For the last decade of my life, Taylor Swift has remained atop my list of favorite musicians. For every high and low moment life has thrown my way, there’s been a song written by her that’s gotten me through it. My best friends say it best: she writes the soundtrack to our life.
So when I went to watch Taylor Swift: "Miss Americana”, I didn’t anticipate my opinion on her to change. I was already one of her biggest supporters, there was no way I could love her more!
But once I finished the documentary, I was wrong. Through 85 minutes, “Miss Americana” showed me a side of Swift I’ve never seen. I appreciated her career, her music, and the openness she has with her fans more than ever before.
Within the first five minutes of the doc, viewers are taken through an intimate moment in Swift’s career as she anxiously awaits a phone call from her publicist, Tree Paine, about the 2018 Grammy nominations.
Swift’s sixth album “Reputation” was eligible for nomination and heavily expected to be nominated in the Recording Academy Grammy Awards biggest categories. Her last album, “1989,” won three Grammy awards, including the show’s highest honor Album of the Year.
Unfortunately, Swift received the phone call that she was not nominated for any of the big categories. The look of disappointment but persistence to make a better album was clear from the expression on her face and sound in her voice.
“This is fine,” she stutters. “I just need to make a better record.”
Lana Wilson, the director of “Miss Americana”, spends the rest of the documentary taking viewers through the highs and lows of Swift’s career.
One of the most pivotal moments in the documentary is when Swift talks about deconstructing her previously held value system.
Since she was younger, Swift’s opinion on herself was based on the words of others. Over the years, she was criticized for her dating history, writing songs about her love life and for “playing the victim card”.
After the fallout with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in 2016, Swift received so much hate online and in the media — it made her disappear.
Before this happened she was active on social media, photographed by the paparazzi almost everyday, attended award shows, and frequently did television interviews. When she disappeared, all of this changed. She deleted all her personal photos off social media and rarely posted, and there was once a nine-month period where not a single picture of Swift was taken. She completely went off the radar.
During this time away, she completely reinvented how she thinks of herself. Swift describes in the film that hitting rock bottom was a big wake up call to feel the need to create change in her life.
"I'm trying to be as educated as possible on how to respect people, on how to deprogram the misogyny in my own brain, toss it out, reject it, and resist it," Swift said.
In this healing, the pop-star also learned the importance of prioritizing more important things in her life. Her mother Andrea Swift was diagnosed with cancer and that played a big part in changing Swift’s perspective on life.
"You’ve gotta be able to prioritize what matters to you — to me, it’s my family and friends,” Swift said.
Swift also addressed her struggles with eating disorders and body image. To me, this was one of the most shocking revelations to hear. Swift has been someone I looked up to for years and never in my life did I imagine she’d struggle with issues like my friends and I. Hearing how it still affects her every day really made her down-to-earth in my eyes.
"This would cause me to go into a real shame, hate spiral. I caught myself yesterday starting to do it and I said, 'Nope. We don't do that anymore,” Swift said. “Because it's better to think you look fat than look sick.' There’s always some standard of beauty that you’re not meeting.” she said.
Swift also opened about her infamous sexual assault trial. She was groped by a radio host, the guy lost his job after her team told his boss, and he sued Taylor. So she countersued for $1.
"The first thing they say to you in court is: Why didn’t you scream? Why didn’t you react quicker? Why didn’t you stand farther away from him?” she said, recounting the blame she felt.
Living this experience caused Swift to speak up again on something she’s never done before. She finally took a side in politics despite staying apolitical her whole career.
When she first did this in 2018, I didn’t understand why she would involve herself in such a hostile environment but seeing how important it was for made me gain a lot of respect for her speaking out.
“I’m sad that I didn’t two years ago,” Swift said to her parents in the film. “I’m saying right now that this is something that I know is right, and, you guys, I need to be on the right side of history. And if he [Blackburn’s opponent Phil Bredesen] doesn’t win, then at least I tried.”
Swift eventually posted a lengthy Instagram post supporting the Tennessee Democrat for Senate in the Midterms election causing an uproar of support and criticism on social media.
The President of United States even commented on Swift picking a side in the political race. “Let’s just say I like Taylor’s music about 25% less now, OK?”
Days after Swift’s post, 169,000 new people had registered to vote. Seeing the excitement on her face after she received the news from her publicist was one of the most memorable moments from the documentary.
Once I finished this documentary the way I viewed my favorite artist changed. I respected her not only as an artist but she gain my respect as a person too. I felt like I was given an inside look into who she really was, and seeing her creative process was special.