As the Kansas City Chiefs gear up for their fifth Super Bowl appearance in six seasons, one of the biggest stories surrounding the team has little to do with the players actually on the field. It's Taylor Swift.
While it's long seemed like Swift has had no room left to grow, the popstar has seen her star reach new heights over the past few years. Her internet-breaking Eras Tour has become the highest-grossing tour of all time, having raked in over a billion dollars in one calendar year, and it's still got nearly a full year to go.
But lately, even her historic artistic feats are starting to seem like a sideshow. In September 2023, Swift broke the internet once again when it surfaced that she was dating the Chiefs' star tight end Travis Kelce. Kelce has been a rising star outside the game of football in his own right. After the Chiefs controversially eeked out a win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, Kelce was able to leverage his way into some advertising work for small-time mom-and-pop brands like State Farm, DirecTV, McDonald's, Subway, Budweiser, Experian, and is now the face of Pfizer.
While Swift has been one of the most widely known celebrities in the world for years now, her spotlight dominance was often limited to the hyper-liberal spheres of pop culture in which she reigns supreme. But pro sports are an entirely different demographic. Her getting together with Kelce, an American football great, rounded the horseshoe.
It seemed so tailor-made for eyeballs that many even thought it was fake. In a league like the NFL, where many fans are already suspicious about the integrity of the on-field product, one can see why Taylor Swift onscreen after every Kelce reception could wear viewers down.
Swift fatigue, which in previous years may have been limited to those who have tired of her most recent musical efforts, has worked its way into new corners of American culture.
But how did we get here?
Swift built her career off the back of her razor-sharp songwriting skills, fierce work ethic, and knack for shaping artistic eras. Everyone liked "You Belong With Me" when Fearless came out, whether they wanted to admit it or not. Red was undoubtedly one of the best rock-centric pop albums of the 2010s. Even as she moved resoundingly into the world of pop, songs like "New Year's Day" and "Cornelia Street" cemented themselves in a cultural lexicon that even the snobbiest of suits or record producers often lent credence to.
But Swift's simple existence has become a cultural, political, and even societal rub with a large chunk of the populace. Contrary to her path to stardom, which came off the back of her talents, her ascent to influence has come off the back of "Swifties," her most avid fans which at this point are ostensibly a mainstream cult that Morning Consult found to consist overwhelmingly of white urban and suburbanites who are Democrats or Independents. In other words, the Swifties are an incredibly valuable voter block for Democrats, who must rally the troops behind an unpopular incumbent in President Biden in 2024.
As California Governor Gavin Newsom pointed out, in September, around the time Swift started seeing Kelce, the pop singer's impact on the upcoming election could be weighty.
While Swift tries to remain quiet politically with her words, she endorsed a few Tennessee Democrats in 2018 and President Biden in 2020. And it's hard to imagine she'll jump ship now.
But it's not just Swift's newfound political nature that leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. After all, she's an American with a right to use her voice. The First Amendment doesn't come with a carve-out for social status.
It's how much her entire existence has come to represent an establishment Americans are losing trust in, and a deepening class divide that continues to weaken national unity. Swift is presently propelled by a group of white suburban liberals who spend more on a three-hour concert than the average American earns in weeks. She's dating a pro athlete who makes $14 million a year, has knelt for the National Anthem, and is the face of Pfizer.
Music and sports have always been havens of respite for the disgruntled American. At least to the perception of the average person, sports and art are supposed to be spaces where what you see is what you get, and nothing more. And yet in today's hyper-political world, the coupling of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce has robbed them even of that respite, thanks to what the two represent.
Right before our eyes, Taylor Swift has become a polarizing figure, and it has nothing to do with what America fell in love with in the first place: her music.
Andy Gorel is a photographer, journalist, and recording artist by the name of LA Parties. Currently, he serves as a News Editor at AllSides and Music Editor at C-Heads Magazine. You can find him on Instagram and lapartiesworld.com.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
