AIBU to think Taylor Swift is being carefully repositioned and we’re not meant to notice?

[MidnightTheory]

I can’t shake the feeling that there’s a very slow, very subtle shift going on with Taylor Swift’s brand.

She built herself up as pro-choice, feminist, outspoken and a liberal figure. But since this whole NFL era, it feels like the edges are being sanded down. It’s not loud, not obvious, just little things like the relentless focus on her cheering in the boxes, the glossy all American girlfriend framing, the way the messaging has become more family-friendly, less political.

It’s clever because it’s incremental. Nobody suddenly says that she’s gone conservative, but drip by drip she’s aligning with NFL values which are patriotism, wholesomeness and big money sponsors who want safe.

I'm not a massive swiftie, but I have enjoyed her music, and maybe I'm a bit of a cynic but isn’t this how brand re-positioning works? Quiet, steady, so by the time you realise it’s happened, it already has.

AIBU to think we’re watching that play out in real time and it could backfire badly? Especially if the upcoming album turns out to be very beige?

She’s hardly a revolutionary. She’s not even indie.

Yes the media take the photos but she carefully curates many of them - those weren’t spontaneous engagement snapshots! The flowers, the twee dress, it was saccharine and pre designed to the last detail.

Ultimately behind her is a pile of watertight contracts, armies of investors, lawyers and a degree of corporate control. If the vast majority of the music fan base, with disposable income to buy expensive concert tickets, switched to the right, she’d go with them.

I hope our daughters have more than commercial pop stars to look to as role models.

This. She's incredibly strategic and will follow the money.
Previously that meant cultivating a devoted fan base of very online young women. Now those young women have grown up a bit and she needs to not piss them off so she can continue to milk them for the 30+ variants of her new album.

I don’t have any of the understanding that other people seem to do.

She positioned herself in the position where she was supposed to be in 2016, to make money.

Being a democrat no longer makes her money. So she’s dropped it.

I know hardly anything about Taylor Swift, but there was an enormous, nasty backlash amongst football fans around how much she was appearing on screen during games. Really vitriolic, despite being out of her control. So I'm not surprised she would want to step back from that. It's also fed in to the general dislike of the Chiefs the last couple of years, and since it's the last year on Kelce's contract, she might not want to overshadow that.

Can you point me to where you have found the information that she has dropped being a democratic please, as I cant seem to find anything on this?

Well she doesn’t speak out. Has stayed silent on huge numbers of issues. Closely aligns herself with MAGA cult members now. It’s plain as day.

@MidnightTheory "She built herself up as pro-choice, feminist, outspoken and a liberal figure"

I'm a Swiftie from day 1. I don't think she did this. Spoke out occasionally on politics, nailed colours when media assumed she was a Trump supporter. She had her career going about 10 years before that.

@ShesTheAlbatross I don't know what the latest is, but the last I heard, her most problematic stalker had actually gone missing. I think this has a lot to do with the bulletproof screens and not being seen.

A half overheard conversation that doesn't even make sense means absolutely nothing.

I don't want media stars to be political.

I want to enjoy their music/acting/pictures without knowing their take on x, y or z.

I don't expect politicians to sing for me, so why would I be interested in a singer's politics?

i don't agree with her politics (as far as i know what they are, i would guess christian conservative?) but i don't think she's a bad role model.

She was being ripped off by her management so she changed that, re-recorded her music in a way that benefits her more than anyone else and has become very rich and successful. She writes (most? a lot? some?) of her own songs and can play at least one instrument. She put on a good show (so much so that my Death Core Metal - or whatever it's called - DCs really enjoyed it, much to my surprise) and did Good Works (foodbanks etc) wherever she performed.

She was being criticised in the press for too many boyfriends, etc, and wrote Shake it Off instead of having a public tantrum. Boss move, IMO. And now she has become engaged to a young man who has always had one eye on his post football career. Aside of the (centre)right politics, i wouldn't particularly mind my daughters looking up to her as a version of what women can do/be.

Add to that I saw she invited Dave Portnoy to her show and put him in the VIP section where he received a handwritten letter from her thanking him for his friends and support … he’s a man who has said many disgusting things about women and has SA allegations. Not very feminist of her imo.

@slippedawaylikeabottleofwinewho are the MAGA ones she’s aligning with?

I love TS as does my DD. She’s getting older, getting married and wants to settle down. It’s not surprising that her attitudes, views and direction might change.

even tho she publicly endorsed both Biden AND Harris?

As a long time TS fan it’s really sad. She’s lost everything she used to stand for, for a man.

One instagram post after a ton of public pressure is hardly the best thing to do. She also closely aligns herself with MAGA cult members.

Im confused - so you dont have any evidence that she's changed political parties?
So if someone you knew was a Tory, but didnt talk about politics for a while, and was friends with a Labour voters, then you would start believing that they were now Labour? If you met someone who never spoke about politics and had friends from all sides of the political spectrum, what party do you assume they vote for?

@slippedawaylikeabottleofwine I'll give you Brittany Mahomes, but who else?

Her silence on the Genocide in Palestine is disgraceful. Imagine the impact this woman would have if she grew a back bone and stood up for the most vulnerable people in the world. Well i guess starving children don't buy albums.

Shes a very talented woman with a great business head, but shes safe and comfortable and the money is rolling in.

She made one Instagram post after her fans were demanding she say something and even then she said she had been doing her research … on Trump ??? what research do you need to do?? It’s an instant no and support someone else, surely it shouldn’t take months to figure out he’s bad.

Actions speak louder than words. Aligning yourself with MAGA cult members, staying silent on major issues and hiding away from the criticism by writing songs is hardly proof her views stay the same.

In the wake of what happened to Charlie Kirk, and given she has stalkers out there who could blame her for wanting to hide, be less visible, or out spoken?
Sadly there are far too many nut jobs around.
It maybe many of the other reasons pp have mentioned, who knows.

She’s older, her priorities will shift, maybe her market research is also pointing in a different direction idk

I don’t know, but this is something my teenager daughter said to me

That since MAGA have been in power, she’s subtly stopped being so liberal and progressive, almost as though she’s fearful to be or because it’s no longer “fashionable” to be. Dd said to me the teens are less keen on her now as a result.

All that said, she is basically a country singer (I rather like country music and enjoy her songs) so that’s quite a traditional, family-friendly genre?

IDK I’m not a Taylor Swift expert, this is just something DD said to me.

This started before Kirk.

Her fiance is MAGA, for crying out loud.

Interesting observation. You may be right … or not 🤷‍♀️