Top of the World
Besides presenting herself as a feminist in public and trying to set an example for other female artists, Swift exhibits her star power in business in her feuds with Spotify and Apple Music. By standing up to the biggest music-streaming services and the most well-known multi-billion tech company, Swift has confirmed her unique and esoteric quality as an artist, superstar and businesswoman. After pulling her music from Spotify due to its lack of royalty payments to contributing artists, Swift continues to protect musicians by writing an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, addressing the similar issue brought about by Apple Music. Soon, Apple promises to pay the royalties to musicians before launching their own streaming service. The immediacy of Apple’s response affirms Swift’s power, making us wonder who else, if anyone, could have done what she did.
Swift continues to prove to fans and the public that she could inspire young people, especially women, to pursue their successes. Her acceptance speech at the 2016 Grammy’s exemplifies this. Responding to Kanye’s misogynistic lyrics about her, Taylor says, “I want to say to the young woman out there, there are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you will look around and you will know it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”
An inspirational figure, a feminist, a powerful business force, a superstar in entertainment and music -- our best friend?
The true friend and pop queen in Swift exist simultaneously, and she knows when to adopt and perform each role. The question remains to be answered: how are these two roles important to our culture today? They demonstrate the importance of reading social image as the basis of human connection.
Swift’s immense popularity is consistently maintained by the images we see of her in social media, the tweets she writes, the perception of her 14-year-old romantic idealisms; on the contrary, her superstar status is delicately solidified by her numerous gossips, superficial relationships with celebrities, businesswoman instincts, her role as the face of modern-day feminist. This suggests that we live in a culture that defines popularity as being universally relatable yet consistently possessing signifiers of elite and esoteric status. This is also a culture that lumps together these two opposing qualities on a single platform, social media, a place where one's private and public lives intertwine. For Swift, it presents her contradictory public personas in a harmonious way, smoothing over the relevant cultural contradictions.
Still, Swift tries hard to override the complexities of social media in her secret sessions with fans, breaking down the virtual walls between human connections. Perhaps, behind the contradictions between her two public images that she has to consistently 'manage' and resolve, Swift is just a human who longs the real, face-to-face connection with other human beings who like her.
