Music flows from the speakers as the soft hum of the car tunes into the music. The steady beats from any familiar pop song blend into the background. The recognizable “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift begins to play. A few songs later, the intro to “Anti-Hero” begins once more. In irritation, a different station is clicked, revealing Swift’s voice once more.

Everyone knows who Taylor Swift is as she has made a definite imprint on society. As expected, she has many dedicated fans that listen to her music. Many might not realize that her effect is not as positive as it seems. No matter the quality of her work, it is always met with unrivaled adoration. On the release of Midnights, every song was ranked above 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. This truly shows the magnitude of her success. With the album being a hit, radio stations and stores have taken the liberty to blast it all day, every day. The repetition of the same songs will cause those listening to become agitated. 

Because people and her fans hold her in such high regard, they ignore that some songs can lack depth, which influences the music we hear. She may release similar music if there is positive feedback, putting it into an endless loop of okay-sounding songs. For example, new songs such as “Anti-Hero” have no highs and lows in melody and emotion. Poetic lyrics are not a requirement in every song, but her lyrics are irrelevant and can be difficult to grasp. This could also impact other artists’ music. If they idolize Taylor Swift, they are likely to create a similar style of music which may include a related writing method. This would, overall, be altering popular music culture and making it more uniform. 

Now, of course, there is a more pressing matter concerning Swift: the Ticketmaster fiasco. Fans reported having to wait hours in line to get a hold of a ticket. Many were unable to, even when it was their turn. The Verified Fan System made sure of that. The System was originally designed to prevent bots from buying tickets. However, some die-hard fans were not able to be verified.

Not to mention, Swift had announced that the tickets would be cheaper than they ended up being on the Ticketmaster site, leading to even more outrage from fans. Between all of these factors and millions of fans worldwide on the site, it met its inevitable fate: crashing. 

Although the Ticketmaster issue was not entirely her fault, Swift received plenty of backlash for it. She did not deal with the problem properly by not taking action. Swift should have come up with a different solution to satisfy her fans, not just follow what Ticketmaster caused. Taylor Swift did not bother to inform Swifties that the tickets would be more expensive on the Ticketmaster site due to their pricing algorithm. This shows no care as she only allowed those lucky enough to be verified and willing to pay for tickets at a higher pricing point to go to her concert. She only served an apology as she did not realize that the ticket site would not be up to the challenge of millions of fans. 

A possible solution would have been Ticketmaster improving their site and then having fans “rebuy tickets.” Or, perhaps, using multiple sites that would inter-communicate how many tickets were still available during the time of the purchases. That way, there would not be too many people on each site, making it less likely that it would crash. However, she did not provide any of her own solutions to the mix, rather allowing Ticketmaster to get away with everything that occurred.

Taylor Swift is no exception to being put on a pedestal, practically untouchable. Because as with any popular music artist, fans are ready to shove them under the spotlight. She does not always deserve that light shining on her. All that she has caused is evidence of that. Rethinking her actions first is wiser than jumping on her bandwagon like everyone else.