Five weeks into winter quarter, I learned from a friend that a Taylor Swift course was being supplied. ITALIC ninety nine: All Too Effectively (Ten Week Model), taught by Nona Hungate ’24, is "an in-depth evaluation of Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Nicely.’" The course acknowledges Swift’s sensible songwriting expertise while giving Stanford students the opportunity to learn the way to investigate literature. I do not think I have ever felt so sad about not being enrolled in a course.


The closest I have ever gotten to taking a course about Taylor Swift was my Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) 1 class, "From Green Cards to Gaming Avatars: Types of Identity," with lecturer Nissa Cannon. The only facet of the category that related to Swift was one line in the course description: "Why does Taylor Swift’s album artwork current a different model of her than a Vanity Truthful profile?" Though none of the actual class content material was about Swift, I took that singular line and ran with it — my closing analysis-based argument paper was about Swift’s TikTok advertising and marketing skills.


In researching Swift’s marketing skills, I realized that there is far to learn from Swift other than her genius songwriting skills. The public relations and advertising actions carried out by Swift and her marketing workforce could produce a fruitful course syllabus that particulars varied suggestions and tricks for efficient advertising.


Stanford should consider offering a course that revolves around Taylor Swift’s entrepreneurship within the entertainment trade. Notably, a course that analyzes Swift’s intelligent and artistic social media marketing skills could profit many students in varied fields, from public relations to economics.


For instance, upfront of her latest album, "Midnights," Swift took to TikTok to launch a "Midnights Mayhem With Me" series; in every episode, she unveiled the name of a new track. This TikTok sequence created an immense amount of hype across the album, where fans had been unintentionally selling the album by reposting, commenting, and utilizing "Midnights" sounds.


The course might also analyze Swift’s well-recognized tactic of putting easter eggs to create hypothesis and conversations about her projects all over social media. When she constantly hints at there being secret messages in her social media posts, music movies, and even red-carpet appears, followers at all times take to social media to determine what message Swift is trying to ship.


Additionally, the course could look at Taylor Swift’s incredible ability to market and sell tangible merchandise in a world of streaming. Regardless of the rise and prominence of Apple Music, Spotify, and different streaming platforms, Swift is likely one of the few artists that remains to be in a position to promote substantial portions of CDs, vinyl records and cassette tapes. Actually, tangible music merchandise are where a majority of her "Midnights" gross sales came from.


These gross sales can be attributed partly to a wise advertising strategy: encouraging fans to buy several copies of the same album. For example, Google Ads for Solar Companies her "Lover" album, Swift released four bodily deluxe variations, with each version containing a different journal with pieces from Swift’s previous diaries. On this case, it was nearly unattainable for fans to only buy one deluxe version and miss out on three extra journals with content material from Swift’s diary.


For "Midnights," Swift took to TikTok to market a (really cool) merchandise piece. She introduced a "Midnights" clock, made up of four completely different versions of the album on vinyl. When the again sides of the four completely different versions are put together, they type a clock that’s truly purposeful if fans purchase an extra clock set.


It is methods like these, the place Swift prompts followers to purchase a number of bodily copies of the identical album, that translate to gross sales and thus assist Swift retain her relevance.


Programs that critically analyze Taylor Swift’s literary abilities and cultural influence are already being provided at universities throughout the country. The College of Texas supplied the course "The Taylor Swift Songbook" final 12 months, which centered on "her songs as literary writing and the methods a preferred and award-winning author uses the identical literary gadgets, figures, and tropes of conventional poetry in her work." The course instructor, English professor Elizabeth Scala, wished to focus on teaching college students about literary analysis by means of Swift’s clever writing mechanisms, which contain metaphors and the manipulation of phrases.


Nevertheless, universities should not only learning Swift’s songwriting abilities. In 2022, adjunct instructor Brittany Spanos taught a course at New York University (NYU) about Taylor Swift that delved into various matters important to understanding the leisure industry. It also taught students about Swift’s function in perpetuating the youth and girlhood tradition in pop music, social media utilization and its impact on the music trade, issues of copyright and possession, and the prevalence of picture and race in contemporary music.


A brand new Stanford course about Taylor Swift may teach new ideas in addition to these taught at the College of Texas or NYU, comparable to the present impression of TikTok on Swift’s profession. The unique Taylor Swift brand crafted by Swift and her marketing workforce might be fascinating to anyone eager to work within the entertainment business or learn more about her enduring cultural influence that never goes out of type.