Almost two decades into her career as pop star extraordinaire and Taylor Swift is still as successful as ever. The star’s talent to write authentic and memorable songs has undoubtedly been the key to her success, sharing her triumphs and heartbreaks with the world. Swift released her most recent album ‘Midnights’ in October of 2022, garnering the most single-day streams of an album on Spotify. Now she is currently touring her ‘Eras Tour’, performing all her albums and previous ‘eras’ across the USA. The tour sold millions of tickets and broke records within minutes of sale. This is all to say that Swift has yet again been propelled into the limelight of public scrutiny. However, not even a month into her tour, it was reported that after a six-year relationship together, she and actor Joe Alwyn had officially separated.
The rumoured news elicited passionate reactions from thousands of fans across the internet: ranging from disbelief, upset and humour. Yet, when the news was confirmed that the two had been driven apart due to their careers and lifestyles, fans also entered a stage of mourning for their idol. But why is this? Is this a new technologically fuelled phenomenon? In which social media familiarises fans to stars, forming a one-sided relationship? Or has this always been the case, à la Beatlemania?
These fan perceived familiarities have been labelled ‘parasocial relationships’. In which fans see celebrities as friends, feeling they truly know them. Due to the autobiographical nature of Swift’s song writing, often concerning love, it’s no surprise dedicated fans expressed distress to the split. The issue with these parasocial relationships is the assumption that person and persona are one in the same; do these people truly know the ‘real’ Taylor, as they think they do? Furthermore, avid parasocial audiences encourage invasive tabloid news stories, requiring more content to feed their fictitious friendship.
Swift herself has repeatedly expressed her distaste for speculation surrounding her romances, recently writing about being ‘under scrutiny’ in her song ‘lavender haze’ and stating that ‘my relationships for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumours, tabloid stuff and we just ignore it’. And yet her supposed fans began theorising as rumours started circulating. These parasocial relationships are broken because they are founded on familiarity not for the person, but for a carefully curated public persona, vying for your attention and money. Therefore, exploitative for both fans and celebrities alike, profiting only the fame machine.