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“We’re using her as an example, albeit an incredibly huge and impactful one. There isn’t a day where Taylor Swift isn’t a headline.”
The ubiquitous Taylor Swift has taken over the charts, headlines, and even college classrooms, and a local university will be the latest to offer a class studying Swift’s career.
Students at Salem State University will be able to study Swift’s meteoric rise, influential songwriting, and cultural impact in a new course this spring. “The Media Impact & Societal Influence of Taylor Alison Swift” will be taught by journalist and adjunct faculty member Lauren Torlone.
The class will explore the world’s biggest pop star’s influence on American life and politics, as well as the overall impact of pop culture icons on society.
“We’re using her as an example, albeit an incredibly huge and impactful one,” Torlone said. “There isn’t a day where Taylor Swift isn’t a headline.”
Amy Smith, the chairperson of the Media and Communication Department at Salem State, said the class steps out of the “traditional educational box” for students.
Salem State is joining Harvard University, Northeastern University, and dozens of other institutions across the country in offering a class based around the pop star. At Harvard, the popular class focused more on her songwriting and the impact of her fans, or Swifites.
Torlone, a self-proclaimed “major Swiftie,” is definitely qualified to teach a class about Swift’s impacts as both a pop icon and businesswoman. However, her career “isn’t completely unique to being Taylor Swift.”
“It came together for me in terms of conceptualizing the course because she represents many parts of the human experience; at the same time there’s no doubt that Swift is the figurehead to draw people in,” Torlone said. “Pop culture influences society and culture, and the reverse is also true.”
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