Taylor-made for political change
Pop-star Taylor Swift has long kept fans guessing about her allegiances. This week, she broke her silence, declaring her support for the Democrats and urging young people to vote. She’s well placed to drive change, writes Alice Vincent
There’s a repetitive patter to Taylor Swift’s award acceptance speeches. The willowy pop star thanks her fans and tells them she loves them. There’s a good chance she will recall a personal connection to the prize in question. She will appear slightly taken aback by it all, and massively grateful. What Swift has never done while picking up an award, however, is share a political message. She’s thrown shade at Kanye West (while collecting her record-breaking third Album of the Year Grammy in 2016), but that’s about the extent of her podium-based precocity. On Tuesday night, though, she collected her Artist of the Year American Music Award with the advice: “Get out and vote.” Those four words may sound trite; Swift is not the first celebrity to encourage the American youth to register to take to the polls. Paris Hilton, 50 Cent and Ben Affleck are among those who have gone before her — despite not even being registered themselves. But this week, Swift broke a long-held (and roundly controversial) silence over her political views. In the process, she made a genuine impact, encouraging tens of thousands of Americans aged between 18-29 to register to vote. It’s a turn of events that is surprising for two reasons. Swift was internationally criticised for refusing to state who she supported in the 2016 presidential election. As a woman who has shared so much of her life with her fans, Swift’s determination to keep schtum on the most divisive election in recent American history was seen as highly suspicious. Many assumed that Swift, who had moved to Tennessee — a safe Republican state — during her childhood to pursue a musical career, was a supporter of Donald Trump in the wake of saying otherwise. Her lack of comment even encouraged members of the US alt-right to champion Swift as one of them — until her team threatened a blogger who compared her to Hitler with legal action, announcing an “unequivocal denouncement by Ms Swift of white supremacy and the alt-right”. But on a broader note, pop stars don’t tend to succeed when they try to make a political impact. That Swift did (the 237,428 registrations witnessed in October by Vote. org, the website shared by Swift, eclipsed the 190,178 made in September) bucks a trend. Her silence during the 2016 political campaign was all the louder because her contemporaries were stumping for Clinton. Ariana Grande, Beyoncé and Jay Z, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Katy Perry all publicly stood by Clinton. Trump, meanwhile, had no celebrities by his side, just soundbites from awkward D-Listers, including Loretta Lynn and Kid Rock. And yet, we all know who won the election. It wasn’t just Swift’s speech that did it. On Monday, she updated her Instagram post with a polaroid of herself and her boldest political affiliation of her 15-year career: “I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.” This was one sentence of a lengthy statement in which Swift stated that she believed in LGBTQ rights, was sickened by systemic racism and was against “any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender”. She also hinted that she had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, saying: “I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office.” After saying she would be voting for democrats Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives, Swift urged her young fans (“who have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count”) to “educate yourself” on those running, while acknowledging that “we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100pc on every issue”. The upload — which went to Swift’s 112 million followers — also reached the upper echelons of the White House. Trump told reporters that he “liked Taylor’s music about 25pc less now”. Arkansas governor and Republican contrarian Mike Huckabee tweeted that Swift “has every right to be political, but it won’t impact election unless we allow 13 yr old girls to vote [sic]. Still with #MarshaBlackburn”. The voter registration statistics would suggest otherwise. What’s intriguing about Swift’s comments is that she’s given them the same campaign treatment as she would a new single or album release. Swift’s digital proximity with her fans — reading their blogs, following their
Twitter accounts, liking their uploads — is unrivalled and a tactic she has developed over the years to shift records and gain influence. During the past two days, Swifties on Tumblr — and not just “13 yr old girls” — have been saying they were previously apathetic about voting, but her message convinced them to register. Swift, in turn, has been liking Tumblr posts that have celebrated her decision to make her politics public. Along with the confessional nature of her songwriting, Swift’s seen as a best friend or big sister by her greatest supporters, and that’s in part why she’s able to make things happen when other pop heavyweights haven’t. Beyoncé, Jay Z and Rihanna may have attempted to tackle streaming’s siphoning of the music industry with Tidal, their own subscription platform, but it was Swift who got Apple to pay artists for their music during Apple Music’s three-month trial period after publishing an open letter in the Washington Post. Of course, there has been backlash, too. Some (albeit on that famously nefarious internet underbelly, 4Chan) said she had “ended her career”. Conservative groups accused her of ignorance, while podcaster Jensen Karp suggested Swift’s statement suggested a dire state of affairs: “Do you know how bad it has to be for Taylor Swift to get political?”, he quipped on Twitter. What most seem to be aware of, though, is a sense of real change. As Christopher J Hale, a democrat politician from Tennessee wrote in Time this week, the only person who could persuade the 21-year-old cashier who served him daily to vote for him was Swift. And the biggest swing-voting demographic in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville — the staunchly conservative state’s biggest cities — is women. Swift knows how to speak to young women: her narratives of fairytale romances and giddy midnight feasts in diners have provided the adolescent backdrop to millions of girls around the world. By contrast, Perry’s trumpeting support of Clinton seemed showy, and distant. Beyoncé and Jay Z’s glimmering appearances in campaign videos felt earnest and aspirational. Yes, Swift probably should have broken her silence earlier. As we have seen, people listen when she tells them to vote.
Swift is seen as a best friend – that’s why she can make things happen