Taylor Swift and the College Campus Revolution
In an interview with GQ in 2015, Taylor Swift shared her ambitions for attending college and pursuing a career in a field where words and ideas held sway, potentially focusing on marketing. While she may be too famous to enroll in a marketing class now, her music and persona have proven to be rich fodder for academic exploration on college campuses across the United States.
From Harvard to the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford, universities have been offering Taylor Swift-centered courses for over a decade. These courses cover various aspects of Swift's work and the stories that inspired them, from the psychology of her songs to the role of women in pop music and the entrepreneurial spirit her image and activism have nurtured.
The Arizona State University is currently offering a course on the psychological aspects of Swift's songs, while the University of Florida is analyzing the role of women in pop music from Swift's perspective, expanding out to include legends like Dolly Parton and Aretha Franklin.
At UC Berkeley, her meticulously crafted image and activism around the ownership of her work inspired a course on artistic entrepreneurship. Additionally, she has inspired numerous English language courses, where Swift's work is compared to the literary greats, from Shakespeare to Yeats.
Swift's influence has turned her into an academic Trojan Horse, drawing students' attention to her name in course descriptions. However, professors are now well-versed in leveraging her fame to engage students and create compelling courses, as illustrated by the example of Elizabeth Scala, a medieval romance, history, and culture professor at the University of Texas in Austin:
"She provides us with a lever to talk about things that are hard to discuss with just words," Scala said of Swift, referring to her powerful lyrics. "The meaning of things." Scala revisited her literature course, where Swift's songbook was a central text, and was overwhelmed by the students' response.
Melina Jimenez, who will shortly teach a Swift-focused course at the University of Florida, reported that the course had been filled within minutes of registration opening. Instructors who teach Swift's work say that her music can engage students better than many academics have managed up to this point, and that it's much easier to write a paper comparing Swift's work to Shakespeare when you have a catchy melody to fall back on.
Swift's magnetic pull towards students makes her a popular choice for courses, making them more engaging and captivating. Swift herself has played a part in this phenomenon: Scala's daughter, a devoted Swift fan, challenged her mother with Swift's version of "Shake it Off," while Jimenez overheard a group of students discussing Swift and couldn't understand their fascination – until she started listening to the music herself.
"She's the last monoculture," said Scala of Swift. "Anybody can appreciate her music. She's both very specific and yet extremely relatable and universally understandable."
Literature classrooms used to fixate on J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, but their obsession began to wane. Then, in late 2021, Professor Scala found herself joining millions of people who watched Swift's short film "All Too Well," based on a song from her Red album and centered around the story of a failed relationship.
As Scala listened to the song, ideas for a Swift-centric course began to form. She noted similarities with the works of Homer and discovered that Swift explores various literary forms and traditions, even engaging in debates about the different versions of her songs.
"It was like popcorn through my head," Scala said of the inspiration she felt from Swift's music. "I asked my daughter to help tailor the Swift-centric course for the Swifties, and she assured me it would be one of the most popular classes at UT Austin."
The first semester of Swift's songbook course will be offered in 2022 at one of the country's first major universities to present a Taylor Swift-focused course, along with an NYU class investigating Swift's appeal and aversion that Rolling Stone music reporter Brittany Spanos will teach as professor.
At first glance, the appeal of Taylor Swift courses on college campuses may seem trivial. However, as Scala's students discovered new textual treasures in Shakespeare's works as a result of the comparison with Swift's, one can see the value of her music reshaping students' perspectives on classic literature and arts.
In the following sections, we delve deeper into how Taylor Swift courses are challenging established disciplines and opening up new avenues for interdisciplinary learning, as well as discussing the enrichment data that has contributed to our understanding of these courses.
Enrichment Data
Taylor Swift's music and influence in the entertainment industry have captured the attention of academia for several reasons. Here are the key points:
- Emerging Research Topics:
- Literary Analysis: Courses like "Taylor Swift and Her World" at Harvard and "The Last Great American Songwriter: Storytelling Through the Eras with Taylor Swift" at Stanford focus on reading Swift's music as poetry, employing literary techniques to analyze her songs and their cultural impact.
- Cultural Significance:
- Critical Thinking: More schools become interested in examining Swift's cultural status, and Swift-focused classes have emerged as opportunities to discuss issues like the impact of celebrity and audience expectations.
- Interdisciplinary Approach:
- Empowering Fans: Course topics encompass sociological, psychological, and business-related aspects of Swift's work, merging insights from various disciplines to gain a comprehensive understanding of how she engages fans and builds her brand.
- Popular Cultural Impact:
- Creative Influence: Swift's influence extends beyond the music industry, with her impact on fashion, visual arts, and technology. This wide-ranging influence makes her an attractive subject for interdisciplinary exploration.
By offering these courses, universities seek to provide students with a deeper understanding of the ways in which Taylor Swift has shaped contemporary culture and created a discourse that spans various disciplines.
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References
As Taylor Swift's music and personas continue to captivate the world, it is no wonder that universities are increasingly offering courses exploring her work and impact. From studying her pop psychology to analyzing her aesthetic and cultural significance, Taylor Swift's contributions to modern culture are shaping the academic landscape for years to come.
