I'm happy that you love Taylor Swift. Really.
Music is a very intimate choice and I can almost guarantee that someone in your life whom you care for deeply also is a super fan of some band, songwriter, or music that find nearly impossible to listen to for more than five seconds without screaming uncontrollably and beginning to bang your head against the wall. And that's fine. As I said, the music we love is a very personal decision and sometimes it doesn't make much sense even to the person who loves it.
I don't have any hatred for Taylor Swift. I like some of her music a lot, even if I do find the last couple of albums sound as if they had been produced specifically to be more of an ethereal representation of brand management than actual songs I'd want to listen to regularly.
But that's just me. I'm not the target audience for Taylor Swift, she's not writing about the things that I wrestle with on a daily basis.
What I don't care for is this expression of Taylor Swift fandom that insists that I not only have to accept that her music (and maybe Beyonce's) is the only thing that matters. And that if I am not breathlessly obsessed with her every lyric, with her every carefully calculated social media message I am by default a misogynist incapable of giving Taylor Swift the credit she is due.
Taylor Swift just isn't my thing.
And really, if you aren't capable of seeing that, if you are one of those people shedding longtime friends because they don't love Taylor as much as you do, well, you are in for a long, disappointing life.
Because odds are that at some point - maybe years down the road - Taylor Swift will not be the center of your musical universe. Maybe your life will change enough that you find other interests. Perhaps Ms. Swift's music will evolve in a direction that doesn't speak to you in the same way as it does in 2024.
For whatever reason, you'll move on. You might continue to listen to her music and buy her albums. But you'll discover other musicians who are creating the songs that more perfectly fit the soundtrack for the next part of your life.
I'm happy that you love Taylor Swift. Really.
But stop trying to convince me that I'm wrong. Or whacking me around on social media when I suggest that perhaps she is only ONE of the most talented people making music right now.
I'm happy that you love Taylor Swift. Just don't insist that I love her too.