Taylor Swift Can’t Ever Be Happy

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement announcement on Instagram garnered 37.6 million likes, with many fans expressing their excitement for the couple’s upcoming nuptials. The engagement mustered excitement from fans about Swift’s newly released album, The Life of a Showgirl (TLOAS). TLOAS follows a run of extremely successful albums since the pandemic, with many Swifties declaring that her folklore and evermore albums are the pinnacle of her discography. 

TLOAS has taken a large musical and visual departure from her album art and music production in the last seven years. Producers Max Martin and Shellback created an upbeat pop album reminiscent of Swift's 1989 era. The album had a mixed reception, with some praising the joyful nature of the album and others criticising the lyricism. The critiques of the album boil down to this: people don’t like it when artists are happy. 

Before the album’s release, cultural discourse around her engagement included haters saying, “The divorce album is going to be so good.” In an over-commercialized, consumer-based industry, art becomes commodified to the point where positive experiences are looked down upon. 

Some of Swift’s best lyricism has been the direct result of a break-up or a rocky relationship. However, to actively pray on the downfall of an artist one “stans” is deplorable. Art is not for everyone. It is first and foremost for the artist. The increasing notion that artists — especially Swift — have to make art that is palatable and venerated by fans is limiting and enraging. 

Swift’s career has become a microcosm of the late-stage capitalist economy we exist in. Where art becomes subject to a price tag and the whims of the consumer. The more fans buy, the more input they believe they should have on Swift’s creative process. Pure artistry is deduced to album sales and number of streams.

If billionaire artists have this pressure placed on them, it is unimaginable to conceive the pressure on newer artists to become the next Taylor Swift or Beyoncé. 

Artists should be allowed to experience joy without a bottom line. Artists should be able to write fun songs about their significant other without being called a white supremacist. Artists should be allowed to live their lives without fear of losing their careers because they’re happy.