When she learned of a new Taylor Swift album, Kaeli Dance posted a video of herself in a full clown costume.
“Actual footage of me clowning for TS12,” reads the text on Dance’s video.
The pop star’s website featured a countdown to August 12 at 12:12 a.m. EDT to announce her 12th studio album “The Life of a Showgirl.” In the hours that fans waited, Swifties were “clowning” — a word that has become folklore within the fandom.
“Whenever we would talk about another Taylor Swift album, the word clown would immediately be used,” said Dance, 26, a Swiftie and content creator. She initially posted the clown footage in February in a video that wasn’t even about Swift — but Swifties arrived because of the word “clown” — and the video got 2 million views. She’s reused the footage since in other videos explicitly about Swift (and gotten millions more views).
“That’s how ingrained the clown concept has become in the Swiftie fancore,” said Dance, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. “The comments section is where the culture is created…. There’s a real language and terminology here.”
Why clowns? From lyrics to fashion to concert graphics, Swift is known to be a performer with tricks up her sleeve. Fans are clowning back at their favorite pop star’s showmanship. Clown references imply the fans are in on Swift’s schemes, here for the deception and recognize the serious undertones beneath the singer’s stage makeup.
“Because [Swift] is a performer, because she is an artist, and her fans feel close to her through parasocial relationships, they also feel like performers,” said Dance. “This clowning is allowing them to become performers on stage with Taylor.”
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The image of the sad clown
If Swift’s track “I can do it with a broken heart” on her album “The Tortured Poets Department” was any foreshadow, she is used to covering emotions to deliver all-out performances during her record-breaking Eras Tour. Balancing mental health with fan expectations is something the 35-year-old admits in the lyrics: “‘Cause I’m miserable/and nobody even knows.”
“It makes me ridiculously excited to hear the music,” Dance said. “But also I was a little bit concerned for her…. The fact she has already produced another album is absolutely insane.”
Dance likens Swift’s Eras to clown make-up: “Each album is a mask you can don. You’re allowed to be more vulnerable than in your normal life.”
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Opening up about her well-being has changed how fans like Dance relate to Swift.
“If that is what Taylor is trying to tell us, that her performance helps but is also in combat with her mental health,” Dance speculated, “then I’m excited for what she’s going to teach us.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ and why fans are ‘clowning’
