Editorial
How much power does Taylor Swift have? Gregor Peter Schmitz about the new star
A pop star of superlatives: Taylor Swift is currently doing everything she can
Taylor Swift is not only one of the pop superstars, but also one of the “economic superstars,” she says star-Editor-in-chief Gregor Peter Schmitz.
A few years ago, when globalization was still generally seen as a promise, economists liked to write about “superstar economics.” In short, they said what Abba already knew before: “The winner takes it all.” Chosen superstars can cash in in a networked world, leaving little left for global mediocrity. It’s hard to assume that these economists were already “Swifties,” which is what Taylor Swift’s fans call themselves. And yet Swift, 34, is proof of the superstar theory. Wherever the US singer performs, wherever her songs are heard, she has the license to be a super hit.
“If Taylor Swift brought a particularly pretty garden hose collection onto the market in 2024 and claimed that it was her new album, this view would also prevail,” wrote the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in a review. How does the woman do that? My colleague Jochen Siemens has taken an approach to this latest pop phenomenon, from Nashville to Heidelberg. There was only one question that even Siemens couldn’t answer: whether Mrs Swift also needs to save democracy, for example by calling on her millions of fans to vote against Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November.
It is part of the argument of notorious America-haters that the USA is an aggressor, only intent on imposing its model on the world. In reality, isolationism is at least as strong an American tendency. Father George Washington advised his successors not to get too caught up in foreign affairs. Shortly before World War II, even the Portuguese army was larger than the American one. It is therefore hardly surprising that after the expensive and, in retrospect, largely pointless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, America’s pendulum swung back towards isolationism. It is all the more remarkable that the US Congress has now approved billions in new aid for Ukraine and America could even soon supply the country with long-range ATACMS missiles. This also provides relief in Berlin, but at the same time raises new questions for Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Why shouldn’t he, who always wants to march in step with Biden, not deliver comparable Taurus cruise missiles?
As the star A few months ago there was a cover discussion with AfD leader Alice Weidel, there was some praise, but there was also a hail of criticism. It was said that the longed-for disenchantment of Weidel had not been achieved. Without wanting to do our colleagues any injustice: Such “disenchantment” was not evident even after the TV duel between AfD man Björn Höcke and CDU representative Mario Voigt, nor when ARD talk show host Caren Miosga was surprisingly affable Party leader of the Alternative, Tino Chrupalla, heard. But is that even to be expected? Thanks to constant repetition, can the debate with the AfD show that its representatives do not seem like monsters, but they propagate monstrous ideas and offer no solutions? This is apparently how many German citizens see it, according to a survey by the Forsa Institute star shows.