You Grew Up With Me: A Swiftie Bildungsroman

After a monthlong reprieve, Ellie and Carrie return to discuss their all time favorite artist, Taylor Swift, and her lasting hold over American music and popular culture. The sisters discuss their relationship with Taylor over the past twelve years, from the release of her eponymous album in 2006 to her latest studio album Midnights, which, in the month since it was dropped, has shattered records and quite literally, broken the internet. Or Ticketmaster, at least. They chart a musical history that mirrors that of Taylor — from childhood and adolescence to young and not so young adulthood. The multifaceted Taylor is examined through a variety of lenses — musical wunderkind, pop star, celebrity, icon, deity, activist, storyteller, trickster, arbiter of angst, wizard of words, and mistress of reinvention. Taken as a whole, Taylor’s discography is the ultimate bildungsroman of an artist who shirked the cloak of likability to become her own flawed and messy person. Topics discussed include Horse Girls, media witch hunts, the toxic aughts, #KanyeGate, and the cathartic power of the inimitable T.Swift bridge. Articles are: “You Belong With Me: How Taylor Swift made teen angst into a business empire” by Lizzie Widdicombe (2011), “Taylor Swift Is Confusing” by Curtis Sittenfeld (2015), Pitchfork’s “Midnights Review” (2022), “In Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’, The Easter Eggs Aren’t the Point” By Lauren Michele Jackson (2022).