New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music offers new course about Taylor Swift

New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music introduced the first-ever university course on Taylor Swift where students will learn about Swift’s musical career through political and cultural lenses.

A portion of the course description reads, “This course proposes to deconstruct both the appeal and aversions to Taylor Swift through close readings of her music and public discourse as it relates to her own growth as an artist and a celebrity.” 

“Through readings, lectures and more, the class delves into analyses of the culture and politics of teen girlhood in pop music, fandom, media studies, whiteness and power as it relates to her image and the images of those who have both preceded and succeeded her,” the course description elaborated. 

Topics like copyright and ownership, American nationalism and the ongoing impact of social media on the pop music industry will be covered in the course. Hence, throughout the course, “students will develop an understanding and appreciation for Taylor Swift as a creative music entrepreneur.”

The course is taught by a Rolling Stones senior writer who is also a huge Swiftie, Brittany Spanos. “[Spanos] is a Taylor fan but she also understands how to contextualise her culturally, and get students to think more deeply about her and her music through the lens of gender, feminism, race and class and other categories related to identity, and that deeper thinking is what this programme is all about,” said music writer and musician Jason King who will serve as the chair of the course. 

According to Variety, Swift herself was invited to make a guest lecture appearance, but that request remains pending. The course will be held from 26 January to 9 March and NYU reports that there's quite a waitlist for the course.