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Taylor Swift Drove Nearly 338K People to Vote.gov With Kamala Harris Endorsement Post
(www.hollywoodreporter.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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This is simultaneously wonderful and depressing.
If this is what it takes to get the 18-30 year olds to the polls in the right states, idgaf. Just win, baby!
Oh absolutely, by any means necessary. Which is why I say it's wonderful.
But it's disheartening that a celeb endorsement can drive such engagement. Might be dating myself here but it always reminds me of "what does Ja Rule think!?!"
I'd argue this isn't any celebrity though. Say what you will about Taylor and her music but she has successfully marketed herself as a wholesome role model for younger generations who has ran a nearly 20 year career scandal free. To them she represents more than celebrity fame. She's a movement and if she says vote they will vote.
I'm glad she's a wholesome role model/movement.
I'm glad that she's encouraging folks to vote.
I'm glad she's encouraging folks to vote Dem.
I'm less glad that there are kids whose participation in democracy seems to hinge on a singer. I know that this has always been the case to some extent it just feels increasingly so and kind of sad. Let's not forget that trump's main qualification to get into politics was his celebrity.
My grumpy old man take is our politics are getting dumber and dumber and people registering to vote because their favourite musician told them to, no matter how wholesome or good she is, seems a symptom of that.
For singers who are mostly political, sure, this kind of makes sense (think most of the famous 60s singers, most punk etc) but, to the best of my knowledge/limited listening, Swift's music has seemed pretty non political, which makes it a bit weird to me. (That being said, also what makes it a bit more effective. Rage against the Machine telling folks to vote is preaching to the choir.)
Tl;dr: a good thing has happened, I'm just pining for a better yesteryear that may have never actually existed.
I mean, Neil Young and Joan Baez were encouraging people to vote back in the 60's, so it's been at least 60 years that popular music has been closely involved in youth culture's voting habits
Like I said:
To me, there's a difference between music that's explicitly political effecting political behaviour and music that isn't.
If, I dunno, BTS got hundreds of thousands of kids to register as Republican, I imagine/hope people would be concerned that that's where kids are getting their political direction from.
Edit: I have no idea if BTS is actually political, I assume not. Most of the young music this old fuck listens to are political because that's what I enjoy, so I'm not great at picking pop non political stuff. Sorry!
Taylor Swift definitely has some political songs like "The Man," which is focused on the double standard faced by female celebrities, or "You Need to Calm Down," which is explicitly pro-LGBTQ+, etc.
Neat! Though, I think her political songs aren't really what she's known for? I could be completely wrong though!
Edit: I mean, especially when you think about the artists you first listed like Baez and Young.
You're definitely right; maybe someone like Dolly Parton would have been a better comparison, but even Dolly doesn't really capture his big Swift is.
Really, my first instinct was to go with Neil Young because he's one of my favorite artists of all time, and I do think that a lot of his biggest hits weren't really overly political, probably split about 50:50 even if we remember the more political stuff now. For every "Ohio" and "For What It's Worth," there's a "Heart of Gold" and "Helpless."
But really I'm splitting hairs because I like talking about music and playing the devil's advocate. Your initial point that Swift isn't known for writing protest music is absolutely correct.
Still, neat to learn that Swift has some political content! I in my monumental ignorance just assumed it was all songs about various exes. (I listened to one album and that seemed like the theme though I got bored partway and stopped really paying attention.)
And as much as I hate celeb culture, there's a small part of me that's like "maybe we could all agree on a President Dolly Parton?"
Not to mention, there's senate and house seats countrywide that could be won with these people.
My first vote might have been because of free coffee at Starbucks for I Voted stickers. In other words, it can always be dumber ;p
Ha, that's pretty good! Thanks for the perspective.
I've voted in every election for which I've been eligible, so I wonder if some of my votes were just to keep the streak alive even if only subconsciously.
I mean, some of them are like that. I've voted every time since, and I maybe my proudest, silliest vote was for Obama in the primary. I was, what, 20, and just really not that into Hillary mostly because she scapegoated video games. Obama ended up being a very good choice, but that reason was definitely immature young adult brain. (Vibe probably mattered, too, now that I think of it).
Honestly, dissing video games was not the best reason to get me to vote against her but like, you know how rare it is for as young person to vote in a primary? Small things like that can matter.
So YOU'RE why Clinton made that terrible Pokemon Go to The Polls and vote joke!
Oh man... hey now I still voted for her! But boy was she out of touch with the youth vote compared to Obama. I've got much higher hopes for Harris, though!
I mean, Obama was just... Damn. One of a kind, one hell of an orator.
I mean...I Pokémon GO to the polls every time I vote.
Because my voting place is a stop! So I do both at once!
I've been voting since I was capable of it though, the mayor of the town I grew up in would go to every 18 (or soon to be if you had a birthday very close to election time) and help get them all squared away and ready! It was cool.
That's such a cool thing for the mayor to do! That's quality public service.
Right there with ya. The fact that this is a thing in our society is just... I'll take it, but yikes. Glad she didn't endorse trump I guess.
how much of a shit did you give about the crusty old white people in government when you were 10-18 yrs old?
10-18? I dont think that’s the age group we are discussing here…
As a punk kid living in the world of Reagan, I cared a lot.
All but the 18 year olds can't vote.
That being said, I was 16 on 9/11 so my cohort got into politics very quickly. Especially as most of my good friends were into punk.
My first thought was "imagine if Putin could have afforded her".