I've thought about Taylor Swift every day for almost 20 years. I still have no idea who she really is
Taylor Swift (born on December 13, 1989, to Andrea and Scott Swift) has been in my ears and my thoughts every one of the 6860 days since eight-year-old me first heard Teardrops On My Guitar 's wistful opening chords on the car radio. Her deepest and darkest desires and distresses have been my own for almost 20 years, with her diarised lyrics holding me through every heartbreak and happiness.
I feel like I know her better than the back of my own hand. I know that, despite her decades of music, documentaries, interviews and more, I don't know her at all. I admire her. I don't understand her. I don't know if I can believe everything she tells me, but I want, no, I need her to tell me more.
Swift did tell me more this week, but it only made me more conflicted. She has spent two decades building a billion-dollar empire on authenticity, but her New Heights podcast sit-down with her NFL tight end boyfriend proves we're being fed contradictions. And that's exactly by the marketing mastermind's own design: cleverly and constantly creating a deeper investment from her fans, a deeper desire to crack the enigma who has given us all the clues is, after all, to her bank account's benefit.
At the time of writing, more than 13 million people have watched Swift's charity appearance on Travis Kelce's podcast, which he hosts with Jason Kelce. At one point during the two-hour-long episode's live premiere, more than 1.3 million people were hanging on her every word. I was one of them, and, like always, when she teared up speaking about buying back the master recordings of her first six albums after a lengthy and emotional war (notably involving a battle with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West), I teared up with her. But then I started thinking.
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'Since I was a teenager, I've been actively saving up money to buy my music back,' Swift, whom Forbes estimates has a net worth of US$1.6 billion ($2.4 billion), told her trophy boyfriend, his brother, and the world. (I have contributed at least $10,000 to this fund over the years).
'For me, this is not, 'Oh, I want to own this asset because of its returns, because of the dividends that I will receive over the years,'' she explained.
'I want it because these [are] my handwritten diary entries from my whole life. These are the songs I wrote about every phase of my life. This is my photography, my music videos, most of which I funded. My artwork, everything that I've ever done, is in this catalogue.'
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