Second Submission Change Log:
– Shortened and clarified topic sentence.
– Added final sentence in introduction to clarify essay aim and method.
– Added or refined clear topic sentences in following paragraphs.
– Clarified the ‘introduction to evidence to analysis to conclusion’ structure of paragraphs.
– Added inverted commas and a source to the description of the country genre.
– Explained inclusion of the Homo economicus as a concept.
– Removed references to Swift as an individual in favour of as a brand, when appropriate.
– Rephrased discussion of intent behind Swift’s actions to remove implication of definitive meaning.
– Added evidence from the content of the documentary Miss Americana directly in the paragraph concerning it.
– Capitalised the ‘S’ in ‘Swifties’.
– Added a clear connection from the ninth paragraph, eighth body paragraph, to overarching argument.
– Reduced word count to accommodate for additions, made language more efficient.
Assignment 2, Essay Submission 2: Celebrities
TOPIC 5
Celebrities
Choose a person who is famous in contemporary media and explain why they are a star, celebrity, microcelebrity, or celetoid using relevant scholarly references. What ideologies are they seen to embody (why/how)? In what ways have they been used as a marketing or moneymaking commodity? What is the relationship between these ideologies and their moneymaking functions?
Taylor Swift is a star who embodies the ideologies of neoliberalism and neoliberal feminism. Her brand has been used as a marketing and moneymaking commodity by her parents, Scott Borchetta, and herself. Her power and influence in marketing and moneymaking are due to the support provided by her parents, and her musical premiere as facilitated by Borchetta. The values and beliefs of neoliberalism and neoliberal feminism support the public story of her rise to fame, her continuing success as an ‘independent’ and ‘uniquely talented’ individual, justifying her enormous wealth, and solidifying support from her fandom. The following case studies will be used as evidence of the function and substance of Swift’s celebrity: the 2020 documentary Miss Americana, the release of the ‘Taylor’s Version’ albums, her 2018 political endorsement, and the #tay4hottest100 event. This essay will analyse the content of these sources for evidence to argue that Swift, as a brand, is an embodiment of neoliberalism and neoliberal feminism.
Swift fulfills the definition of a star, as is necessary for her brand to generate and benefit from the publicity that it creates. O’Shaughnessy defines a star as “an elite type of celebrity based, at least initially, on a person’s outstanding personal achievement”. A celebrity itself is a “public figure whose private life and public appearances frequently attract the media spotlight”. Among a host of other critical acclaim, Swift has received a dozen Grammy awards, and her personal life has been under as much scrutiny as her career. Public feuds with Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, and Scooter Braun garnered rapt attention from the public, as did her infamous ex-relationships with Joe Jonas, Jake Gyllenhaal, and DJ Calvin Harris (Franssen, 2022). Through her public ‘personal’ life and lauded achievements, Swift is a verifiable star and celebrity, which is integral for her brand to embody the monetary heights of neoliberalism, and reach a wide audience.
Swift has long embodied the values of neoliberalism, as well as being a perfect example of the lies behind neoliberalism’s façade of equality. The first genre that Swift conquered, for a time, was country. The genre places an emphasis on genuine expression of rural lived experiences, “source-focused authenticity”, and conformity to the expected sound of country music, “music-focused authenticity” (Malone, 2023). Neoliberalism promotes the achievement of embodying the concept of Homo economicus, a ‘self-made’ economic success (Ganti, 2014), which is congruent with the authenticity called for by the country genre. In being marketed as the humble country girl, the fact that her wealthy parents moved across the country from affluent suburban Pennsylvania to situate her in the country capital of Nashville, and invested in the record label that signed her, is suppressed. In constructing a new history of Swift as a resident of Nashville and an up-and-coming star, Swift’s brand conforms to the expectations of country music and neoliberalism. Outwardly, Swift is the ideal model of the self-made Neoliberal success and its values- independence, entrepreneurial spirit, and hard-won talent; inwardly, she is the reality of neoliberalism that only favours those with established wealth and influence, by removing regulations on the market.
As an embodiment of neoliberal ideology and a successful woman, Swift is forced to represent a kind of feminism that is performative enough to be marketable, but not effective enough to be disruptive- neoliberal feminism. Colley and White (2019) differentiate neoliberal feminism from non-moderate feminism by defining it as based on an “ethos focusing upon the apotheosis of an individual female subject, who demonstrates an interest in gender inequality”, lacking a “focus upon collective action and the role that structural and cultural forces play” in gender inequality. Swift’s charges against David Mueller for sexually assaulting her could be framed as her ‘apotheosis’, publicly drawing her brand into the feminist political sphere. Upon winning the case, she made a speech against the exploitative nature of the record industry’s culture; at the conclusion of this, she pledged to donate money to charities that support victims of sexual assault (Théberge, 2021). In blaming a small portion of society’s culture for enabling sexual assault, Swift ignores the wider systemic issues at play in upholding patriarchy and oppressing women, but publicly identifies herself as the ‘safe’ kind of feminist who doesn’t challenge the patriarchal neoliberal status quo- merely individuals responsible for sexual assault, and the companies that enable them.
Swift’s value for marketing and moneymaking is evident from the disputes over her assets between her former manager and other entities. The Swift brand and its assets have been utilised by her parents since her birth, by Scott Borchetta while she was signed with Big Machine, by Scooter Braun when he acquired the rights to the master recordings of her music, and by Swift herself when she came of age. Swift’s parents are on her advisory board and payroll, Borchetta received a large investment from Swift’s parents for signing her and being her manager, Braun receives royalties from Swift’s old music, and Swift has used her own celebrity to market fragrances, secure sponsorship deals, and sell merchandise alongside the profiting from her recordings and tours (Théberge, 2021). Swift, as a commercial entity, is versatile and influential; she, her manager(s), her songs’ copyright holders, and her parents, all profit greatly from its inherent marketing and moneymaking ability.
Miss Americana, the 2020 documentary, further cements Swift as embodying the neoliberal values of independence, entrepreneurial spirit, and hard-won success. She is presented as the archetypal protagonist of the myth of ‘pulling yourself up by your bootstraps’. In the documentary’s trailer, Swift is quoted as saying she achieved “happiness without anyone else’s input”, and “deconstruct[ed] an entire… system… toss[ed] it out, reject[ed] it,” which creates an aura of individual success around her brand (Netflix, 2020). Franssen (2022) summarises the argument made by Prins (2020), that “the neoliberal landscape, goodness, authenticity and control go together,” and that Miss Americana centres Swift’s “self-improvement” and “gendered morality”. The 2020 documentary realises the neoliberal ideals of Swift’s career, and promotes the values of the ideology to her audience.
As a star, Swift is famous for her accomplishments, and her celebrity status is effective in marketing and selling products, and securing brand deals. After losing the possibility of owning the masters of her first six albums, Swift rereleased all of them with new masters and the subtitle “Taylor’s Version”. Swift’s fans were appealed to stream these remastered albums, thereby securing herself more revenue through her celebrity status. To accompany the release of the album reputation, UPS was given exclusive shipping rights for Swift products; this enabled the sale of all of her products through her own website and the album displayed on UPS trucks (Théberge, 2021). Through releasing “Taylor’s Version” albums and partnering with UPS, Swift’s celebrity is used as an extremely effective moneymaking and marketing tool.
Swift provides support for neoliberalism by endorsing candidates from the Democratic party, rallying her fans to vote for them, therefore her celebrity perpetuates the status quo that benefits her. Neoliberalism benefits from the continuing existence of a government that deregulates the markets, as is common practice on both sides of the two-party system in the United States of America, half of which is the Democratic party. Nisbett and Schartel Dunn (2021) conducted research that gathered data which would suggest that because Swift’s public image is consistent with the politics of her 2018 endorsement, the parasocial engagement of her fans who were encouraged to vote was less likely to backfire due to its nature as influencing politics. These findings indicate that Swift’s celebrity effected politics, and it infers that it was only so successful because this action was consistent her celebrity image; Swift is a consistently neoliberal entity in the public eye. Swift, as evidenced here, is a Neoliberal political figure that recognisably embodies the ideology to her fans, which influences her audience to support Neoliberal political candidates.
Swift’s massive stardom is such that her fanbase, the ‘Swifties’, eagerly campaign on her behalf, in what is clearly a parasocial relationship, indicative of the seeming authenticity of Swift’s celebrity. To promote Swift’s single ‘Shake It Off’ for inclusion in Triple J’s Hottest 100 playlist, Swifties galvanised their Twitter presence to get #tay4hottest100 trending. Swift did not call for this, but the movement gathered so much attention that KFC strategically posted support for Swift on Facebook. This post eventually disqualified the single from the playlist due to Triple J’s rule against an artist being promoted by a commercial campaign (Fuller, 2018). Swift is such an influential star that her works being discussed incites parasocially involved Swifties to rally on Swift’s behalf. Neoliberalism functions on the belief that wealth belongs to those who earn it (Ganti, 2014), and Swift’s fanbase have been convinced by her branding that she is one such success, and deserves recognition- her celebrity has succeeded in manifesting belief in Neoliberal myths.
This essay posits that Swift is a star who embodies and profits from her embodiment of neoliberalism and neoliberal feminism, making her brand an extremely effective moneymaker and marketing tool. The following have been used as the basis for argument surrounding Swift’s celebrity: her star status, her parents, her career, neoliberal ideology and values, neoliberal feminism, the connection between the ideologies she embodies and her marketability and moneymaking ability, and a selection of case studies (Miss Americana, ‘Taylor’s Version’, 2018 political endorsement, and #tay4hottest100). In analysing these, it has been argued that: Swift embodies neoliberalism and neoliberal feminism, her brand is an incredibly successful moneymaker and marketing tool for herself and others, her brand is built on neoliberal values, she contributes to her neoliberal image with her documentary, she holds sway over political matters due to her star power, and she has grown a large parasocial fanbase that is eager to rally for her causes. Ultimately, this essay posits and supports the idea that Swift is an incredibly successful model of the public-facing ideals of neoliberalism.
References
Colley, L., & White, C. (2019). Neoliberal feminism: The neoliberal rhetoric on feminism by Australian political actors. Gender, Work, and Organization, 26(8), 1083–1099. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12303
Franssen, G. (2022). Policing the celebrity of Taylor Swift: introduction. Celebrity Studies, 13(1), 90–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2022.2026148
Fuller, G. (2018). The #tay4hottest100 new media event: discourse, publics and celebrity fandom as connective action. Communication Research and Practice, 4(2), 167–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2017.1295221
Ganti, T. (2014). Neoliberalism. Annual Review of Anthropology, 43(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155528
Malone, E. (2023). Country Music and the Problem of Authenticity. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 63(1), 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayac020
Netflix. (2020, February 1). MISS AMERICANA | Official Trailer | Netflix [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q07_k5VKuaQ
Nisbett, G., & Schartel Dunn, S. (2021). Reputation matters: parasocial attachment, narrative engagement, and the 2018 Taylor Swift political endorsement. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 29(1), 26–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2019.1704758
O’Shaughnessy, M & Stadler, J. (2016). Stars and celebrities. In Media & society, 6th ed., Oxford University Press, Victoria, pp. 374–393. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/swin/detail.action?docID=5402098
Prins, A. (2020). From awkward teen girl to aryan goddess meme: Taylor Swift and the hijacking of star texts. Celebrity Studies, 11 (1), 144–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2020.1704431
Théberge, P. (2021). Love and Business: Taylor Swift as Celebrity, Businesswoman, and Advocate. Contemporary Music Review, 40(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2021.1945227
van Krieken, R. (2018). Celebrity in cyberspace: Micro-celebrity and globalization. In Celebrity society: The struggle for attention, 2nd ed., Routledge, New York, 179–198. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/swin/detail.action?docID=5611530
