Some of Taylor Swiftâs fans want you to know three things: Theyâre not still 16, they have careers and resources and, right now, theyâre angry. Thatâs a powerful political motivator, researchers say.
Look what Ticketmaster made them do.
It started Nov. 15, when millions crowded a presale for Swiftâs long-awaited Eras Tour, By Thursday, citing insufficient remaining tickets and inciting a firestorm of outrage from fans. Swift herself said
Ticketmaster apologized but the bad blood had already been sowed. And now fans â and politicians â have started acting on it.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez directed Swifties to where they could make U.S. Department of Justice complaints. Multiple â including in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, key states in Swiftâs origin story â have announced investigations.
Stephanie Aly, a New York-based professional who has worked on community organizing for progressive politics, for years has thought mobilizing fandoms for social progress could be beneficial.
âFandoms are natural organizers,â said the 33-year-old Swiftie. âIf you find the right issues and you activate them and engage them then you can effect real change.â
In 2020, for instance, K-pop fans organized to and sought to inflate registration for a Donald Trump rally. Aly and Swifties from different industries â law, public relations, cybersecurity and more â have joined forces to create Vigilante Legal, a group lobbying to create policy change around Ticketmaster and organize the Swifties, while creating email templates to petition attorneys general and providing antitrust information. Thousands have expressed interest in helping or learning more.
âThe level of anger that youâve just seen in the country around this issue is astounding,â said Jean Sinzdak, associate director for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. âPeople are really sharing their feelings about that and building a movement about that online, which I really think is quite fascinating. Itâs certainly an opportunity to engage people politically. Whether it lasts is hard to say, but it certainly feels like a real opportunity.â
In one way, said Sinzdak, this is giving Swiftâs large following of younger people a direct line to seeing how policy takes shape. Itâs also targeting a demographic that is seldom courted by politicians during election season.
âNobody goes out and thinks, âLetâs target young women,ââ said Gwen Nisbett, a University of North Texas professor who researches the intersection of political engagement and pop culture. âBe it about abortion or student loans, that age group is super mobilized and young women are super mobilized.â
Fan culture and community has boosted that tendency toward mobilization. Nisbett was studying parasocial relationships â when fans have strong one-way relationships with celebrities â in 2018, when the previously apolitical Swift posted an endorsement of Democratic candidates to social media. Nisbett found that while such posts may not determine fans' votes, they still led to the increased likelihood fans would look for more information about voting â and actually vote.
For the record: an extensive survey of the U.S. electorate, showed about a third of Tennessee voters in 2018 said they had a favorable opinion of Swift, and among them, a large majority â about 7 in 10 â backed Democrat Phil Bredesen in the Senate contest. That was in clear contrast to the roughly third of voters who had an unfavorable opinion of Swift and overwhelmingly backed Republican Marsha Blackburn.
For Swifties, the ire for Ticketmaster is not just about a ticket: âItâs the fact that you canât participate in your community and your fandom and itâs part of your identity,â Nisbett said.
This isnât even the first time a fandom or an artist has targeted Ticketmaster. in 1994, although the to bring a case. More recently, Bruce Springsteen fans were enraged over high ticket costs because of the platformâs dynamic pricing system.
âItâs not just about getting vengeance for Swifties. Itâs not about getting an extra million Taylor Swift fans tickets, or all of us going to a secret session,â said Jordan Burger, 28, who is using his law background to help the cause. âItâs about fundamental equality. And when you have a monopolist like that, itâs just so representative of the class structure of a society where there isnât equality anymore, there isnât fairness.â
The sheer power and size of Swiftâs fandom has spurred conversations about economic inequality, merely symbolized by Ticketmaster.
Aly noted that quite a few of the members of the group did get tickets; the issue is is bigger than Ticketmaster, she said.
âWeâve gotten some feedback that, âThis is too big, let the government handle it.â Have you seen the U.S. government? The government only functions when the people push it to and when the people demand that it function and the people are involved,â she said. âEven when something seems too big to fail or too powerful to fail, there are always enough of us to make a difference. Your involvement may be the thing that pushes it over the edge that forces the government to act.â
Aly says many grown-up Swifties have 10-15 yearsâ experience of being bullied for liking the singer â but what fans have in mind might be better than revenge.
âWe have thick skin and nothing to lose, really,â Aly said.
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Associated Press journalist Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Washington. Brooke Schultz is a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Brooke Schultz, The Associated Press
