How is she a leader? Let me count the ways.
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads artistically.
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads culturally.
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads stylistically.
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads socially.
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads economically. (Nationally and internationally, they pay hefty sums to see her perform.)
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads financially. (She personally is now worth over a billion dollars.)
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads geographically. (They want to see her perform in such enormous numbers that they impact the economies of the cities in which she appears – globally.)
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads civically. (Within 15 hours after she posted voter registration information on Instagram the daily number seeking same went from an average of 40,000 to well over 300,000.)
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads politically. (Within hours after her endorsement of Kamala Harris for president her post received 9.5 million likes.)
- Taylor Swift’s gazillion followers follow where she leads personally. (They constitute one of the largest and most devoted fan bases in American history. And once she registers her preference for anything or anyone, in countless cases it becomes their preference.)
Many Swifties – as her hardcore followers are known – are too young to have a direct impact. Many are, for example, too young to vote or to spend their own money. But given there are legions of them, and given their high levels of participation and even passion, we make a mistake if we underestimate the power of their contagion. Swift is not like other celebrities. Right now at least she exerts influence like no other. Moreover, there are many other Swifties who are by no means too young to do what they want when they want – including following where she leads.
Swift’s endorsement of Harris within minutes after the debate between her and Donald Trump was over testifies to Swift’s civic engagement: she seems determined to do what she can to get Americans first to register to vote and then to get them to vote for Harris. Which leaves us with this question: Can she get other leaders to follow her lead? Will her example prompt others in positions of power to dare to make public their political preference?