This is an article about the Taylor Swift phenomenon, and what makes it so moving for so many people. I thought it has some interesting ideas about how humans react in groups.
--Kim
Rachel's Post
This post is not about why you should like Taylor Swift. It's about having the critical thinking skills to understand why other people do. If you comment about why you don't like her - you have failed.
Okay - I just watched the first two episodes of the new Taylor Swift docuseries - and boy did I need that release - and I'm SO happy for all the other people that will get that tonight - and I'm sorry for the haters who won't get to experience it.
Not because they're missing out on Taylor Swift content specifically. Because they're actively blocking themselves from something their brain is built to do: feel things alongside other humans.
Here's what happened while I watched "The End of an Era" - the same thing that's happening to thousands of people streaming it right now: Emotional contagion.
it's a real thing - backed by science. Emotional contagion is what happens when your brain automatically picks up someone else's feelings and starts to mirror them, without you trying to. When you see someone crying, upset, or emotional, your brain reads those signals and reacts as if you are partly experiencing it too. That reaction can show up physically - like a tight chest, a lump in your throat, or tearing up - because your nervous system is responding, not your logic. This happens because humans are wired to sync emotionally with others so we can connect, understand danger or distress quickly, and function as social groups.
It's not mystical. It's not about being "too emotional" or "too into" celebrity culture. It's your nervous system doing exactly what it evolved to do - catch feelings from other humans like you'd catch a cold.
When you watch someone crying, your brain doesn't just register "person is sad." Specialized neurons fire that make your brain partially experience what they're experiencing.
You're not thinking about it. You're not choosing empathy. Your system just mirrors theirs automatically. And once that kicks in, your body responds. Tears can show up without your permission because crying isn't just an emotional response - it's physical, triggered by your autonomic nervous system.
This is why watching thousands of people have a collective emotional experience feels like having your own emotional experience. Because neurologically, you kind of are.
And this is where Taylor Swift operates at a level most artists never touch. She's not just performing songs. She's orchestrating mass emotional synchronization.
Think about what happens at an Eras Tour show.
Seventy thousand people who spent months preparing - making friendship bracelets, learning choreography, choosing which era to embody. They show up already primed for emotional release. Then Swift takes them through a three-hour journey hitting every major human feeling: heartbreak, revenge, joy, betrayal, triumph, nostalgia, rage, hope.
She's not subtle about it either. The whole thing is designed for catharsis. And when you watch the documentary, you're watching people having that catharsis. You're watching them cry, scream, dance, sing themselves hoarse. You're watching seventy thousand nervous systems sync up around the same emotional beats.
Your brain sees that and goes: oh, we're doing this now.
This is why people who claim they don't understand the Taylor Swift thing are either lying or actively resisting.
Have you ever been in love? Have you ever had your heart broken? Have you ever been taken advantage of? Have you ever had someone talk shit about you behind your back? Have you ever felt like a badass? Have you ever felt small? Have you ever wanted revenge? Have you ever felt obsessed with someone? Have you ever felt scared? Have you ever felt so full of joy you wanted to dance and sing? Have you ever wanted to remind people who you are? Have you ever wanted to expose hypocrisy?
Do you like stories?
If you answered yes to any of those - and you did, because you're human - then you understand Taylor Swift.
You understand why someone would pay hundreds of dollars to stand in a stadium and scream-sing lyrics about feelings you've had. You understand why watching other people do that might make you cry.
Swift's entire career has been about taking universal human experiences and turning them into three-to-five minute emotional precision strikes. She names the specific tiny details that make feelings real - the scarf left at someone's house, the street that reminds you of being in love, the bad blood between you and an ex-friend or lover, the champagne problems. She tells stories that are hers but feel like yours.
And she does it without shame. No hedging. No ironic distance. No apologizing for having feelings about things. In a culture that constantly tells people (especially women) to be smaller, quieter, less dramatic, less emotional - she's up there being loud about every feeling she's ever had. And people watch that and feel permission to have their own feelings too.
This is the mechanism. This is why someone cries watching a documentary. They're not crying about Taylor Swift. They're crying because they're watching other people have permission to feel everything, and their nervous system is going: yeah, me too, actually.
When seventy thousand people cry together, laugh together, scream together - that's not manufactured. That's not parasocial delusion. That's humans doing what humans do: syncing up, sharing emotional states, experiencing collective catharsis.
You can call it silly. You can call it excessive. But you can't call it fake. Your brain doesn't know how to fake mirror neurons. Either you let yourself feel it or you actively shut it down.
And the people who shut it down? The ones who watch the documentary and feel nothing? They're not more rational. They're not more sophisticated. They're just working really hard to override the thing their nervous system is trying to do naturally.
So when someone says "I don't get the Taylor Swift thing" - what they mean is "I'm actively choosing not to."
Because understanding Taylor Swift requires understanding that humans have feelings, tell stories about those feelings, and find meaning in sharing those stories with other humans.
It's not that deep. It's actually the most basic human thing there is.
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