A listener submitted a question earlier this week that was basically: Why are we talking about Taylor Swift again???? And I get it: if you’re not a fan, if her music is not for you, you too might be tired of the ongoing Taylor Swift Conversation. But I’m ultimately less interested in Taylor Swift herself and more interested in the shape of that conversation: what are we actually talking about when we talk about Taylor Swift? We’re talking about work and scarcity, we’re talking about aesthetics and whiteness, we’re talking about the performance of authenticity and narratives of romance… and we’re talking about all of those things today with Sarah Chapelle, the fashion journalist behind the enormously popular Instagram account Taylor Swift Style.
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Show Notes:
Follow Sarah on Instagram, and pre-order Taylor Swift Style (out October 8)!
Read the NYT review one listener referenced: “On ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ Taylor Swift Could Use an Editor”
And as a counterpoint, how about this Bloomberg op ed: “Taylor Swift Is Proof That How We Critique Music Is Broken”
As a reminder, here’s Taylor’s Grammy look the night she announced TTPD
Revel in the aesthetic of the “Fortnight” music video
Here’s the YouTube short of snippets from Taylor’s life in the past few months
And of course, revisit our third ever episode:
We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:
How we talk about the royals today (especially looking for some questions from people outside of the U.S. here!)
The State Of The Food Blog in 2024
Your strong opinions on things that, in the grand scheme, don’t matter much
For our continuing series on romance novels: QUEER ROMANCE and ROMANCE BOOKSTORES
The future of reality TV
What’s the deal with JEANS right now (alternate title = Jeans: Help)
The Contemporary Jennifer Lopez
Ben Affleck (specifically within the framework of Ambition)
The cultural force that is nostalgia (especially interested in how it functions in different generations)
Anything you need advice on!
You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (and here’s the subscriber-only priority form)
Taylor Swift and the Tortured Poets Aesthetic