It’s easy to say that Taylor Swift is one of the most influential and well-known celebrities of the modern era. With around 109.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify, she is easily one of the biggest celebrities currently, with her seemingly making the news almost weekly and concerts almost always being completely sold out. Because of her being so well-known, she has garnered an extremely large following of fans both new and old. Whether someone has been listening to her for three weeks or three years, it is amazing to see her growth and development as an artist. Some English teachers at Grayslake Central have been able to witness that development in real time.
Many of the teachers in the English Department are around the same age or are a bit younger than Taylor Swift herself, so some have a similar story of growing up almost at the same time that she was, getting to experience her music and not only how it has changed over the years but also as the topics of the songs themselves have shifted with maturity and growing up. English teacher Taylor Edwards has had personal experiences with this, with her being in school around the time that Taylor Swift would have. Ms. Edwards has noted that at first, she had a strong dislike for Swift and her music when she was younger. However, that later developed into a deep love and passion for her once she started listening to her music. Ms. Edwards has stated that she is especially drawn to how relatable and honest Swift’s music is.
“I think [Taylor Swift] does a nice job of making people feel seen and heard,” said Ms. Edwards. “I think it’s really powerful that she’s able to [speak to people] through music, and make people feel for things they maybe haven’t experienced themselves, but feel as if they have through her music.”
Fellow English teacher Ms. Tracy has a similar story of growing up with the celebrity, being a fan since the very beginning, and she too has been able to find that feeling of relatability and connection through her music. “I’ve always been a fan of her since her debut album. And I was pretty young at the time [that it released], so kind of as she got older and her music changed, I was sorta going through similar changes,” said Ms. Tracy.
Fans of Taylor Swift often get a bad reputation from the public eye, usually being seen as “obsessive” or “controlling” of their favorite artist. But Ms. Edwards and Ms. Tracy believe that these generalizations are unfair. When asked about her thoughts on these misunderstandings, Ms. Tracy said, “I think it’s interesting when people have a perception that Taylor Swift fans are protective [of her], but I think that you’re going to be protective over anything you like and enjoy. Whether it’s a person or a hobby.”
Ms. Edwards and Ms Tracy are not alone with their feelings about Swift and her music, with many women and activists of today saying that they think that her music is very empowering and has strong feminist undertones. Undertones that are still very important today, in a world where misogyny is still alive and well, especially online.
While opinions on celebrities themselves are often very divisive, those who keep up with the media are often no strangers to hearing about these people constantly, whether they love them or hate them. Since Taylor Swift is so famous, she is prone to both glowing praise and high disdain from both ends of the spectrum. What is empowering to some may be annoying to others, and so on. Alas, nobody can deny her sheer amount of fame and recognition as a singer, and that is a feat to be applauded.