So I was paging through
Everything2 and I decided to check out the node on Taylor Swift, and imagine my shock, my utter surprise, in discovering that there was
none. None at all!!
Despite its vast
empire of
wisdom, Everything2 makes no mention of the fact that Taylor was born in
Reading, Pennsylvania, on December 13,
1989, or that her parents gave her a gender-neutral name in case she someday became a businessperson, or that she rode show ponies as a little girl. Everything2 even lacks any contribution informing node-readers that at the age of fourteen, having already landed a development deal with a record label, Taylor persuaded her parents to move to
country music ground zero --
Nashville, Tennessee -- so that she might embark upon a coveted music career. Details like that, it is true, might be passed upon, but a visitor could peruse all of Everything2's offerings and yet remain uninformed that Taylor thereafter rose to become one of the biggest-selling singer/songwriters in the world, and that by the age of twenty-one she had multiple number one singles,
platinum albums,
Grammy awards, sold-out stadium tours, and similar career-burnishing accolades.
Now, my agitation on this matter might yield some results. Possibly some enterprising noder will write something about Taylor's key demographic being teenage girls, and her principal themes being, firstly, pining for the boy whom she loves, but who does not notice her, and, secondly, lamenting what a jerk her most recent ex-boyfriend turned out to be (the latter being handily spoofed in the "musical monologue" she penned for her gig hosting
Saturday Night Live). It might be mentioned that Taylor's songs are generally boiled down recapitulations of her own life experiences (including, apparently, quite a streak of romantic yearnings yielding failed relationships); and that her hits in this vein include songs with titles like "
Our Song" and "
Love Story" and "
Breathe" and "
You Belong With Me."
And perhaps, possibly, some noder will write of how Taylor once went on
Ellen DeGeneres' show, and Ellen, as a practical joke, hid in the bathroom and jumped out to surprise Taylor, with hilarious results; and that Taylor later returned to the show and humorously sang about the event to the tune of
Foster the People's "
Pumped Up Kicks." And, naturally, no entry on Taylor Swift would be complete without pointing out that despite both her fame and the kitschy cubbyhole into which her song stylings fall, she manages to seem quite down to earth, and to reflect upon her status with a witty self-effacing
humor (though she answered some of the more pointed criticisms directed against her with her song, "
Mean.")
In closing, I must register my deep, deep disappointment in Everything2's utter paucity of the mention of Taylor Swift, and quite frankly my
distress at the prospect that such a node may never be seen as something needed herein.