{"id":1850,"date":"2023-08-12T21:15:41","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T21:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=1850"},"modified":"2023-08-12T21:15:41","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T21:15:41","slug":"its-billiongirlsummer-taylor-beyonce-and-barbie-made-for-one-epic-trifecta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=1850","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s #BillionGirlSummer: Taylor, Beyonc\u00e9 and \u2018Barbie\u2019 made for one epic trifecta"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was a last-minute impulse purchase. Two hours before showtime, I watched resale prices finally begin to fall for the extremely sold-out opening night of Taylor Swift\u2019s six-night \u201cresidency\u201d at Los Angeles\u2019 SoFi stadium. Even as a non-Swiftie, it has been impossible not to follow the feverish local coverage of international pilgrimages,\u00a0friendship bracelet<\/a>-making, and\u00a0traffic warnings.<\/a>\u00a0But that split-second pop culture purchase was, for me, pure irrationalism.<\/p>\n

With no fringe or Eras-themed ensembles in my closet, I rushed to my single seat through a sea of sequined, screaming squads with trepidation and a dull white button-down. Would I, a fortysomething South Asian man with passing knowledge of Swfitism be identified as an unwelcome interloper? Instead, my very gracious neighbor schooled me on how to wear my allotted LED bracelet, and soon I was alight in the same neon pink as the sea of humanity around us, Swift finally emerging out of parallel technicolor hues. The big tent revival swept away any fears, differences, doubts.<\/p>\n

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A Taylor Swift fan wears\u00a0friendship bracelets<\/a>\u00a0before Swift\u2019s performance on Aug. 7, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For three and a half hours, I too was part of the zeitgeist \u2013 a final chapter in a summer of spectacular pop culture revival led by three women at the peak of their powers.<\/p>\n

Greta Gerwig, Beyonc\u00e9 Knowles-Carter, and Taylor Swift have been the bona fide superstars of this American summer, transcending their own previous triumphs to reach unprecedented new heights.<\/p>\n

#HotGirlSummer is now more specifically #BillionGirlSummer, with\u00a0Barbie<\/em>\u00a0already the first woman-directed film to\u00a0gross more than a billion dollars\u00a0<\/a>and Beyonc\u00e9 and Swift\u2019s dual stadium tours estimated to gross similarly dizzying amounts, each pumping\u00a0even more<\/a>\u00a0into fledgling local economies around the country.<\/p>\n

In a city without a center and isolating car culture, for\u00a0one week Taylor Swift transformed<\/a>\u00a0LA\u2019s stadium into a cathedral \u2013 an in-person congregation for hundreds of thousands. Soon Beyonc\u00e9 will bring her roving \u201cRenaissance\u201d to the same stadium for three nights. Across Los Angeles, cinemas are still packed with squads of women and let\u2019s not deny it, many men \u2013 dressed in 50 shades of pink laughing and crying alongside Barbie\u2019s quest to become whole again.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago my colleague Brittany Luse\u00a0hosted an episode<\/a>\u00a0of her show\u00a0It\u2019s Been a Minute<\/em>\u00a0lamenting the death of the summer song that dominated and unified pop culture in our idealized millennial memories. As a guest thinking aloud with Brittany on the show, I wondered whether the shift from \u201990s and early 2000s broadcast monoculture into a streaming era Airpod \u201cme\u201d culture meant there were still summer anthems but only of an atomized, individual variety that reflect our splintered cultural and political lives.<\/p>\n

That rumination, however, was before the\u00a0Barbie<\/em>, Beyonc\u00e9 and Swift trilogy went pied piping their way through state after state, shattering records and creating an entire communal economy of\u00a0irrational exuberance.<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s turn briefly to the matter of crass capitalism and excess marketing underlying the feel-good fuzzies of corporate pop. It\u2019s been impossible to avoid the incessant social media coverage of this trinity of pink extravaganzas. Even my Pakistani immigrant father is texting me about how to join the Verified fans waitlist for Taylor\u2019s next dates. Despite the exorbitant prices for concert tickets, travel and even local movie theater outings \u2013 not to mention endless product tie-ins for all manner of merchandise \u2014 is this feverish demand simply consumer madness? Is it the cumulative decline of seriousness and taste that pretentious critics lament?<\/p>\n

The answer is a resounding no. The hype surrounding\u00a0Barbie<\/em>, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Renaissance, and Taylor\u2019s Eras tour is commensurate with the sheer amount of resources, time and attention so many Americans of all races, genders and ages are devoting to being part of this moment. Critical acclaim has followed each of these works, layers of meaning are being made. They are an undeniable triumph of women\u2019s creativity and ownership. Nobody I know of is asking for refunds.<\/p>\n

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