What a Class on Taylor Swift Reveals About Us

It’s also what made her the subject of study at UC San Diego. During the recent spring quarter, Nancy Guy, a professor in the Department of Music, taught a brand new course entitled “Reading and Writing Taylor Swift.” The cultural studies seminar, held in a small-group format, drew 16 students from disciplines as varied as math, engineering and psychology to study Swift’s artistry, fandom and impact. An ethnomusicologist whose work spans Western and Chinese opera, politics and the musics of Taiwan and China, Guy is the inaugural holder of the Chiu-Shan and Rufina Chen Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies. She plans to offer the course again this coming spring.

The thrill of decoding — central to the Swiftie fandom — was on full display during the lead-up to “The Life of a Showgirl.” Swift turned the release into a puzzle: the orange door from the Eras Tour, long a subject of fan theories; a countdown clock; and a glittering lock, before finally revealing the album cover on her now-fiancé Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast. Fans pored over every detail — even speculating about the objects on the bookshelf behind her — while brands from Sharpie to M&M’s and even the Empire State Building joined the orange-glittered frenzy across their social feeds. 

The spectacle revealed the extent of Swift’s cultural pull, where even the smallest details become talking points. It’s the same dynamic that drove conversation in Guy’s classroom. As the album release approached, we sat down with her and two of her students, Ethan Arnn, a third-year math major, and Angel Yan, a second-year chemical engineering major — both self-proclaimed Swifties — to reflect on the buzz around the new album and how the course opened new ways of listening to and thinking about one of the world’s biggest stars:

How did you come up with the idea for a course on Taylor Swift?

Nancy Guy: I’ve long been interested in fandom — why we love the artists we do and how those connections are formed. My 2015 book on American opera singer Beverly Sills looked at relatability and fan devotion, and while watching a documentary about Taylor on a long flight from Taiwan, the parallels clicked for me. I wanted students to think critically about her artistry and the ways she’s received in the media — especially around politics.

What did the coursework look like?

NG: After every class, students wrote journal reflections on the week’s readings, which ranged from sexual identity in the fandom to Swift’s years-long clash with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. There were also two major essays, including a final project where students chose their own topics. At the end of the course, we also viewed and analyzed the 2020 documentary “Miss Americana,” which offers a look at her political activism and public image.

Ethan Arnn: Our group focused on themes across her discography. I wrote about how fame has affected her love life and how that theme grows as she grows as an artist and public figure.

Angel Yan: I looked at the triangular relationships she creates in her music — like the story of a love triangle told from three different perspectives in the songs “August,” “Betty” and “Cardigan” on the album “Folklore” (2020) —  and how that kind of writing shows up earlier in her career too.

How did studying Taylor in an academic setting change how you hear or view her?

EA: I already thought critically about her, but the class made me reflect even more. As fans, it’s not productive to just say everything she does and every song she writes is perfect. Criticism has helped her grow — like writing all of the songs on “Speak Now” (2010) when people doubted her songwriting abilities, or shifting to more elevated lyrics in “Folklore” when some thought her music was getting too childish. The class reminded me that she’s human, not someone to idolize blindly.

AY: I listen differently now — not just to pop sounds, but focusing more on lyrics and deeper meaning, for Taylor and for other artists too.

What did you learn about fandom and the “Easter eggs” Taylor so famously leaves for Swifties to dissect?

NG: We read about Easter-egg culture and parasocial connection, and students presented songs to the class — tying lyrics to clues, to who songs might be about, to other eras. It’s fascinating how that web builds.

EA: The Easter eggs are a big part of what ties the fandom together. She started with secret booklet messages on her debut album and built a whole culture of decoding. It connects fans to her personal life and creates that bond where people feel like they truly know her and know her story.

AY: It’s fun to discuss the Easter eggs together, though sometimes fans overthink them. Still, it keeps people talking and makes you feel connected to the fan community. 

Taylor often blurs the line between public figure and private self. How does that shape the way fans connect with her?

EA: It ties into the parasocial aspect. You basically have her diary entries in song. You know how she’s felt, you know the timeline of her relationships and her life, and it feels like you have a friend in her even though that’s ridiculous — you don’t know her. I can listen to her sing anything and feel it in a way I don’t with other artists. She also knows how to write the perfect pop hook.

NG: Not only all of the things that you see in text, but you hear them in her voice too. That’s a very powerful connection. With Beverly Sills, people felt like she was singing to them individually, even in a hall of 3,000. People feel the same way with Taylor.

What stands out about Taylor’s cultural impact, especially around the release of “The Life of a Showgirl”?

AY: She’s so consistent in the way she curates an album. It’s not just a few singles surrounded by filler. She writes more than she releases and she chooses what tells a story. That makes her albums feel whole.

EA: I think what resonates most is her authenticity. She’s always vulnerable and open in her songwriting, and people can tell she creates music because she loves it. She takes risks and reinvents herself — and that’s paid off.

How do Taylor’s “eras” play into that anticipation and connection?

AY: Each era has its own colors and visuals. It gives fans a way to participate in the excitement of what the next era is going to be and reflect on how the eras have defined her music and her albums.

EA: The eras create a system where the hype feeds into itself. At the end of the Eras Tour, she walked through the orange door, and people knew the next era’s aesthetic would be orange. Once you’re in it, it just keeps growing — it’s all self-referential and fans keep building on it.

What surprised you about teaching or taking this class?

NG: I don’t always leave the classroom feeling energized, but this one was different. Every week I learned from the students — about their feelings, about the fandom. As an ethnomusicologist, I often interview people, and in many ways this felt like doing research. It was eye-opening and fun. And, it’s really good for students to meet in a small group and for the professor to really get to know them. That format made the class special.

EA: I looked forward to those three hours every week. It was a highlight.

AY: Same for me. It was my first time taking a college seminar, so I was surprised by how easy and accessible it was to share my ideas and connect with different perspectives. It was such a different way of learning — it let me step outside of my STEM coursework and engage in music culture.