It began as a night of stars – glowing electric homemade signs, blinking lights draped around dancing dresses, and hundreds of camera flashes pulsing through a dark ocean of audience. A crowd of screaming girls in a sea of twinkling wonder waiting for the biggest and brightest star of them all.
When Taylor Swift takes the stage you can feel the magic.
It’s everywhere. It vibrates through an arena filled with young girls jumping up and down, hugging the friends and family around them, and spastically and almost instinctually letting out screams of “Taylor I love you!” all through quiet tears of joy. I wish I loved anything as much as those fans loved Taylor Swift.
But after watching her show at the St. Pete Times Forum on Saturday, I can understand why this iconic young superstar has managed to cultivate such a crazy following of loyal, die-hard fans.
She really is something special.
I am in awe of the show that Taylor Swift put on. Not because the stage sets were intricate and constantly changing – not because she played roughly a dozen different guitars, a ukulele and piano throughout the night – and not because she flew through the audience on floating balcony (although all of that was pretty awesome too). I am in awe of the show that Taylor Swift put on because thorough all of the hype, sparkle and spotlight – it was real.
No team of writers and marketers, make-up artists, pop culture consultants and fashion experts have created Taylor Swift. She isn’t a gold star in target market research or a deliberate image designed to sell albums or posters or magazines. Taylor Swift is just a girl with a guitar and an uncanny ability to see things as they really are.
All through Taylor’s show she shared insight beyond her years – offering advice on love and loss, insecurity, loneliness and friendship, and making the most of everything that life has to offer.
Thank god for Taylor Swift.
Young girls across the world – including my 13 year-old sister who I took to the concert – finally have a role model to believe in.
I can’t help but feel cheated that I didn’t have the same solid pop culture icon when I was younger.
My generation grew up under the teen pop phenomenon led by Britney Spears, a calculated plan of sex-sells, exposed midriffs and a debut single “Baby One More Time” – a song that never felt like a 16-year old was singing it.
Taylor Swift never uses sex to sell. Not once during the entire two hour show (and dozen costume changes) did I see Swift’s stomach, cleavage, or thighs – but she looked beautiful every single time she took the stage.
And on her debut single “Tim McGraw,” Taylor Swift didn’t need any subtext or subliminal sex to sell records. All she needed was a simple song, with lyrics like a diary that girls could relate to.
Her first song, like her image, wasn’t hype or attention – it was authentic, heart-felt, raw and true. Early on girls didn’t buy into Taylor Swift because they felt forced to imitate her image, they bought into Taylor Swift because they already mirrored her image.
What is the major difference between a superstar like Britney Spears and Taylor Swift?
Girls want to be Brittany Spears. Girls already are Taylor Swift.
Looking around the crowd of 14,000 screaming girls when Taylor Swift took the stage, I had hope – hope that the next generation of girls can succeed with replicating the authenticity, self-respect, intelligence, humor, kindness and depth that this 20-something cultural phenomenon exudes.
And I didn’t even need the whole show to prove it to me.
In the opening minutes of Taylor Swift’s show as she stood quietly on stage, soaking in the adoring screams of her fans – it was obvious this was no sign of self-absorbed indulgence in success.
I believe I know what Taylor Swift must feel when she stands in awe of her audience, because I was feeling it too.
There is an incredible admiration in staring into a crowd of a Taylor Swift fans, because those girls aren’t buying into a prefabricated pop-icon and cheering for a girl that they will never be – they are embracing a genuine girl who is just like them and celebrating the real girls they already are.