As millennials, we grew up loving Beyoncé and Taylor Swift — in an era when being a fan didn't quite brand you a fanatic the way it does today. While both stars rose to fame singing about matters of the heart, neither has escaped politics. Both have, in select moments, used their positions and influence to amplify and engage in political messages. Those choices not only elevated the stakes of their careers but also helped transform their fandoms into something more akin to tribes (speaking as original members of the Swifties and the Beyhive, respectively). "Tribes might be the exact right way to think about it," says Tressie McMillan Cottom on this week's episode of "Matter of Opinion." Tressie joined the hosts Ross Douthat, Lydia Polgreen and Michelle Cottle to debate the weird and often messy situationship between America's celebrities and politicians. "They're fandoms, but they are also consumer groups. And if you're a politician right now, you're thirsty for both of those," Tressie says. "You want a rabid, devoted, emotionally driven base of people, and that's why politicians look to celebrities during election seasons." It's a phenomenon Donald Trump understands all too well. Both Beyoncé and Swift have new albums coming out just weeks apart. And their fans will no doubt spend hours decoding the messages behind the catchy lyrics. But in this critical election year, one larger question will hang over these stars and their fandoms: Will they move their legions of worshipers to get out the vote? Read a condensed and edited excerpt from the conversation below, and listen to the full episode here. Tressie McMillan Cottom: One of the things that's remarkable about Beyoncé and Taylor Swift is that they are über-celebrities in an era of microcelebrities, a microcelebrity being someone who is famous with a niche population. So some of Taylor Swift's and Beyoncé's power is about the fact that they are universally known in this moment of microcelebrity. But we keep talking about this as if it does matter. I talked to some political scientists when everybody was kind of going gaga about "Taylor Swift could swing the election if she could get everybody to register to vote," and that's not how this works. Michelle Cottle: What's the difference substantively from, say, Taylor Swift endorsing a particular politician versus Taylor Swift just telling everybody it is very important that you go register to vote? Tressie: Those are two distinct things. I would argue that's more of a consciousness-raising, to use the old feminist term. That's not the same as having the infrastructure to actually get out and vote. So even when we're talking about how much celebrities matter, they may matter more for attention than they do for anything we consider, like, electoral politics.
Lydia Polgreen: There was a survey in 2019 by Hill-HarrisX that said that 65 percent of respondents said political endorsements from Hollywood celebrities have no bearing on their voting decisions. Most surprising, it said that 24 percent said that celebrity endorsements would make them less likely to vote for the celebrity's preferred candidate. Ross Douthat: There's an interesting dynamic where I think both Beyoncé and Taylor Swift create a sense that they could have a political impact precisely because they aren't microcelebrities, but they have a little bit of that microcelebrity identification from their fan bases. At least I see with Swift, if the celebrity does something that the fan doesn't immediately naturally like, they become sort of disappointed with the celebrity, right? Tressie: I think some of that is because we think that celebrities move their fan base when in fact, it's the fans that move celebrities.
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Saturday, March 30, 2024
Opinion Today: What Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Trump all understand
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