A sportswriter's guide to Taylor Swift
We're all Swifties now
Nearly two years ago, my daughter suffered her first sports heartbreak.
A theater kid who never really cared about sports, she watched with us as the Kansas City Chiefs pulled off 13 Seconds against our beloved Buffalo Bills. She had jumped on the Bills bandwagon that season and was crushed by the loss.
One of the plays in 13 Seconds was made by Travis Kelce.
This week, that same daughter of mine announced she is now a Chiefs fan and wants a Kelce jersey.
She’s not getting one. Of course she’s not.
But such is the power of Taylor Swift.
If you’re a Sports Media Guy subscriber or reader, there’s a good chance you have worked or currently work in sports journalism. Which means you’ve comfortably lived in the world of Bruce Springsteen and Jason Isbell for a long time.
And now, you find yourself surrounded by Swifties, and you’re trying to find your way.
I’m here to help.
As both Sports Media Guy and dad to a Taylor Swift-obsessed about-to-be teen, let me give you an introduction to being a Swiftie.
You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers:
Who is Taylor Swift?
Nope. We’re not doing that here. For God’s sake, Google is right there in your search bar. Ask a teen in your life.
What’s a Swiftie?
Oh for real … you’re on the internet, you can figure this out yourself.
Why are you spending time talking about her in a newsletter about sports media?
Look, I’ve stretched this bit as far as I can, right? Moving on:
I watch and/or cover the NFL. Apparently, I’m a Swiftie now?
Dude. We’re all Swifties now.
OK, so what do I need to know about being a Swiftie?
Think of the most passionate, die-hard sports fan base you know of. Steelers fans. Bills fans. St. Louis Cardinals fans. Alabama football fans. Multiply that by about 437. Add all the energy and loyalty of extremely online young women. Now you’re getting there.
Think about your favorite band from when you were a teenager. They meant everything to you, right? In a way that few things have mattered before or since. Now imagine getting to grow up with this artist, see them evolve and grow and change and seeing your own evolution, growth, and change reflected in this person’s life and music. You’d run through a wall for them right?
And all of it is wrapped in some of the catchiest pop music ever written.
That’s what it means to be a Swiftie.
That’s the big stuff. Here are some day-to-day considerations:
As a new Swiftie:
It’s important for you to consider what your current Era is. For other bands, you’d consider this your favorite album. But for a Swiftie, your favorite Era is your album combined with its general aesthetic. A Swiftie close to the newsletter1 tells Sports Media Guy that Red is the quintessential early fall Era, with Folkore coming as the mid-to-late fall Era.
You are contractually obligated to hate John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhall with the passion of a thousand burning suns. A Swiftie close to this newsletter2 tells Sports Media Guy that John Mayer is hated far more, and with far greater intensity, than Jake Gyllenhall3.
Friendship bracelets. That’s it. That’s the sentence. Learn to wear them, learn to make them, learn to share them. Doesn’t feel “football-y” enough? It’s good enough for Tight End U, it’s good enough for us.
Is Taylor Swift any good, though?
Honestly, this feels like such a 2013 question to ask.
We all know that art is subjective. There is no objective standard in any art form, and that includes music. Maybe Bach? I’d say the Beatles, but there are people who hate the Beatles.
Anyway, there are merits to almost every artist. When we say someone isn’t any good or that they stink, what we’re usually saying is that they’re not for me. And that’s fine.
But yes, Taylor Swift is good.
Still not buying it?
Listen to dad:
“It was good,” (Bruce Springsteen) said of the record. “She’s super talented. [I know her] just a little bit. She’s a tremendous writer and I know her producer Jack Antonoff very well … they make great records.”
Also, from Uncle Jason:
“Genius … biggest songwriter in the world.”
Why should I care about this whole story?
No one is telling you to. We all have finite attention spans. There is no requirement that you care about a pop star dating an athlete.
To pretend it’s utterly meaningless ignores the world we’re living in. This story has impacts from jersey sales to TV ratings and beyond. This is Taylor Swift’s world. Joe Biden’s entire re-election strategy could be “Taylor Swift makes an Instagram post two weeks before the election” and he’d win easily.
(And there’s historical precedent for the sports star-celebrity relationship, dating back to Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe).
At the same time, of course it’s incredibly overblown. It’s overblown in ways that are delightful (so many puns on Twitter), and ways that are cringe.
That’s the thing about the Take Industrial Complex. It’s designed to make everything A Thing. It’s designed to make every story about something larger, something that tells us something about the media, about ourselves, about the world and our place in it.
The way social media have been used, the way digital media have evolved, incentivizes this. We all know the original piece of information, whether it’s a game’s final score, a trade that’s been made, the results of a vote, whatever. Since we all know that original piece of information, media are incentivized (by us, the audience) to move the story forward. To explain what it means. At its best, this approach contextualizes stories for the audience. But often, it takes an event (like Taylor Swift attending the Chiefs game in Travis Kelce’s box) and telling us WHAT IT ALL MEANS in all caps.
Sometimes, this can lead to interesting discourse. Like here, it can lead to a re-examination of the Chiefs’ nickname and their abhorrently racist chant, which can then lead to thoughtful commentary on white saviors and the limitations of white feminism.
But sometimes, it can lead to writers overreaching, stretching too far to try to make something out of a thing that’s not necessarily A Thing.
Oh! Like you’ve done here?
Exactly.
Fine. I’m sold. Where do I start?
My Taylor Swift Personal Bangers
Love Story4
exile (feat. Bon Iver)5
You Belong With Me
Enchanted
no body, no crime (feat. HAIM)
The first nine songs of Folklore6
… Ready For It?7
Look What You Made Me Do
Welcome to New York
Cruel Summer8
My daughter. My daughter is the source. I’m comfortable outing her here.
It is impossible to overstate just how much Taylor Swift is in my life right now. My daughter turns 13 next week. She loves Taylor Swift more than her dog and Broadway put together.
Let’s appreciate the fact that Jake Gyllenhall had a 10-minute song about why he sucks released, and he’s No. 2 in the Swiftie hatred power rankings.
Yes, it’s basic. I don’t care. Get to the last part of the song and tell me you’re not jamming out to it.
Truth be told, I think this is the best Taylor Swift song. But I can’t, in good conscience, say her best song is one she did with the indie rock white dude. That said, holy shit this song slays.
Cop out? Yep.
“He could be my jailer/Burton to this Taylor” is such a baller lyric.
The “He looks up grinnin’ like a devil” moment at the end of the bridge, where she kinda lets her voice go, is one of my favorite moments in any Taylor Swift song. Also, I saw a group of teenage theater kids singing their hearts out to this song at a cast party this summer, and it was the literal best.