As the United States enters a new era of open anti-Semitism and white supremacy under the watchful, puffy eyes of Steve Bannon, one important question remains: Who will provide the soundtrack? Hitler had Wagner, Stalin had Khrennikov, Mussolini had Respighi, but so far all Trump’s got is the Rolling Stones, and they can’t stand him. Well, on Monday, corporate giant AT&T made a big bet on an artist to define the age, announcing a 24/7 channel as part of its new internet streaming TV service DirecTV Now. It turns out the answer was right in front of our faces all along:
The Taylor Swift channel will feature “videos, concert performances, behind-the-scenes footage, and more from Swift’s archives,” according to Variety. Much as Steve Bannon was a dream choice for Trump’s worst supporters, the prospect of 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week of Taylor Swift content will be catnip to the kind of people even Jeff Sessions has to pretend he doesn’t know. As Slate’s Heather Schwedel reported in May, Swift has long been a favorite of neo-Nazis, one of whom called it “an established fact that Taylor Swift is secretly a Nazi and is waiting for the time when Donald Trump makes it safe for her to come out and announce her Aryan agenda to the world.” But when will it be safe? Well, the channel is called “Taylor Swift NOW!”
AT&T, which acquired DirecTV in 2015, is relatively new to the entertainment game but an old hand at propping up morally compromised governments, which should position it well for the Trump age. Its signature achievement—at least before Taylor Swift NOW!—was the FAIRVIEW program, a large-scale mass surveillance partnership with the National Security Agency that began under the Reagan administration in 1985, before Tay-tay was even born. Although AT&T’s NSA work was founded on what the government called “extreme willingness” to cooperate, it also pulled in $10 million a year selling customer data to the CIA. Presumably Taylor Swift NOW!, available as part of DirecTV Now packages starting at $35 a month, will be the perfect mix of passion and profit.
Although Swift has never repudiated her fascist fans, she generally stays silent about politics entirely, so it is probably unfair to assume she’s planning to become the Storm Saxon of the Trump age. And, truthfully, a Taylor Swift channel might be a nice respite from the assault on multiculturalism on its way. After all, Swift is the artist who gave us “Wildest Dreams,” a beautiful celebration of Africa in all its splendor:
Well, some of its splendor, anyway.
