization for the LUZ isn’t conductive to the arts.

    A lot of pundits spent the last 20 years convincing themselves that conservative culture had supplanted liberalism as the cool thing with young people.

    They reasoned thusly: Joe Rogan seemingly ruled Spotify; country music – the only true American form of music – had become entirely Republican; comic book characters, with their fascist inclinations, had come to dominate movies and TV; the Republican leadership in Congress (the “Young Guns”) offered an obvious contrast with the aging, out-of-touch Democratic leaders; and superannuated hippies were pining for the days when Bob Dylan and Joan Baez actually mattered.

    And then it was all suddenly taken away from them. Swift going woke but not broke upended their whole philosophy. They’ll never forgive her for it.

  167. 167.

    Brachiator

    @New Deal democrat:

    Way late to this thread, but somebody took the recent “Now and Then” Beatles release, which is based on an unfortunately typical , plodding John Lennon tune, and remade it in the style of the “1964” (really more like 1965 or 1966) Beatles sound.

    Very fab!

  168. 168.

    FelonyGovt

    This thread has been a revelation. Taylor Swift is a poet on a par with Dylan and other greats. I knew she was strong and brilliant, but I had never heard this much of her work. I guess I’m now a 70 year old Swiftie. 😀

  170. 170.

    geg6

    @Splitting Image:

    The American Nazis thought she was one of theirs:  blonde, tall and beautiful.  And have not and will not ever get over discovering she is exactly what they fear most.  When they finally figured it out, their tears and crying and whining about it was delicious.

  173. 173.

    Splitting Image

    @geg6:

    The American Nazis thought she was one of theirs:  blonde, tall and beautiful.  And have not and will not ever get over discovering she is exactly what they fear most.  When they finally figured it out, their tears and crying and whining about it was delicious.

    Wingnut tears: the gift that keeps giving.

  174. 174.

    Tony G

    @WaterGirl: Youtube has a 29-minute “Tiny Desk” concert of just Taylor Swift with an acoustic guitar — without the usual concert hoopla.  I listened to it recently, just curious what all the fuss was about … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvVnP8G6ITs&t=12s.  I’ll be honest — as an old Boomer geezer whose idea of Great Music is Jimi Hendrix and The Who, I found her songs to be kind of bland.  But I’m not exactly her target audience.  In any event, good for her for pissing off the worst people in the country!

  175. 175.

    Suzanne

    @Splitting Image:

    A lot of pundits spent the last 20 years convincing themselves that conservative culture had supplanted liberalism as the cool thing with young people. 

    There was another thing that happened. You mentioned Rogan and he is part of this story. In the early 2000s-ish, it became “emerging knowledge” in the marketing sphere that there was a distinct cohort of dudes, aged approx. 18-29 at that time, and their consumer behavior and tastes seemed to be novel. And (for some reason) everyone thought that they had a lot of money to spend, and that they would do so if brands communicated with them and targeted them. Gross-out and very dude-bro humor was a big part of that. Hence Comedy Central and “The Man Show” (girls in bikinis on trampolines) and “Fear Factor” (Rogan) and “South Park” and Blink-182 and “American Pie” and all that shit. Radio stations in rock and alternative formats changed a lot of their programming to be exclusively targeted to men (women artists were Evanescence and….nothing else during this time). This was pre-Instagram, pre-Facebook. The MySpace era. A reaction to the Lilith Fair aesthetic of the mid/late 90s.

    Dudes loved this. The popular culture was designed to cater to them. But young men didn’t have the spending power that marketers assumed (shocking). But Taylor Swift and Beyoncé and “Barbie” have demonstrated that young women have market power (and artistic power), and so now more products will be made for them.

  176. 176.

    Racer X

    Taylor has nothing to worry about, her “Swifties” have her back.  I’d take them any day over the beta trumper bois who let their man lie right to their faces and say “thank you sir may I have another”.  Pathetic.

  177. 177.

    Tony G

    @geg6: I think her physical beauty is a lot of what gets these idiots angry.  When I was in seventh grade there were always some boys who would react with anger when the pretty girls ignored them.  Presumably these boys grew up eventually.  The members of the Trump cult never did grow up.

  180. 180.

    Gretchen

    My daughter met her husband on a dating app. His profile included that he’s a big Taylor Swift fan. He turned out to be a good guy in many other ways too. They went to see her when she was in Kansas City last summer.

  181. 181.

    Suzanne

    @geg6:

    The American Nazis thought she was one of theirs:  blonde, tall and beautiful.  And have not and will not ever get over discovering she is exactly what they fear most. 

    She also doesn’t give a shit about them. She has maybe the biggest fanbase of any popular artist in history and she doesn’t need them or want them in it. In the TIME interview, she says something about pissing off “dads, Brads, and Chads” and how she doesn’t care if they are salty. We all know the type.

  182. 182.

    FelonyGovt

    @Suzanne: Yes, I remember that whole dudebro grossout era when popular music was all Blink-182 and Slipknot and some similar things that were really awful (and I’ve mercifully forgotten). So glad we’re past that.

  183. 183.

    Tony G

    @NotMax: I did not know that.  I worked in Reading for a couple of years a few years ago.  A real blue collar city, surrounded by Pennsylvania Dutch farmland.  Interesting contrast.

  185. 185.

    Suzanne

    @FelonyGovt: I was unfortunately the parent chaperone for Spawn the Younger and her bestie at the Blink-182 concert last year. Tom DeLonge is 47 and still making boob and dick jokes.

    I told my husband that that sacrifice meant I got to be the one to take her to see Swift a couple of months later!

  186. 186.

    anitamargarita

    @geg6: also busting the Denver dj who creeped on her at a promo event. He got fired, then sued her for lost wages (1mil I think). She counter sued for $1.00 and won. She doesn’t take shit from anyone

  187. 187.

    Splitting Image

    @Suzanne:

    Gross-out and very dude-bro humor was a big part of that. Hence Comedy Central and “The Man Show” (girls in bikinis on trampolines) and “Fear Factor” (Rogan) and “South Park” and Blink-182 and “American Pie” and all that shit. Radio stations in rock and alternative formats changed a lot of their programming to be exclusively targeted to men (women artists were Evanescence and….nothing else during this time). This was pre-Instagram, pre-Facebook. The MySpace era. A reaction to the Lilith Fair aesthetic of the mid/late 90s.

    Gad. I’d forgotten half of that junk. Tom Green movie marathon, anyone?

  189. 189.

    Suzanne

    @FelonyGovt: I worked in marketing during that time, and alllllll the literature and talks at conferences and discussion around that time was about trying to come up with some special sauce that would make a product appealing to young dudes (mostly but not exclusively white, totally heterosexual). It was exhausting and very dispiriting.

  190. 190.

    Searcher

    @Suzanne: I wonder how much of that is that that demographic is also very alcoholic.

    If you’re a 20-something dudebro all of your disposable income is going to beer and occasionally liquor and not whatever the advertising is pushing.

  191. 191.

    sab

    @FelonyGovt: Me too. Last I listened to her was at leastvten years ago and I thought her songs were cute and her voice sweet but thin. She has really matured as an artist.

  192. 192.

    Suzanne

    @Splitting Image: Remember “Singled Out” and Jenny McCarthy? (Before she had her own body count, of course.) All this absolute dreck, specifically created to sell advertising targeted at douchebags. It worked, for a while.

  193. 193.

    piratedan

    @Searcher: The era of Axe body spray commercials….

    while many a young man (and even old man) can watch with rapt attention at any product that suggests its purchase will somehow increase his sexual attractiveness/opportunity/ability, not everyone is wired that way.  I think that old study that claimed that young men think about sex constantly somehow made it acceptable for their behavior to act out those desires and be written off as the “boys will be boys” trope.

  196. 196.

    Suzanne

    @Searcher: Well, most of those young men who got acculturated to that are now dudes in their 40s. The current cohort of young men, from what I have read, do not seem to have meaningfully different spending behavior. They buy more food from apps and delivery services, more clothes online, everyone has Spotify and Netflix now, everyone is influenced by social media.

  199. 199.

    Another Scott

    Relatedly, … AlJazeera.com:

    But what is now known as the Taylor Swift Effect runs far beyond a craze for friendship bracelets. The six shows she performed at SoFi, where Galvin and his daughter went to watch her, generated an estimated $320m in tourism revenues, taxes and extra jobs for Los Angeles County, according to a special report by the Center for Jobs.

    The “Swiftonomics” effect has caused countries to vie for her attention. When the initial list of tour dates was published in June 2023 with no mention of Canada, Canadian Members of Parliament filed a complaint with the Speaker of the House of Commons calling it a “snub”. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hurriedly issued an invitation and, a month later, six dates for Toronto and three for Vancouver were added to the list of international tour dates for 2024.

    Swift has also received invitations from the president of Chile, the mayor of Budapest and the leader of an opposition party in Thailand. New Zealand’s finance minister, Grant Robertson, bowed out of the contest to attract Swift, saying he couldn’t afford to invest public money on a marketing campaign.

    […]

    Pollstar estimates that the Eras Tour has already grossed more than $1bn after just 60 shows and 4.35 million tickets sold, breaking a record previously held by Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which took place over 328 performances between 2018 and 2023 and generated $939m.

    That’s an exponential difference in terms of the number of shows each artist needed to perform. Ticket sales from Swift’s 2024 performances are expected to gross another $1bn. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film cost $15m to produce and passed $250m in global sales in November to become the top-grossing concert film of all time, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

    As the Eras Tour continues its schedule of concerts around the world in the new year, Swift is likely to continue to generate more money than the gross domestic product (GDP) of several countries.

    […]

    Zooks!

    Lots more at the link.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  204. 204.

    Brachiator

    @Suzanne:

    You mentioned Rogan and he is part of this story. In the early 2000s-ish, it became “emerging knowledge” in the marketing sphere that there was a distinct cohort of dudes, aged approx. 18-29 at that time, and their consumer behavior and tastes seemed to be novel. And (for some reason) everyone thought that they had a lot of money to spend, and that they would do so if brands communicated with them and targeted them. Gross-out and very dude-bro humor was a big part of that. Hence Comedy Central and “The Man Show” (girls in bikinis on trampolines) and “Fear Factor” (Rogan) and “South Park” and Blink-182 and “American Pie” and all that shit.

    Before Rogan, there was Howard Stern. And a cohort of males age 18 to 29 have always liked Gross and stupid shit since the great age of the 3 Stooges. It is very easy to sell to this cohort, especially if you are a male marketer who grew up as part of this cohort.

    The dirty secret is that girls and women since the post war economy also have had money to spend, and may spend it more heavily than guys. But sometimes you have to work harder to appeal to women, and these bros ain’t got time for that. And the idiots who stew in sexism disdain women and think that bro money is a deeper shade of green.

    And how many conservatives write about how lucrative it would be to try to appeal to Swifties versus those who prattle about how she needs to be taken down?

  207. 207.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tony G: I noticed that there were a bunch of wingnuts dissing her as “plain” on the basis of the Time Person of the Year article–the worst insult to them, I guess. The photos (unlike a lot of the concert shots) make her look like an adult woman in her thirties, which she is now, and I suspect that they were picking up on that. Women aren’t supposed to age.

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