By now, it's safe to say that Taylor Swift has made her mark in the music industry. In 2019, she was awarded “Artist of the Decade” at the American Music Awards. With the amount and quality of music she continuously produces, Swifties all over the world are always excited to see what Taylor has in store for them. Aside from her music, however, there’s another thing Swifties can be excited about.
Thanks to a fellow Swiftie, New York University’s Clive Davis Institute is offering the first-ever Taylor Swift Course. Brittany Spanos, who is a Rolling Stone writer and an NYU alumna, is currently teaching the course which started in January 26 and will last until March 9.
With her experience as a music journalist and as someone who has followed Taylor’s work throughout the years as a ~Swiftie~, Brittany seems to be the right person to teach this course. She shared to Variety, “Teaching a course at Clive Davis has been a dream of mine since I attended NYU. I took several of the Topics in Recorded Music courses in the program while an undergrad and they were foundational to my work as a music journalist." She's also been covering Taylor ever since she started her career in writing 10 years ago and has been a "super fan" of the singer-songwriter for much longer. "It’s such an honor to be able to share my Swiftie expertise with a sharp group of students," she adds.
Some university heads might be shocked if a course like this was proposed, but it was not the case for Jason King, Chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. He shared with Variety that it was a “no-brainer” when Brittany suggested the course. According to King, “She’s a Taylor fan but she also understands how to contextualize her culturally, and get students to think more deeply about her and her music through the lens of gender, feminism, race, and class, and other categories related to identity, and that deeper thinking is what this program is all about.”
The course description states that the class aims “to deconstruct both the appeal and aversions to Taylor Swift through close readings of her music and public discourse as it relates to her own growth as an artist and a celebrity.”
As an artist, Taylor has gone through many scrutinies, received numerous criticisms, and had a fair amount of feuds throughout the years. Hence, it provides greater knowledge for the students that the class also “delves into analyses of the culture and politics of teen girlhood in pop music, fandom, media studies, whiteness and power as it relates to her image and the images of those who have both preceded and succeeded her." Topics such as "copyright and ownership, American nationalism, and the ongoing impact of social media on the pop music industry” will also be taken into consideration in the said course.
If you’re wondering how the class has been going, Brittany gave an update on her Twitter:
Maybe, one day we can also see this course in our universities. This is ~definitely~ a course that Swifties would want to take.
H/T: Variety
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