‘I feel like I grew up with Taylor Swift in all these years’: Decoding Taylor Swift’s fandom in India

Ira Malik is 16 years old. The New Delhi-based teenager wasn't even born when Taylor Swift released her first eponymous album in 2006 but the Gen-Z relates to the singer just like a Millennial. She has already booked tickets for The Eras Tour in Liverpool on June 14, 2024. Malik says she has been a Taylor Swift fan for as long as she can remember. She reveals, "If I had to pick a particular era or album, it was when she released ‘Speak Now'. It has been 13 years since the American singer-songwriter released the album. As the world is experiencing ‘The Eras Tour' this year, which Swift embarked on in March 2023, her life and persona have become a global phenomenon fuelled by her fans." Today, Malik not only owns vinyls of most of her albums but has a lot of merchandise related to the singer.

Incidentally, Taylor Swift started as a singer at the same age as Malik. Two years later, she released Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008), which not only produced hits like ‘Tim McGraw' and ‘Teardrops On My Guitar' but also ‘Love Story' and ‘You Belong With Me' respectively. Ever since then, she has garnered many fans, who fondly call themselves ‘Swifties'. Malik along with other Indians is very much a part of this fandom that only seems to be getting bigger by the day. Interestingly, when Malik heard ‘Speak Now', she was already gravitating toward the singer. "I had been a fan because of songs like ‘Love Story' and ‘You Belong With Me' but I remember listening to ‘Enchanted' when it was released on my old iPad for the first time and falling in love with it which led me to listen to her entire discography at that point."

Being a ‘Swiftie'
As Taylor Swift launched the South American leg with her performance in Argentina earlier this week, one can't help but remember the ticket fiasco from last year that showcases her popularity. According to several media reports, when tickets went for sale online in November 2022 for Taylor Swift's American leg of The Eras Tour, American ticket sales platform Ticketmaster crashed within an hour. During this time, even after users were logged out and were frozen in a queue, there were as many as 2.4 million tickets that were sold. It broke the record for the highest number of ticket sales by an artist in a single day.

Mumbai is also hosting a ‘Tribute to Taylor Swift' with a Western classical performance at the Royal Opera House this weekend. The event comes weeks after ‘The Eras Concert' film was showcased at different locations not only in the city but also across India.
Unsurprisingly, Malik made her way to the movie when it was showcased in the capital city. "I went to The Eras Tour Film recently and the feeling of being in a room with absolute strangers but still feeling so connected to them was special," explains the teen, who is the daughter of Subir Malik, founder of Parikrama, one of India's most iconic rock bands, and has been exposed to different kinds of music over the years but her Swift fandom trumps all.

Such is her fandom, that Malik has already watched the film two times and plans on watching it again with fan groups in the city. The Taylor Swift phenomenon is quite similar in other cities too. Bengaluru-based Fathima Ashraf became a Swiftie even before the term existed, way back in 2008. More precisely she dropped hits like ‘Love Story' and ‘You Belong With Me' the same year. "The high school girl in me loved her storytelling and catchy lyrics. I remember learning all the lyrics and doing sing-alongs and all the very cheesy stuff with my friends," she reminisces, continuing, "For the teenager I was, I found it magical. I still feel she does well with mystic vibes."

Even though the second album made her an eternal fan, Ashraf says her favourite is ‘Lover' (2019), which is the most recent of the 10 albums she has released till now. She explains, "I love the collaborations that she does -- she knows to pick the right voice to collaborate with. ‘The Last Time' with Gary Lightbody is one of my favourites, along with ‘Willow', ‘Delicate' and ‘All Too Well', ‘Wildest Dreams'."

So, what is unique about Taylor Swift compared to any other artist today, and why does she have a hold on her audience so much? The 28-year-old says, "She is very versatile. She can do pop, country, folk, alt-rock. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets into hip-hop one day. So even if you don't like all her songs, chances are that everybody can vibe to at least one of her songs." The fact she is hardworking, says Ashraf, is impressive because the thought and effort that Swift puts into each of her projects, be it a song, music video or concert isn't something that everyone does.

Dissecting Taylor Swift and her aura
Malik agrees with Ashraf in more ways than one. She believes Taylor Swift is one of if not the best songwriters of this generation, especially because there aren't a lot of mainstream pop artists that are even a part of the songwriting process anymore. She explains, "Taylor Swift is constantly reinventing herself. She started with country music, slowly delved into pop in 1989, and even covered alt-music with ‘Folklore' and ‘Evermore'. Further than just a shift in genres, her albums are extremely different sonically and aesthetically. This is why I believe that she is one of the few artists that have been able to make a permanent place in the industry and continue to at the age of 33."

Even Mumbaikar Alifiya Joel, who has settled in New Zealand and has been a ‘Tay Tay' fan, as she calls it, for over a decade now, the American singer is beyond just her music. She explains, "She is a great mix of creativity and business. She not only writes all of her songs, but she also knows how to sell them at the right time to the right audience. Re-releasing her albums was a daring business move and she did it anyway. She is a benchmark for someone who works in the marketing and advertising industry," says 32-year-old Joel, who works as a marketing professional, and has been influenced by Swift not only professionally but also personally. "Taylor has great fan engagement, and the fans notice and appreciate it. It is a craze that harms no one. I have a couple of Taylor Swift T-shirts. She is so relatable that a lot of her fans have mentioned her in therapy. I know I have," reveals the Mumbaikar, who hails from Wadala.

Everybody has different kinds of experiences but for Joel, her Taylor Swift fandom has come full circle in more ways than one. She narrates, "Everyone was listening to ‘Love Story' when I was in college and somehow, I am listening to it again just before I got married. It is the longevity and relatability of her songs that make them memorable." Such has been her connection that even the Mumbaikar didn't know that what started as an earworm from the singer, would eventually make her so big. "Through her albums and her exploring different genres - ‘Fearless' versus ‘Folklore' - completely different vibe. I felt like I grew up with Taylor Swift all these years. Her albums and her lyrics kept getting more mature and relatable," adds Joel, who says she is in her Taylor Swift era after Beyonce and Brittany Spears had theirs. "She is as big as The Beatles, if not bigger," shares the Mumbaikar, who says she can sing any of her songs at any time. "I can sing most of her songs while driving in my car or with a hairbrush in front of a mirror. Currently, I'm listening to ‘Exile' and love the piano in it."

Living in Auckland, Joel says she got lucky to watch her ‘Reputation Tour' live before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Even though she wasn't lucky enough to get the Eras Tour tickets, she did not miss out on watching the movie with her closest and biggest Swifties.

Just like Malik, Ashraf and Joel, it was ‘Love Story' that got Arunima Joshua, another Mumbaikar hooked to Taylor Swift, but she became a ‘Swiftie' with ‘1989', the 12-time Grammy awardee's fifth album. "Blank Space from the 1989 album converted me. I was very much an indie music fan because I would listen to Devendra Banhart and Karen O and Jamie xx and not much pop but I couldn't get ‘Blank Space' out of my head. I would loop it all day. I accepted that I love pop music then," shares the Mumbaikar, re-living her journey with Swift.

Apart from loving her songwriting, Joshua says the fact that her lyrics are personal and universal at the same time is what makes her more relatable. "Swift's rhythmic cadence elevates the level of pop music as a genre. The compositions are done so ingeniously," the 28-year-old adds. Even though her fandom is mostly about music, she has gifted her best friend Taylor Swift merchandise and themed gifts. "They are not official merchandise but bespoke items I got made like candles or a cosmetic or book that references her songs," shares the Swiftie, whose favourite song is ‘False God' because it is It's a solely underrated synth sax bop and very 80s and sexy.

Even as Joshua has caught the movie screening in Mumbai, she wants to attend a Swiftie Night but is afraid that she will find fewer people her age, however, we think when Swifties come together, they may not unite by age but by their love for Taylor Swift. "To be a Swiftie is to not only be a fan of her music but to be deeply entrenched in theories and stories of her personal life which she strategically places but also distances herself away from," shares the Mumbaikar, who speaks for many fans not only in Mumbai and India but around the world.