Does anyone have any idea what the attraction of Taylor Swift is to so many people, young and old, politicians etc. etc.?
This is an article from a newspaper in Spain from when she gave a concert in Madrid.
I think she explains it very well:
Taylor Swift's event in Madrid was not a concert, it was a mass.
As a mass that it was - because it was, with all its liturgy, its key messages, its blessings - what happened at the altar was fifty percent of what happened. The rest took place in the stands. And it was quite a spectacle.
But you know what? I cried. Half a dozen times I have had to look away to fight back tears during the concert. And not exactly because Taylor Swift's songs or her approach to them moved me. No. What has moved me has been the public. The nine-year-old redhead girl who was right behind her and who sang at the top of her lungs, with a dramatic attitude, each of the songs, with the concentration of a chess player. Or the two teenagers, to my left, who screamed during each song and all celebrated them with jumping, applause and contortions. The 65,000 people, in short, who sang each and every one of the songs in the repertoire with extraordinary tuning and who managed to make Swift's voice remain in the background almost every time. That made your hair stand on end, all at once, of course. Because what was there was communion.
Over many years of life and therefore concerts I have seen dozens of artists, Madonna, and Prince, Metallica, Underworld, Depeche Mode, Moderat, the Pet Shop Boys, what do I know, Queens of The Stone Age, a Royal Blood, the Damned, George Michael... but I had never seen this. That communion, which is expressed in singing, but also in the clothing of the thousands of fans attending the concert. Interesting: despite the very high density of miniskirts, bustiers, tops and tight sequin dresses, and the tons of glitter on eyebrows, eyelids and cheeks, one thing dominated the entire scene: here no one came to flirt, to please others ; here you came to be part of something, to reaffirm your militancy; to like yourself.
Taylor Swift herself, with her eternal bangs that are a pure image of innocence, displays on stage a way of being that separates her light years from other divas like Beyoncé or Rihanna... Swift never tries to be erotic, not even when She walks around the stage in a sequined bodysuit and a garter on her left leg. The league (pardon the redundancy) where she plays is another. That's why girls and teenagers love her. Because she resolves the transition from girl to woman without conflicts. Because she avoids the often conflicting male gaze. How can she not be a hero to the girls?
In classic tales, such as those collected by the Brothers Grimm throughout the 19th century, nothing is whimsical. If Sleeping Beauty's prince has to cross a thorn forest to access the palace where the princess sleeps, what tradition is talking about, symbolically, is a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, which always It is a real suffering (as teenagers, but also their parents, know well). Taylor Swift, beyond the fact that she sings, plays the piano and guitar and is super nice on stage, she fulfills a role for the younger generations that fits seamlessly into that tradition. It represents the 'normal' girl who becomes a woman (dark forests included in the scenery, it is difficult to believe that that floaty blue dress reminiscent of the one Snow White or Aurora would wear is casual) without surrendering to any authority other than herself, and teach others how to do it. At the concert, her mass, Taylor Swift officiates the ceremony like a priestess, and as a good intermediary between the goddess and her faithful, she gives herself. And the girls, the girls, say, shout, roar amen.
Asistimos al primero de los dos conciertos de Taylor Swift en Madrid para constatar que más allá de la calidad musical y del espectáculo, lo verdaderamente significativo
www.elmundo.es