Taylor Swift for Metalheads
How to live the wildest dreams you never knew you had
Most concerts I go to involve mosh-pits full of burly motorcycle-driving men, cacophonic blast beats from ear-piercing drums, and shrieking vocals, reminiscent of an angry Jabba the Hut, that invoke the Devil himself. If you’ve ever been to one of these life changing events, you know very well that I am talking about the anabolic steroid of music — the metal concert.
However, last night, my muscles didn’t ache by the end of the show. There were no bald middle-aged men to push me around — because they were too busy sitting next to their pre-pubescent daughters. The only screaming was emitted not from the stage but from the tiny-larynxed screeches of teenage girls. “Oh my god,” I thought to myself, “I am actually at a Taylor Swift concert”.
“What a better day than any to compromise my musical ego!”
After scalping a couple of generously-priced tickets, I ambled into the concert hall with my sister, and we were admitted by the all-foreseeing ticket scanner. Standing inside the stadium, I was half-suprised that our tickets were actually legitimate, half-worried that my next two hours of living would be filled with a four-chord-pop anthology of Swift’s breakups. Beside me, my sister gleamed with anticipatory giddiness, her pores exuding admiration for the acclaimed pop-star. The mere idea of witnessing the singer overtook her spirit with a mirthful intoxication, and this made me wonder: there must be something to this that I’m missing — something beyond the gimmicks of modern music production and the sacrosanct role of celebrity that distances artists from their revering fans. This Taylor Swift concert would be the night where I learn what it’s all about, and maybe even find an appreciation for what she does (but let’s not get too carried away).
The truth is that, say what you will about her music, Taylor Swift is able to relate with thousands of people in a stadium night after night because she allows herself to be vulnerable, and shares archetypal stories that we’ve certainly all lived before. She empowers her fans through honesty and self-acceptance; two virtues that are seemingly hard to come by these days. And she also puts on a damn good stage show. I’m talking face-blazing pyrotechnics, backflips, frontflips, Jurassic-sized cobras, and floating carriages that transport the artist between the three stages (yeah, she had three freaking stages!), among other things.
Enjoying something that I’ve previously disregarded and derided as ‘lesser music’ was very much a perspective-placing experience, as it became plain that anything can be appreciated simply by being open-minded. While my ego would have happily sat at the concert feeling sorry for himself for being there, I put that voice aside and just had a good time. Of course I love metal, and I will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but in no way does that mean I can’t enjoy new experiences and open my brain to perspectives that I never would have seen otherwise. Rather than denouncing something foreign as inferior, stupid, or ‘not worth your time’, give it a chance — you may be pleasantly surprised and perhaps even gain a hint of enlightenment.
So tell your ego to Shake It Off because there’s a Blank Space in your mind where new adventures belong. The only question to ask is… are you Ready For It?
