Taylor Swiftthe explosive release of The Department of Tortured Poets gave fans plenty to digest over the weekend — and while the feeling was initially similar to the raging Taylor Mania we saw earlier this year, it appears the tide is turning.
I think I need to preface this post with what some might call a confession (to me it’s just a fact): I’m not a Swiftie.
Sure, I enjoy an occasional Taylor Swift bop, and I’ll always sing “Love Story” at karaoke night, but that’s about as far as my Swift enjoyment goes. I’m a casual listener, but I can’t really get past the billionaire thing, and everything I know about her I learned against my will – mostly through my work as a writer in these Swift-obsessed times, and the fact that I’m a young woman using TikTok.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, despite this, my feed almost always offers me theory videos and lyric analyzes of Taylor Swift’s latest releases. Maybe it’s because TikTok knows that I’m a young Australian woman and therefore, statistically, probably a Swiftie. Or maybe it’s because I often watch Taylor videos using my own account as part of my job, and so TikTok thinks I’m interested.
Luckily, the flood of Taylor Swift videos I’ve had to endure has lessened since she finished the Australian leg of her tour – until The Department of Tortured Poets (TTP) abandoned. Now, once again, I’m reluctantly becoming an expert in another element of Taylor’s story that doesn’t interest me. However, this time things look markedly different.
No more videos of emotional fans tearfully explaining the genius behind the heartbreaking lyrics that changed their lives, drawing conspiratorial lines between countless lists of Easter eggs, or Millennials publishing their thesis on how they feel maligned towards their favorite boss because she is a rich white woman. womenetc.
While these still exist, for the first time in my life, more than half of the videos that make their way into my feed are… critical of Taylor Swift.
That’s not to say the videos are mean or hateful – the vast majority of them are fan-made – but there is a level of healthy evaluation that I, as an outsider, have never been witness in the wider Swiftie fandom. And given the nature of Stan culture in general, that seems like a big deal.
The majority of videos filtered into my TikTok feed about Taylor Swift question her lyrics — instead of the usual fanfare around her genius.
I was honestly thinking about the line “My friends were playing a game where we picked a decade we wished we could live in instead of this one/I’d say the 1830s, but without all the racists and without getting married for it.” highest bid” It was a parody, even a joke.
I mean, I understand that some of the greatest British literature came out during this era, but we all know that this era was distinctly characterized by slavery, so it’s somehow impossible that any of its aesthetics, structures or works of art exist. without racism.
However, it turns out that these are true words of TTPin the song “I Hate It Here”.
I’ve also seen complaints about the lyrics: “We smoked then ate several bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a greater artist.
Some also said that the album all sounded the same to them or that the songs were difficult to distinguish from one another. Others noted the use of Gen Z slang, like the two song titles mentioned above, and felt the whole thing was a little too “How are you, my friends.”
But most importantly, these aren’t comments I see from people who already don’t like Taylor. They come from fans who believe in Taylor’s talent, who support her – but who think this album specifically doesn’t have the crafted or polished nature they’re used to, and they’re disappointed.
“Look, I love Taylor Swift, but a lot of these songs should have spent more time in the draft folder,” said one comment with more than 15,000 likes when discussing Swift’s lyrics.
“I love it so much but it’s SO BAD,” another fan said. Another said he “wanted to like this album” but “it doesn’t do anything for me.”
I’ve seen Swift be accused of publishing unedited entries from her diary, or even accidentally writing satire. Others called the album inoffensive, but not a banger like his usual stuff.
Comments on a parody of the album lamented that the video had “more fluidity” and “creativity” than The Department of Tortured Poets.
Now I can’t determine how These widespread critiques reflect fandom – the nature of algorithms and filter bubbles make this virtually impossible – but they appear in my feed at a higher volume than usual and with more boldness.
There’s still a lot of love for TTPand maybe the majority of fans love it – but those criticizing Taylor Swift aren’t as ripped as I expected and there’s a surprising amount of genuine discourse. That is interesting to me.
Instead of a homogeneous mass of videos all proclaiming the same thing, the girls disagree with each other on Swift’s latest release. They give their opinion. They are honest about their thoughts. They refuse to praise Swift simply because they like her, and (some) are open to comments from people who would normally be dismissed simply because they don’t.
And that, to me, as a non-fan, is an indicator that the tide around Taylor Swift is changing. Although she has an incredibly loyal fan base, she is not above criticism and expectations.
Given the reputation (hehe) Swifties refused to interview any of its products, which is definitely an interesting – maybe even refreshing – development. And for once, I’m not mad at Taylor Swift videos infiltrating my feed, because I’m actually interested in what they have to say.