Taylor Swift

[KevShmev]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/14/more-than-half-of-us-adults-say-theyre-taylor-swift-fans-survey-finds/?sh=13888a0d6877

Her fanbase is evenly split across genders: 48% is male, and 52% is female, according to the survey.

 

[TAC]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/14/more-than-half-of-us-adults-say-theyre-taylor-swift-fans-survey-finds/?sh=13888a0d6877

Her fanbase is evenly split across genders: 48% is male, and 52% is female, according to the survey.

 

Half of the adults in the country are Taylor Swift fans? No fucking way.

[KevShmev]

Half of the adults in the country are Taylor Swift fans? No fucking way.

I believe it.  You've seen her album sales and concert ticket sales, right?

I doubt that means every single fan is fanatical, as any artist with widespread mainstream appeal is going to have a good percentage of casual fans.  There might be those who answered "yes" to the "Are you fan of Taylor Swift?" question simply because they like a few songs. 

[Zantera]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/14/more-than-half-of-us-adults-say-theyre-taylor-swift-fans-survey-finds/?sh=13888a0d6877

Her fanbase is evenly split across genders: 48% is male, and 52% is female, according to the survey.

 

Half of the adults in the country are Taylor Swift fans? No fucking way.

I don't live in America but that sounds completely insane and doesn't seem within reason at all. Then again the 'masses' love a lot of easily digestible stuff with no depth so it is entirely possible I suppose.

[Skeever]

A survey of 2,000 or so.
If you dig into the questions, I think it does bias people to say they're a fan.
For example, it asks, "Are you a fan, casual fan, or not a fan of Taylor Swift"?

She's had a few songs I like, so I might even answer "Casual Fan" despite not really liking her very much.

The same survey claims that most of her fans are white liberal women, BTW.

[nobloodyname]

Then again the 'masses' love a lot of easily digestible stuff with no depth so it is entirely possible I suppose.

Don't you fall from that high horse, it's a long way down.

[Zantera]

Then again the 'masses' love a lot of easily digestible stuff with no depth so it is entirely possible I suppose.

Don't you fall from that high horse, it's a long way down.

I like plenty of crap too. 

[Stadler]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/14/more-than-half-of-us-adults-say-theyre-taylor-swift-fans-survey-finds/?sh=13888a0d6877

Her fanbase is evenly split across genders: 48% is male, and 52% is female, according to the survey.

 

Half of the adults in the country are Taylor Swift fans? No fucking way.

I don't live in America but that sounds completely insane and doesn't seem within reason at all. Then again the 'masses' love a lot of easily digestible stuff with no depth so it is entirely possible I suppose.

Agreed on the "high horse"; to say that Taylor Swift's music has no depth is provably, objectively wrong.

But beyond that, we - America - are a celebrity driven culture.  Her "war" with her manager about her material made non-music news.   Her relationships with the likes of Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhal and one of the Jo-Bros. (Joe?) made non-music news.  Her kerfuffle with Kanye was CERTAINLY front page news.  And through all of that, she's had an almost prescient knack for coming out of those as a woman of power, not a victim, and we LOVE that shit.  We eat that for breakfast, then reheat the leftovers for lunch.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's only half.

[KevShmev]

Stanford - yes, Stanford - is the latest college to announce that they will offer a college course based on Taylor Swift's songwriting (or in their case, one song).  The depth in her music is in her lyrics, her storytelling.  If someone wants to argue that she isn't a great singer or great instrumentalist, that is fair, and I won't put up a fight, although I do love her singing voice flaws and all, but the greatness in her writing is as plain as day.

[hefdaddy42]

I don't think she is GREAT at anything (except maybe marketing), but I think is PRETTY DAMN GOOD at a whole lot.

[TAC]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/14/more-than-half-of-us-adults-say-theyre-taylor-swift-fans-survey-finds/?sh=13888a0d6877

Her fanbase is evenly split across genders: 48% is male, and 52% is female, according to the survey.

 

Half of the adults in the country are Taylor Swift fans? No fucking way.

I don't live in America but that sounds completely insane and doesn't seem within reason at all. Then again the 'masses' love a lot of easily digestible stuff with no depth so it is entirely possible I suppose.

Agreed on the "high horse"; to say that Taylor Swift's music has no depth is provably, objectively wrong.

But beyond that, we - America - are a celebrity driven culture.  Her "war" with her manager about her material made non-music news.   Her relationships with the likes of Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhal and one of the Jo-Bros. (Joe?) made non-music news.  Her kerfuffle with Kanye was CERTAINLY front page news.  And through all of that, she's had an almost prescient knack for coming out of those as a woman of power, not a victim, and we LOVE that shit.  We eat that for breakfast, then reheat the leftovers for lunch.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's only half.

I'm not saying half of America has never heard of Taylor Swift, I'm saying that there's no way half of America are Taylor Swift fans.

[KevShmev]

I'm not saying half of America has never heard of Taylor Swift, I'm saying that there's no way half of America are Taylor Swift fans.

Okay, but that has already been addressed by several of us, but to reiterate, it is likely that quite a lot of people who answered "yes" to the question about being a fan are merely casual fans.  No one achieves that level of mainstream success with having nothing but diehard fans.

[TAC]

I'm not saying half of America has never heard of Taylor Swift, I'm saying that there's no way half of America are Taylor Swift fans.

Okay, but that has already been addressed by several of us, but to reiterate, it is likely that quite a lot of people who answered "yes" to the question about being a fan are merely casual fans.  No one achieves that level of mainstream success with having nothing but diehard fans.

It has?

Hearing of her and being a fan are two completely different things. There is no way in hell that HALF
of the entire population of the US are fans of Taylor Swift. No way.

In fact, if we're talking about the entire population of the US, I'd be shocked if half have even heard of her.

[wolfking]

I'm not saying half of America has never heard of Taylor Swift, I'm saying that there's no way half of America are Taylor Swift fans.

Okay, but that has already been addressed by several of us, but to reiterate, it is likely that quite a lot of people who answered "yes" to the question about being a fan are merely casual fans.  No one achieves that level of mainstream success with having nothing but diehard fans.

It has?

Hearing of her and being a fan are two completely different things. There is no way in hell that HALF
of the entire population of the US are fans of Taylor Swift. No way.

In fact, if we're talking about the entire population of the US, I'd be shocked if half have even heard of her.

If they are, I definitely won't be coming over there.

[KevShmev]

I'm not saying half of America has never heard of Taylor Swift, I'm saying that there's no way half of America are Taylor Swift fans.

Okay, but that has already been addressed by several of us, but to reiterate, it is likely that quite a lot of people who answered "yes" to the question about being a fan are merely casual fans.  No one achieves that level of mainstream success with having nothing but diehard fans.

It has?

Hearing of her and being a fan are two completely different things. There is no way in hell that HALF
of the entire population of the US are fans of Taylor Swift. No way.

In fact, if we're talking about the entire population of the US, I'd be shocked if half have even heard of her.

It's like you are not listening to us on purpose.  Re-read Skeever's post, quoted below.

A survey of 2,000 or so.
If you dig into the questions, I think it does bias people to say they're a fan.
For example, it asks, "Are you a fan, casual fan, or not a fan of Taylor Swift"?

She's had a few songs I like, so I might even answer "Casual Fan" despite not really liking her very much.

The same survey claims that most of her fans are white liberal women, BTW.

[TAC]

Then I stand by my statement. Even more.

[KevShmev]

I’m sure you do. Digging one’s heels in when off the mark seems to be the theme here lately.

[TAC]

What am I missing?

[Stadler]

And I've already answered a part of this too:  you don't have to "like" or even "know" her music to know HER, and to like HER.  She's transcended music as the only means for her celebrity.  Her flap with Kanye made the national nightly news (where he grabbed the microphone from her at the awards show).  She's not "Steven Wilson" where almost the entire fan base is a proactive search for him.  You can know her and like her passively, without doing a thing. 

I can ABSOLUTELY see people saying "I'm a FAN!" without being able to sing a note of her music.  As I noted above, she has an almost magical ability to get into these confrontational situations and come out smelling like a rose WITHOUT being a victim.  That's popularity gold in our society today.

[Zantera]

But to be fair the Kanye incident was a huge headline because of Kanye and not Taylor Swift though. That could have been any other musician who got their award yoinked out of their hands by Kanye pulling his stunt because "Beyonce deserves it". The fact it was Taylor was accidental more than anything else, even if I'm sure it won her some fans because people felt bad for her. Kanye doing batshit crazy things has always been big for headlines and easy clicks and there's still a ton of discussion and outrage when he does something crazy, even though you would think people would know by now.

Otherwise I agree with Skeever that the survey it does come off as a bit biased and pushing people towards a certain answer they want them to give. When your options are almost "i love her, i like her or i hate her" a lot of people might go for the middle option as a neutral pick even though in this case it's not. No matter what I guess it's good for her she is big in America, I can't say I've noticed much of that stretch over here to the EU, but you get that with some artists who are big in America and not in the EU, and the other way around.

[Stadler]

But to be fair the Kanye incident was a huge headline because of Kanye and not Taylor Swift though. That could have been any other musician who got their award yoinked out of their hands by Kanye pulling his stunt because "Beyonce deserves it". The fact it was Taylor was accidental more than anything else, even if I'm sure it won her some fans because people felt bad for her. Kanye doing batshit crazy things has always been big for headlines and easy clicks and there's still a ton of discussion and outrage when he does something crazy, even though you would think people would know by now.

You're not wrong, but does it matter?  It WAS her. 

[KevShmev]

Back to tour talk and keeping it positive, I am seeing a lot of chatter on Twitter about songs confirmed for the tour.  Many have come from rehearsals this week (where fans are near the stadium and can hear song-x being rehearsed). Given the number of songs supposedly being rehearsed, it gives me great hope that the set list will really vary from night to night.  We will know for sure in the next few days, with the first shows on Friday and Saturday.

For me, I cannot wait to see what she plays from Folklore and Evermore, given that most of those songs are more suited for an intimate setting than a stadium show. 

[KevShmev]

Four new (old) songs released today! Will check those out later.

Tour starts tonight!

Some pics from rehearsals this week...

[XeRocks81]

our girl is looking good, as always

[NoseofNicko]

I swear she gets more attractive with time.

[El Barto]

Watching ticket prices for the show tonight has been interesting. Get-ins are currently running $400, which is up quite a bit. That suggests people were still buying them at $300. I'm kind of surprised by that. I'm also noticing what might be an unexpected consequence of ticket sales officially closing before they even went on sale. I haven't seen any tickets go on sale through official channels, although that might still happen.  What I'm wondering is what will happen to the 5-digit seats. Front row floors, seats where you'll get a good look up one of those short skirts of hers, have been sitting at ~$25,000. I can't imagine that holding, nor could I expect anybody to eat those.

Sadly, Winery Dogs is tonight, so I won't be able to watch until the end. This really has been a unique situation, though.

[KevShmev]

Stubhub currently shows 534 seats left, with only scattered ones left on the floor.  I am not an expert at following this stuff and knowing how it all works, but I would imagine that any floor seats unsold by the time intermission hits before Taylor comes out will see her team bringing people down from up high to get free upgrades for better seats, that way the only possible empties are way up high.  Of course, no clue how that works if those floor seats then get sold at the very last second and then people show up.  Seems like a logistical nightmare.

[KevShmev]

Taylor's longtime lead guitarist, Paul Sidoti, was photographed with fans before the show (he's in the middle) and look at the shirt he is wearing. 



He needs to be fired immediately.

[Zook]

Taylor's longtime lead guitarist, Paul Sidoti, was photographed with fans before the show (he's in the middle) and look at the shirt he is wearing. 



He needs to be fired immediately.

I bet he can't even name 3 songs.

[XeRocks81]

Taylor's longtime lead guitarist, Paul Sidoti, was photographed with fans before the show (he's in the middle) and look at the shirt he is wearing. 



He needs to be fired immediately.

I love that he’s still playing with her.  He and the bassist have been there since the Fearless tours I think.

[nobloodyname]

Taylor's longtime lead guitarist, Paul Sidoti, was photographed with fans before the show (he's in the middle) and look at the shirt he is wearing. 



He needs to be fired immediately.

I bet he can't even name 3 songs.

Absolutely guarantee you he can.

(Although perhaps your comment was tongue in cheek.)

[MirrorMask]

Spoilers, obviously.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/taylor-swift/2023/state-farm-stadium-glendale-az-bbb91ce.html

Wow. I did not expect this Mike Portnoy-esque, Score-like, Evening With format of a setlist!!! 

[KevShmev]

That set list is pure insanity.

44 songs.  3 hour and 15 minutes, with no breaks or intermissions. 

While Speak Now only getting one song is a bit of a bummer, I think the balance is excellent. 26 of the 44 songs were from the last four albums, the ones she had never toured on, so the never-played-before albums are getting a bit more love in the set list, with a shit ton of hits from the first six.

[MirrorMask]

Videos are on YouTube obviously, the visuals are stunning. I know I sound like a broken record but if she would do only the Folklore / Evermore part, I'd totally go. Heck, I'd probably sit through the whole three hours and just space out during the songs I don't like to just enjoy the artistic side of the show 

I already found moments of the entire stadium singing along to "And you were tossing me the car keys....." and "She would have made such a lovely bride", not these exact parts but what comes immediately after 

[Zook]

Is she trying to burn herself out after the third show?