Taylor Swift performs to legions of adoring fans. Is her greatest strength her ability to build a connection or 'Swift Multiverse' with her fans?

Jennifer Cartwright

In her latest, most confessional album, The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift illuminates the parasocial relationship between her and her audience. This begs the question: Is the singer’s greatest strength her ability to create a shared Swift multiverse with her fans, or is it becoming a hindrance? 

When I say I love Taylor Swift, I mean that I love Taylor Swift’s brand. I enjoy being part of a community that exchanges friendship bracelets. I feel intelligent when I can guess a song from the first chord, and I’m excited to plan an outfit for the Eras Tour.

However, when I dissect and relate to the pop megastar’s breakups, it feels like my Swiftie status is not solely musical. My love for Taylor Swift’s brand also relies on an interest in Taylor Swift as a person.

Swift often writes about her private life—or at least the parts of it that we publicly see—so it’s natural for there to be some connection between the art and the artist. Swift uses specifics such as place names and colours to make her work feel like earnest sleepover confessions about love, friendship, and heartbreak.

After connecting the dots and compiling the ‘lore’ from each album, it’s easy to see why fans feel part of this conversation. The Swifties are at the sleepover with her and firmly on her side. But can you enjoy Swift’s latest musical offering without knowing her lore?

Her Latest Installment, The Tortured Poets Department

“But where is the space for the casual listener? Should we expect them to study Swift’s personal history to merely understand her music?”

The inseparability between art and artist is no more apparent than in Swift’s latest album. Building upon poetry’s traditionally confessional style, Swift feeds into the typical fascination surrounding a poet’s private life.

Swift makes specific and somewhat obvious references to exes and rivals throughout the album. This is seen with The Black Dog — a London pub frequented by her ex-boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn. Equally, the lyrical speculation in ‘thanK you aIMee’ may or may not spell out the name of a well-known enemy to Swift (and therefore her fans): Kim Kardashian.

But where is the space for the casual listener? Should we expect them to study Swift’s personal history to merely understand her music? With a career spanning two decades, this is too overwhelming a demand and may lead to exclusion—as if they haven’t earned their concert tickets or their space at their local Taylor Swift club night.

Does the Swift Multiverse loosen fans’ grip on reality?

The latest album’s abundance of personal references highlights how Swift tries to shape her public identity through her writing. Yet, the megastar’s ever-growing popularity renders this an almost impossible task, as online users have used these personal elements to fuel their rewritings of her story.

Take a trip to Reddit, and you’ll find catalogues of Swift-centred theories presented as fact. Some are jovial and absurd lyrical interpretations, such as the theory that Swift committed vehicular manslaughter with Harry Styles in tow.

Others, however, are far more serious and personal. An example is the suggestion that the singer is gay, a wildly invasive theory spread under the guise of affectionate speculation. Those involved in the ‘Gaylor’ theory forensically analyse Swift’s female friendships, her lyrics and even the colours she wears for confirmation. Though Swift has firmly denied the theory, many still think they know her better than she knows herself.

Swift has become Barbie-doll-like. She and her management team sell her albums and merch as products, but the consumers play and invent the story. In everyone’s game, Swift is different as her identity is fractured to fulfil various fan fantasies.

Re-writing Her Story

“Swifties took their idol’s romantic life into their own hands”

In the eyes of the most devoted fans, the I Did Something Bad singer can seemingly do no wrong. However, in Tortured Poets, Swift criticises the perfectly unrealistic persona some fans fight so hard to maintain.

When the star’s relationship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy was confirmed in May of last year, Swifties took their idol’s romantic life into their own hands, compiling an open letter asking her to reconsider her relationship with a public figure they deemed problematic.

The fans heard no response from Swift until The Tortured Poets Department was released. Here, Swift indulges in her previous infatuation, chastising the “bitching and moaning” from those who criticised her. Rebelliously, she refuses to conform to who she is told that she should be.

By embodying the tortured poet, Swift’s album shares a central truth: despite the shared multiverse she has invited us into, we do not know her at all. In the face of a public so intent on knowing their idols, she sings of what happens when too many Swifties spoil the sleepover. Taylor Swift, the brand, is there for us all to enjoy, but she’s the CEO, not us.

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Featured image courtesy of Ronald Woan on Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

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