Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The State News discusses issues and the cultural impact of entertainment news including TV & film, fashion, music and more.
(Liz) Hello, and welcome back to Houselights. This is your one stop shop for everything you need to hear about this week in the world of entertainment. Claire, just having you here is making me so nervous. I don't know there's something about the air. You're making me feel a little bashful. Oh, and by the way, I'm your host, Liz nos. And this is my guest. So, welcome. Thank you for having me back over Turner. I'm very excited. You know, last time we talked about things that we didn't understand. But I saw Claire's Google Doc. And it seems like she knows a lot about this next topic that we're talking about. She has a lot of feelings. So it's sort of like, What can I say what we know and like when we're experts on? It's the it's the dichotomy of a relationship. Yeah. Yeah. Just like we're, we're just having a chat as to expert sources on the topic, don't quote us, but if you were to, we'd be experts. Anyways, but um, so what we're talking about this week is something that we realize we so we said, like two weeks ago that we want to do this podcast together, like, but we didn't know we were gonna talk about literally today, because we have to keep it real. I didn't think about this until today. Um, we both realize that we have the same fixation right now. Which is I'm like, Taylor Swift, but specifically, Taylor Swift being like really polarizing. And just like how like, I don't know like recently she she seems to be like rubbing people the wrong way. Don't you agree? I do. So let me give you like, let's give background and how we feel about Taylor Swift. Yeah, Claire, why don't you sir.
(Claire) Okay. So much. Like we're admitting that we came up with this concept a little late. I'm going to say that I feel a little unqualified at just spun that out there to talk about Taylor Swift because I feel like you know, if you're going to talk about Taylor Swift, the immediate response is like, you have to be a superfan, a Swifty Swift. Now, I, I like Taylor Swift songs. You know, I hadn't really paid super close attention to a lot of the like, really intense. Yeah, more the the lore. Exactly. You know, I can appreciate that. It's working for some people, like you don't know, the Easter egg. That's what I was looking for the Easter eggs, like, you know, I can appreciate it. But I don't know what's going on. I like her older music a little more. I hesitate to say that though. When you see older like one. Like, see, the problem here is that I couldn't. I couldn't, on my own, you know, name an album, or like, Wow, that's pretty detached or like our society. Right. And I'm almost like, a little bit on edge even admitting this because I feel like, does that work? For them? Yeah, I'm Yeah. Wait it out? Me, Liz. I'm a little nervous for this. It'll go away. I feel like be it her like brand, or her fan base, or just the intensity? I mean, that's why we're talking about her today. Like, yeah, the intensity of which, like she's regarded, you have to kind of, it's very hard to just, like, express a casual relationship to a celebrity or someone you like, because the extreme fans are going to be like, Well, why are you talking about this? If you don't know? I mean, this is a generalization, right? All that to say, you know, I'm a casual, Taylor Swift enjoyer. Like, she's got some she got some bangers do I think she's like the best artists out there. No. But that's fine, because there are others I can listen to. And yeah, I've become recently interested, though, in recently as in the Grammys, specifically, but we'll get into that in how she presented herself how she presents herself and then how people perceive that and how even a casual listener like myself precede it because I feel like it hit everyone, not just the super fans, the Swifties pardon? See, I am you know, yeah, let's take it to you. Here I am. Where you bring the other side here. Yeah. Okay.
(Liz) Um, I did the heiress tour. I had a cute outfit, and you would say it's cute, right? Yeah, I saw the photos. Lovely. That's good. Yeah, I went to the reputation to her as well before. Okay. Okay. So you're Yeah, I was going through my, I was cleaning my closet when I moved back from Grand Rapids to like, for three days, like, come back home and say before I moved back to East Lansing, and I found an old diary from 2012. And it was like a red, like era Taylor Swift diary. So it's like, I look bad. Like, I have grown up I guess you would say with Taylor Swift. And like that, because like, my mom was another music like I was in new air. Like, it was everything to me. Um, the mind music video had to do with um, well, just the mind song. Mine by Taylor Swift off sweet now. Um, I had to do with like divorce parents. And I was like, wow, Taylor just can't. So it's like, you know, we connected on many different levels. So, you know, I've always been Towson fan. I do know the Easter eggs I do. I have had a listening party before for such album as midnights. Um, but I also see Taylor Swift and her faults, as well as maybe some things that she may be a little pretentious on, right, and some things that maybe she has done a little bit wrong, or just like her marketing strategy, which is just to dominate the industry and industry everything and intentionally do that. Right. Like, I mean, I think that like she is talented enough to do so she is like one of the best songwriters of our generation, but also like her marketing strategies, is simply to dominate every single chart ever. And that isn't I mean, can you say other artists don't intentionally do that though?
(Claire) See, that's where it gets a little bit like dicey for me and like how much power we're going to place on that's why I've recently become like, really interested in this and all the commentary and like discourse around it. And that's why I also appreciate that we are coming at this from different sides. Yes. Dare I say it is always about bringing people's perspectives together. So true. Love that. That's why I love to be guest. Yeah, it's, it's just really fascinating to me how like the defense, I think now, going forward. The disclaimer here is like I'm obviously not talking about every Taylor Swift Fan, right? Like I say for celebrities, myself, right. I'm talking like the extremist. Islam raise yourself. No, I said, I have favorites. I just lost myself. I don't really pay attention to
(Liz) who would you say is your favorite celebrity like who do you love and oh God, who do you love in a way that like Taylor Swift like super fans on Taylor Swift?
(Claire) First, first name coming to mind is Dylan O'Brien. What? Just I just like him. He doesn't. I mean, I see. What do you mean? What does a charming guy he's determined guy. Universe. I thought he was an all too well. Oh my god. Oh my gosh, yeah. I have a couple of favorite celebrities that I love.
(Liz) You know, my most embarrassing one. I think you know what? I'm my most embarrassing like person I have like a parasocial relationship with is over and I'm sick and tired of having to act like I don't. Because you know what? I started to plan up a little bit that I was like, Oh, I you know, his songs or cranes or whatever. No, I have to be true to myself. Because I stopped talking about the Grammys. Maybe this will be a little intro. On the Grammys. I saw Bo Burnham Whitman, Phoebe Bridgers. And they looked so cute together. And you know what, where are they still? They're still dead. Okay. Oh, yeah. They're like a thing. We could have done celebrity relationships that we don't understand. I've literally done you don't get that one. I feel like well, they like work together.
(Claire) I mean, I get it, but I think I just I liked her in homeschool because I like them individually. Yeah, who doesn't like homeschool? Right? I like Bo Burnham. I know less about Bo Burnham. I was just a little bit shocked. He's just like social theater kid right? Like, I just thought they look just like really great friend. Fives. But that's a limited scope. I need to be aware. I don't know how to get out as friends. So maybe it was like your friends to lovers. You know falling victim to that you know? Raise your hands guys don't okay um, but yeah
(Liz) Getting into the Grammys I feel like it all sort of I don't think it stemmed from that actually. I feel like like Taylor Swift has been getting a little bit more it's growing that this lack in some ways has been growing but the Grammys like really like
(Claire) people people coming from all sides of the fan base, like varying levels of you know, like your music or her or what or people who don't people with any type of I don't want to say like relationship but perception Taylor Swift are now kind of increasingly realizing like how much not only just like power, let's say even like with the even the economy, even socially, like she has a lot of influence in those ways. But like emotionally, like the defense people will jump to. And I think is that because her marketing is really working? Is that because she's just gathered such an like, intense and large fan base? Yeah. What I'm saying here isn't necessarily intense people with a teenage girl this right this isn't no necessarily new, like, nothing that I'm about to bring up in these notes is necessarily new information. It's just what I kind of feel like I've been seeing a lot more people look at. I don't know, I don't know, I think she capitalized off on parasocial relationship. Right. But she in a way that's like, you. I've seen a lot of people have sort of, I just, I mean, once you like, one tick tock, of course, you see, like, 30 of the nature, but I watched one and that's its own subject rights are like, yeah, that's, I liked one. And then that's, of course, you know, open, opening the doors for me, like a bunch of commentary on this and like, you know, using the Grammys as the leader of the like, video, but they all kind of touch on the same idea of like, this has been happening for a while. But now you've got this big public display for getting up there accepting this Grammy in kind of what I am gonna say is like, fairly tone deaf, self serving manner. Yeah. And people are like, Okay, wow, like, this is big. Like, it's been big to a lot of people, but it's big now.
(Liz) Yeah. Like, do you mean, like, it's not the first? Are you saying that? It's like, not the first time a celebrity is on there? It's not the first time Taylor has done it. I mean, it's definitely not the first time to write or a celebrity, I'd say, right
(Claire) I guess I mean, so like, kind of, as you said, this has been happening, she's been receiving more and more like, I'm gonna say negative attention. Yeah. Even from within her own extremely tight fan base, which I think is what I find. I'm trying to get out, I find that most interesting. It's like, this has gone so far, all the way up to the Grammys, which I've used the peak. And now even her own fans are coming on social media platforms like Tiktok and being like, okay, whoa, like, yeah, a lot. Or they're doing the complete opposite. Because if we're talking about being polarized, like it's only going to get worse and worse. They're jumping on there with such an intense emotional response of like, like, I know her. And I think that just speaks to the larger claim of like, the parasocial which we feel we know people. I mean, that goes for Dylan O'Brien as well. Hard as I as I tried to imagine it. I don't know Dylan O'Brien. But you don't I mean, like it's, and it just, I guess, like I said, like, this is not new. This happens with celebrities, you have a parasocial relationship. They do something people either turn on them, or oppositely really go crazy to defend them and die on a hill that you don't need to die on. But I just thought with Taylor Swift, it's like, Oh, my God, like this is all of them. Like, you see the thing with the jet. You see the and this is coming from the perspective of someone who, as I stated in the very beginning, I'm a casual viewer, or have like her life and of like engaging with her music. So for it to reach me. Like, it's just been a lot. I don't know. No, I told a lot of tech talks about Taylor Swift recently, you guys know she's been watching them?
(Liz) No, I agree. It's like we don't we don't know her. We don't know what her intentions are. So for anybody to go on, and like, defend via via vehemently is a little crazy. Because it's like, well, what she's doing on the surface is all that, you know, that's others you don't know is like, I remind people that do know her. But it's not like we the vast majority of marketing people to do it. Right? You know
(Claire) nd the vast majority don't know her and I saw someone on Tik Tok. And one of these videos say, like, you know, like, you, you really don't know her, you know what she gives you. And that rings true for every celebrity or any person, you know, with an online persona in any form. But like, when you're that big. This is when we lead in to the next thing, I'm thinking of myself, like, when you're that big of a star, don't you have a little more when you have more agency over using your platform, like she gets a lot of criticism for like not speaking out on world issues, issues, etc? Or if she does, she kind of turns it around, it seems to provide more of a neutral stance. People you know, get upset, they're like, you have this huge platform, you could make real you know, change global change, and she has before she has before, but now it's like, you're Why are you picking and choosing that hole? Right? So when you're that big, you know, can you go do that? And but also when you're that big, does that limit you? Well, in her eyes, okay
(Liz) I do respect people that need to take time to educate themselves on a topic before they you know, start reposting infographics on things. Um, but at some point, you do have fans that are in a community that might need you to speak up for them. Sometimes you don't I'm saying like, I appreciate the Educate like education. Um, but there's other edits. And it's not just like one rolled issue. I'm talking about, like, all sorts of different issues, you know, Like and so the education aspect I think is important, because I think some celebrities don't realize that. And they just start trying to gauge what public opinion is doing, and try and just like, go with whatever that is. And I think you see a lot of celebrities either regret that or we don't care about their opinion, because we know they're not educated on it. So I think people like people like Taylor, like people want more from them than just like a repost of an infographic. And I think that's the thing. I mean, once you get to, like you said, once you get too big people will want more for you.
(Claire) Right, but then, almost I like not ironically, but then she's such a large star. That if I mean, but you can't make everyone happy. And I think that's, that's where this becomes a little bit like we're losing a little bit of with super big celebrities, not just Taylor Swift, you lose a little bit of like, the, the human like, push back the opinions, we all have that just like want to, like, break free. Because you're trying so hard to capture as many people at once but not that's not going to work. So what you're going to do with caring voters, you're going to capture one demographic. Yeah. Which is predominantly young, white women, you're gonna capture all of them. Not all but most. And that's not to say that's her only demographic, but let's use largest. Yeah. And just kind of try to like coast. Now. You're not looking to Taylor Swift for political advice. You're not looking to the stars. I mean, they made music, the stars make music. Yeah, they get famous, then they're famous. Yeah. However, I personally believe that that comes with a level of like, social responsibility. Absolutely. If you have that many people. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, in a world and in the social and political climate where not many people that need to be heard, are being heard. And you have the power, you have access to like their attention and like them in a way, in a way that could really be beneficial. Should you work on how to use it. The thing is, like, you have all these resources, right? Like, you've got money, and you've got like social media, and you've got like, you have a lot I don't know, like she says a lot of ways she could be making these changes on the platform, but she's also a billionaire. Right. And I think that's another reason why people are like, okay, like, you got all the cards to play, right.
(Liz) That's been slapped on the hand. I think this is honestly the first thing that recently, like the flack that's been like, I don't know, that's been falling. First thing that I saw out of all of this is just like, white feminism. Yeah, like, and it's just that it's like, very obvious. And I think one of the things like me and Mr. Bucha, we talked about this a little bit, we were saying, ice spice. This put this past summer shadow collab with ice spice. And this was the first time she'd ever collabed with a woman of color in her like, 15 year career. And it's just like, I don't know, like, I think that that's a valid point to bring up when you're talking about a celebrity that's been on this world stage for how long and it's like, we don't see her stand up represent anything like people of color or anything, either. And like, obviously, that's not her wheelhouse. She is a white woman. But also it comes with privilege. Yeah, and power and a platform that she could do a lot more. Yeah. Do you? Are you following? I'm following. Okay, great. I'm following amazing. And but yeah, that was like the first thing. Yeah. And then we got an even dumber thing was she started she started getting flack for which is like, being on like, like being on a camera for too long at NFL game. So it's like your white feminism? And then I feel like the it's shifted over conveniently. Yeah. To a point of like, oh, no, she's in my football game too much.
(Claire) And that I have known about this. That is where you, you lose? If you level those things. Those, those two scenes on the same plane here? Yeah, no pun intended, we'll get to the jet. We'll get to the draft, then people are going to lose the important one. Right? It's white feminism, right? And her kind of, you know, it if your level, right. If you level, it's like, well, these are the these are the same level of relevance. They're the same level of like media coverage, right? And then it just becomes this whole like, then what does it become extremely polarized. There's so much information coming in at what appears to be the same level of like anger and passion, right? People can't sort out what people are trying to say or convey. And then it becomes polarizing. I mean, it's the pattern that you see with like, you Many celebrities, and then it just fuels itself because then there's such a big divide. And then you've got everyone shouting about Taylor Swift. And then it's like, what do we even say? And then we've muddled the issues that are surrounding her right? Or we can't clearly see the ones that we actually would like to really kind of look at.
(Liz) And it's talking about another large issue that follows her, literally, is her carbon emissions on her private jet. And like, that's it, that's the largest. I mean, I think, honestly, it's been a joke for a while. I think that, like, she just flies her private airplane, wherever she wants, right? Like I started, like, 20 mile trip or something. And then you know, there's a lot of like, other celebrities have private absolutely
(Claire) eople say like, I mean, I don't know the truth on this, because I've not the one she's loaning it to but I have heard she like loans the jet to people, other celebrities using it. But she didn't only have the dress nice. Next week. So Jack Sweeney, who is the student at University of Central Florida tracks the takeoff and landings of like, celebrity jets, politicians her that's a good point. Yeah. Not just her billionaires, politicians, etc. Doesn't say who is flying or where they go for safety, obviously why. And he's using publicly available data. However, as this all kind of, you know, came out that it's like, this is the jet that Taylor Swift primarily uses, let's say, and it's doing a lot of damage in a very short amount of time. Taylor Swift and her team responds with, you know, basically suing him. Yeah, claiming there's no need for the public to have this info other than to harass and stop. Coincidentally, this is from a New York Times article. And coincidentally, these legal letters were sent to Sweeney around the time that swift started to receive a bunch of like, right flak, flak for carbon emissions. So he was like, they're just trying to get me to, like, stop writing it.
(Liz) Which is great public journalism, by the way, like, wow, like, what a what a great way to like, I don't know, to get the to get her attention to draw attention to this.
(Claire) Yeah. So she sold one of the Jets. And I don't know what happens next. But then it kind of starts to bleed into this whole, like, the, this just goes in circles in my mind, because then it's like, then people are like, well, just like shut up and sing like that cool, right? Shut up and saying, like, we don't want you to be like a political figure, we don't, whatever, you've got other sides being like, you should be doing more. It's all about just like, moral responsibility, coupled with the fact that you have an insane amount of resource that so many people do not have access to, you merge those two things together, and you make any decision, let's be honest, you're gonna upset someone, like, you're never gonna make everybody happy. And I feel like polarization comes from the combination of believing that everyone with a platform needs to speak out. Like, sometimes I feel like you do. And I'm thinking that everything is for you. And we kind of said, this could be a different topic, but I feel very strongly about it the ways algorithms work to promote polarization. Yeah. And in a class last semester, I did a lot of work with like, the ethics of a for you page, the ethics of the echo chamber, it's interesting, like hearing your own opinions and your own voice back to you. Like too much of anything is bad for you, including your own ideas. And I think, I mean, that was bars so much, thank you so much. Celebrities are not your friends. Unfortunately, no, they are celebrities, they have, usually, hopefully a talent that you know, they're receiving attention for. And, you know, we'd like to believe they're a good person, but they also have, like, a lot of resource, a lot of assets, and they're on public display. I mean, I would not want to be a celebrity the way Taylor Swift does a celebrity, I think it's energy. If we steer back to the Grammys here, and this isn't a thing with social media, it's insane. I watched, you only have to watch like, 20 of these videos now even to get this intense picture of like, the ways in which people can manipulate video footage, the ways in which people can, you know, just even the rhetoric they're using to describe Taylor Swift's actions or what she's doing or not doing any celebrity. She's just the example here. But you know, I watch a video of like, someone's receiving an award, and they've got a camera pointed at Taylor Swift reaction. Yeah. Who knows? Maybe she just like needed to cough. people be like, Oh, she was so disinterested. She hates that celebrity. It's this whole spiral. Suppose Well, why are we focusing on that? Yeah, you're putting that on the same playing field as like bigger world issues. The whole thing gets muddled when it's like, oh, what you hate Taylor Swift, like, you hate the interests of women, because so many women, but then it's like, no, you're orienting the interests of white women, you could go on. So I get so fascinated about this. Yeah. Oh my god and on about like, the ways in which this works and bringing back to your point, and even roping that in with the Grammys, the marketing and the self promotion and even her reactions to other well, it's like it's not her fault that like the cameras on her at all times these people constantly. And I think that that is also hard to it's also hard to decipher if they want to catch her or not, you know what I'm saying? Like, because it will just roll for marketing for their show, they have alternatives for shade of the celebrity and then become more polarizing for the like public like, right, we see that video on our for you page. Let's say we're like, Oh my God. Yeah, I really believe this video, let's say I agree with what this person is saying. And the claim that they're making that her expression here indicates X, Y, or Z, like, what are you gonna see 30 minutes later? Another angle of that same thing, right? And it goes on and on. And I just think, I mean, there's so much polarization everywhere. That is nothing new. Taylor Swift, a controversial celebrity, nothing new. We're gonna see it all again in a couple of months when the election like
(Liz) I was about to say like, what is it? You know, it's just crazy. Because if you think about how much polarization there is about a singer, like, then you wouldn't really focus on like, the things that like, matter, like elections and like constituents, and like candidates that like represent you in like government. And it's like, oh, like, we're only seeing a fraction when we look at like, just a clip of tails off to the Grammys, when you look at like, hours and hours of news coverage on like, the people that make the decisions in this country. Like it's crazy. It's all it's framing. Yeah.
(Claire) And it has a lot to do with like, What will people latch on to what what attention span? You know, can we grab? If it's Taylor Swift, the attendance man has already grabbed there. It relates to if we're talking about polarization and politics, a lot of attention is not grabbed there, right? And then you can think about, let's say, you've Okay, you've made a claim about Taylor Swift. You've grabbed the attention of Taylor Swift Fans, if we've established that the fan base is young white women, they're going to likely passionately speak out about this. Because like, this is like their thing like this is what they want to like spend time talking about, then does it become that becomes negative? Because if you're not receiving any other like input, it's just yeah, it's just like an echo chamber it? Yeah. And it fuels it's the same perspective over and over and over. And it feels itself because it's like, then there's no pushback to that. It's a whole it's a whole thing.
(Liz) It's all like, should we talk about like, what happened at the Grammys, then? Yeah, so I feel like we got a lot. I mean, we needed the intro to be like, This is what has happened. And now the Grammys is the peak, right? So all that to say, yeah, all that to say you could have been following Taylor Swift, closely, not closely seen on social media based on you know, this whole echo chamber thing we're touching on based on the way you know that she's just a big, like star and she has a lot going on, but the Grammys is for me what truly was like okay, I need to like I'm like paying attention like my eyes are I'm paying attention to my like, work. I have to say something that's not important. First, I hate the name torture poets department. I hate it so much. I don't know myself. As a poet, Claire myself, yeah, you don't like it? I see that sort of thing. Like she released it. Or she announced she announced the release and I was like, Okay, it's such a millennial name. Like I know like it's gonna sound like group chat. So a group chat that her ex boyfriend was part of called the tortured man flow, which I think is kind of boring. I do love pettiness. But like, I don't know, there's something so millennial about the tortured poets department. I don't know. I don't know. I saw a video of someone like predicting what each track will sound like. Oh, yeah, they make those like, and we have months until this album was but it's like someone was like this is probably really accurate. I can't believe postpone as long as I know that there's a separate mortgage like you know, I can't believe Post Malone is going to be honest. Oh, what do you mean that was not my bingo card? There's only so much for 2024 Yeah, no, but ya know so I also I'd like to say the legal case thing like came out like, I think a day after the Grammys. Well, I know about her like private jet like legal case. Like the lawsuit. Yeah, this is all like is she is like herding right? I believe happening all at once. Right. So basically, the Grammys you want me to summarize it for you since you said you weren't? You didn't actually watch the Grammys? Yeah. outed
(Claire) nce again without me I did not watch the Grammys in full. I've just checked off watch them. I've just been just something that I love to LA or read about. Oh, you know, via the news. She's a raider. What can I say? I know that she got up there and said this is my 13th Grammy and then immediately self promoted that her eldest tortured poets and then also pulled Lama Del Rey on stage or album of the year after long after Alana also lost in that category now, she was, I believe, like she she was on the island and someone I've read some something that like she was a producer on it of some kind. This is the part right. Okay, I didn't I actually didn't know she was a producer. And honestly, it wasn't long as here. It should have been long as here. And since I had a moment too many Cyrus got her first. That's awesome. How is that her first Grammy though?
(Liz) That is crazy. Like pardon? He was I should have done every Yeah, right. Well, like Yeah. So where was he going? I don't even know. But Taylor. Taylor pulled up Lana Del Rey onstage right after she lost the great. Oh, I was saying that, like, Taylor Swift has one, three LM of the years. And I mean, quite under the Grammys is so political, because it's like the Grammys loves to take someone that's had a big year and give them something and then move on to the next person. Because like Olivia Rodrigo had her big year when she did sour. I think guts came out too quick after it for that to be the winner. You know, they're like, Oh, you had your big here. So gets is gonna win, nothing will let you perform. You know what I'm saying? And then like, Billy Eilish had her big year with like, Where? Where do we go? Or like where? I'm not a billy fan? Oh, sorry. Anyways, um, but Billy had her year and then they took it away. She isn't. I think she's made she made she won a Grammy last? Yes. But like, she hasn't won like a huge amount anymore. They don't do that with Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is seemingly is the one person that is immune to the big year strategy. Because she won for folklore for Album of the Year in 2021. I know it's been like three years now. But like, I don't know, like, it's different. It's different. Yeah. For her. If the last time she'd won was 99. I'd be like, Okay, right. But then you've got that you've got breaker history
(Claire) Jay Z getting on stage. And you know, saying is thank yous, but then, like, rightfully saying, like, some of you will be robbed tonight of an award or a nomination, etc. I learned this today, Beyonce has 32 Grammys, but she's never won Album of the Year. That is crazy. Which doesn't like make sense by it just doesn't make sense. Because you don't say it's Beyonce, Beyonce, but and also to have 32 Grammys, none of them do that and that, you know, ties to your point of like, Taylor Swift seems to be immune to this. I also have been thinking about from another video that I saw this I some people are saying, I think this is like a really interesting take. And I'd have to like observe this a little more and like pay closer attention. But Taylor Swift, someone said, like, the veil is dropping, as in people are starting to notice the lengths at which she keeps certain artists like I once again, it's just like my own fault for not paying I'm not paying close enough attention to these relationships, because I'm like, well, they're gonna get blown out of proportion. Anyway, people are going to skew it, whatever I'm so like, I'm just valid point. But when this person said this, I was like, wait, I guess? Yeah, I haven't seen anything about this. Like even her closeness with Olivia Rodrigo. But then Olivia Rodrigo is becoming too similar to what Taylor Swift is trying to do. Taylor Swift has, like kind of curated this angle that like people can't know that they can't tap into but she won't really like support it. Right. Like her and Lana Del Rey have different. They have different like, audience audiences, right? Her and Olivia Rodrigo, like Olivia Rodrigo could be a threat Taylor Swift. Some people are saying because she's doing the like, sad. Right? singer song, whatever, like, sad girl.
(Liz) But like, it's very different. Different audience. She like Taylor Swift is the Pinterest girl. lundahl right is the Tumblr girl. Right? You know what I'm saying?
(Claire) It's like that. But so they're just in different audiences. But I mean, I'm, I'm kind of bordering the point here of like, this video I'm thinking of, but like, I don't know, it just gave me an eerie feeling of like, how far away will she keep certain artists who are kind of doing a similar thing to her? Is it and then people are commenting on that are like well done strategic. It's marketing. It's you know, she's she she has telephone you can use that she's a brilliant. Yeah. And that would you know, and I'm gonna say like, I mean, it sounds like we're just like really? Hating. No, no, no, because it would be hard to be if you're because then someone else on the flip side Oh, was going to be counterpoint. And someone's gonna say like, well, you know, you guys forget that she's also just like a person who's trying to Yeah, this is her career if this is saying it is weird that fans, Rodrigo, her daughter, music daughter back when she was she first starting and she wanted granny and Taylor Swift was like, Oh, wait, oh, I mean, I don't know that. I don't know that we can only see what they're giving us. Right. And so, you know, but it's still breaking my brain, ya know? And it's like, we're saying, like, everybody has their own opinion, we have our own opinions. We're sharing them literally on a platform right now. Yeah, just the problem to probably Oh, god. Yeah, how could this happen? It's if you feel like this conversation has gone in circles. In many ways. That's because it has because the topics are designed that way polarization marketing, the ways in which people grow fan bases, and then utilize the fan base, literally utilize their, their passion and their attention spans or utilize what they receive from them, such as money, such as, you know, has access to other celebrities sells in Rome, right? And people are saying like, she's doing this on purpose. This is a calculated thing. And I guess, though, as I've, you know, said a bunch of times, though, that's not necessarily new. I think maybe coming from the perspective of someone who doesn't follow her super closely, like I, all of a sudden was like, like, you're right, like, Let's all think about, you know, right, the calculated ways in which celebrities are doing this, not just her, but she's just a big name. But for someone who's a fan, can we blame her for trying to be calculated to
(Liz) like, following like, you don't I'm saying like, right, but let's think about like a state news budget meeting. Like we're like, we're planning like newspaper content and like taught and we don't we try not to talk about clicks because we obviously love like journalism here, but we're like, wow, this even just saying like, this story did really good. We should do more of that. That is exactly every like meeting ever it with any pop star anything ever. Like that's that's what it it's a business. It's a business. Taylor Swift is a bigger business than a lot of people. But she's also run a business. You know, she needs to make any more money. Oh, my God. How do you even How do you even look at a billion dollars and be like, Yeah, I'm gonna spend I don't like that wasn't even like a number two people will like is I don't think it is a number. Yeah. The error store raised the US economy. $4.6 billion. That is crazy. billion dollars. Goes to the economy helps everybody hurts nobody. You're talking about Joe Biden, someone's Oh, good. Go see economy. That's what I say whenever I get a little coffee. A million goes the economy helps everybody hurts nobody. But who isn't hurting? I don't know. But all that all that to say?
(Claire) No. I wrote that bullet point. And then I wrote that bullet point to call back to the point that like, she does have, like, it is undeniable the power she wields in multiple categories of life, including money, the economy, yeah. Clearly her fan base, they would die for her. And then even like social, you know, she's the the time she encouraged people to register to vote, she didn't tell them who to vote for. It just encouraged them to like, stuff like that, like you have the power to do so. And it's not going to take much. I do just want to shout out the power to do so. And it doesn't take much boy genius at the Grammys was as ceasefire pens or like pens with a symbol for that. And then in an interview with someone, someone was like, never give Phoebe Bridgers media training because she got the mic. And she's like, I would just like to say, you know, the former president of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow, who was facing like sexual assault allegations and yeah, just What's new there. But she was basically like, you're not dead yet. But when you are, I hope you rot in this carpet. And then like they, the rest of them. Were just standing there. Yeah. Thank you for having us. I love what you do. But like, we're not gonna deny that there's problems here. And then yeah, when artists get up there to accept their awards or red carpet, you got to say your piece. Like I think that's important. It didn't take much. No, but that's an example. I mean, there could always be more done there. But I just want to talk about that because you said right, and here's the thing I don't think like, I don't think it hurts there like outreach because that's Are fans, you know what I'm saying? Exactly? Like that's their fan and it comes back to fear. People, you know, make the claim, you know, but Taylor Swift would never do that, because she would lose too much she would lose too many people, right? Too many people who don't want to get political, don't want to engage in these situations, right? And then it's like, well, you could help you don't have to do all by yourself, but you can help be a change to engage them is a claim, you know, many make, and it's, it's weird. It's also weird, because there's no work growing up in a time. There's no rulebook on how to deal with the power you've been given socially, that blossoms into other resources. What I mean by this is like, there is no what do we do when a star gets super big, and then you can promote their music and post 1000 photos them on social media by the minute and then people can make all these people have free the free ability to discuss that and then circulate it like there's no This has never happened before. So people have you know, a lot of opinions about how it's going. Here we are discuss them. And conclusion none of it makes sense. And you know, like the music you like, but question people a lot of power in, question your authority question authority button question your parasocial relationship because it is alarming the ways in which you can forget your like, we're no exception. No, like the ways in which you can forget like, hey, they might have some other motive, they might be told by a team to post this etc, etc. I don't know the whole Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift. This is the week of Taylor Swift for me. No isn't non Swifty for you? You're just you're just dropping Maura from bar Claire, honestly. But like, I feel like as a fan, like, I wasn't like giving my sweat like I I love her music. Like that's my two things I love I love her music. I don't think I know, I was just about to do something that we were just saying. I was like, I don't think she has bad intentions. Rah. We literally were just saying when we don't know her intentions, right? But I love her music. You're made to believe that she doesn't. Right? Or you're made to believe that she is based on who's directing me player. I'm gonna think about her like
(Liz) Well, okay, one more thing. We all know, she's marketing queen, right? So there was a theory that she's literally creating all this flak, so that she can release reputation scalars to be at her lowest reputation again. What? And why do I kind of believe it? I didn't hear about and why do I kind of believe it? Like, what if? What if she was creating like all this like, drama and like smelling Celine Dion at the Grammys, to lay and even get to them? Like, it wasn't gonna be hers so much.
(Claire) I did not hear about that. So that's the other thing is like, there's so many of these complex theories and like, a strict and I can appreciate the idea that there has
(Liz) because there's swifty fans like, like, you have to always like try and decipher what she's thinking. So now they're like, actually, but I do think people are a little crazy with Easter eggs. I mean, but she made them.
(Claire) They can be good, especially if you're executing them in the music later on. Yeah, I think we're getting to a point now though, where it's getting so big that people are now yeah, like, truly invested. Like, this is how she's gonna frame the next multiple months of her life. And we're all going to just like make sure that that happens. Yeah. So that we can be correct about our assumption that when when she releases reputation, like that's a well it's just a really the investment. Yeah, what is framing her social life? Yes, the investment is like, this is beyond the writing of the song. Now. This is like your social life, which has become a platform, you have literally become a brand and a platform and it's just so I just wanted to share with you my brand. I did not hear about that theory was my friend crazy. Yeah. So our brand is Houselights and see news. Support local journalism. That is my brand actually support small businesses love it, and blind and slow and Claire doesn't say that.
(Liz and Claire) Alright, well, thanks for thanks for coming on Claire. I had such a good conversation with you. It was really philosophical. I can't help but feel like more knowledgeable after I talk to you. I really do such a high compliment Thank you Norma Friel. She's bringing the class to how this is all paraphrase, and I simply can various news articles and Tik Tok, which I hate to cite, but it's the truth. I'm just here to discuss what I've seen. She's just a girl. She's just a girl. Thank you for having me, of course on Houselights I'll see you guys next week. Bye.