Swifties in India: Understanding Affinity, Self, and Global Media Power

Taylor Swift has never stepped in to India but the PVR Inox, a cinema chain sold 300000 tickets to her concert film of The Eras Tour in India. Cinemas around the Indian cities turned into party venues where Swifties danced, sung, and celebrated the music of Taylor for over three hours. The Eras Tour was a complete media spectacle, where the fans not just performed their fandom, but filmed themselves doing so, and created digital trends by uploading them. These videos further added to the frenzy around the tour. The fandom of Taylor Swift has inspired several businesses to produce objects, events, and environment to keep the fandom in circulation. These fan objects contribute to a large growing economy of global music in India. Drawing from Bourdieu, the paper brings focus into understanding the fandom of Taylor Swift in India, through the close study of values presented by Taylor’s songs, the analysis of caste-class habitus of Taylor’s audience, and the political economy of fascination built around Swift. It attempts to understand how and among who does Taylor Swift resonate and how her politics translate in the Indian context. The paper uses Netnography, non-participant observation, and qualitative interviews to discuss the sociology of Swifties in India.