Standing on Holy Ground: Exploring Taylor Swift Fan Culture as a Modern Religion

Standing on Holy Ground: Exploring Taylor Swift Fan Culture as a Modern Religion

Phoebe Salomon
HONR 490
Christopher Newport University
April 19, 2024

Copyright 2024 Phoebe Salomon

In today’s world, there are fan groups for almost anything one can think of. Trekkies, fans of the Star Trek franchise, are often considered the first media fandom. Potterheads and Whovians, fans of Harry Potter and Doctor Who, respectively, are two other famous examples. Through the growing prominence of popular culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and the rise of social media, there are more fandoms than ever before. The devotion fans have to a television show, a movie franchise, or a specific celebrity has led some scholars to draw connections between fandom and religion. While others take issue with this comparison, largely due to the complexity of religion, several key components in religion can be identified in fan culture—everything from rituals and symbols to spiritual experiences. As younger generations find less satisfaction with organized religion, many have found their faith in fandom. Music superstar Taylor Swift and her prominent fanbase the Swifties exemplify this. As Swift’s Eras Tour drew fans from all over the globe–both to the in-person concerts and the concert film released in late 2023–they took part in an unforgettable spiritual journey together.   

Many have viewed the emergence of fan culture as a reaction to the rise of media, technology, and popular culture beginning in the twentieth century. However, people were fans of things long before terms like “fan” and “fandom” existed. While the exact origins of the slang term “fan” are largely unknown, it is typically connected to one of two terms: “fanatic” and “fancy.” According to American Studies scholar Daniel Cavicchi, “fanatic” comes from the Latin fanaticus which means “a religious and later a political zealot” (54). Alternatively, in the 1890s, American sports writers used the term “fancy” to refer to “those who shared a preference for a competitor” (Cavicchi 54). In the twentieth century, this usage was further applied to devoted music and film lovers. Fandoms began to take off in the late 1960s as Star Trek fans, or Trekkies, bonded over critical discussion of the show and created creative responses in the form of fan art. By the late 1990s, thanks to the growing popularity of the World Wide Web, the fandom world exploded. People could join and create communities all over the world, planting the seed for fandoms to be created for a wide variety of books, movies, TV shows, and celebrities. 

As the importance of fandoms in our society has grown, scholars have started to make connections between fan communities and religion. Much of the criticism of this comparison comes from the ambiguity of what religion is. Michael A. Elliott, a sociology professor at Towson University, explains that definitions of religion tend to fall into one of two categories: substantive and functional. Substantive definitions “emphasize the content or substance of a religion” whereas functional definitions “emphasize the effects that religion has on groups and their members” (3-4). Using these definitions, fandoms could be understood as religion under the functional definition. Jennifer Porter, a religious studies professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, describes fandom as an implicit religion. She writes that fandoms are “a place that embodies a person’s and/or a community’s expression of the essence of all meaning [. . .] As a result, pop culture fandoms are implicitly religious” (277). While there may not be a higher power to believe in or a sacred text to follow, the same could be said about certain recognized organized religions. What is relevant is that religion and fandom are centered around devotion and that devotion results in the building of a dedicated community. 

While fandom as a religion is an interesting concept all by itself, it becomes more interesting when coupled with the phenomenon of younger generations leaving organized religion and the fact that they predominantly make up the major fandoms in society. According to Daniel A. Cox, the director of the Survey Center on American Life, one-third of Generation Z (born 1995-2012) is religiously unaffiliated, followed by Millennials (born 1980-1994) with twenty-nine percent. Additionally, while Generation Z may be growing up without choosing religion, more Millennials are leaving religion and not choosing to return, resulting in a large amount of the younger population being religiously unaffiliated. (Cox and Thomson-DeVeaux). When this is compared to what generations make up many of the larger fandoms, a trend emerges. According to Saleah Blancaflor, a data reporter at Morning Consult, a business intelligence company that provides survey research, fifty-two percent of Harry Potter fans are millennials and fifteen percent are Gen Z adults. Similarly, according to Marisa Dellatto, an entertainment business reporter for Forbes, forty-five percent of Swifties are millennials and eleven percent are Gen Z adults. While there is no one-to-one correspondence between leaving religion and joining a fandom, and many are devoted to both spheres, the growing dissatisfaction of younger people with mainstream religion and their turning to another source of faith is intriguing.

Pilgrimage: 

 

The idea of visiting a sacred place can be seen throughout religion and fandom. For many individuals, religious pilgrimage is not only an important part of their faith as a whole but also an important way they show their devotion and connection to their faith. According to Daniel H. Olsen, a professor of geography at Brigham Young University, “Pilgrimage sites [. . .] draw religious people for a variety of reasons, including curiosity, worship, initiatory and/or cleansing rituals, healing, to be educated, and to maintain religious identities” (94). Although not all religions practice pilgrimage, it can be found throughout many of the major organized religions. The Hajj is one of the most famous examples of religious pilgrimage. An annual pilgrimage to what is considered the holiest place in the Islamic religion due to its connection to the Prophet Muhammad, two million Muslims made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 2023 (Baratz). Muslims make this journey not only because it is a requirement of their faith, all Muslims who are physically and financially able are required to do it at least once in their life, but because it brings them closer to other followers and to God. 

Like a Muslim feels a connection to Mecca, a fan can also feel a connection to a location significant to their fandom. Popular culture tourism is traveling to a location featured in a book, TV show, or movie. People travel from all around the world to visit the locations featured in their favorite fictional worlds. Some of the most famous examples are related to the Harry Potter franchise as people travel to Alnwick Castle, Leadenhall Market, and the Millennium Bridge just due to their appearances in the films. If fans want to join in with others, they can take Outlander tours of Edinburgh, Friends tours of New York City, and Sherlock tours of London. Although most of the existing literature focuses on television and film-induced tourism, there is also a strong connection between popular culture tourism and locations associated with celebrities. According to Mark Duffett, an Associate Professor in Media at the University of Chester, UK, people began traveling to William Shakespeare’s birthplace in the eighteenth century. Fictional or real, people want to feel close to those who impact our lives. A desire that, for many, can be accomplished by existing in the same space even if it is at different moments in time. 

 

When connecting the idea of religious pilgrimage to the experiences and actions of Swifties, an interesting situation emerges. Fans of Harry Potter are eager to visit locations like King’s Cross Station and Christ Church because they have seen them on the screen as a part of that world. However, when it comes to fandom pilgrimage related to Taylor Swift, people are traveling to specific locations just due to their mention in a song. Lover especially, Swift’s seventh studio album, is filled with location mentions that span the globe, and, like should be expected of the Swiftie fandom, has resulted in them traveling the globe to see these locations. “Cornelia Street,” from the album Lover, references not only the street in New York City but specifically 23 Cornelia Street, where Swift lived for a few months in 2016. In my own trip to New York City in December of 2022, a stop at Cornelia Street to get a picture of the street sign and in front of Swift’s previous residence was on the itinerary. The construction going on along the street didn’t stop me or the other fans who were there for the same reason. 

 

While traveling to sites connected to Swift can be viewed as a type of pilgrimage, stories of fans traveling to attend her concerts bear even more similarities to religious pilgrimage. On November 1, 2022, Swift announced The Eras Tour, her sixth concert tour and second stadium tour. Beginning in March 2023, she traveled across the United States, playing a total of fifty-two shows. In February 2024, she kicked off the international leg, where she will travel from Asia, Australia, and Europe. She will return to the United States in October to finish up the tour. Swifties are willing to travel anywhere in the world to see their idol, with Americans traveling to Europe and Asia and vice versa. The average fan spent $1,300 to go to The Eras Tour, with some spending thousands and even tens of thousands (QuestionPro). Joseph Pisani, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, writes how Swifties don’t even need a ticket. Thousands of people have gathered outside of the stadiums where Swift was playing. While some people are quick to criticize this behavior, pilgrims traveling to Mecca from outside Saudi Arabia pay, on average, $6,000 to complete the Hajj (Nabil). Cost is not a concern when given the chance to stand on sacred ground, whether that be in a stadium or the area surrounding the Kaaba. 

Symbols:

 

Symbolism can be found throughout all aspects of life. Some of them we use on a daily basis with little to no thought, such as a heart symbolizing love and arrows symbolizing direction. We naturally associate colors with certain emotions and actions. Yellow symbolizes happiness, whereas red can symbolize everything from love to anger. As our daily conversations have moved digitally, the use of emojis is based on our association of certain pictures with words and concepts. While symbols serve as a shorthand for communication, especially in texts and social media posts, it can also serve as a critical literary device. Authors fill their stories with symbols for the reader to find and interpret, allowing them to give their characters and stories more complexity if their audience is able to decode them. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth imagines blood on her hands, symbolic of her guilt. In the Hunger Games franchise, the mockingjay serves as a symbol of rebellion. As some of the oldest examples of literature, religious texts are filled with symbols. As some of the most current examples of popular culture, fandoms are constantly creating new symbols. Both play a key role in understanding the stories being told in fiction and in society. 

 

The fascinating power of a symbol is that it says something without using words. However, another interesting thing about symbols is that meaning can change over time. The ichthys, or the Christian fish, is one such example of this. A simple symbol created using two intersecting lines, it dates back to the second century when it first appeared in Christian art and literature. According to Garth S. Jowett, a professor of communications at the University of Houston, and Victoria O’Donnell, a professor of communications at Montana State University-Bozeman, the word ichthys is derived from a Greek acronym that translates to “Jesus Christ, Son of God, savior” (58). The symbol grew in popularity in the late second century as a secret form of communication. As Christians faced persecution in the Roman Empire, they used the fish to both leave the mark of their presence and to mark safe spaces of worship. “It was found scrawled on walls, trees, in the dust, and any place where Christians wished to leave their mark to communicate their increasing numbers and strength to others” (Jowett & O’Donnell 58). What was once a symbol of strength and perseverance is now a popular bumper sticker, used by both Christians and non-Christians to make their views clear. 

 

Today, we see fewer Christian fish on walls and trees, and more on the back of minivans. Adorning the back of your car with an ichthys may symbolize your affiliation with the Christian religion, but other groups have co-opted the symbol and made it their own. The Darwin fish is a simple adaptation of the Christian symbol, quickly changing it from a symbol of one’s relationship with Jesus to a symbol of “evolutionists, liberals and wiseacres” (Nussbaum). It is a statement of belief in evolution and overall disbelief in everything Christians stand for. According to David Nash, a lecturer of history at Oxford Brookes University, “This symbol signifies the freethinker’s penchant for the presentation of an alternative belief system alongside subtle (and often not so subtle) parody as a form of cultural criticism” (290). While some Christians take extreme offense at this parody, and it is important to not go too far, either way, it communicates an important message to society. Regardless of what the symbol represents, it is interesting to consider the fluidity of meaning. The fish meant one thing for millennia until it dramatically changed over the course of a century. No symbol is truly anchored in its meaning, allowing the way we communicate through them to evolve and change.

 

Over the years, Taylor Swift has used symbols to create a unique relationship with her fans. While she has created opportunities for fans to interact with her in person, Swift largely communicates with her fans through symbols or Easter eggs. Beginning in the lyric booklets for her CDs, Swift would capitalize random letters that spelled out a secret message. These Easter eggs are now found in her music videos, tour outfits, and Instagram posts. Her music video for “Look What You Made Me Do” is filled with snakes, a direct attack on Kim Kardashian, who called Swift a snake on Twitter. In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Swift said, “I love that they like the cryptic hint-dropping. Because as long as they like it, I'll keep doing it. It's fun. It feels mischievous and playful.” Today, decoding these messages is just part of being a Swiftie. These Easter eggs can range from references to old boyfriends to hinting at future album drops, but Swift especially loves number symbolism. Not only does 1989, the year she was born, appear as a common symbol but thirteen, Swift’s lucky number, is famous for having significance whenever it appears.

Swift loves to play around with the traditionally unlucky number thirteen. When explaining her love for the number, she said, “‘I was born on the 13th, I turned 13 on Friday the 13th, my first album went gold in 13 weeks. Also, my first song that ever went number 1, it had a 13 second intro, I didn't even do that on purpose! And every time I've ever won an award at an award show, I've either been seated in the 13th row, or row M, which is the 13th letter.’” She often releases albums on dates that add up to thirteen. For example, Lover was released on August 23, 8+2+3=13. Her album folklore was released on July 24, 7+2+4=13. Over the years, the use of the number thirteen has become more and more purposeful. Not only does Swift connect just about anything she can to the number, but Swifties will try to relate anything she does to the number. The ten-minute version of “All Too Well” is not just ten minutes, but ten minutes and thirteen seconds. In the music video for “Bejeweled,” a shot of an elevator panel shows thirteen floors. What was once purely coincidental is now a way for Swift to connect with her fans through a not-so-secret but special code. 

Language as symbols 

 

What brings many people to Taylor Swift’s music are her lyrics. Regardless of one’s personal feelings regarding the singer, Swift is acknowledged as a very talented musician and lyricist. It is these lyrics that make her both relatable and inspirational and bring the community of Swifites together. These lyrics have become so powerful and impactful for her fans, that for some it has become part of their daily speech, not unlike the way a Christian may weave Bible verses into their everyday speech. Cynthia Gordon, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, has spent years studying “familects,” or family dialects. Her study of Swifties has led her to coin a new term, “fanilect,” or fan dialect. She uses this to describe the way Swifites, as well as other fandoms, talk with each other. “They speak a language all their own. When fans weave her lyrics into conversations, they’re doing it with the context—Swift’s metaphors and double entendres, the situations and relationships the singer may be referencing—intact” (Ceres). But it is the ways her fans receive and respond to her music that reveals her iconic role.  

 

Although Swift is responsible for writing the lyrics, it is the Swifties who take it to the next level and infuse them with meaning and significance. Over the years, they have had various ways of doing this, but following the release of Midnights in October 2022, Swifities have found a new way to symbolize their love for Swift’s work: through friendship bracelets. In the song “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” Swift said “make the friendship bracelets” and Swifites listened. In preparation for the Eras Tour, Swifties began making friendship bracelets by the hundreds to trade with fellow Swifties at the concert. To the non-Swiftie, these bracelets would look like a toddler strung a bunch of random letters together. But believe it or not, LWYMMD, DBATC, and IKYWT all stand for something–they are acronyms for Taylor Swift songs. The symbolism doesn’t end there. While partially impacted by the color of the vinyl that Swift released, Swifties have given each album or era a color. The acronym LWYMMD, or “Look What You Made Me Do,” would make no sense with blue beads as it is from Reputation, an album that Swifties have color-coded as black.

The acronyms on Swiftie friendship bracelets are reminiscent of the popularity among Christian youth groups in the 1990s of wearing wristbands with the acronym WWJD?, or “What Would Jesus Do?” The phrase itself dates back to 1896, when Kansas Congregational minister Charles Sheldon published a book titled In His Steps: What would Jesus do? Almost a century later, youth leader Janie Tinklenberg read the book and brought it to her youth group, who decided to print the slogan on friendship bracelets. The bracelets served as a reminder to live one’s daily life as Jesus would–to stay on the right path. However, it wasn’t just about mindfulness but also connection. In a BBC article, Sarah Wynter, the editor of Youthwork, is quoted as saying, “Teenagers are looking for a way to demonstrate they belong to something . . . They might not feel comfortable talking about what they believe, they might still be working some of it out. But wearing a wristband is something they feel they can do to make some kind of a stand.” This is a perfect example of fandom and religion overlapping–whether it is song lyrics or a question about Christ, these bracelets serve to unite a group and help them identify each other in a crowd.

Rituals:

Many Swifties are quick to compare going to a Taylor Swift concert with a religious experience. Regardless of the truth in that statement, the similarities between one of Swift’s concerts and Mass are hard to ignore. The preparation for Mass begins before one sets foot into the Church. While it is not as much the case today as it once was, going to Church typically involved dressing up. The same could be said for Swifties preparing for a concert. Many have spent months, if not longer, on the outfit they are wearing to the show. For many, their outfit is carefully chosen and created, often based on a specific Taylor song, album, or era. The environment inside the spaces is not too different either. Whether you are a newcomer or have been going for years, Mass typically begins with socializing. You enter the building and as you are finding your place you greet the people you see along the way. As you enter the stadium for a Taylor Swift concert you are instantly surrounded by tens of thousands of people, the majority of whom you don’t know, yet it instantly feels like a safe space, you feel welcome. 

Like a pastor has the attention of their congregation when they step out to give a sermon, Taylor Swift has the attention of over fifty thousand people when she steps out onto the stage. Few people have the power to capture the attention of that many people at one time. Like a devout Christian could recite the whole Bible, for three and a half hours, Swifties recite every word to every song that Swift sings. Throughout the concert, there are moments that are comparable to the call-and-response sections of a Mass. These are moments that are not part of the original text, or the song in this instance, but have become part of how it is experienced live within the community. These chants and rituals span all ten acts of the show. During “Delicate” in the Reputation era, fans chant “1, 2, 3, let’s go bitch” before the first verse. After the bridge in “Bad Blood” in the 1989 era, fans chant “you forgive, you forget, but you never let go.” These chants are not Swifties simply being susceptible to peer pressure, but a way to create community among the fans and to connect themselves to Swift’s original words. 

Conclusion:

 

Because of the vast fanbase that follows Taylor Swift, it is important to recognize the far-reaching effects that group of people has, both positive and negative. Swift started publicly dating Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce at the start of the 2023 football season, and the NFL was quick to capitalize on the sudden attention they received from Swifties. In an article for Forbes, Dr. Marcus Collins, a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, called it the Taylor Swift Effect. Her appearance at Kelce’s games resulted in a 400% spike in Kelce’s jersey sales and the number of female viewers between the ages of 12-49 tuning in to Kansas City Chiefs games was higher than ever before. Unfortunately, like with any fanbase, not all of their actions are positive. According to freelance writer Tomi Obaro, “Popular fan bases can be malicious in defense of their idols.” Swifties’ defense of Taylor Swift not only stretches to chastising people who are not fans of Swift and her work, but also to people who they believe have wronged her, mainly the singer’s ex-boyfriends. This has led to cyberbullying, trolling, and even doxxing. The good that Swift and her fanbase have accomplished loses some of its shine when some take their devotion too far—and it is often the negatives that people remember. 

 

While Swift may have started as a country singer in Nashville, over the last twenty years she has achieved international fame, and this popularity has come with international implications. Next to the United States, the Philippines host the most Swifties in the world (Bywater). However, when Swift announced the international dates for The Eras Tour, the Philippines were noticeably missing from the list, with Singapore being her only stop in Southeast Asia. In early 2024, Joey Salceda, a member of the Philippines House of Representatives, accused Singapore of negotiating a deal with Swift that prevented her from taking her tour to other countries in Southeast Asia. Although Singaporean authorities have not released official numbers, according to Salceda, Swift was offered three million dollars per show in return for its exclusivity to Singapore (Crosbie). This hasn’t stopped Filipino fans from attending the show, traveling thousands of miles to see Swift in Japan, Singapore, and Australia, but the country is hurt by the actions of the neighboring country who they otherwise have a friendly relationship with. It is unlikely that Filipino Swifties will do anything extreme to protest what Singapore did, but it is not unheard of for two groups who follow the same religion to fight and even start wars over their faith. 

People of the same religion will always be connected to each other through that religion. Members of the same fandom will also always share that connection. After leaving a religious service, regardless of whether everyone will be back next week or never see each other again, there is a shared sense of community after this kind of group experience. While many Swifties like to joke about the Eras Tour being like church or that Taylor Swift is God, at the heart of this is the beautiful worldwide community that Taylor Swift has created. The world is changing. Generation Z is growing up in a world of school shootings, pandemics, and laws controlling our rights to exist as human beings. But at the end of the day, beyond all of the horrible in the world, is a woman writing music that billions of people can relate to. Previous generations have looked to scripture to find hope and comfort. Many people still do. But more and more people, especially young people, are looking beyond the traditional and finding optimism and promise with a woman who was born in 1989, on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania, and who at twelve years old was gifted a guitar and started writing songs that one day the whole world would hear–her name is Taylor Swift.


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