Taylor Swift

I might be an old guy, but I've never lived under a rock so, of course, I knew who Taylor Swift was.  She was a talented young pop singer/songwriter whose appeal was to a decidedly different demographic than the one in which I resided.   I knew that she sold a lot of records, but I could have told you that I was familiar with only one of them, "Shake It Off".  I had also seen her in those different Capital One credit card commercials and found her to be perfectly appealing and charming.

I was not, however, aware of the cultural behemoth that she has become until one Saturday afternoon this past summer.   Swift was playing back-to-back sold out engagements at Accrisure Stadium on a Friday and Saturday night.  As it happened,  Linda and I had tickets to a matinee theatrical production at the Benedum Center that Saturday afternoon.   As we went into downtown Pittsburgh for lunch before the performance, we were plunged deep into the world of Swiftmania.  Hundreds if not thousands of pre-teen and teenaged girls and in many cases, their mothers, decked out in Swift tee shirts, sweatshirts, spangled skirts, shorts, and tops, and more friendship bracelets than one could count.  Our impression of that experience:  "Wow, isn't this fun?"  We had a ball watching all of these Swifties enjoying themselves and having fun, and we were so glad that even in such a peripheral way, we were apart of it.

Of course, the Swift ball just kept rolling from there.  Sold out stadium performances across the country, stories of her generosity, her impact on the economies of the cities that she visited, all leading up to her being named Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

Then, of course there was her romance with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.  That's when things really started to explode and a strange and inexplicable backlash developed.  More on that later.

This past weekend, we decided to get with it by watching Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour movie.

Linda had actually seen Taylor Swift in concert many years ago here in Pittsburgh when she was actually, believe it or not, one of the opening acts for some other performer.  Her daughter Sarah, who watched the movie with us, had also seen her perform live and in person.  A movie, of course, will never come close to capturing the electricity and the you-are-there excitement of the real thing, but I must say that I was blown away by the production of the concert, the scenery, the costumes, and the accompanying singers and dancers, and, of course, by he charm and talent of Taylor Swift herself.   I "get" it as to why she is so popular.  

If, like me, you've never seen her perform live, see this movie and see for yourself.

It gets Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Then there is that backlash that I mentioned above, and it all seemed to stem from the romance with Kelce, Swift turning up at Chiefs games, and network television cameras zeroing in her during telecasts of Chiefs games.

On the positive side, Taylor Swift's presence at these games increased television ratings for the networks, and it became the cause for a boom in the numbers of new fans of the NFL, mainly among young women in the age 12 to 29 age bracket.   Even cooler, you don't have to look far to find stories of young fathers telling of how that have connected and/or re-connected with their young daughters in ways that they hadn't before all because of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.  

How is that a bad thing?

On the negative side, you are also hearing stories, mainly from grumpy old sportswriters and even grumpier old men football fans, along the lines of "why do they keep showing her n the luxury box" or "why do we have to look at her when we just want to watch the football game" or the always classic caveman line of "what does SHE have to do with a FOOTBALL GAME"?

Aside from her talent, here is what I know about Taylor Swift:

• She's a self-made billionaire, and she has achieved that without a whiff of scandal attached to her name (unless you count "break-up songs" about ex-lovers)
• She's charming.  Just look at those Capital One commercials
• She's wholesome.  Yes, she may wear semi-revealing costumes, but she never comes across as slutty. Madonna, she ain't.
• She's generous.  Stories abound about her gifts to charities - homeless shelters, food banks, etc -  in the cities in which she performs, each amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  There are also a myriad of stories of her giving six figure bonuses to her crew members.  Just last Sunday in Baltimore, she gave at least four M&T Stadium staffers tip envelopes containing one hundred dollar bills.

I mean, really, what is there not to like about her?

As we watched the AFC Championship game on Sunday, both Linda and I were caught up in the Swift sightings.  Why?  Well, we concluded, because it is just plan fun, and who doesn't need some fun in their life?  We will be among those watching to see how she can perform a concert in Tokyo on next Saturday night and with the help of the International Dateline, be at the Super Bowl next Sunday in Las Vegas.

Is the Swift-Kelce Romance for real?  Well, I believe that it is real right now, and yes, it would a great story if it became a happily ever after thing, but if it doesn't end that way, so what?  It doesn't make what is happening now any less real, and, in the end, it's no one else's business but theirs.