MSU professor uses Taylor Swift to explore politics, culture and history
How does pop culture connect to society and help us understand other people? This fall, students at MSU are learning about pop culture in a brand-new interdisciplinary social science course focused on pop star Taylor Swift. In ISS 210 Society and the Individual: The Taylor Swift Phenomenon, students explore Swift’s cultural impact by looking at economic, political, environmental, historical and gender-based contexts.
Emily Muhich, assistant professor in the College of Social Science, is teaching the class and plans to break down gender criticism, the idea of belonging, and how Swift can be used as a lens for the greater impact of pop culture. Here, Muhich explains what Swift can teach us about culture and what she hopes students take away from this class.
What Taylor Swift-related topics will be taught during the course?
Taylor Swift’s ability to interact with fans and make fans feel like they have a sort of personal relationship with her is dependent on social media: social media between her and her fans, and then between her fans and others. We’re going to look at international laws around social media and age use. Students will come up with what they think is an appropriate age range for people to be on social media, see the problems it can cause, the benefits it can have — especially for disadvantaged or underrepresented groups. There are benefits to social media, and there are consequences.
We are also able to use Swift’s interactions and her presence in the world to look at different pop culture issues and issues that the students are already engaging with personally. We’re going to look at the economic breakdowns of stops on the Eras Tour, read about a law on social media usage and decide what would be applicable in the United States, and read a Harvard Law review on what’s happened to music contracts since Taylor Swift started releasing her re-records, or previously released songs.
What can Taylor Swift’s public existence teach us about culture?
Because of who she is, the type of music that she writes and her experience in the world, Taylor Swift has been able to teach about gender criticism, gender breakdowns and gender inequalities. Taylor has quite a few songs where she explores how she feels she’s being held back by expectations about femininity and the position of women in the world. On the other side, because she’s exceptionally popular and successful, she is setting the standard for a lot of young women and girls of what femininity looks like.
We can also learn about previous periods of American pop music and try to understand the way that Swift pulls from these different periods of American pop music — twisting and reshaping these ideas and musical concepts to create something that’s new and speaks to the experience of so many people today. How do we analyze art from the present? How do we analyze art from the past? How do we think about the fact that all popular culture had to resonate with a lot of people for it to become popular? Not every individual had to like it but on some level, it resonated with the experience that people during that moment were having.
Taylor Swift can teach us about the idea of belonging. She’s able to bring together people from all over the world that don’t have anything in common besides liking her music. They’re able to form into a community. For example, the friendship bracelet exchange that fans participated in throughout the Eras Tour was one of the most remarkable things her fans have done, and it really built community. There is a sense of togetherness that exists because her fans like the same person. It’s interesting to look at how identifying as a ‘Swiftie’ or liking her affects people, even if they’re probably never going to meet her in their life.
How does this course reflect the broader goals of the Integrative Social Sciences curriculum?
Ultimately, ISS learning objectives are trying to help students understand a process — integrating social science perspectives around complex social issues — so that they can apply those skills to their own lives, future jobs and their communities. We can teach those skills with many different topics. With Taylor Swift, specifically, we get to look at source analysis, the historical context for the music industry and the concept of fandoms, the legal framework Swift is working in, the environmental impact she has, all of the economic repercussions even a single stop on the Eras Tour had, parasocial relationships, and why so many of her fans feel that they know her personally.
What do you hope students will take away from this course?
I’m trying to create a model of how to interact with pop culture because students are going to be interacting with pop culture their whole lives. I’m trying to get students to consider how we can think about art as a way not just to understand the artist, but to understand all the individuals that artist’s work resonated with. Who supported it by streaming a song, going to a movie or downloading a show? Or, if we’re talking historically — buying a physical record, interacting in a stage situation, physically going into a theater to watch a live performance. What does that say about their lived experience? And how can the art help us understand other people?