No matter what you think of Taylor Swift — her music isn’t on any of my playlists — you don’t have to be a Swiftie to recognize that her appeal has become a cultural phenomenon. And like any cultural phenomenon, while it’s fascinating to watch, discretion is advised before hitching up your wagon and blindly following the masses.
Her massive Eras Tour, which is about to start its second leg next year, spans five continents and is on track to become the highest-grossing tour of all time at $1 billion — topping Sir Elton John.
With tickets in high demand at steep prices, some going for an obscene $2,000 this year, my kids are watching their friends plan trips — both foreign and domestic — wherever they can score the cheapest Eras tickets.
Traveling across the country with the Swifties is not something I’d list as a high probability of coming up on my Bingo card. But, shhh… please don’t tell my daughter the odds aren’t in her favor.
She already has a city and seats picked out.
While I can appreciate a good cultural phenomenon, I definitely don’t appreciate her cultural activism, particularly when Gen Z — my kids — are her target audience. To be honest, I liked her a whole lot more when she would just stick to her music and sing.
And it looks like she may be getting back in the ring to take another swing. With stadiums maxed out at a minimum of 70,000 fans, most of them Gen Z, you have to wonder if the second leg of her Eras Tour is going to double as a series of Democrat campaign rallies for 2024.
Actually, you really don’t have to wonder.
She just registered 35,000 people to vote on National Voter Registration Day last week.
She has a huge reach, no doubt, and anyone who denies that just isn’t paying attention. However, in 2018 she appointed herself the moral authority on all things political and hasn’t been able to calm down ever since.
In an Instagram post during the midterms that year, she dumped all over now-Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., saying, ‘She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry…’
Her post was intended to get young people to register to vote —and just like that, 65,000 new voters registered in 24 hours.
You have to wonder if the second leg of her Eras Tour is going to double as a series of Democrat campaign rallies for 2024.
Impressive, right?
Except that registered voters are only voters if they actually go vote — assuming everybody plays fair, of course. In the end, Blackburn crushed her opponent by a whopping 55-43 percent.
That didn’t quite go the way Taylor saw it going.
In 2019, she announced, ‘Obviously, I’m pro-choice,’ when she got shamed into submission by the left-wing radicals still suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, prior to the 2020 election after daring to stay apolitical during the 2016 election. She’s had a lot to atone for ever since.
Just so we’re clear, ‘pro-choice’ to the woke lefty crowd doesn’t mean what it used to mean — safe, legal and rare. They’re the extremists who want to normalize abortion until birth, but that’s the quiet part they never want to say out loud. Someone should ask Taylor what she thinks.
On her Eras Tour this year, Taylor genuflected at the woke altar of sexualizing kids. Kicking off Pride Month, she called state laws that protect children from sexually graphic drag shows and prohibit cutting off kids’ genitals ‘harmful pieces of legislation.’
She may want to fix her moral compass before she asks anyone else to follow it.
Perhaps that was a sneak peek at what we can look forward to at Eras 2.0 — election edition — an insufferable campaign commercial guided by Taylor’s moral compass. They should put a warning label on the tickets.
With any luck she’ll turn out to be better at selling football jerseys than she is at selling her political opinions.
Travis Kelce saw his jersey sales skyrocket nearly 400 percent after Taylor hung out with Mama Kelce at last Sunday’s Chiefs’ game, where 24 million viewers gawked at the show happening off the field.
I’m wondering how long until the ‘Real Housewives’ franchise capitalizes on the Chiefs? Between Brittany Mahomes’ antics, like dumping champagne on fans in the cheap seats, and the star power of Taylor Swift, I’m surprised contracts haven’t been signed by now.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a good table flip in the suite with ‘Bad Blood’ playing in the background? Better hurry before the breakup song comes out.
Travis said this week he’s going to keep a lid on things ‘moving forward’ — for Taylor’s sake. Poor guy, he has no idea he’s the star of her next album.
Here’s a thought, if you’re in your 30s and still publicly changing guys like you change shoes — with every relationship ending in a song on stage in front of 70,000 people — it’s time to step away from the pen. Seriously, where is this girl’s mother? Can someone stage an intervention.
Bueller, Bueller, anyone???
Airing your dirty laundry might make for a good album but at 33 it likely will leave you empty and unfulfilled when the stage lights go down.
Without a doubt, Swift’s success as an entertainer and singer is solidified in the history books. However, her success to date as a political mouthpiece, not so much.
So far she’s been nothing more than a whole lot of hot air that’s gone nowhere. But as the culture shifts, so can the jury.
C.S. Lewis said, ‘When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.’
Think twice before you decide what cultural ‘norm’ you hitch your wagon to and if necessary, ‘Shake it Off.’
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Lauren DeBellis Appell, a former lobbyist and communications aide on Capitol Hill, is a writer based in Fairfax, Virginia. Follow her on Twitter@LDAppell.
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