The 12 months is 2008, and we’re in Texas. George W. Bush is president. Homosexual marriage is against the law; hashish is certainly unlawful (and nonetheless is within the Lone Star state, aside from low THC merchandise for limited medical patients). Not too way back, the Dixie Chicks, who now go by The Chicks, had been dropped from nation music stations and blasted by contemporaries for saying they had been ashamed to be from the identical state as Bush, as they didn’t assist the invasion of Iraq. And Johnathan Nguyen, who will in the future develop as much as be an insanely proficient make-up artist living in a big old city, is in his peak highschool years and within the midst of questioning his sexuality and crushes on boys. “I keep in mind the day my cousin let me take heed to “Our Song” by Taylor Swift. I felt an earthquake inside my soul. I actually consider that was my homosexual awakening,” he says. When requested his favourite Swift tune, Nguyen replies: “These are very intense questions. I’m stoned listening to Midnights. I take enjoyable breaths because the cerebral bass hits my complete indica-fused physique. I’m at the moment listening to ‘Snow on the Seaside,’ and it slaps so onerous. However I’m additionally pondering ‘Our Track’ from her debut album as a result of I’ve come again to this tune time and time once more. It jogs my memory of a better, extra harmless time in my life. Okay, okay, positive. It’s ‘Anti-Hero.’”
Lately, with the discharge of Swift’s heady music video for “Lavender Haze,” from her tenth studio album, Midnights, publications from Leafly to Vogue questioned whether or not the tune, which contains a beautiful Tay Tay blowing smoke rings, was a nod to hashish. Swift says on Instagram that the inspiration for the tune is that buzzy, NRE (new relationship power) feeling of falling in love—one she needs to take care of and defend in her long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. “I occurred upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ after I was watching Mad Males,” shared Swift. “I regarded it up as a result of I assumed it sounded cool and it seems that it’s a typical phrase used within the ’50s the place they’d simply describe being in love.”
Whereas, on condition that Swift spent her 20s being ripped to shreds by the media, who dissected each relationship she was in, shamelessly slut-shammed her, and undoubtedly performed a job in ensuing breakups, it’s comprehensible how she needs to guard her present relationship with Alwyn, her “End Game,” occurring six years, from the talons of the tabloids. Nonetheless, many had been fast to level out the psychedelic similarities between “Lavender Haze” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” There’s even a pressure of hashish referred to as Lavender Haze, which can be referred to as G13. 13 is Taylor’s fortunate quantity. From drawing the quantity on her hand throughout the Communicate Now World Tour to the 13 tracks on Midnights, she peppers the quantity 13 (and others, Swift is a mastermind at utilizing numbers as easter eggs) in mainly the whole lot she does. Hashish customers might relate to among the phrase decisions within the tune, corresponding to “I really feel a lavender haze creeping up on me.” Stoned Swifties (a subgroup of followers that even have a Reddit page) insist that whereas lavender haze certainly refers to euphoric love, her songwriting is all the time extra layered than that confetti birthday cake within the All Too Well brief movie.
“Say what you need about Taylor Swift, however you possibly can by no means say she will be able to’t write a rattling good tune,” says Tina Baer, who works in a hashish dispensary and whose declare to fame is coining “Swemo,” a time period to explain an emo Swiftie. Baer’s favourite Swift tune is “Ivy,” off her ninth studio album, Evermore. “I’ve been screaming with my entire chest since Evermore was launched that ‘Ivy’ is essentially the most low-key stoner tune. Let’s begin with the truth that this tune is 4 minutes and 20 seconds lengthy. On high of the lyric ‘it’s a goddamn blaze at the hours of darkness.’ The metaphors might allude to so many issues, and I do know the tune is a narrative about forbidden love, however one thing in me can’t assist however join it to hashish.”
Let’s be clear: Whereas she sings that some man mentioned her aura’s moonstone simply ‘trigger he was excessive, Swift has by no means mentioned she makes use of hashish. We don’t know if Swift likes hashish, however hashish certain as hell loves Swift. “I don’t know if you happen to might really perceive the mastery of Taylor Swift’s songwriting with out hashish,” says Melissa A Vitale, publicist and founding father of Melissa A Vitale Public Relations, the primary plant and intimacy wellness PR company. “None of her songs are on the floor; you must discover between the lyrics to totally grasp the which means of every ballad. It’s euphoric whenever you lastly piece collectively all of the hidden meanings in her choruses. I don’t know if I’d be capable to expertise her phrases as deeply as I do with out hashish.” Vitale’s favourite Swift tune is: “The Man – I’m the person, she is the person, all boss babes are the person. Fuck the person and solely fuck males, not little boys.”
A recent survey discovered that over half of U.S. adults are Swift followers. Actually, not all of them smoke weed, and a few will probably be pissed about an article associating her with hashish. However Swift’s capability to attach with such a various fan base is a testomony to what she’s greatest identified for: her songwriting. “She is such an excellent lyricist,” says Katie Keller, The CannaSwift, whose favourite Swift tune is “State of Grace,” noting that this modifications each day. “I make each file launch a bit get together of 1. It entails a bottle of wine, a journal, and tons of weed. It permits me to disconnect from the whole lot else and deal with the music. You want a number of listens to absorb all of the phrases. I really like these nights on my own. However the very best moments have been assembly different Swifties.” Others agree.
“I particularly love assembly different followers who, like me, you could not anticipate to be Swifties based mostly on our look,” says Sohum J Shah, who spent the final decade working within the hashish trade, most lately as a marketing consultant at SZN Partners. “I additionally assume it’s unimaginable (and hilarious) that [the] Swift Military is so highly effective. Our collective outrage over the Ticketmaster fiasco triggered Congressional hearings into LiveNation and Ticketmaster over points that artists and followers have been complaining about for years.” Shah went from an off-the-cuff listener to a full-fledged Swiftie in 2018 when Swift first broke her political silence and inspired her followers to register to vote and assist pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ+ politicians in Tennessee. Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for the nonprofit Vote.org, told Buzzfeed, “We’re as much as 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour interval since T. Swift’s put up.” Swift backed Democrat Senate candidate and former Gov. Phil Bredesen and spoke out towards Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP candidate for Senate, who, in her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, Swift dubbed “Trump in a wig.” Sadly, it wasn’t sufficient, and Blackburn received the Senate race, however Swift received over hearts like Shah’s.
Additionally, in Miss Americana, Swift discusses how, as a star with origins within the nation world of Nashville, she was repeatedly warned to steer clear of politics or else she’d face the identical backlash as The Chicks. Nonetheless, with age, and life expertise, not all good (Swift broke her political silence after, amongst different occasions, profitable a sexual assault lawsuit); it seems she merely stopped giving a fuck. The Chicks are featured on the monitor “Quickly You’ll Get Higher,” a tune about her mom’s battle with most cancers from Swift’s 2019 and seventh studio album Lover. “I misplaced my mom to most cancers 13 years in the past,” Vitale says. “When her docs discovered her two stage 4 cancers, we had been by no means given the chance that she could possibly be cancer-free. Taylor’s “Quickly You’ll Get Higher” is an opportunity to strive on a hope we had been by no means given.” Vitale provides that she makes use of “13” reasonably than “13” as a result of “I refuse to consider my mother has been gone lengthy sufficient writing-rules-wise I can begin utilizing the digits as an alternative of writing out the numbers. By way of heartbreaks, grief, and therapeutic from trauma over the previous few years, there have been two constants: an indica-dominant spliff and Taylor Swift taking part in over the audio system.”
The 12 months is 2023. The lockdowns could also be over, however the financial fallout actually is just not. George W. Bush and the Obamas, as soon as fierce foes, appear to be friends, and many people are too busy reeling from the Trump presidency (Will he go to jail? Be the subsequent president once more? Each?) to care. In Swift’s house state of Tennessee, it’s now unlawful for drag queens to carry out in public (however you possibly can have a good time them in her video for “You Need to Calm Down“). In Nguyen’s house state of Texas, abortion is banned with little or no exception, however since Roe V. Wade was overturned, the entire nation ought to be sweating. The world is burning, however for a lot of, hashish and Taylor Swift supply solace. If you wish to learn an article critiquing her, Google it; there are sufficient already. “Have you ever tried strolling at a sluggish tempo across the metropolis whereas listening to Midnights?” Nguyen asks me. “Prompt euphoric music video realness!” And, within the phrases of this author’s favourite Swift tune, when you’ve got an issue together with his epic bejeweled drag makeup, Taylor Swift, or hashish, all you’re is mean.
Writer’s word: In my 13 years as a journalist (sure, that’s the precise quantity), I’ve by no means acquired so many interview responses as I did for this text. I apologize to all of the Stoned Swifties who had been omitted; I respect you endlessly. I now know what Tay Tay goes by when narrowing down tune decisions on an album.