All is chaos—usually the monthly digest would go out today—but instead you have this and the June digest goes out in July. All the clocks are broken, as Auden said I think, about death but also he would have said it about my normal schedule.

I woke up the other day to an email from an editor at the Guardian asking if I wanted to write about Taylor Swift’s wedding. My initial response was “hell no,” because I don’t write about Taylor’s real life. But then I had some coffee and opened the email and read it past the subject line and discovered what the editor wanted was something about the way Taylor has depicted love and marriage over the years. That’s my line, so I was thrilled to be asked and very happy to write the piece. Here it is:

Swift’s narrators and heroines, faced with story-ending domesticity, inevitably run, even if they don’t really know why. “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer ’til someone’s on his knees and asks you,” broods the narrator of her 2020 track Champagne Problems. She imagines her jilted lover’s family and friends telling him “what a shame she’s fucked in the head”, and it doesn’t seem as if she really disagrees with that assessment. She just knows that she couldn’t say yes. At the same time, the permanent bond of marriage is something that runs through her songs as a real goal: from early tracks such as Mary’s Song (2006), to the lover you can trust “like a brother” in Call It What You Want (2017), to the multiple proposals of and allusions to marriage on her 2019 album Lover. These would represent a kind of domesticity in which no story ends, you have simply entered a new chapter.

You can read it here.

Now you may think, if you click through and continue to read: was this piece sort of kind of an excuse to write about The Tortured Poets Department? Well. Yes.1

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Not to be a bit of an annoying person—BUT—the sheer amount of investigative energy that’s been dedicated toward figuring out where Taylor’s wedding is and when it is baffles me. Unless you’re invited, what is the point of knowing this info? And if you are invited, then like… you don’t gotta check TMZ. Trying to crack the secrets of her wedding in advance… what’s the point? A real case of “could this energy be directed toward something that actually matters.” Like here’s CBS parked out filming trucks pulling out stuff they can’t even see because all of it’s covered.

It also kind of annoys me because this is the way in which Taylor’s “overexposure” actually works—through other people grilling random celebs about Taylor on the red carpet, or aggressive speculation about the wedding and the wedding date and the wedding venue and the wedding guests. The cumulative effect of this stuff is to make people feel tired of Taylor Swift, but… all these places could just not cover the wedding until it happens and there’s stuff to know.

Since it’s possible that this newsletter will get a bit more visibility than is usual over here at BDM Industries, I wanted to mention some artists I like or have recently listened to who are not only smaller than Taylor (which is true of 99.99% of artists) but (with one exception) simply small. I don’t write about music here because… I don’t like writing about music. So this is my way of paying the “I like and write about the most popular of the popular stuff” tax that I think it behooves me (and all lovers of popular stuff) to pay now and then. I would not claim to have “good taste in music.” It’s probably more accurate to say that I have “no taste in music,” that is, it’s not even bad taste. Still, I can probably say I have “my taste in music.”2

For convenience, the songs below are also in this Spotify playlist, which you should feel free to transfer to your preferred music service. I did make an Apple Music version, which is slightly different (one artist is exclusive to Apple). I wanted to keep this post under the email limit, so you’ll see more songs and artists in the playlists. The yardstick I came up with for “small” was “didn’t have over a million monthly Spotify listeners when I added them”—I don’t know if that’s really the best measure, as at least one artist in the playlists is very successful in her niche, but it’s what I am using.

OK.… First up Davia, who I’ve mentioned before (here), and who has a new song out.

However, for any visiting Swifties: you might like this song about Sylvia Plath.

Leyla Ebrahimi wasn’t on my radar until mentioned her recently. Unlike me, Dave Moore actually has knowledge of music, so you should subscribe to him if you like getting playlists of new stuff. I really like her! She’d be a great opener for The Life of a Cowgirl or whatever the next Taylor tour is gonna be called.

Then there’s a group from Essex called AlicebanD that actually have a track in my top ten “most played of all time” on Spotify.

I love, love, love Hatchie. I own all her albums on vinyl! She’s so good. I keep trying to get friends aboard the Hatchie train but nobody really trusts my taste in music so I’m not having a lot of luck. (Hatchie has a cute, shoegaze-y cover of “August.” I’m not a member of Hatchie’s Patreon, but I think she posts more covers there.)

Ravyn Lenae’s not a “small artist” in comparison to everybody else here. However, I am looking forward to her new album (and even pre-ordered it), but will not be writing about it, so… I’m gonna mention her too. I have loved every pre-release single.

OK, that’s all from me. You know the rules for the comments: be nice, stick to the art, and as far as wedding location rumors go, Fran speaks for me.

2

Here’s my attempt to demonstrate the spread of my taste.

Sometimes, upon contact with online pop fandom, people will say something like, the problem with this stuff, in particular its obsession with chart positions and records, is that it’s really misplaced sports fandom. To the extent that is true, you can tell it’s true because sports fans love whining. You whine about the refs, you whine about your team, you whine about the other team, you whine about people you’re imagining in your head who are judging you for loving sports, whatever.

Pop music fans also love whining:

• Did a song hit number one but you feel like some people don’t care and don’t like the song anyway? Whine about it.

• Did a song not hit number one and you feel like that’s a cosmic injustice? Whine about it.

• Does somebody exist who is not your fave? Whine about it.

• Did somebody get a nice review? Whine about it.

• Did somebody get a bad review? Whine about it.

But I also don’t want to rag on sports and pop music too much, because people who love “literary fiction” also act like this. I’ve been watching this one new release, Missouri Williams’s The Vivisectors, get the occasional mixed review, and invariably there’s this strange angry spasm of people saying that the critics are obviously jealous, or are basically unable to read, and so can’t appreciate that Williams is one of the only people out there who can write. Maybe that’s true; I haven’t read the book. I already have a different book called The Vivisector on my to-read list and I personally feel that’s the number of books with that title (plus or minus a letter) one to-read list can hold. I just think it’s weird to watch people act about novels the way I watched people act about The Dark Knight Rises losing its perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.

I don’t actually mind when artists snap back at critics. That behavior falls under the rule “everybody gets to say their piece,” and in any case, artists have something at stake. It might not be smart, but it’s not something I feel compelled to finger-wag about. It’s the endless whining from fans that really gets to me. There isn’t really a point in singling out any fandom for this behavior because focusing on one fandom causes you to miss the entire ecosystem of whining within which any particular annoying group operates.2 And it’s like, what’s even the point? Who is supposed to come down with a gavel and declare some group most wronged fandom?

Of course, none of this is a “real problem” when it comes to pop music because you can solve it pretty easily by closing a tab and doing anything else. And as I am trained to assume that what I dislike in others I dislike in myself, I can only conclude that also I personally am on a never-ending streak of whining, maybe even a world-historical whining champion, but unrecognized as such because if I were recognized what would I have to whine about, etc.

On the other hand, there is something about it that smacks of a “real problem” when it becomes clear that the online fandom world is gamed by accruing fake fans and then picking fake fights. If this kind of Potemkin beefing works for pop music, people are going to try to replicate that success in other spheres of life where “winning” actually matters. And that is where I feel like a problem begins to emerge that is not only about how I spend my time online—though it is also about how I spend my time online, don’t get me wrong. It’s just kind of inescapable how lucrative people’s negative emotions are—spite, envy—and how bad that is for all of us. But what does one do, other than wake up each day determined to whine no more?

2

That said right now it’s “Swifties” because they are unhappy that Olivia Rodrigo exists. I write this group as “Swifties” because the Venn diagram of people who listen to Taylor Swift and people who listen to Olivia Rodrigo probably looks like this:

But, to pick a similarly influential modern fantasist, you could not do that with Tolkien. You could not write and publish a story that was called “The Cats of Mirkwood,” because the Tolkien est…

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When you watch Miss Americana, it’s obvious that what you’re getting is not, in some new way, the “real Taylor.”2 I don’t mean it’s false,3 more that “Taylor Swift, the unguarded person” is something only a small group of people experience. In every other part of her life, Taylor already lives like she is on a hot mic. Inviting a camera crew in doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s still the public Taylor, telling the story she wants to tell about her life. I would rather listen to her songs.4 Taylor Swift is never going to be the subject of a documentary that is interesting on its own …

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To my mind, this question is really three questions:

• Should this famous person talk about politics (because they’re people who should be able to participate politically, like everybody else)?

• Should this person talk about politics (because they should feel free to speak their mind)?

• Should this famous person talk about politics (because their fame means they have a lot of influence over events)?

The answer to the first two questions is yes. The answer to the third question is no. If you think famous people should talk, or at least feel free to talk, about politics for reasons of principle, that is one thing. But if it’s a matter of pragmatism, that is a di…

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And I don’t really think that these talking points are getting much purchase. It’s more that there are a lot of them and they keep popping up. But ever since the affair of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni I have felt a bit suspicious of anything where suddenly a lot of people all seem to dislike a woman for constantly shifting reasons.

So I am just going to say this: I don’t think this reaction is organic. I think somebody is see…

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Celebrities mostly benefit from this exchange, though. It makes them famous and it makes them rich and maybe it makes some of them crazy, but, well, that’s the deal. But there are a few big exceptions. One, naturally, is Taylor Swift.1

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At The Substack Post, I have reviewed a recent album from niche Pennsylvanian indie artist Taylor Swift:

The Substack Post

You wouldn’t be here for someone else

Editor’s note: Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl has dominated charts, airwaves, and social feeds alike—including Substack’s. We asked essayist and critic BDM to make sense of the album and Swift’s singular ability to drive the discourse…

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9 months ago · 10 likes · BDM

tl;dr: My verdict is that The Life of a Showgirl is a fun album, but it’s not a great album. I would rank it with Lover and Midnights. It’s probably one of the only Taylor Swift albums where there’s no song I skip the moment it starts… but there’s not a song I feel compelled to listen to over and over either. Sticking to album cuts: there’s no “London Boy,” but there’s also no “I Think He Knows.” No “Vigilante Shit,” but no “Maroon.”1 Though I also find that while if I like something I tend to continue to like it, stuff I don’t like can change up on me. In general, not just with Taylor.

Other notes: Two old posts, not by me, on Taylor’s use of language that I recommend are “i’m just a notch in your bedpost, but you’re just a line in a song” by isabel and “How You Get the World: Reflections on Taylor Swift, Pt. 5” by Dave Moore. My favorite track is “Elizabeth Taylor,” followed by “Father Figure.” It is sort of funny that what it means for this album to be reputation vol. 2 is that it’s like… “I bet my life looks pretty great to you.… And you know what? It is great. 10/10 life.” I hope all the people who have been saying “she needs to stop working with YES man Jack and start working with NO man Max” since Midnights are feeling a little embarrassed. I always wanted Taylor to write an anxiety-free love song, and now she has, and it’s “Wood.”

There’s a funny musical theater quality to this album that kind of comes in and out of focus for me. The title track, obviously. “Eldest Daughter” feels like the big second act ballad for a musical that doesn’t exist. “CANCELLED!” is like a Disney villain song. Even “Elizabeth Taylor” can feel that way, if delivered in a stripped-down manner:

Finally, I am not on the Taylor Swift “bribing critics” payroll that social media is sure exists but writing this book is expensive so… Taylor… I will stop blogging about you for at least five years for a cool million (post tax). Just PayPal me or something.

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Here we are, at the release day eve of a showgirl. I bought a cheery orange sweater under the assumption that in October it would be cool, in terms of the weather. It is not cool, in terms of the weather, which is also not cool, in the slang sense of being desirable. Now what am I gonna do with this orange sweater, I ask you? This is the only weekend of the year in which it’s legal to wear orange!

As with the TTPD open thread, I am paywalling the comments section so people can feel free to be cringe if they want with a certain level of privacy. If you want to hang but can’t afford to subscribe, reply to this email and I’ll comp you. I’m supposed to review the album elsewhere, so if all goes well that will probably appear next week sometime. (I will post it here in my usual “new writing” fashion.)

As far as Showgirl rollout goes, I’m hoping that Taylor’s appearance on BBC Radio 1 means we’re going to get a new set of Live Lounge appearances. Her prior appearances have been great:1

I’m going to declare this thread a leak-free zone. The album will be out in a few hours and then we’ll all be on the same page, you know? Stuff Taylor herself has done (her various lyric drops) are not leaks and are fair game. But this is my house (metaphorically speaking) and I do not enjoy leaks, so don’t mention them.2

That said, I am interested that Taylor’s approach to leaks this time seems to be more “resignation” than it has been in the past. The cover and some lyrics leaked and… she just acted like it didn’t happen! That’s new. It reminds me a lot of her approach to the Eras livestreams. There was a time (1989-ish?) where if you posted video from a Taylor concert it would get copyright struck. The landscape has changed. But certainly up through TTPD, she cared a lot about leaks, and the release styles of both Midnights and TTPD seemed designed to frustrate people who thought they could listen to the leaks and then check out—sorry, assholes, there’s a whole secret part of the album.3

If I had to guess, people who are really into leaks may just constitute a distinct subset of the audience and they don’t really affect streams or sales or roll-outs that much. But they do generate buzz, so they’re worth tolerating.4

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This started its life as a draft of notes for reputation (taylor’s version) which didn’t happen. A lot of this was written sufficiently long ago that TTPD wasn’t even announced, let alone out, but… I think it’s fine? I went through and tweaked some parts, but the bulk of it I wrote in December 2023 and I wanted to leave it alone where I could. If you do not want to read Taylor Swift posts, you can opt out of this section through your subscriber settings. :)

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In the newest edition of The Lamp, I have a short piece about Sydney Sweeney’s creepy Nazi fans. Is this piece also, in its way, about… Taylor Swift? Yes, obviously:

Meanwhile, the anti-Sweeney in this drama is Taylor Swift. Swift and Sweeney have been pitted against each other by spectators, including Donald Trump: Swift, who represents woke, is no longer hot; Sweeney, anti-woke, is hot. (Out with the old blonde, in with the new.) Like so many statements about both Taylor Swift and Sydney Sweeney, or, for that matter, by Trump, this one has no tether to reality, but it’s how a certain type of person wants things to be. There’s a level of personal betrayal at play here. Swift, who stays out of trouble, avoids politics, doesn’t do drugs, rarely seems out of control, and sings about love, was the crypto-conservative icon of an earlier era. Eventually, it turned out that she was not one of them. Their Brünnhilde was within another ring of fire. Now all their hopes are pinned on Sweeney.

Now, you may, after reading this piece, feeling like coming back here and saying: BDM, isn’t this piece more of a series of jokes at the expense of a bunch of weird losers than it is a piece of “reasoned analysis”? The answer is: first, yes it is and second, doing that was fun.

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Anyway, for brands, there’s Christmas, Black Friday, and Taylor releases.1 These seem to be the only common points of culture left.2 One post is fun, three posts are fun. Any individual post is a person having a good time. An avalanche of posts is something else and I find myself experiencing them both as “very fun” (as a person whose attention is being directly courted) and as “very annoying.”

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If you don’t care about Taylor, well, you were warned:

I think she’ll be unveiling the cover tomorrow but this thread will still exist tomorrow, for discussion purposes.

I’m going to be logged off for a few hours so, some rules: 1) be nice 2) you can reference leaks if you want but say you are doing so, since sometimes leaks are 100% wrong.

If you’re asking yourself, “why do this now? Why not wait?” it’s a good question. The answer is made me.

Stay beautiful,

BDM

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And Taylor’s statement is good. As always, she knows how to treat the reader like a peer instead of somebody who is beneath her; so she says, I did my research and here’s my conclusion, but you should do your research and come to yours (and make sure you’re registered to vote). It’s a message addressed from one adult to other adults. And it puts the emphasis where Taylor really does have a lot of influence—driving up voter registration.

All of this basically fits with what I already thought would happen when she eventually endorsed. It doesn’t mean she can hand the electi…

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At The Times, A Pet Peeve: Celebrity political endorsements don’t matter. They just don’t. They don’t win elections. They don’t change people’s minds! And that is because the relationship we have with celebrities is… an entirely different category of relationship than the one we have with politicians:

The fact that so much celebrity wattage produces so little social change might be at least in part because celebrities exist for us as aspirational figures, not practical ones. I might try Jane Fonda’s aerobics program because I envy her physique or join Reese Witherspoon’s book club because it will make me feel like we’re friends. But political candidates are ultimately public servants. They work for us; we’re not their fans, we’re their employers.…

[Celebrity] voices, in practical terms, should count for just as much or as little as any other individual’s voice. We shouldn’t look to them to solve politics for the rest of us — and it’s for th…

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