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Taylor Swift's Top Earning Status Should Encourage Mitt Romney

by Lindsay Mannering on July 13, 2012 at 4:53 PM

taylor swiftKristen Stewart may be the highest paid actress, but she's not the highest paid entertainer. Yup, when you take into account actors and musicians under 30, Kristen ranks a mere seventh. Can you guess who's on top? Nope, not Justin Bieber, but he did come in second. The highest paid entertainer under 30 is none other than saccharine sweet Taylor Swift. The 22-year-old singer raked in a whopping $57 million between May 2011 and May 2012. Holy corn balls.

There are two takeaways here. One, if you can't decide whether to push your kid into acting or singing, uh, singing; and two, America is so over weird costumes and gay references and glitter. Taylor's spot at the top might mean we're entering an era of, gasp, conservatism.

From her cloying yet catchy songs to her frilly dresses to her wavy blond hair to her unrelentingly humility, Taylor's got the wholesome thing down, and we're eating it up. We're buying her concert tickets, her t-shirts, her CDs, and her message. Squeaky clean never cost us so much.

I wonder if Mitt Romney's encouraged by this news. Anyone who buys a Taylor Swift album for themselves is probably too young to vote, but there are millions of parents out there who've purchased her music for their kids ... if these adults support Taylor's conservative image, will they also support the conservative candidate? Mitt sure hopes so.

In 2008, when we all thought that we could, in fact, vote for change, Beyonce was the highest paid entertainer under 30; she earned $80 million that year. Queen B and husband Jay-Z openly support Obama and have attended many a fundraiser.

The Obamas have a lot of love for Taylor -- the president called Kanye West a "jackass" for hijacking Taylor's VMA acceptance speech, and Michelle recently honored Taylor for her charity work -- but does Taylor feel the same way about them?

Only she's to say, but something tells me that a lot of her fans (you can't deny that country music is most popular in red states) won't be voting for Obama this year. I'm not saying that Taylor's topping the list is foreshadowing of a Romney win, but hell, it just might be.

What do you think of Taylor's #1 spot?

 

Photo via 1035WEZL/Flickr

Filed Under: music, 2012 election

Comments

23
  • Kate
    -- Nonmember comment from

    Kate

    July 13, 2012 at 6:36 PM
    Why must you and the other Stir writers go looking for a controversial political message where this is none? The connection between Taylor Swift being the number one earner under 30 and entering an age of conservatism is shaky at best, and completely fabricated at worst. Why couldn't it be enough for you to say that she is the number one earner, then do another stupid slideshow to showcase the other 29? Stick to what you do best.
  • JC
    -- Nonmember comment from

    JC

    July 14, 2012 at 1:14 AM
    Rihanna was #3 on that list with $53 million, while Lady Gaga was #4 ($52 million) and Katy Perry was #5 ($45 million). Those numbers don't exactly confirm your belief that "America is so over weird costumes and gay references and glitter." And why do you assume all the money earned by the singers on the list was earned solely in the United States? They all had concerts outside of the United States, not to mention millions of digital downloads in dozens of countries not abbreviated USA. And if you're going to throw politics into the mix, why didn't you mention this part of the Us Weekly article you linked to: "Over the 4th of July holiday, [Swift] hung out at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts."
  • vlk_2012
    --

    vlk_2012

    July 14, 2012 at 3:53 AM

    Squeaky clean and incredibly bitter.


  • Mike
    -- Nonmember comment from

    Mike

    July 14, 2012 at 8:36 AM
    "saccharine" is an adjective, not an adverb. If you're going to try to be clever, try not doing it like an idiot.
  • Monta...
    -- Nonmember comment from

    MontanaDave

    July 14, 2012 at 9:28 AM
    This is easily the most ridiculous political analysis thus far in the election season. Congratulations on raising the bar for all the vapid nonsense as we head toward November.
  • Kelly...
    -- Facebook comment from

    Kelly Walters

    July 14, 2012 at 9:34 AM
    Huh?
  • Sidthe
    --

    Sidthe

    July 14, 2012 at 9:34 AM

    Why does EVERYTHING have to have some political message? Next thing they're gonna say the Avengers clearly support Obama cause you know they're heroes. :eyeroll: Ya ever think it has anything to do with the fact that people actually LIKE Taylor Swift's songs? Nothing to do with conservative they just genuinely like her songs? I know it's shocking people can have motives that aren't politically related. And I agree with JC with Rihanna, Lady GaGa and Katy Perry at 3, 4, and 5 you can hardly call it conservatism!


  • Huber...
    -- Nonmember comment from

    Hubert J.

    July 14, 2012 at 10:26 AM
    Your blog is bad and you should feel bad.
  • t0vanal
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    t0vanal

    July 14, 2012 at 10:47 AM

    Is this how you base your votes?  On if the pop star of the moment is conservative or not?  Is this how you think your readers base their votes?!?  It is demeaning to your readers to write as though we are so dumb as to think that Taylor Swift will have any impact on the conservative campaign.

    What a stupid article.  They really push you writers too hard to churn out stories because this obviously took no thought at all and doesn't even make sense.  


  • idon'...
    -- Nonmember comment from

    idon'tthinkso

    July 14, 2012 at 10:50 AM
    "America is so over weird costumes and gay references and glitter. Taylor's spot at the top might mean we're entering an era of, gasp, conservatism." It "might." It "might" also be the result of her being pushed as well as artists like Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and Kanye. You "might" have come to the same conclusion had you used perhaps "The Jonas Brothers" or "Hanson" or any number of other artists whose squeaky-clean image was part of their selling point. You also "might" want to believe that a return to some sort of "roots" preference in modern music means that the core values change as well. Bob Dylan would, of course, tell you how wrong that actually is. and he is a guy that has been in there for the long run. He has had breaks between albums longer than Taylor has had a career. Oh, and your blog sucks.
1-10 of 23 comments

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