Please dont. We need fewer words out of him, not 8,000 more.
10 Likes
Many thanks to @KVV for bringing this into my life, though I am fairly sure it will be widely celebrated. Any recommendations on previous celeb profiles by Ms. Brodesser-Akner? I mostly enjoyed Fleishman is in Trouble on Hulu, but was not previously familiar with her work.
Off to the Taylor movie tomorrow with my daughters, I hope I get just a glimmer of them having as much fun as everyone seemed to be having for the live shows, but I won’t even pretend that I will get to see them dancing in the way described above.
1 Like
I think I drew a comparison of TS fans to say, the Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears fans back in the 90s and 2000s. But reading the article it seems the fans’ connection to TS is so much more deeper and profound, far and away on another level than boy band craze.
Going to the movie tonight with my wife, should be a fun experience.
8 Likes
@OffTheDole and I had a bit of a back and forth on this the other day, but the only real comparison for the phenomenon, connection with fans, and scale of the tour is MJ - though she isn’t there quite yet. This level of tour fervor would have to last for another 3-5 years.
At just 34 (in December), she has a lifetime of music ahead of her though, if she wants that.
1 Like
I’m going to start reading it now. Thanks for sharing.
Nobody matched MJ album releases to the number of songs Barry Gordy ripped off of him.
MJ was popular for decades, he’s got the longevity bar over TS right now but I think TS has him beat on fan connection.
5 Likes
I’d have read 20k words written in that fashion. Masterfully executed.
1 Like
As I type this it’s been 44 minutes since you said you were starting it. I assume, given its length you’re about 1/3 through by now
2 Likes
This paragraph kind of confused me. I thought this was a great piece of writing, and the ending really really worked for me, but this passage seemed almost needlessly hagiographic in context.
2 Likes
I’ve read one paragraph. 
It will take me a few days. I’m doing a lot of things right now.
1 Like
Finally can say I have danced in a movie theater. What a blast.
9 Likes
Thanks for sharing @KVV.
Tom Petty told us the waiting was the hardest part but what I think Swift realized that, and maybe only on reflection, often the waiting is the best part before we become something a little different.
5 Likes
So many directions I could go with this (hat tip, TC), but in the end it’s a really interesting perspective on girlhood and life. Perhaps there’s nowhere for me to take this discussion and
“That’s because this isn’t for you,” I told him, and I found myself getting angry as I spoke. “She wasn’t created to please you like the other women pop stars. She created herself to please me. She escaped the machine where women are only allowed to be pop stars if they don’t anger or threaten men. This just isn’t for you.”
But even if not, it is really cool to see.
5 Likes
So I’ve given this a lot of thought and because I love talking about this stuff, here is my best explanation…
As someone who has written a lot about celebrities (though none quite as famous as TS, even Tom Brady and Peyton Manning) writing about someone you don’t have access is both challenging and freeing, and one of the ways I think is the best way to approach it is to write less about them and more about what they represent or how they make people feel. Because those are universal things.
David Foster Wallace is one of the most famous examples with Federer, when he wrote about how beauty and artistry could triumph over aggression and how that reminded him of our universal mortality. They key to that whole piece is the kid dying of cancer, because it’s Wallace saying that everything is fleeting, that Federer was of flesh and also of something divine but not permanent. It’s one of my favorite essays ever.
I cannot stress how artful it is that Taffy wove like four different themes into this piece, along with humor. I think when she’s writing about how no magazine profiler could tell Taylor’s story better than Taylor could tell herself, it’s a bit slight of hand, it’s asking the audience to feel like Taffy is one of them, so that she can write about themes that aren’t about Swift as much as they’re just about being a woman and trying to wrestle with all the complications girls have to handle as they figure out who they are.
The ability to be funny and also sentimental and two keep these two things juggling without being a Try Hard on either is master class stuff.
All good writing is smart thinking first. And so I appreciate that this piece is Taffy understanding and examining something I’ve never see addressed before about Swift’s music, that love songs are friendship stories and disappointment stories and growing up stories and it’s not even about romantic desire but about anticipating these moments and seeing them as markers in a bigger story. The ending uses a common magazine trick, introducing a character in the beginning before bringing them back at the coda, but it does it with such a sad and also poignant twist, the understanding that even the beautiful moments in your life can also feel like losses, because all of us have to grow up and let go of moments when anything was possible, when hoping you can be loved is almost more powerful than being loved.
I have three girls and one of them loves Taylor and she’s been going through a shitty time of late. Her friends decided she’s not cool enough and so they cut her out of their group and her field hockey team sucks and even though she’s the team captain and a pretty good player, she feels like she’s letting everyone down because they have just one win this year. She’s 13 and she’s wrestling with everything, identity and self worth and heartache and rejection. But something about Taylor speaks to her. Taylor gets it, the desire to be wanted, to be taken seriously, to be loved, to be silly, to be valued, to be dangerous, to be excited about anticipating all these moments still to come but also not wanting it to get there too fast.
And I never truly got it until recently, that Taylor represents all these things to girls her age, that her appeal is that she’s both cool and uncool. That she’s bold but also vulnerable. That she knows what it feels like to be adored by also dumped.
So today I dropped her off at a showing of the Eras Tour. She was dressed as the 1989 Era, big earrings, blue eye shadow, a matching blue track suit that she felt was stylish without being too revealing. And she both wanted me to stay but also wanted me to just leave and come back later, and as I watched her dash into the theater I kept thinking what it must feel like be 13, and that 20 years from now, Taylor’s music would transport her right back to this time. And that Taffy’s final line was so perfect, that nothing would ever feel as confusing and hard, but also as hopeful, as being a teenage girl.
44 Likes
Have you ever met Macklemore?
11 Likes
1 Like
Personally, can’t wait for the the Kelce/Britany Mahomes Era. I’m convinced Taylor is doing this for the inspiration to her next album called “You think I’m crazy? Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit”
2 Likes
I read about 10 paragraphs… Think I’d rather go grind my teeth on the curb
Insightful!
4 Likes