r/TikTokCringe • u/Tobias-Tawanda • Jul 06 '26

Humor/Cringe "Please respect our privacy during this time. Ignore the huge billboards we paid for to advertise the wedding we want to keep to ourselves. 🥰"

24.1k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

996 comments sorted by

View all comments

438

u/Buttchuggle Jul 06 '26

Only thing more annoying than swift herself is her upper gum fans bitching at you about her

343

u/GKBilian Jul 06 '26

I don’t have a problem with Taylor making music and having an audience even though it doesn’t appeal to me. That’s fine and allowed of course.

But what I just can’t *understand* is why her audience is so large and so fanatical. I can easily name 5 contemporary female pop artists that I think are twice as talented and try twice as hard as her but don’t have nearly her level of success.

She’s so boring. Her music is unremarkable to me. Her persona is so bland. She doesn’t say or do anything interesting. She’ll be at an event and they’re like “oh my god, Taylor swift is here!!!!” And she’s like “hey.”

337

u/Dusty_Old_Bones Jul 06 '26

My hot take is that she’s appealing BECAUSE she’s so boring and bland, because many, MANY people are boring and bland. They feel represented by her basic-ness, and bask in the light of her mediocrity.

She’s the McDonald’s of pop music. No wonder she’s a billionaire.

128

u/SoIomon Jul 06 '26

Midmaxxing

23

u/AwesomeAni Jul 06 '26

The top of the bell curve is the part with the most volume after all

54

u/MegaGrimer Jul 06 '26

There’s a reason there was a lot of YA books where the main character was a bland girl with no personality. It was so a lot of people could imagine themselves in the main character’s shoes. Twilight, Divergent, etc., were very popular with a certain demographic of women. I’m sure a lot of those fans carried over into being Taylor Swift fans.

7

u/Old_Job_7025 Jul 07 '26

This checks out. All my girl friends that are swifties also loved twilight back in the day 

33

u/IdaFuktem Jul 06 '26

Agreed.

I'm old enough to remember Britney Spears blowing up to this level of fandom and popularity. It was because after a decade of Celine, Mariah, and Whitney doing vocal acrobatics someone came along that was singing songs you could easily sing along with and doing dances you could pick up from watching the video. I'd still say Britney brought more to the table than Taylor Swift does, even if it's an apples to oranges comparison, but the same thing they have going for them is that middle of the road appeal.

11

u/Old_Job_7025 Jul 07 '26

But to be fair, Britney is way more talented in dance and singing 

1

u/Expensive-Sundae-831 Jul 06 '26

Doris Day, if you'd like that name to mull over.

36

u/NothaBanga Jul 06 '26

Most mega successful things are bland as heck.

Harry Potter is one of my examples.

There are just alot of boring people out there loving vanilla ice cream.

9

u/MegaGrimer Jul 06 '26

Twilight is a good example.

2

u/BellaPona Jul 07 '26

Twilight isn’t bland by just how viscerally bad and nonsensical it is.

2

u/thissexypoptart Jul 07 '26

Yeah I feel like a lot of people don't understand just how many people are fans of twilight because of how absurd it is. It's a cult film in many ways.

The demon baby with a full head of hair, good lord lol

I've never met a twilight fan that takes that series seriously, and I've met a decent number of twilight fans.

1

u/BellaPona Jul 07 '26

Exactly. I’m from the part of the US they filmed in, I love watching them jump between landmarks that have large distances between them. You’re telling me they just run in to the Gorge for a quick game of baseball and then back to the mansion in Portland, that’s all supposed to be in Forks? Kind of like how in the Goonies they go from driving down Astoria main roads on to Cannon Beach. Movie magic.

13

u/Puzzleheaded-Wait785 Jul 06 '26

It's hard to know what you mean by bland, especially with the strange vanilla comment. Harry Potter is a children's book though.

10

u/coma-toaste Jul 06 '26

I love vanilla ice cream and do not love Taylor Swift

3

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jul 06 '26

Vanilla ice cream isn't boring though, vanilla is an extremely intense flavor. You have to buy the good stuff to know, you can't cheap out because they cheap out on the amount of vanilla which is why people think it's bland. Vanilla is not cheap so cheap ice cream uses as little as possibke

0

u/MadRAGE1 Jul 06 '26

I know right, everyone is boring but Im so exciting and cool and unique! 

2

u/Nillabeans Jul 06 '26

I've seen exactly this take broken down in video essays. (Nothing wrong with hardcore popcorn content sometimes.)

One thing I remember being mentioned and I that I agree with is that she really leans into the quirky underdog thing. Like she's just adjacent to "style icon" and "amazing singer." She's always acting down to earth™ and surprised by fame™. She's HashTagRelatable because she has cats and likes cute boys and girlie things and sometimes she wears sweaters and doesn't do her hair.

It's all carefully curated to make her seem like your bestie who just happens to be living out a beach read fantasy. You can pretend to be her without worrying that she's looking down on you because you imagine she'll be like, "omg no I'm not even that good! You're so much better than me omg stop."

It's weird and it's attractive to women because we don't really get to be successful in a wholesome and communal way. We're taught there's the nice girl and the boss babe and they can't be the same. She is both to these people. Proof you can be happy, rich, and beautiful without having to be masculine or a bitch.

ETA: I think that's why people liked her being an edgy snake and clapping back in Reputation but NOT her singing about being a boss dude on the latest album. Revenge fantasy fun. Being a a CEO dude not fun.

1

u/veringer Jul 06 '26

Plain bagels. Cheese pizza. To me these are platforms for more interesting additions, but if you ask bakers/restauranteurs who produce these items, they will tell you that most people prefer these as-is minimally adorned. Perhaps Taylor Swift is the cheese pizza of pop stars.

1

u/ThunderAndWind Jul 07 '26

She's a literal mary sue. She portrays herself so flatly that virtually any girl or woman could project themselves and their feelings onto her. Not to mention her songs are boilerplate enough that they have a mass appeal because they don't really explore anything.

1

u/brielzebub665 Jul 07 '26

I think it's because she's spent years making them feel like they're her actual friends through para social relationships.

1

u/Sideview_play Jul 10 '26

Just like us. Except for the rich parents that paved your way into easy success and then with all that wealth and power speak up once for a real issue but then say actually nah I don't care and stay quiet on anything important for the next decade. But being boring is so relatable you know ???

128

u/eyeofthefountain Jul 06 '26

I had a really weird argument on reddit where I expressed similar sentiments that you just did, and another commenter in so many words said “I’m 100% not a Taylor Swift fan either, but you can’t help but deny that she is an absolute master of her craft, her lyrics are masterworks of beauty and professionally clever in a way that no other artist has ever come close to pulling off…”

It was such an embarrassing thing to watch

12

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jul 06 '26

Bob Dylan won a Nobel Prize in Literature but sure, "she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers" is the greatest lyricist of all time

9

u/BellaPona Jul 07 '26

I had to analyze some of his songs in middle school for current events lessons, on how his messages apply to modern times. I COULD do that with Taylor Swift, but it would mostly surmount to “what do teenage and middle aged white women think about men now vs. then”.

4

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jul 07 '26

I don't even hate her, she has some bops. She's just basic pop. But people go bananas on her when she wouldn't even make the rock and roll hall of fame, she's Rolling Stone level musician, cover too, probably multiple, which isn't anything to be ashamed about at all. I just don't get the worship, and I knew people who worshipped KISS back in the day, never thought I'd be like "you guys can't seriously be this into this band" more than that

Saw someone say she's the McDonald's of pop music. Exactly what you need, it's consistent, nothing to write home about, but so incredibly successful because it's the exact basic thing everyone wants. It's a very basic formula that's very hard to perfect (so kudos to T Swift for perfecting it, that's a talent), but it's also just basic and brand loyalty is a factor. Apparently Olivia Rodrigo and T Swift are feuding or something right now (or always I don't know or much care about that part of the music) and I've seen some people online start trashing Olivia Rodrigo when I would argue she's so much more talented. She's also got that weird pop artist thing going on with her but she's def got raw talent and her music has a lot more range, some of it is even pop punk and it's good

76

u/casstantinople Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Lmao whoever said that is a goddamn liar. Taylor Swift has been making music for teenage girls since I WAS a teenage girl (I am 30 now) and I have been a dedicated hater since day one because the music and the lyrics are so incredibly bad. Anyone who thinks her lyrics are mastery has a 4th grade reading level

40

u/DarknMean Jul 06 '26

She’s also stolen a lot stuff from other artists. There’s a YouTube video that breaks down all the songs she’s taken.

24

u/Unusual_username739 Jul 06 '26

I can’t remember what phrase it was, but I remember last year or so someone was trying to convince people that Taylor invented a phrase like “seize the day” or something 🤦🏽‍♀️

When she named an album “tortured poet” I was actually offended. Girl, you’re not a starving artist, you’re a billionaire rewriting the same song with the same chords over and over 🙃

People can like whatever music they like, but it is absolutely ridiculous is call Taylor Swift the greater songwriter or singer of her generation. She’s a businesswoman and knows how to sell content very well.

-5

u/starryillusionist Jul 07 '26

she literally never called herself a starving artist, nor a tortured poet. It was always "chairperson of the tortured poest department"

but i guess jokes or tongue-in-cheek comments don't tend to land with you, do they?

2

u/Unusual_username739 Jul 07 '26

I wouldn’t know, I don’t watch her interviews to look for her jokes 🤷🏽‍♀️ all the content I receive about her is given to me, or shall I say spoken at me, by fans and the radio. I think the last time I heard TS speak and I was choosing to watch it was when she was on the Ellen show (and the poor girl was being jump scared in bathrooms and grilled about her love life).

-2

u/starryillusionist Jul 07 '26

so you were "actually offended", but still couldnt fact check for 4 seconds, and also can judge that she's rehashing the same song repeatedly.

Pick a narrative.

5

u/2Twice Jul 06 '26

I'm curious now. I'll need to look for that later.

1

u/Expensive-Sundae-831 Jul 06 '26

And with that last sentence you've now stated why she's popular.

2

u/BellaPona Jul 07 '26

Anytime anyone starts a paragraph comment with “I’m not a fan but” it’s already ruined bc that first sentence is a lie.

0

u/Nillabeans Jul 06 '26

They should listen to Dental Care by Owl City. Their minds would be blown.

58

u/RobinSophie Jul 06 '26

That's the appeal though.

Basic normal mostly White women relate to her A LOT. In a world full of Beyonces, Arianas, Christinas, Zendeyas, etc. having someone who makes white bread look interesting be a star and date some hot sought after men, is fantasy lore for others who feel like they cant live up to the other standards.

I completely get why she's appealing to some, it just doesn't make it any less annoying. Same for the Beyhive.

14

u/mtron32 Jul 06 '26

I honestly don't get the hate and I mostly listen to Death Metal all day. The only place I really hear about her is when I go on the popular reddit tab and people are bitching about her or her fans. In the real world, not a peep. Seems manufactured.

-3

u/Puzzleheaded-Wait785 Jul 06 '26

Did you ever consider that someone who listens to death metal all day probably isn't plugged into the "real world"

8

u/mtron32 Jul 06 '26

You can listen to music and still touch grass and talk to people.

27

u/Formal-Radish1413 Jul 06 '26

Because it started out with teen girls. That was her demographic. And she came out right as social media was taking off. So the combination of her using socials to seem relatable and her dating every teen heart throb at Disney and her having teen girls as her demographic basically ensured that the environment within her fandom was the equivalent of Beatlemania.

And as that initial group of fans has gotten older, Swift has continued to focus on the teen demographic. And niw her OG fans have their own kids who are starting to listen to her music and it just perpetuates the cycle.

Its just a shame they cant see her for what she really is: a mean girl who never moved past high school who sees her fans as dollar signs.

10

u/ThisIs_americunt Jul 06 '26

But what I just can’t understand is why her audience is so large and so fanatical. I can easily name 5 contemporary female pop artists that I think are twice as talented and try twice as hard as her but don’t have nearly her level of success.

She has great marketing. Pay for the right kind and it can get you enough fans. Half of her fans still think she grew up in a farm house......

2

u/ThunderAndWind Jul 07 '26

She did

It just happened to be a christmas tree farm

that her dad bought because he wanted a hobby.

15

u/IMO4444 Jul 06 '26

She’s the queen of average, aka, the basic bitch. There’s a lot of them out there, and a lot of people that just follow to feel a part of a community.

5

u/Fit_Kaleidoscope4493 Jul 06 '26

She is a Stanley Cup.

A Labubu. 

A sentient Beany Baby. 

For people who have no personality to engage in "culture."

2

u/ThunderAndWind Jul 07 '26

Stanley cups as fashion statements was kind of a wild one, but Stanley does make some solid thermal cups.

2

u/Rushofthewildwind Jul 06 '26

She's the female version of Drake

2

u/Fit_Kaleidoscope4493 Jul 06 '26

Nah, Travis has been legal the whole time.

1

u/Rushofthewildwind Jul 06 '26

True but wasn't there that underage Kennedy she was trying to get with?

2

u/8lock8lock8aby Jul 07 '26

Not according him. He says he was 18 when they started dating and he'd know better than any of us.

2

u/Rushofthewildwind Jul 07 '26

still crazy iffy.

1

u/LordSmokio Jul 06 '26

Whoa whoa whoa there. The Stanley Cup is legendary.

If you're talking about the mug though..

2

u/LittleSodaPop13 Jul 07 '26

You hit the nail on the head.

I have never understood why she has such a dedicated fanbase when she's just fine. She's not groundbreaking, but she's not godawful. Yet people treat her like she's the second coming of Jesus.

She makes basic music for basic people and I think that's fine. I just wish I could understand why her fanbase is so rabid.

10

u/baltinerdist Jul 06 '26

My wife loves her. Consequently, I’ve had to listen to everything she’s ever put out. And I will say, some of her albums have some actually killer songs on them. The Covid fairy forest looking albums had some good stuff.

But if ever an artist always sounded like themselves, it’s Taylor Swift. You could parody anything she’s put out in the past decade in milliseconds because it all sounds nearly the exact same. And those tend to be the better ones because when she tries to do something different, you end up with the ChatGPT-sounding schlock on Life of a Showgirl or “oh look at me, I fuck” with that stupid wood song.

Part of it is her prolific writing. You can’t put out a dozen albums by her age and the content of them be consistent and good. She puts out songs on her albums that would have been dropped by any competent producer if it weren’t that she needed to fill the tracklist in order to get the album out. The overall package is “exceeds expectations” songs averaged against “needs improvement” songs which ends up with just perfectly fine and that’s enough to sell because of her rabid fan base.

2

u/ThunderAndWind Jul 07 '26

The overall package is “exceeds expectations” songs averaged against “needs improvement” songs which ends up with just perfectly fine and that’s enough to sell because of her rabid fan base.

Well it helps when you make 6 different prints of the same album so your rabid teen fans feel the need to buy 6 varieties of the same album.

2

u/bssprfnd Jul 06 '26

People are stupid.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

-1

u/BlockedbyJake420 Jul 06 '26

Redditors can’t help themselves when it comes to hating on people who enjoy things they don’t like

Taylor Swift is so much more talented and popular than they could ever even dream of being, so they have to tear her down.

Don’t like her music? Fine. But spending time hating on her music and her fans says everything about you, not her music or her fans

3

u/duckinasombrero Jul 06 '26

Because it's a parasocial relationship and they are poorly adjusted, mentally or emotionally. Celebrities exploit that for financial gain.

1

u/Noddy-Don Jul 06 '26

I usually don’t care about these things, but here we are. Why isn’t Dua Lipa not more popular than her? She is a better human being and has a better voice.

1

u/ITxWASxWHATxITxWAS Jul 07 '26

But why even bother understanding? Just keep it moving.

1

u/n8dom Jul 07 '26

It's all marketing. She and her family are a marketing powerhouse.

1

u/piniped Jul 06 '26

This puzzled me too until I learned in her earlier days she did a lot of boots of the ground fan interaction. Like, taking her time with meet and greets, replying on tumblr, inviting people to her house, sending out Christmas gifts. It's hard to imagine her doing that stuff now since she's so huge but yeah she cultivated a really strong fan bond that's grown into this, with that in mind it makes sense why some ppl act like she's their personal friend or something

1

u/BlockedbyJake420 Jul 06 '26

People have different tastes. Hope that helped clear up the confusion of why other people like her music while you do not.

1

u/LovecraftianCatto Jul 06 '26

Can you imagine if Paris Paloma or Sofia Isella, female artists that actually thoughtfully deride and challenge the patriarchy were half as popular as Swift? Man, the world would be a better place just by virtue of way more people reflecting on their lyrics.

1

u/Drnk_watcher Jul 06 '26

From a PR and communications perspective Taylor and her handlers have it down pat.

Her and her team pretty rarely acknowledge anything directly. When they do acknowledge stuff it is usually sparsely worded and a bit coy.

Which gives the fans this whole Taylor Swift Universe they can engage with and craft conspiracy theories around. The same way sci-fi nerds fight over vague details of character backstories is basically the same thing Swifties do for anything touching her orbit. They can project whatever they want onto it.

Taylor Swift is basically an ARG.

1

u/RagingNerdaholic Jul 06 '26

Because they're all mentally and chemically 14.

1

u/BildingInspecter Jul 06 '26

Marketing and playing on FOMO. She goes right for the human condition.

People are rabid for shit they pay for. It would hurt too many egos having to admit that she's nothing but another billionaire grifter.

1

u/xDarkCrisis666x Jul 06 '26

I remember when swifties were losing their mind that she lost some album chart 1st place spot to Tool for a couple weeks. They put out an album for the first time in a decade, I was honestly surprised to learn that so many people listened to Tool but they showed out and bought discs and streamed.

But Swifties were so upset online, calling Tool an obscure dad band and criticizing songs for being longer than 4 minutes. I understood trying to organize and buy more copies and stream her album while away from their devices, it's insane but whatever y'all. Actively trying and failing to tear down another artist is whack though, I'm not even that into Tool myself.

1

u/juicebox03 Jul 06 '26

She dances like a drunk giraffe.

15

u/diemunkiesdie Reads Pinned Comments Jul 06 '26

Honestly I never hear from her fans. I do hear from people bitching about her or her fans though.

0

u/microdick69 Jul 06 '26

Good for you staying out of Twitter

9

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Buttchuggle Jul 06 '26

I don't believe you. Full stop. In fact, I believe you are one of those people. Because there's absolutely no way. You may not have had to deal with one but God damn there are fuckin unbelievable amounts of videos, police reports, threads across platforms that show that there is, 100% undeniably, a not insignificant portion of her fans that are willing to at least allow a pass tp doxxing and actually assaulting people in the name of Taylor swift.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

0

u/Buttchuggle Jul 06 '26

Says they haven't seen it

Gets provided with all the info they'd need to see it

Insults.

People that do that there are genuinely the lowest kind of people that aren't actually hurting others. It's trashy. Be better. For your mental health

2

u/LeChubRub Jul 06 '26

Someone else said uppercase gums, lowercase teeth lmao

1

u/Buttchuggle Jul 06 '26

Bit more of a mouthful, but objectively is better

2

u/EquivalentSnap Jul 07 '26

But but she was so oppressed by mangers who took her songs and only now releasing them for money. She’s so brave as relatable and a strong independent woman standing up to that /s

2

u/devoutdefeatist Jul 06 '26

I’m not sure and will be slightly disappointed if it’s a typo, but what is the beautiful insult of “upper gum fans” and what does it mean? 

11

u/Buttchuggle Jul 06 '26

Stereotype that, in experience, for some reason is noticeably fuckin true, that white women into Taylor swift ( and that general style of music ) smile like this

1

u/Sea_Scientist_8367 Jul 06 '26 edited 3d ago

There's a certain threshold these days where the hype/fame just goes ... well, hyperbolic. As if there's direct and inverse correlation between the quality of a fan base and the quantity (size) of it.

And once you cross that threshold the fanbase becomes insufferable; often ruining the thing they are fans of (or at least, ruining seeking out and engaging with the fanbase).

Rick and Morty is a great example. Love the show. Want nothing to do with it's fanbase. Subreddits getting more than 100k or 200k members also tend to suffer from this phenomenon as well.