It was the end of summer in 2018 when I met my dear friend, Archer Rose. Though the exact facts are unmemorable, somewhere in our tentitive early conversations, wandering the ever humid CBD underground, we established that we both had complex, but most importantly fond perceptions of Taylor Swift. At the time I was a covert fan of her work, however I remained a classifiable ‘Swiftie’ so what made me hide that passion? The controversy surrounding Taylor Swift is complex and multi faceted, but I want to focus more on the general attitude surrounding the artist at the time.
It felt like Taylor Swift’s relationships were a communal joke, her body count being the implied punchline. “For me, it was a general wave of hatred, everyone suddenly just didn’t like Taylor anymore,” Archer reflects, “I would fully outright say ‘I don’t like Taylor Swift; I hate Taylor Swift,’ while watching Wildest Dreams under the covers, like, ‘no, I need to finish this video.’”
That general wave of hatred was exactly what told us as kids that we need to hide under the covers despite sweltering Australian heat. Her music was simply that important to us. To me at least, Taylor Swift’s music was the Gospel of Girlhood.
Archer and I would scream along with her words, ‘yeah I’m broken hearted,’ as though we were being sold the idea of what adolescence would be.
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