Swifties

They continued to support Swift through her genre transitions, unanticipated artistic pivots, and her highly publicized controversies such as the 2019 masters dispute, while instigating the political scrutiny of Ticketmaster that led to implementation of various laws and stimulating economic growth with the Eras Tour.

Swift's releases, promotional efforts, and fashion have garnered attention for incorporating Easter eggs and clues that are decoded by Swifties and considered part of her musical universe.

Cultural analyses have variably described Swifties as a community of interest, a subculture, and a near-metaverse, while academics have studied them for their consumerism, content creation, social capital, collective effervescence, organizing prolificacy, and interpersonal relationships.

[14][15] The success planted dedicated fanbases for Swift in overseas markets such as the United Kingdom,[10] Ireland, Brazil, Philippines, China, Vietnam, Taiwan,[11] India,[16] and Japan.

[17][18] Her subsequent albums, which saw her experiment with pop, rock, electronic, folk, and alternative styles, helped enlarge her fanbase and diversify its demographics in the following decades.

Whether it's personal invites to the singer's house for album listening parties, aka Secret Sessions, or pre-show hangouts, she continues to put her fans first.

Reasons include insufficient political activism from Swift, such as during Donald Trump's election as the 45th president of the U.S.[53][54] or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,[55][56] and the individuals she has been associated with in the media, such as Matty Healy, who is known for his controversial statements.

[65][66] Entertainment Weekly called it Taylor Swift Musical Universe—"a pop star known for prodigious hint-dropping, whose fans turn every piece of info into an online archaeological dig.

"[67] In The Guardian, Adrian Horton said "Swiftverse" is a subculture of mass media, cultivated by "years of worldbuilding and Swiftian mythology",[61] while Alim Kheraj wrote Swift turned pop music into a "multiplayer puzzle" involving fanbase commitment, which other artists have attempted to reproduce.

[68] According to Sinéad O'Sullivan in The New Yorker, the Swiftverse is "a fan universe, filled with complex, in-sequence narratives that have been contextualized through multiple perspectives" across Swift's albums.

"[71] According to Yahr, Swift enjoys embedding "clues, hints and puzzles" in her works, social media posts and interviews, constructing a self-mythology that fans believe could have a hidden meaning and attempt to decode, such as a release date, song or album title or an artistic element.

[72] Madeline Merinuk of Today observed how Swift's easter eggs, which originated as short messages hidden within elaborate CD packaging, have become more innovative and intricate over time.

"[64] Claire Cohen opined in Evening Standard that there is an underlying misogyny in the way Swifties are portrayed by the media, often male authors, as "some Victorian hysteria; irrational and shallow".

[112][113] However, 1989 was an unprecedented success for Swift despite the lack of streaming support, widely purchased by fans as CDs from Target;[114] the album sold 1.28 million copies in its opening week.

[116][117] Swift's fans increased the publicity surrounding her 2019 masters dispute with Big Machine and American businessman Scooter Braun and drove the success of her re-recording efforts.

[88][118][119] An online petition launched by a fan on Change.org, calling Braun and Borchetta "to stop holding Swift's art hostage", garnered 35,000 plaintiffs in its first three hours.

[121] Swifties also discovered that the Carlyle Group, a partner of Braun in the dispute, supplies weapons to the civil war in Yemen, which was confirmed by publications such as The New York Times.

[141] Noticing the growing trend of Swift-themed dance parties in the world, industry commentators found that Swift's cultural position as a staple in the 21st-century music landscape allowed nightclubs to profit from her by hosting specialized events for fans.

For instance, the phrase "seemingly ranch" became viral after a fan account on Twitter used it to caption a photo of Swift's snacks at a National Football League (NFL) game, spawning a string of memes and causing food companies like Heinz, McDonald's, KFC, Hidden Valley and Primal Kitchen to pick it up for their products and marketing.

[153] Brooke Schultz of the Associated Press called Swifties an influential voter demographic in U.S. politics: "the sheer power and size of Swift's fandom has spurred conversations about economic inequality, merely symbolized by Ticketmaster".

[154] According to a 2023 survey reported by The Times, 53% adult Americans consider themselves "fans" of Swift, ratings that journalist Ellie Austin said Biden and Trump "can only dream of".

[160][161] The Islamic State (ISIS) planned to mass-murder attendees of one of Swift's Eras Tour shows in Vienna, Austria, in a plot that was thwarted by Austrian authorities.

Though not affiliated with Swift herself, Swifties For Kamala received support from public figures and politicians such as Carole King, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ed Markey, Chris Deluzio, Becca Balint, and Anderson Clayton.

[163][164] After Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic candidate for the 2024 election, Swifties For Kamala amassed nearly 65,000 followers on TikTok alone by July and raised over US$138,000 in a virtual rally in August.

In Miss Americana, when Swift leaves her Tribeca apartment surrounded by fans and spectators outside her door, she states that she is "highly aware of the fact that [that] is not normal.

"[200] Some fans have also been reported to attack, harass, or send death threats online to, and dox other celebrities, journalists, and social media users for various reasons, such as speaking negatively of Swift.

[202][205][206] Black Lives Matter activist and chair professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Melina Abdullah, opined "Why do I feel like it's slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan?

A small faction of Swifties, who call themselves "Gaylors", support and promote the theory, believing that Swift hints at her queerness through her music and lifestyle, although she has stated she is "not part of" the LGBTQ community but rather an ally.

[211] In the album prologue to 1989 (Taylor's Version), Swift acknowledged that her female friendships have been sexualized like the tabloid media coverage of her male acquaintances.

[216][217] Their "prolific content creation, digital savvy, organizing capacity, and sometimes vicious online behaviors" are also subjects of study, as per Internet culture researchers Cristina López and Avneesh Chandra.