[R]ight now Taylor has more of that going for her than any other artist historically but she acts like it all could collapse at any moment. She’s not an underdog anymore. And I don’t mean that as an insult. Few people have had that combination of money, cultural influence, audience loyalty, and institutional power. Which means she has access to artistic subject matter that literally almost nobody else can write about authentically. Yet instead of examining what it means to be that powerful, she often seems more interested in revisiting moments when she felt powerless.
Her original fans have grown up and had relationships, probably some longer than hers. Perhaps many still come to her for sad songs and the comfort in her lyrics, but when the narrative centers on media perception and her everlasting longings, it fails to recognize that her audience has moved on. They have real-world responsibilities and political stances to navigate.
I understand those who prefer art untangled from politics, but in an increasingly politicized world, remaining silent speaks louder than taking a stand. She is undeniably too big to fail, which only makes it more important for her to stand firmly on something that matters.
Taylor has become extraordinarily good at treating her career like an optimization problem: What is the next move? What’s the rollout? What’s the record-breaking achievement? What’s the Easter egg? What’s the strategic appearance? What’s the collectible? What’s the next milestone? How do I maintain the narrative? How do I make the audience participate? She’s good at it. But eventually you can look at that machine and ask: What is the machine actually for? If the answer is essentially “to keep Taylor Swift being the biggest possible Taylor Swift,” that’s where it starts feeling empty. This hits.
Historically I’ve been fine with Taylor not really weighed in on politics because to be frank I feel like she it typically does not add a lot to the conversation. I feel like in the lover era when she was at her most political she was saying things in the year 2019 that maybe would have been groundbreaking in 2012. I feel like her political songs are her weakest songs. In Lover, Taylor had a political awakening, but sometimes it felt like Taylor discovering political concepts primarily through the experience of Taylor Swift. “Champagne problems.”