Taylor Swift fans — including Aireonna Westbrook (singing to the left) and Jaionna Stanfield (upper right-hand corner) — congregate to celebrate the Eras Tour concert movie and Taylor Swift’s rerecording of 1989. (Juliana Yamada, Nisa Khan, Darren Tu)
Ava Jeffs was a sophomore in high school, listening to music and cooking her mom’s favorite meal: braised short rib with parmesan risotto.
Jeffs loved cooking — especially for other people. But Jeffs was struggling with an eating disorder — and her love for cooking felt like a constant battle in her head.
Then she heard the lyrics:
When I was drowning… that’s when I could finally breathe.
“I remember tasting the dish, and then I went outside, and it started raining, and it was just a very cathartic experience for me. It almost seemed unreal at the time,” Jeffs, now 19, says. For her, “the song is about the first time that I really felt clean of all of those negative feelings that came along with food.”
The song was Taylor Swift’s “Clean,” from her pop-crossover magnum opus, 1989.
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It’s the song that inspired Jeffs’ college admission essay to Stanford University, where she now studies computer science.
In Palo Alto:
Next spring, Jeffs — as a sophomore — will teach a class at Stanford about Taylor Swift that examines the singer’s storytelling abilities.
“That song just got me through such a hard time and is one of the reasons why I’m here,” she says. “So it’s almost like paying back by doing this class and showing other people how they can get the same thing out of songs if they are able to read something in a specific way.”
The class is called “The Last Great American Songwriter” — a reference to Swift’s song “the last great american dynasty” on her album folklore.
“There has been some pushback about there being a class like this at a university like Stanford,” Jeffs says. But that’s exactly why she wanted to create it. “I think that a lot of the time, songwriting as a medium of art and storytelling is undervalued, and I want it to be valued.”
Jeffs is one of thousands of Bay Area fans bracing for the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on Friday.
And there is no shortage of gatherings for Swifties: Drag shows, themed parties, and, of course, karaoke.
In Emeryville:
At Bay Street Emeryville’s outdoor terrace on Oct. 19, 11-year-old Jaionna Stanfield gave a lively rendition of the 1989 single, “Shake It Off.”
“She’s just so nice and kind, and she’s just a very good singer,” Stanfield says. “She’s so pretty and beautiful, and that’s all.”
Swift attracts fans of all ages — especially those who grew up with her music and relied on her songs to get them through anxiety and heartbreak. At Bay Street Emeryville, 30-year-old Aireonna Westbrook says she can get up on a stage and sing in front of complete strangers (she sang “22”) because of Taylor Swift.
“I’m not normally an extroverted person, but that’s how she makes me feel,” she says. “Just be bold, be yourself, and just go full throttle with everything.”
When you ask a fan why they are so drawn to Taylor Swift — you will get a range of answers.
Her lyricism conjures vivid imagery: “You can hear every drop of the leaves falling, and then you can see a picture of her dancing in the refrigerator light.” Michael Micael, a movie attendee, says of the song “All Too Well.”
Regarding the pure nostalgia of revisiting her songs: “[Taylor Swift] really embraces what it means to go through girlhood and to experience those really turbulent emotions that you go through in your maturing,” Jeffs says.
Swift’s music reminds some fans of the memories it holds with their families. “My dad is always really into female artists who play their own instruments. And I remember when her self-titled [album] came out, and he was like, ‘One of these girls plays guitar,’” says Courtney Carlomagno, wearing a shirt depicting Swift as Jesus Christ.
Perhaps Christine Chen, arms also donned with friendship bracelets, says it best: “There’s just something for every mood or every type of Taylor fan.”
Pop. Country. Folk. Feeling contemplative? folklore or evermore. Angry? Reputation.
“Because we’re not homogenous, right? We don’t all love the same things,” Chen says. “We all love different aspects of her and her music.”
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