Taylor Swift is on the Australian leg of her Eras tour so we’re always being bombarded with news of her. The arrival of her private plane in Sydney was breathlessly covered by the news stations. And that is not surprising – she sold out the 92,000-seat MCG in Melbourne thrice and has done the identical 4 times for the 82,000-seat Accor stadium in Sydney. It’s a rare achievement for a tour that in Australia alone will raise $370 million.
But the important thing query is seemingly whether you might be a Swiftie or a ‘Tay Tay hater’? It is a characteristic that in our supposedly non-binary, diverse society, all the pieces appears to be reduced to a binary option. Apparently when you like Taylor Swift it is an indication that you simply are a progressive Biden supporting liberal … and when you don’t love her, you might be a Trump-supporting far-right Fascist!
As Christians, is it possible to have a more nuanced approach in considering the Taylor Swift phenomenon? I’m reluctant given the just about Messianic/Demonic status given to her, but let’s have a go within the hope that I’ll survive each the blasphemy and the heresy charges!
Firstly, this will not be about whether you want her music or not. Although it will be churlish to not acknowledge her song-writing talent, entertainment value, publicity awareness and business genius. For those that do not know Swift – who is barely 34 years old – she is essentially the most significant musical figure and cultural influence on the planet in the intervening time.
She is very talented as a songwriter, finding a approach to connect with the sentiments of her fans in each her earlier Country style (e.g. Love Story), or later pop (like last 12 months’s Cruel Summer). Personally, I do not think she is pretty much as good because the person she was named after, James Taylor – although I used to be delighted to find that she is of German/Scottish ancestry!
She was Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year and amongst her many achievements has 14 Grammy and various other awards.
She is currently within the midst of her Eras Tour – a large undertaking which by the point it ends can have involved 150 shows on five continents.
With regards Christianity, although Wikipedia claims she is a Christian, there’s little evidence of that in her life. She was brought up in a churchgoing home and remembers how her grandmother’s singing in church inspired her – but she seems to have moved from the more cultural Christianity you’d expect from someone brought up within the Bible Belt, to at best, a searching, questioning faith.
But that mustn’t stop us appreciating her talent or her music – if that’s your taste. She writes positive things about friendship and is way higher than among the hypersexualised cultural stars today. Her personality and demeanor also come across as caring and nice.
Sadly, she has turn out to be a part of the American culture wars (and thus due to the wave effect, culture wars all around the world) due to her political beliefs, that are actually anti-Trump and pro-Democrat. But that doesn’t mean, as some critics have suggested, that she is a pawn of the Biden Administration. And equally it doesn’t mean, as some on the opposite side have suggested, that she could sway the approaching election for Biden. Surely we have now had enough celebrity endorsements to last a lifetime?!
Her political position implies that she is treated with kid gloves by the mainstream media. If she were a Trump supporter there could be quite a few questions on her private life, business interests etc. But because she is on ‘the best side’ she is protected. On the opposite hand, that implies that some on the opposite side will vilify her. Neither one is a just or sensible response for a Christian.
But this hype round her politics illustrates one other problem: within the rejection of God, a culture tends to lose its mind and search for other saviours. If you doubt that, then just consider that prior to now week, I even have examine Taylor saving the Australian economy through Taylornomics, women in China and the planet – in addition to getting Biden re-elected!
The trouble with the idolisation will not be a lot on the cultural, macro level (which just shows the juvenile silliness that has taken over so lots of our institutions), but somewhat at the person micro level in that there are tens of millions of mainly teenage girls who so idolise her that they could possibly be called worshippers.
Watching them sing on the live shows, word perfect for each song, tears streaming down faces, screaming and chanting “F*** the patriarchy”, was a somewhat depressing sight. Inevitably they might be let down. A ‘personal’ relationship with Taylor is not going to provide real meaning in life.
I even have read some Christian publications which tell us that though not overtly Christian, Taylor is ‘spreading the sunshine of Christ’. Former Christian, the American commentator Chris Kratzer tell us that her charitable giving is proof that she is more like Jesus than most American evangelicals: “I’m starting to think that every one the hatred Evangelicals have towards Taylor Swift is because everyone can see she is way more like Jesus than they’re.” He cites as evidence her donations in 2023: $50 million for truckers, $30 million for food banks, and $20 million for the animals.
But that doesn’t make her like Jesus, who incidentally never had $100 million to offer away. Taylor Swift does because she is an excellent businesswoman (or she employs some sensible businesspeople!). Consider the next. She is price $1.2 billion because she gets royalties despite the fact that she doesn’t own the old songs. And she has recorded ‘Taylor’s version’ of those self same songs, from which she gets streaming royalties and ownership. That’s a variety of money on condition that for instance, 1 / 4 of the Spotify top 50 in Australia are her songs.
For each stop in her tour she gets $13 million. She documented the tours and created a movie that netted $130 million. Her album sales are tens of tens of millions per 12 months. The merchandise from her Eras tour has already netted some $200 million. Then there are brand endorsements and partnership, and brand equity with some social channels. On top of that, she has $150 million in real estate, including a Beverly Hills mansion and a New York Penthouse. Her cat alone is supposedly price $97 million. Would Jesus have a multi-millionaire cat?!
Little wonder that she will be able to afford to remain at a $36,000 per night executive suite while here in Sydney and flies in every single place in a big private jet (for which in fact she pays carbon credits so she will be able to still travel in luxury and tick the ‘I’m saving the planet’ box).
We would rightly be horrified if a televangelist had such wealth, or perhaps a politician. But Taylor Swift gets a free pass on all this capitalism. None of it indicates a life-style based on faith in Christ! Nor does her support for abortion and Stonewall. Taylor represents and espouses the nice idols of our age – sex, consumerism, and materialism – and in that, she is a toddler of our age, not a toddler of Christ.
And for that reason I cannot discover either as a ‘Tay Tay hater’, nor a Swiftie. I’m a ‘Taylor Prayer’. I pray that the Lord will reveal himself to her and that she in turn will point her many followers away from herself, and towards Christ. In her song “Soon You’ll Get Better”, written after her mother was diagnosed with cancer, she wrote: “Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too.” May the Lord make her desperate enough to hunt Him, and will he answer her prayer.
