“I stay out too late…”
The lyrics to Taylor Swift’s single, “Shake It Off”, blasted through the speakers of my friend’s car as we cruised down the busy streets on campus, flooded with groups of people during welcome week. I rolled down the window in the back seat and my friends and I sang at the top of our lungs to the masses of people we passed, completely oblivious to the fact that the car was slowing down at a stop sign. Realizing that we were blatantly screaming from the car at a few girls who were standing on the sidewalk outside of a house and immediately stopped and laughed, expecting them to roll their eyes and walk away. However, to my surprise, they looked towards our car and realized that was where the music was coming from – and started dancing and singing along to the song themselves. Other people on the street who saw them dancing looked around for the music as well and pointed at our car; most started dancing, bobbing their heads, or waving their arms along as they continued walking. My friends and I waved to them as we drove away from the stop sign, pleasantly surprised at the friendly interaction.
The fiddle introduction to “Our Song” immediately followed "Shake It Off", and the car bubbled with excitement for the throwback. However, this time, we didn’t receive as many reactions. I looked out at the street and saw people who glanced at our car, simply because the music was so loud, and continued walking without acknowledgement. I saw one girl out of two groups who looked over and smiled, probably at the memory of an old middle school favorite, but nobody danced, nobody sang along, and nobody stopped and pointed at our car.
Divided reactions among large groups of people are not uncommon when it comes to music. Based on what I had just experienced, Taylor Swift and other artists similar to her can generate various reactions because her music has variety that changes audience involvement. Dr. Alan Rubin, professor at Kent State University, and Dr. Elizabeth Perse, Chair of the Department of Communications at University of Delaware, state that there are two types of audience involvement: one is a “motivational state” reflecting what kinds of attitudes “people bring to the communication situation; the other includes the cognitive, affective, and behavioral participation induced by the media during media exposure” (Chia, Poo). Currently, her songs can be enjoyed in a party atmosphere – where people presume the first type of involvement as they get the feeling that they want to dance, even it is for a few seconds on the sidewalk next to car.
However, her older albums did not comply with that type of atmosphere. The Taylor Swift that my friends and I admired in middle school was a country sweetheart who released songs to sing along to, to play in the background of hang outs with friends, and music to listen to – not dance to or get riled up about. There was no doubt that we were apart of Taylor Swift fandom and gave in to the stigma that came with it – “a label attached to adoring audiences that are passive and manipulated by the mass media” (Alvermannn, Hagood). Nowadays, if her songs receive such different reactions from large audiences, why do girls like my friends and me, and the few girls who stopped to appreciate “Our Song”, continue to support her?
For someone as popular as Taylor Swift, both her audience and fan base are fairly large. This fan base withholds distinctions of different kinds of fandom and how these people are affected by celebrity decisions. We can measure them using the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS). The Celebrity Attitude Scale was proposed by McCutcheon, Lange, and Houran – three scholars who were interested in measuring the level of interest that one has developed for a celebrity (Stever). It is composed of three parts: Entertainment-Social, when one simply enjoys talking about a certain celebrity with friends, Intense-Personal, when one “feels as though whatever happens to the celebrity happens” to them as well, and Borderline-Pathological, where one would be willing spend several thousand dollars “on a personal item from the celebrity – like a napkin or paper plate.”
Most people identify with the Entertainment-Social category and are involved in the “motivational” type of audience involvement, as am I with most every other artist but “old” Taylor Swift. The first songs she produced were more country-like and personal; she touched the hearts of many, young pre-teen girls. Just like myself, many fell in love with her innocence and her relatable lyrics – she had words that could’ve spilled out of their diaries. I remember listening to her album Fearless and wondering if she had stolen chapters from my life to write her songs to. Thus, it was more common for Taylor to have fans who fell under the Intense-Personal category, since her music told the story of half of her fans.
“She always had really relatable songs and they were good country songs.” Meg Ross, a freshman at Elon University, was a Taylor Swift fan in middle school. “I liked her curly hair and my sixth grade self always found comfort in her.”
In her music video for “Our Song”, Taylor is sitting on the floor of her room, wearing shorts and a tank top, painting her nails, and singing into the phone as if she were talking to one of her friends just like any teenager would (0:04). She steps out onto a front porch of a wooden house that seems like a normal, middle-class family and sings into the camera (0:31). Caitlin Evanson, the violinist in Taylor’s band, is featured playing fiddle and makes an appearance during the bridge of this song (1:57). Taylor is also seen strumming her own guitar, showing us that she is a genuine girl who wrote her own song chords (1:30). She sings with a country accent and wears her hair mostly curly – a natural trait that she flawlessly embraced.
Swift was not only the relatable celebrity, but she made a point reach out to her fans. Kristen Walczack, a freshman at the University of Michigan, has met Taylor Swift twice. The first time she was 15 at her first Taylor Swift concert ever during the Speak Now tour. She said how her and her friends made signs and t-shirts that caught the attention of one of Taylor’s assistants. “Halfway through the show, one of her assistants came and asked, ‘Have you ever met Taylor Swift?’ and we just immediately started crying; we were so overwhelmed and happy.” Kristen’s face lit up and a smiled grew on her face as she went on with her story. “After the show we went backstage, she just walked in and I got to talk to her. It was the best day of our lives.”
It is hard to imagine that what happened to Kristen could have easily happened with any other celebrity. Taylor’s genuine personality was shown through her casual acceptance of having fans come backstage to her and her willingness to meet them. Kristen described how meeting Taylor in real life made her seem like she was not untouchable, and now she is thought of as a real, normal person in Kristen’s eyes. Talking to Taylor in person allowed for Kristen to step out of the second type of audience involvement, when one’s fandom and behavior is induced by media exposure, and to see Taylor as a real, normal person “who happens to be extremely successful” (Kristen).
Though the sweet and innocent image worked well for Swift during her late teen years, it could not stay forever. In 2012, Swift released two singles from her album Red before the actual album was in stores. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” included heavier bass beats and a more pop-like energy. Her southern accent that was present in her older songs was almost gone, or at least dampened. She did not feature her violinist in any fiddle tunes nearly as often. These musical choices sparked controversy amongst her loyal listeners; many of them did not feel comfortable with the transition.
“Red was a lot different than her albums before, and it’s definitely not my favorite. But ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ was my absolute favorite song at the time; I was exited for her transition in to pop music. I knew that other people were up in arms because she was still classified as country,” Kristen says.
“It was up to her, it probably makes her more money doing what she’s doing now, but I think she was very talented in her old music and could’ve gone very far in that area too,” Meg says.
Her familiar girl-next-door image representing relevant grade school feelings were gone. Her long, curly hair that made her natural beauty so iconic was now sleek and straightened. Her appearance seemed more “hipster” and she slowly inched out of the naturally loving girl we all knew into a more mature, successful woman.
Her transformation was not overnight. Though her appearance seemed to come together more, her music gave an awkward impression in Red– the album was a mix between trying to go towards pop with the constraints of staying in country. It served as a stepping stone in her new direction. Red sold 4,050,000 albums in 2012, around the same amount as Speak Now at 4,420,000 copies. This signaled the start of her transition — a big change in sales from her album Fearless selling 6,840,000 in 2008. Her newest album that just released in November 2014, 1989, made up for the records that did not sell in past years sold 1.688 million copies within the first two weeks (Caulfield).
Despite her change in music, she kept sight of her goals and contained her dignity and positive reputation. She still kept opportunities for her to meet and connect with her fans. When Kristen Walczack met Taylor Swift for the second time, it was after the star had released Red; Kristen had won a contest where participants wrote a few sentences of what Taylor Swift meant to them, describing Taylor as “positively influencing everything I did and she was a great role model for me.” A few people who worked for Taylor chose the best sentences, and then Taylor herself chose her favorites from the condensed pile. Kristen was then flown to New York and had a chance to see Taylor’s apartment and hang out with her, and the star was very welcoming. She offered for Kristen to play with her cat and to make herself at home. “She wasn’t any different or fake than she was when I met her years ago. She was obviously more mature but she was still really genuine. It locked me in to the Taylor Swift fandom.”
Not being completely locked into one genre helped Taylor Swift grow into her style today. Billboard online magazine interviewed multiple country stars on the red carpet at the CMA Awards and asked about their feelings towards Swift’s transition. The question asked was “Taylor Swift has made headlines in her movement from country into pop, how do you feel about the transition?” All of those taped answered supportively towards Swift. Chaley Rose, actress on the popular television series Nashville and country singer, mentioned, “I think she was kind of on that road [before]. I don’t think you should have to be married to one genre.”
Taylor definitely did not feel the “marriage” to one genre, as she has proven to us with her albums Red and 1989. However, her nearly smooth transition does not indicate that fans will continue to admire a celebrity no matter what they do. Miley Cyrus had the similar innocent and sweet reputation during her teen years as Taylor Swift. As a former Disney star, Miley’s audience was full of pre-teens who followed her hit sitcom, Hannah Montana. Cyrus played a normal teenage girl who secretly led a double life as a teenage pop star.
Miley left a “teen sensation” phase of her life just like Swift and redefined her celebrity image to prove that she was no longer apart of the child audience, and should be viewed as successful women. Though both of these stars provided stability to their former fans, Miley’s transition into adulthood was not as delicate as Taylor’s. While Taylor took careful steps that warned her audiences of her plan, Miley sprung her entire new personality on to the world at once. At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards show, Miley performed her song “We Can’t Stop” wearing nude colored swimsuit that could pass for underwear. Her dancing was provocative – she raised her legs high, stuck out her tongue, and grinded on Robin Thicke who had joined her for the performance (We Can’t Stop/Blurred Lines/Give It 2 U Medley).
Though audiences might not have enjoyed the performance they received, Miley could have been happier with her attention. She took every negative comment towards her performance and used it for self-promotion by tweeting about how happy she was that her performance had about 300,000 tweets per second (Kroll). Cyrus’s album, Bangerz, sold 207,000 copies in the first week. After the VMA performance, attention was drawn to her new songs and album sales rose and finished with over a million sales towards later months, making Bangerz the number one album in the US (Graham). Though this was the fifth of Cyrus’s albums to go platinum, the number of sales for Bangerz’s in the first week was far from the numbers her previous albums have sold. In each of their respective first weeks, Breakout sold 371,000 copies in 2008, Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus sold 326,000 in 2007 and Hannah Montana soundtrack opened 281,000 in 2006. However, Bangerz did do better than Can’t Be Tamed, which sold 107,000 the first week in 2010 and made it to the number three album in the country.
source: popsugar
Miley’s change in her actions can also be seen on her social media accounts. Her Instagram is abundant with colorful images of herself edited on other people’s bodies or edits out people’s faces with pizza. There are many sexual images within the last week of her posts and she continues to add similar pictures frequently. Miley has a little more than a million less followers than Taylor Swift does, who is posting photos of her album debuts and red carpet events, without editing herself onto other people or food.
In contrast, Taylor Swift now appears as classy and collected with the same poise as she had before. In her new music video, “Blank Space”, the first thing we see is a handsome boy driving a nice car up to a grand mansion that she lives in (0:03). We see her in a floor length black lace dress – the first of multiple outfit changes. Jackie Willis wrote for Entertainment Tonight that “Taylor Swift goes crazy in ‘Blank Space’ video!” (Willis). “Crazy” for Taylor Swift was her mascara-stained face and whacking the gentleman’s nice car with a golf club (3:13), as well as cutting and burning his shirt Including the destruction of the man’s possessions adds to her ability to mock her multiple past relationships with the line “Got a long list of ex-lovers, they’ll tell you I’m insane” in the song’s chorus. Her audience noticed all of these far-fetched ideas that she has carried out and loved them.
source: at40.com
When Taylor performed “Blank Space” at the American Music Awards, she received raving reviews. There was no nudity or inappropriate dancing – there was “crazy” just as artistically crafted as her music video was. Erin Strecker wrote an article on Billboard including “Every gif You Need From Taylor Swift at the AMA’s.” The one that caught my eye the most was “When you almost kill a man but it’s fine because you’re America’s sweetheart” (Strecker). Strecker refers to the live performance where Swift pushes the gentleman, who flies out of her grasp. In this particular performance, Taylor includes fire in multiple areas and sometimes throws a crazy look directly at the audience, but it appears as fantastic art because she performs it with poise and class. None of this creates a controversial opinion from other celebrities at the show, nor does it make her seem graphic or vulgar.
By looking at artists like these who have changed genre, we can see how celebrity behavior can change fandom. Professors Tim Wall and Andrew Dubar of Birmingham City University state that “Any study of online fandom, therefore, must explore the audience/fan relationship to the whole environment, not just to a single mediation, whether live, in a physical recorded format, broadcast experience or internet engagement". As a fan of “old-Miley” and “old-Taylor” myself, I have witnessed all these events unfolding as a lightly affected fan who falls under the Entertainment-Social category of the CAS scale. By being an interested fan, but not one who is heavily affected by the celebrity’s decisions, I was able to understand their actions after the initial shock of change. Miley, who grew up as the daughter of popular country star Billy Ray Cyrus, was always surrounded by the media her whole life. Her childhood fame consisted of acting in Hannah Montana, where she had to constantly play a role in the sitcom and her own personal style probably was not as important. She did not have the peace that Taylor Swift did, who grew up in a supportive middle-class family, where she could write her own music and express herself as she wished. Thus, Taylor had always been accustomed to producing her music as she wished and establishing her celebrity image to her own liking, whereas Miley had not always had that choice. It is almost natural for someone like Miley to break out of her contained image and cause controversy, because she had never done so before.
Granted, audiences do not try to find reasoning behind the performances before they decide if they’ll support the celebrity or hate them. Had Taylor Swift changed abruptly and harshly, like Miley, fans probably would not follow her as much, as I have gathered. Instead, Taylor Swift’s business tactics have been risky enough to give people something to talk about, but not controversial enough to drive them away. She still is the same inspirational figure as she was in her teenage years, just in a different setting. Her fans that see her success will admire her smart decisions and continue to support her happiness.
Disclaimer: the audience described here is limited to Taylor and Miley fans circa 2014. Since, Miley and Taylor's mutual audience has definitely changed, and the celebrity image that is attached to both of them has passed the transition stage.
