The year was 1989. The cold war ended, the first President Bush took office, The US deposed Noriega, and Taylor Swift was born. According to the Chinese Zodiac calendar, 1989 was also the year of the Snake. According to the myth, the Jade Emperor decreed there would be a great race among all the animals, the order in which they arrived to his party, would be the order in which they were honored on the calendar. The Snake and Dragon were close relatives and good friends, so the snake traveled with the dragon who was too big for the ground and had to travel in the sky. Together they braved the winds, storms, lightning and thunder, arriving at the same time.
Snakes usually have a negative image, are symbols of witchcraft, betrayal, cowardice, and evil. However, Nǚ Wā (女娲), the creator of the world in Chinese mythology, had a human’s head and a snake’s body. According to Christian Angelology, Seraphim, a synonym for serpents, are the highest angelic class and they serve as the caretakers and protectors of God's throne. Historically, snakes have gotten a pretty bad reputation, as has Taylor Swift. She’s been described as flippant, fickle, boring, and conniving. As a Snake. After a long absence, The Reputation Tour is everything the world needs to know about Taylor Swift.
First, BIG shout out to Camila Cabello, and Charli XCX for opening up this amazing concert so perfectly. Boom Clap came out while I was stationed in The UK and I remember having some of my best dance-floor make out sessions to it, and jamming out to Break the Rules in London, Cambridge, and Bury St. Edmunds' clubs, so hearing Charli perform them live in all her Brilliant Britishness was, well, brilliant.
Miranda X, Amanda H, Carolina C, and Brittany G.
Let’s talk about Taylor's fans. 52,000 people bought tickets, and 52,000 people showed up, brimming with excitement and joy, the demographics were all over the place, every scene was represented. There were costumes, there were comb overs, miniskirts, and baggy pants. Every skin tone, background and country were there. There was a feeling in the air that just made everyone want to smile and be happy, friends were everywhere to be made, and that’s what happened. From my seats on the floor (just had to brag a bit), I watched as people just walked up and started talking to each other. Right in front of me there was a Latinx girl wearing cat ears and a sparkly dress named Carolina C. Carolina was there by herself but was so excited to be there she couldn’t stop dancing. Seriously, homegirl didn’t stop dancing the entire five hours we were there. At some point before the show, a roaming group of White girls wearing dinosaur outfits passed by and started dancing with her. Literally the first words out of their mouths were “Oh my god, I love your ears! Are you here by yourself, wanna be friends?!”, and I thought that was one of the coolest things I’ve seen out of humans in quite a while. And Taylor herself even had to take a few minutes to acknowledge the awesomeness of her fans. She thanked everyone for not just coming out but coming out in force after she took so long a break. She teared up and thanked her fans for loving her even when her reputation was at the lowest it had ever been. She praised her fans for being kind to each other amidst adversity, tension, and turmoil. On day two, she also commended the strength of the LGBT community for continuing to have the will to love who they do, the way that they do even when there are some that would see them do otherwise, recognizing how far we have come as a society as well as how far we still have to go. One of the best aspects of the show was how she spoke to us. She sat at her piano, played, and just spoke. She spoke to us about why she’d taken so much time off, and how she needed some time to figure out who she was. Although the presentation was beautiful, the greatest part was the gesture it self because she wanted us to know that she genuinely loved us for loving her, and that just made us love her more.
Next were her crew, FX, and presentation. Her singers, dancers and musicians, they weren’t treated as “back up” they came out on stage and Taylor made sure they were both seen and heard. They were also representative of her fan base and commitment to diversity and equality. Her singers were all beautiful women of color, her dancers were masculine, feminine, tan, olive, black, white, and all there to show out! Her musicians made our feet move with perfect pace and timing, her technicians dazzled our eardrums with the perfect mix of bass and pitch that didn’t have our heads in pain ready to explode, but still made our hearts pound like the drums on the stage. Then there were the fireworks, flames, and light up wristbands we all received at the beginning of the concert. The wrist bands, which started out red, Taylor told us she insisted on because she wanted to see every single one of us. She wanted us to know that whether we were on the floor, in the pit, or up in the rafters, she saw us. As the show went on the colors changed according to the song and her movement, literally making us part of the show. Watching the lights turn solid lavender during Love Story, with waves of white dancing through us, to flashing green, gold and purple during Shake It Off was just another aspect of the symbiosis between performer and fan that makes Taylor feel so relatable as a person, and thus helping us to better relate to each other as people. That relatable elation didn't end when the show did either, our wrist bands continued to pulse and glow even after leaving the stadium. People across the street would spot a band and start yelling in excitement and rush to meet. At Sound-Bar, everyone wanted to know where we had gotten our bands. Even on the train later that night people were writing their numbers on their bands and trading them. It really was amazing to see.
Now finally the best part of all the best parts, the music.
I became a fan of Taylor swift back when I was about 19, during USAF Military Police Academy of all places. I woke up one morning to my roommate playing some song called Should’ve Said No. Before then I had never heard a full country song, so in essence you can say that Taylor Swift introduced me to Country. Ever since then I have been a die-hard Taylor Swift fan for both Country and Pop. Red and 1989 being my two favorite albums. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t a big fan of Look What You Made Me Do when I first heard it on the radio, I didn’t understand what she was trying to do with her sound. I was thinking “Please don’t pull a Miley Cyrus.” and be going through some weird re-invention. Let me tell you, you really do lose something when you listen to it on the radio as opposed to hearing and seeing her in person. You could hear her express all the emotions she was trying to convey in her voice, her gestures gave insight into the journey she’s been on, but nobody was paying attention to, and the visuals in her background made it all that much more visceral. Another cool aspect of the set list was how she played her new album, but also played many of her fan favorites like Love Story, Shake It Off, 22, Style, We Are Never Getting Back Together and Our Song, she even did these cool mashups where she would play one of her oldies inside one of her new ones. The design was just perfect, it let us know that she wasn’t turning her back on her roots, or even trying to “re-invent” herself, she was simply evolving.
My analyst comments are this. As another born in the year of the Snake I can say that we are intelligent and cunning. We have a deep and complex mind, but if we love, we love with our entire heart. So, it’s during those times we are vulnerable, that we don’t see things as sharply, during those times others will try to take advantage of us. With this tour Taylor is telling us that she hasn’t turned off her heart, being a drama queen and acting out, instead like Tiffany Haddish said on screen “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone, why? Cause she’s dead.” Throughout the concert there were constant images, monoliths, and motifs of snakes, and just like a snake Taylor has shed her old skin. New, reinvigorated, ready to take on the world, and one more thing that I’ve never seen her as. Sexy ASF.
Yes Ms. Swift. Yes I am.
The year is 2018. There are peace talks with North Korea, we had our first blue moon in 35 years, an American became a princess, and Taylor Swift was Reborn.
Photos courtesy of Nicole Rubin