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Now this is the second term we can all get behind.
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The force is shaping markets and the economy are opportune.
This is the moment we are going to be able to stand and invisible force that is shaping your life.
Do you want to experience the frontiers of what makes us human?
On Tech Stuff, we travel from the minds of Congo to the surface of Mars.
From conversations with Nobel Prize winners to the depths of TikTok.
To ask burning questions about technology.
From high tech to low culture and everywhere in between.
Join us, listen to Tech Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
The force is shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers.
So that's why we created the Big Take from Bloomberg Podcasts to give you the context you need to make sense of it all.
Every day in just 15 minutes we dive into one global business story that matters.
You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine.
A lot of this meme stock stuff is I think embarrassing to the SEC.
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People, my people, what's up?
This is Questlove. Man, I cannot believe we're already wrapping up another season of Questlove Supreme.
Man, we've got some amazing guests lined up to close out the season.
But, you know, I don't want any of you guys to miss all the incredible conversations we've had so far.
I mean, we talk to Amory, Johnny Marr, E, Johnny Checkner, Billy Porter and so many more.
Look, if you haven't heard these episodes yet, hey, now's your chance.
You gotta check them out.
Listen to Questlove Supreme on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s, the podcast where we talk through some of the big life changes and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology.
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show.
Welcome back to the podcast.
New listeners, old listeners, wherever you are in the world.
It is so great to have you back for another topic, another episode where we break down the psychology of our 20s.
OK, so you have read the title.
You know what we're getting into today.
And if you are a loyal listener of the show, you know that we are doing a very different episode to what we usually do.
I very rarely talk about pop culture on this podcast, but I've come to realize that this person, this topic feels timeless.
And I have justified to myself that it is also relevant to our 20s, at least to mine.
And when I suggested it over on my Instagram, you guys went wild.
So you know what? Let's do it.
And that topic is the psychology of Taylor Swift.
And the reason why so many of us across the globe, not just as individuals, but as an entire collective, have such a deep love and obsession with her as an artist.
Taylor Swift is probably the most famous person in the world right now and has been a well -known celebrity for decades at this point, which is really difficult to do, especially as a female musician, where there is this constant trend and cycle of momentary celebrity and fame that comes in waves, where,
you know, the new best thing, the new shiny thing is picked up and dropped off very quickly.
And yet every year it feels like she reaches incredible new heights, new fans, new milestones in career -building moments.
Her fame, I honestly think, cannot be contained.
And that is a bit of a superpower in the modern age of entertainment and celebrity culture.
We have seen that, especially this year with the Eros Tour, which was possibly the hardest concert ever in history to get tickets to, and also may have saved the literal U .S.
economy, if you believe some sources.
It's mania. It's Swift mania.
And the only way I think that we can really understand the impact that one person, Taylor Swift, has on people is by really examining the psychology behind her, not just as a person, but as a celebrity, as a brand and as a business.
But also as someone who a lot of us, especially hardcore fans, feel like they have a personal relationship with.
They feel like they know her on some deep social mental level, despite never having met her.
What is it about Taylor Swift that causes people to spend thousands of dollars to devote their lives to her, to know everything about her life?
And as this relates to our 20s as well, I feel like for many of us, Taylor Swift and her music kind of provides us with somewhat of a guide and an emotional outlet for all of the universal experiences that we go through in this decade.
Her songs are a voice to what we are experiencing, even as non -celebrities, and that is her power, her ability to make something relatable, like heartbreak, deeply personal and poetic.
It's also worth acknowledging that the majority of her fan base is between the ages of 20 to 30, right during this formative period.
And I think that bears examining as to why her music is so powerful for people in this age bracket.
People who have grown up with Taylor, who maybe started listening to her at 10, 11, 13, 14 when she released Speak Now or Fearless, and now are adults who see a lot of their experiences and their stories as they transition into this new period of their life reflected in her music.
And in terms of my 20s, Taylor Swift and her albums have genuinely bookmarked certain chapters of my life and milestones that I think are very universal and incredibly important.
You know, I fell in love for the first time when her album Lover came out.
We all went through lockdown and a global pandemic playing her two surprise albums, you know, Folklore and Evermore.
I moved to a new city as Midnight was released.
And the songs on those albums have been the soundtrack to my life for many, many years.
Basically, I'm adding myself as a massive Swiftie.
I can give you all the reasons I wanted to do this episode, but mainly it was to examine my own psychology when it comes to my loyalty and my love for her.
I also think that if you are a loyal listener of the show, that will come as no surprise.
I said to my friend the other day, I genuinely think about her at least five to 10 times a day.
Ever since my dad bought me her first album when I was seven years old, she has been part of my life, little known secret as well.
I even have a Taylor Swift tattoo and I'm not embarrassed by that at all.
So maybe when we talk about the psychological underpinnings behind our obsession with Taylor Swift, what I'm really doing is offering myself up as a case study.
This is me breaking down my very own parasocial relationship with her, hoping that at least one person out there can relate.
So in this episode, we are going to break down all the psychology behind why we find Taylor Swift so captivating.
We're going to explore the psychology of obsession, of parasocial relationships, and celebrity worship syndrome, the power of escapism, and what certain music does to our brains and the pleasure centers in our minds, why it is that we have specific music preferences.
We're going to focus on the underpinnings of relatability and fostering relatability through similarity and authenticity, the significance of storytelling.
And we're also going to look at why certain decisions that Taylor Swift has made throughout her career have proven so successful because of how they have leveraged important aspects of our psychology.
I'm talking about her use of errors, her use of Easter eggs, her use of so many other parts of her brand that have made her fame become and seem genuinely unstoppable.
There is so much to cover, things that I didn't even imagine when first looking into this.
I think it just goes to show how everything truly is psychology, including the celebrities that we love and music and fame all rolled into one.
So if you can't tell, I'm so excited to get into this episode.
So excited. So without further ado, let's examine the psychology behind everything we love and sometimes dislike about Taylor Swift.
The Daily Show Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life?
I'm Osviloshin, one of the new hosts of the long running podcast Tech Stuff.
I'm slightly skeptical, but obsessively intrigued.
And I'm Kara Price, the other new host, and I'm ready to adopt early and often.
On Tech Stuff, we travel all the way from the minds of Congo, to the surface of Mars, to the dark corners of TikTok, to ask and attempt to answer burning questions about technology.
One of the kind of tricks for surviving Mars is to live there long enough so that people evolve into Martians.
Like, data is a very rough proxy for a complex reality.
How is it possible that the world's new energy revolution can be based in this place where there's no electricity at night?
Oz and I will cut through the noise to bring you the best conversations and deep dives that will help you understand how tech is changing our world and what you need to know to survive the singularity.
So join us. Listen to Tech Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers.
So that's why we created The Big Take from Bloomberg Podcasts, to give you the context you need to make sense of it all.
Every day, in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters.
You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine.
A lot of this meme stock stuff is I think embarrassing to the SEC.
Amanda Mull, who writes our Business Week buying power column.
Very few companies who go viral are like totally prepared for what that means.
And Zoe Tillman, senior legal reporter.
Courts are not supposed to decide elections.
Courts are not really supposed to play a big role in choosing our elected leaders.
It's for the voters to decide.
Follow The Big Take podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Good people. What's up?
It's Questo. Questlove.
And Team Supreme and I have been working hard to bring you some incredible episodes of Questlove Supreme with gifts that you definitely don't want to miss.
Now, one of the things I love about this Questlove Supreme podcast is we got something for everybody.
Every type of musical ever.
We enjoy speaking to the people who are the face of some movement.
Some people you've seen on stage or TV or magazine covers, but we also love speaking to the folks who are making it happen behind the scenes.
And we paved the way for those that followed.
You know, keystones to the culture.
This season, we've had some amazing one -on -one conversations.
Like, um, people chatting up with hitmakers Sam Holland.
We took a Steve Chatter with the legend Nick Lowe.
And I've had pleasures of doing one -on -one conversations with Willow, Sonata Matria, Kathleen Hanna, and The RZA.
These are conversations you won't hear anywhere else.
So make sure you go back and you check those episodes out.
Alright? Listen to Questlove Supreme on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get in your podcast.
So, Taylor Allison Swift was born famously on the 13th of December, 1989, a year that has since gone on to inspire her titular album named After the Same Year.
A bit of background and biographical information for people who may not be diehard Swifties because this context is super important.
Taylor was born in Pennsylvania and she was raised on a literal Christmas tree farm, which is pretty iconic if you ask me.
And this is really important.
This origin story is important because Taylor, for her fans, has this really relatable small town, big dreams origin story.
One which we all can't help but love because it makes us feel a very deep and appealing sense of possibility.
That we could also reach her levels of stardom and success coming from a non -famous background like she did.
But additionally, it's a very sentimental story, right?
That she really wanted to pursue music, she moved to Nashville when she was like 14, she worked really hard, she wrote all these beautiful autobiographical songs.
It makes us feel a special sense of protectiveness.
But additionally, real familiarity with this small country home, this small town vibe, that family feel, it captures our attention.
That's the thing about Taylor Swift that her biggest fans will tell you.
Despite all of her success and fame, she has remained a very authentic and relatable person.
She has this cozy feeling to her.
She is best friends with her mom, she has these cats that she loves, it's this very small town girl next door feel for those of us who attach to her.
Of course, nowadays she is incredibly famous and that really started with the release of Fearless in 2008, Speak Now Red, and then 1989.
Which really took her to new heights not just as an artist but as a celebrity.
If you ask most fans, there is this before and after Taylor Swift story.
Centering on the very infamous Taylor Swift is over party that happened back in 2016.
I think that that could have ended her career.
A cancellation of that magnitude from some pretty well -known celebrities, that is a huge deal, but instead she used this to transform herself into a new version of Taylor.
One that I would say is possibly more likeable because she wasn't perfect anymore.
We're going to talk more about her use of errors later on, but following this series of events that I think we all know about, she released Reputation.
That is where we see this shift from her being this young pop star to being a mature adult musician.
She began swearing on her song, she talked about alcohol and revenge and a lot more heavy emotions that she had previously really steered away from.
And I don't think that that was a deliberate marketing move, right?
I think the thing unique to Taylor Swift is that she has grown up in the spotlight.
We have seen her traverse and survive her first decade of adulthood as a highly visible person.
We have witnessed her development not just as an individual, but as an artist.
And we have seen how the themes of her music have matured and developed and that is highly appealing to the everyday listener who is also going through those same transitions just at a different level.
Who gets to see their same messy, chaotic, deeply feeling, imperfect selves reflected in Taylor Swift's journey.
It feels personally relatable, it feels personally relevant.
I would say that some people would think that Taylor Swift has been defined by her drama, her scandals, the men that she has dated.
But I don't think that is a very nuanced perspective and I think it's also deeply incorrect.
Really, her success comes down to one thing and one thing only.
And that is her ability to write songs that we all feel could very easily be about us.
You and me living out our everyday lives, the relatability behind her lyrics and music, it makes it feel like someone has put a voice to some of our own very universal feelings.
And not in this really fantastical, glamorous way or manner, one that is imbued by fame, but in a way that is super simple, indigestible because it is so relatable and it uses these really foundational tools of storytelling.
It uses metaphor, it uses tropes and stories that we all know of Romeo and Juliet, of Julius Caesar, of unrequited love.
That is really, really familiar to us and she's also very well known for those verbal hooks as well.
She has this impeccable ability to write bridges that are addictive and memorable, like an all too well.
She says, you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.
It rhymes, it's poetic, it's succinct, in cruel summer.
She has the bridge, you know, the very end of her bridge that's like, I love you, isn't that the worst thing you have ever heard?
That is memorable, that is powerful.
Our brains love something that is easy to remember, that is sharp, that is profound, that gives us a message.
But let's look at this highly relatable nature to her songs and the stories within them.
The thing that I think is really powerful is that a lot of celebrities, a lot of artists in particular, become famous and lose touch.
But on Evermore, in Tis the Tem season, you know, Taylor Swift talks about what it's like to return back to your hometown for the holiday season and reunite with a high school lover.
She sings about running away with a childhood friend in folklore or getting too drunk at the bar and needing to be taken home by your friends and hits different, regretting a breakup in Back to December.
And then, you know, there's the three songs on folklore that are about a love triangle between two, you know, three people that takes place in locations that are ubiquitous as parking lots and shopping malls.
And in the back of a high school classroom, those situations, those settings are highly, highly simplistic, relatable, universal.
We can all see ourselves in those moments she's talking about, in those places that she's speaking about.
And she was writing those songs at a time when she had a net worth of over $300 million.
That fame, that success has not altered her very intuitive ability to take very commonplace human experiences and turn them into music and songs that we love.
No matter what you're feeling, Taylor Swift has probably got a song that explains that exact moment.
Meaning that her discography, it almost offers a dictionary of human emotion whereby we can search up a feeling and return with a song that will capture exactly what we're experiencing.
And it won't be dressed up in fancy clothing or make any reference to her status as a celebrity.
She does not alienate people in her songwriting.
So psychology shows us that this relatability that Taylor Swift wields is one of the most powerful things that a celebrity can possess.
And it comes down to these very simple principles of similarity and familiarity.
There is this theory in social psychology known as the similarity attraction effect, which refers to the deeply ingrained tendency to like someone more when we think that we are alike.
Or when we believe that we have shared similar experiences.
This has been proven in a number of studies, including one in 2007, which measured the degree of likeness between friends and how each of the pair rated them mutual attraction to the other.
So the more that they felt like their friend had been through similar struggles to them, had similar values, similar experiences, the more likely they were to want to be around them to express praise and love and admiration for their friend.
So take that micro interpersonal example and apply it to the relationship between Taylor Swift and her fans.
When she writes intimately about the pain of her first heartbreak, we listen to that and we see ourselves reflected in those lyrics.
When she talks about missing long time friends, when she talks about not knowing the future of your relationship, of feeling scared to grow up, of feeling like a failure, we feel ourselves in that music.
And so our brain activating this similarity attraction nexus likes her more.
It also comes down to this idea of escapism and our use of music as a mental escape.
So escapism is this idea that we use certain activities or forms of entertainment as a mental diversion or distraction from the unpleasant things in our daily life.
So it kind of acts as a coping mechanism to protect us from uncomfortable feelings, situations, where we're perhaps not quite ready to face reality by directing our attention to something that is more safe or enjoyable like particular songs or comfort artists.
So researchers have shown that music serves as a really important tool in those moments.
It eases our anxiety, it improves mood, it boosts our confidence, and it also decreases our sense of isolation, especially when the songs we are listening to mimic the emotional experience we are trying to navigate.
Or more importantly when the song tells us a story that we can become invested in.
So Taylor Swift writes those songs that tell those stories that tell stories of revenge, of love, of heartbreak, of growing up.
And listening to these stories provides us with a vicarious sense of release or what is known as emotional catharsis because she has put into words the things we don't know how to.
That is why we love her music so much because it offers us a place to kind of hide away from the things that are bothering us by escaping into her life and her stories and her feelings rather than our own.
It also comes down to the psychology behind our music preferences.
What artists and songs and genres we like feel so deeply personal and that's because it is it is highly correlated to our personality and our self concept.
We've seen studies that have shown that we select music based on how we see ourselves, based on our identity.
And we know that identity is something that is self directed whereby we are actively choosing the person we want to be and what they look like.
So they found in the study conducted in 2020 that based on an examination of over 80 ,000 people, we prefer music from artists whose personalities and identities we see ourselves in.
So based on things like age, like gender, like race, interests and the public personality of this person.
So we have someone like Taylor Swift, right?
Who is not only, as we've talked about, highly, highly relatable in her music, but she also has this very girl next door feel.
We can easily look at her and identify the ways in which, you know, her and us are alike.
We fantasize about how we could, you know, go and grab a drink or a coffee with her and chat for hours.
And that also comes down to the fact that her songs are really autobiographical and personal.
So we feel like we already know a lot about her because she shares so much about her life through her music.
We could talk about her latest breakup, about how her mom's doing, what her friends are up to her cats, whatever it is.
Importantly, all of those things are things that we would talk about to a good friend because it's all there in what she puts in her songs.
And so, you know, by logic, in a sense, she is our friend now.
I also have a personal theory that this is really elevated by her use of Easter eggs in her music.
So an Easter egg in pop culture is like a little hidden message that an artist puts in their songs or their music videos or their posts, outfits, anything.
And it acts as a clue or some secret message that only their fans can interpret.
So it also acts as almost like a scavenger hunt, right, that like indicates things that are in the works when the next album is coming out, what they're going through in their life, upcoming announcements.
And Taylor Swift uses Easter eggs, I think, like no one else.
She sometimes plots them, places them, months in advance, only to suddenly reveal this this huge thing, like a tour, like a movie, like a surprise album that she has when we look at it in hindsight, really been hinting at for a while.
So when she reveals that kind of little game that she's been at, that Easter eggs, those Easter eggs she's been leaving, it kind of elevates and provides a sense of mystery and anticipation that has her fans watching her movements even closer, looking for the next set of clues that she's currently leaving.
So every single one of her listeners is now a detective, now feels really intimately involved in finding ways to really deconstruct her everyday actions with the bigger hope that they'll stumble upon some bigger hidden message that she's leaving them.
It makes us more attentive, it makes for a more attentive fan base, but it also has this secondary consequence of once again, feeling like she is somehow in personal communication with us.
Of course, I think it goes without saying that this can cause its own problems when we forget that this person is ultimately, unfortunately, as much as we may want her to be, not our friend.
We may feel really close to her due to her autobiographical relatable music, due to her public image, but she is basically a stranger.
And this is where we get into the idea of parasocial relationships.
So in psychology, a parasocial relationship occurs whereby one person feels really deeply connected and invested in someone, extends a lot of emotional energy, interest, time, money into this person, and the other party is completely unaware of their existence.
So this is really regularly and most commonly seen with celebrities whereby we think that we have this kind of reciprocal relationship with them due to poverty.
There are constant news articles written about her, photos, gossip, interviews, red carpet appearances, to the point that especially nowadays that she is more public than she was in recent years, we probably know more about her daily life than we do of our friends or our family members.
And when we form that attachment, it's a really hard one to break.
It's actually called a parasocial breakup.
And some studies have suggested that the emotional distress of feeling like we are becoming detached or removed from a celebrity that we love is just as intense as a real life breakup or some kind of interpersonal conflict or separation.
So I think this actually really explains something that happened around 2015 -16 where we saw so many diehard fans of hers become genuinely upset and confused and quite lost when she disappeared for almost two years before the release of Reputation, when she made a conscious decision to shut off access
to her personal life.
There were no photos of her, there were no appearances, no social media posts, and she says in her documentary, you know, no one physically saw her for a year.
And that genuinely led to withdrawal from the fans of hers who had come to see her as more than a celebrity.
They came to see her as a friend.
They felt betrayed, upset as if they were kind of owed some kind of explanation or insight.
Because of the nature of this one -sided relationship, we forget she's famous, we forget that she doesn't know us, but we also forget that she is just a person.
And having millions of people watching your every move, commenting constantly on your love life, everything you say online, every lyric, it would be really exhausting.
But it's no surprise that we're seeing more of these parasocial relationships, the more popular social media becomes.
And it can actually result in some really strange, really aggressive behaviors, you know, instances of stalking, not just with Taylor, but with many celebrities, you know, break -ins, obsessive monitoring.
If you've ever watched the movie, I think it's called The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Kostner or something like that, it's an old one.
But it's a really fantastic depiction of what parasocial relationships can look like at the severe end of the spectrum when it gets to the point of what we call celebrity worship syndrome.
So basically, that is a type of parasocial relationship that occurs when our admiration for a celebrity shifts into an obsessive fascination and preoccupation.
It's been described as a literal obsessive addictive disorder whereby we are compulsively invested in this person's life beyond our control, meaning we know we should stop, but we don't know how to.
We become so mentally intertwined with this person, they are such a core part of our identity that we genuinely don't know what we would do without them.
And obviously, this is really, really rare.
But when you are at the level of stardom that Taylor Swift is, I would say there are probably at least a few people out there who have gotten to this point.
Actually, I know that there has been.
There was a man who was literally arrested in May of this year for stalking her and sleeping in her bed, which, you know, I would be moving out after that.
If someone came into my house and slept in my bed, that is terrifying, regardless of how famous or how much money you make.
So I think it's time for a bit of a break here to have a bit of a breather.
So go and listen to Red Taylor's version or the album of your choosing.
Get yourself a cup of tea before we discuss the power of Taylor Swift's marketing, the impact of her errors as a way of promoting relational closeness to her fans, and the surprising psychological impacts of celebrity gossip columns and the role of in groups and our groups.
So all of that and more after this short break.
Today's news and pop culture, you get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors.
The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines.
Listen to the Daily Show Ears Edition on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life?
I'm Osviloshin, one of the new hosts of the long running podcast TechStuff.
I'm slightly skeptical but obsessively intrigued.
And I'm Kara Price, the other new host.
And I'm ready to adopt early and often.
On TechStuff, we travel all the way from the minds of Congo to the surface of Mars to the dark corners of TikTok to ask and attempt to answer burning questions about technology.
One of the kind of tricks for surviving Mars is to live there long enough so that people evolve into Martians.
Like data is a very rough proxy for a complex reality.
How is it possible that the world's new energy revolution can be based in this place where there's no electricity at night?
Oz and I will cut through the noise to bring you the best conversations and deep dives that will help you understand how tech is changing our world and what you need to know to survive the singularity.
So join us. Listen to TechStuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers.
So that's why we created the Big Take from Bloomberg Podcasts, to give you the context you need to make sense of it all.
Every day in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters.
You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine.
A lot of this meme stock stuff is I think embarrassing to the SEC.
Amanda Mull, who writes our Business Week buying power column.
Very few companies who go viral are like totally prepared for what that means.
And Zoe Tillman, senior legal reporter.
Courts are not supposed to decide elections.
Courts are not really supposed to play a big role in choosing our elected leaders.
That's for the voters to decide.
Follow the Big Take podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Good people. What's up?
It's Questo, Questlove.
And Team Supreme and I have been working hard to bring you some incredible episodes of Questlove Supreme.
With gifts you definitely don't want to miss.
Now, one of the things I love about this Questlove Supreme podcast is we got something for everybody.
Every type of musical ever.
We enjoy speaking to the people who are the face of some movement, some people you've seen on stage, or TV, or magazine covers, but we also love speaking to the folks who are making it happen behind the scenes.
And we paved the way for those that followed.
You know, keystones to the culture.
This season, we've had some amazing one on one conversations.
Like on PayPal, chatting up with hip -makers Sam Holland, took a Steve chatting with the legend Nick Lowe, and I've had pleasures of doing one on one conversations with Willow, Sonata Matria, Kathleen Hanna, and The RZA.
These are conversations you won't hear anywhere else.
So make sure you go back and you check those episodes out, alright.
Listen to Questlove Supreme on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
So if you are familiar with Taylor Swift, you will know that a massive element of her brand and the way she releases music is centered on the creation of these so -called errors.
Essentially, with every new album that she releases, Taylor portrays and reveals this slightly different version of herself.
And she's done this increasingly in the past 10 years of her career, going from a small -town country artist with at times quite Christian undertones and ideals to a pop idol with 1989 moving into rock and pop with reputation, folk and indie music with folklore and evermore, and then returning to that very
pop narrative focus with albums like Midnight's.
It's not just the music that is different and that is important.
It is the colors that she uses to represent this new chapter.
It is the cities that she's living in.
It is the thematic devices.
For example, with Lover, everything was centered on this very romantic premise, love hearts and sequins and tool and marriage and forever and pastel blue skies with reputation.
It was leather and snakes and motorcycles and dark almost emo makeup, ideas of karma and revenge.
And her errors even evolve and represent in how she presents herself what she wears, how she is engaging with her fan base based on the era that she is in.
You know, who she's associated with.
Everything about her kind of shifts based on where she's at, the album she releases, this chapter in her life.
As an artist, Taylor Swift has made it part of her business model to be constantly evolving, to be testing new genres, new personas.
And the significance of this from a psychological perspective really cannot be overlooked because I think aside from her relatability, it is one of the greatest marketing assets that she has at her disposal.
And you don't really need to look that far to see that.
It's what her recent tour was named after.
It's not only a huge contributor to her longevity and success, but a massive thing in Swiftie culture where the era that you started listening to Taylor almost imparts some kind of social status.
And there's a really key reason why this attracts so many people, not just to her music, but to her as a person.
Humans crave newness, we crave novelty, we get bored relatively quickly because when we are not being challenged or stimulated, our brain has nothing to take to grow or expand.
It has nothing to kind of stimulate it.
So it will look for something else.
And studies have shown that novelty triggers the release of dopamine in the reward centers of the brain.
It keeps our attention sustained, it keeps us curious.
And when it comes to massive musicians like Taylor, it keeps us invested.
If Taylor Swift had just kept making country albums because she thought that was the only thing that her fans wanted from her, I really doubt that she would be the kind of success that she is now, that she would be selling the kind of concert tickets that she is now.
But she took risks and she allowed herself to develop meeting the demand from her fans, not only for just more Taylor and more music, but new Taylor and different music.
Something that's going to keep our attention.
It's also worth noting that this adaptability, this growth, this constant changing is not something that is expected from male artists.
They are allowed to find their niche and stay there for their entire careers.
They do not have to be as sensitive to the demands of their fans.
They most certainly do not have to put on the kind of shows and theatrics and outfits and personas that are expected from some of our favorite female stars like Beyonce or Lady Gaga.
And I think that at times has come at a personal detriment to Taylor.
As she spoke about in her documentary, Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince on Netflix, as she says, female artists have to constantly reinvent themselves so many times or they're out of a job.
So many female musicians do not have the career longevity that is afforded to their male colleagues.
A lot of the time they're kind of discarded by the time they turn 30 when they're not pretty, when they're not the shiny new thing.
And so they need to be new to us, they need to be young to us, but only in the way that we want without even knowing it.
They need to reinvent themselves for the fans, for the audience in a way that is both very comforting but also a challenge and really live out a narrative of constantly evolving to entertain us.
So whilst this is a strategy that I think has been incredibly beneficial to her career and also I think just a natural evolution as she's aged and developed as a person, it also goes to show how the human desire for novelty and constant entertainment has these unexpected consequences for the musicians
that we know and love.
Now there are two more aspects to Taylor Swift's identity as a celebrity, as a persona, and her kind of brand that I think we need to talk about that we haven't really touched on so far.
And I was unsure as to whether this needed to be included but I think the psychology behind these facets or elements to her brand and persona is really too fascinating to leave out of this conversation.
So firstly is the role of celebrity gossip and our seemingly universal obsession with her dating life and secondly the power of the Swiftie fandom especially what the diehard fans can teach us about in group and out group thinking.
It's no secret that as a famous person your private life is something that everyone feels like they have access to as misguided as that may be.
You are no longer an individual but a commodity a character to be consumed something to really keep the masses entertained and Taylor Swift has been doing just that probably ever since she was 16 whether it was Harry Styles or Tom Hiddleston or Joe Alwyn whoever it may be we have this really obsessive
fascination with who she is with and obviously the autobiographical nature of her songwriting means that she invites that somewhat but she's also doing her job as a songwriter she will take things from her own life and I think she really proved with folklore and evermore that she is still an impeccable
musician without needing to reference her own life.
It's actually really interesting I think this whole idea of the gossip narrative around Taylor Swift because especially in her early 20s she was kind of like a lightning rod for good old fashioned slut shaming you know the constant narrative was that she was picking up and disposing men that she was a man -eater
there were comments that she would write a song about any guy she was seen with and then in the past few years it feels like the media has kind of clued in that people don't tolerate that as much that kind of narrative especially when I was maybe 14 or 15 you could not pick up a tabloid without seeing
some theory about her relationships and for a while that died down but it's interesting because a few days ago I was at the airport I was buying my pre -flight snacks and I look over to the magazine section and there is Taylor and a full page cover on her and Travis Kelsey who by the way I'm Australian and also I
don't like sports but I genuinely watched an NFL game the other day I am getting NFL videos on my Instagram of Travis Kelsey because of his association with Taylor Swift that goes to show that power also viewership was up, attendance was up Taylor Swift kind of touches something and it turns to gold
so what is the obsession particularly with her love life why do we love celebrity gossip so much especially when it's about certain deeply vulnerable and personal aspects of their lives I think we can offer up a few explanations firstly in psychology, in social psychology the theory is that gossip is a way
of communicating or socialising that really allows us to feel in the know and therefore we have more to talk about with others it's kind of like a social lubricant for lack of a better word it serves as a form of social glue binding us together through shared knowledge and experiences particularly when it
comes to well -known figures like Taylor Swift, like other celebrities secondly, consuming this kind of content makes you feel more connected with your idol or your favourite artist kind of by proxy by consuming articles about who she's dating where she's dining, what she's wearing what her house looks
like it makes us feel like we have a connection with this person further really entrenching our interest and our investment in them it's what one psychologist has called the feeling of being friends in law with someone but it can also serve as a form of stress relief as well because we are able to focus
on the trials, tribulations, details of someone else's lives like a form of escapism rather than our own so it kind of numbs our feelings of boredom or even maybe unhappiness and I think that's especially true when we see or sometimes decide to write negative comments or hateful things, opinions online
about famous people nine out of ten times that is a projection of our own insecurities or sense of inadequacy and due to this person's status as a celebrity we feel as if A.
what we say is harmless and B.
we have some sense of anonymity and so the shame attached to what would typically be quite an antisocial practice is diminished compared to if we were doing it about someone that we actually know celebrity gossip is both a distraction and an outlet finally I want to move away from talking about Taylor Swift
and briefly talk about her fan base so the psychology behind the Swiftie fan base of which I'm definitely a part of could honestly be its own episode but a concept I think is really important to cover here is the role of in group and out group interactions especially as it relates to kind of the desire
of fans to defend Taylor Swift against all possible insult and their extreme loyalty loyalty like that is not easy to cultivate especially between yourself and people that you've never met and yet Taylor Swift is when she's criticized by the media when nasty articles are written about her or tweets
or an ex -boyfriend like Jake Gyllenhaal or Calvin Harris is perceived as treating her badly there are thousands of fans who will go to battle for Taylor and we can explain this using the theory of social categorization so when it comes to her as an artist, as a celebrity there is an in group, people
who love her music and support her and an out group, people who don't enjoy her music or who criticize her or reduce her songwriting meaning basically people who are not fans so based on what we know about social psychology in groups and out groups are very naturally opposed there is a sense of them
and a sense of us and those who are members of the in group they feel a really intense sense of loyalty to one another or to a certain person because they psychologically identify with a set of certain character traits, likes, interests, obsessions, characteristic that others in the group also share and the main thing
binding Swifties together is their love for Taylor we feel, aligned and similar to her but also to each other because not just because of music preferences but also certain beliefs and familiarity there is a strong emotional and social bond that people feel with her but also with other fans of her music
and in general when people become real super fans or part of a fandom it's often because there's something about that person that does connect back to their identity in some way and so when we observe or talk to people who fall into the out group of people who don't like Taylor Swift we see them as
very different or perhaps as possessing some kind of negative perception or misunderstanding they just don't get how amazing her music is they just don't understand how powerful her presence is everything that we love about her and so when they challenge Taylor Swift's artistry and her work, they directly
challenge our core beliefs and our adoration of her so it feels like a personal threat it feels like a personal insult and people really react accordingly and that's why we sometimes see such intense emotional behavioral reactions I think at the end of the day Taylor Swift has been able to do something
that few other musicians, bands, performers have ever done she has maintained an incredible longevity as an artist and as someone who is continuously gaining new listeners who has this sense of notoriety that so many people would want, that so many people crave and to summarize it really comes down
to four major factors firstly, relatability she writes songs that we can connect to secondly, familiarity a lot of us have grown up alongside her so her music feels like it is something that has accompanied the major moments in our life she doesn't just feel like a famous person she feels like a friend
thirdly is aspiration she is a role model and someone that we can aspire to someone that we want to be like whose behavior we want to replicate and take for example, her re -recording her old music that is a freaking power play that is amazing claiming ownership over her work that is a huge move whatever
you think about Taylor Swift, whether you like her or not you really have to give her credit there, that's pretty amazing and finally, as we discussed she provides novelty and newness to her fans she is continuously evolving, pushing herself growing alongside her audience as they mature and also, she
gives them new stuff, exciting things and that is so addictive, it's why she is so massive and whether you are a huge fan, like myself whether you are a Swifty or not I think a lot of the psychology we've explored goes to show exactly why she is a unique combination of both certain traits, characteristics
and also business decisions that have made her so widely successful I don't think all of it was strategic but she really captures something about the human spirit and our need for escapism and relatability and storytelling and I think that is so powerful so I really hope that you have enjoyed this episode
to be honest, I think I was the person most excited for this I fucking love Taylor Swift I just made a whole episode on her, she is amazing and it was actually so revealing to understand why that obsession is why I am so addicted to knowing more about her to listening to her music, it's like such a combination of so many
insane different interactions and psychological theories and concepts so I hope that you got something out of this that you enjoyed this episode as always, if there is someone you know out there who would like this episode, who would get a kick out of it please feel free to share it with a friend, a family
member, a colleague whoever it may be make sure that you are following us on Instagram at That Psychology Podcast I'm at Gemma Speg if you want to see some more behind the scenes content thank you so much for listening to today's episode and we will be back next week with another one This year I've
been really rethinking my relationship with alcohol and so I decided to commit to Dry January to really kick start 2025 and just test myself Heineken 00 is the perfect companion for Dry January because you feel like you're still participating when you're out for dinner with friends out for drinks, whilst
you're still meeting your lifestyle goals I'm a big beer fan so I also love the taste of Heineken 00 plus being alcohol free, you can enjoy whenever refreshment calls Heineken 00 is available at your local Heineken retailer or for delivery at Heineken .com you must be 21 plus to purchase enjoy Heineken
responsibly and good luck with Dry January Do you want to see into the future?
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