Harvard course on Taylor Swift comes to an end; see student reports
This week, the first course at Harvard University (in the United States) focused on singer Taylor Swift comes to an end.
Last semester, more than 200 students who signed up for “Taylor Swift and Her World” were able to delve into the song lyrics and themes covered by the singer, in addition to discussing her influence in several areas.
On the night of the launch, some of the students gathered in an auditorium reserved by the university’s faculty. Samantha Wilhoit, 21, says they were able to listen to every song on the album from beginning to end, with the lyrics displayed in the room. Several of them have already exchanged ideas about the songs and discussed the final works.
Those who stayed at the meeting until early in the morning were also able to watch the launch of the surprise second album, “The Anthology”, with 15 more songs. For Samantha, the course was fundamental to receiving the album in a different way than previous ones.
g1 Listened – Taylor Swift’s new album
“The class really helped us prepare for this particular album. It was a bit of a coincidence, but we were also lucky to do a lot of analysis before it came out, because there’s a lot to analyze in 31 songs,” he said.
English teacher, Stephanie Burt, says that the idea of teaching a course around a great composer was not new, as composing is also one of the forms of literary art.
Burt states that he was looking for an artist popular enough to justify dedicating an entire Harvard course, until he thought of Taylor Swift.
The teacher was surprised by the more than 200 students enrolled in the class. “I thought there would be 20 ‘swifties’, but it worked out,” she says with a laugh.
“They told me they were excited. Some of them were very creative, they made sets, sculptures and wrote their own music, as well as writing some very thoughtful articles,” he said.
Not all participants, however, are die-hard fans of the singer. Brazilian João Pedro Rocha Frazão, 20 years old, states that he is not a “conventional fan” of the artist, but he likes her compositions, which sparked curiosity for the course.
“I had listened to her album, which is ‘Folklore’, and I found her writing very interesting as a composer. I think her lyricism is very beautiful and that caught my attention too. And I, as a person who likes poetry and of writing, I was very interested”, says João Pedro.
The carioca also adds that he liked the singer’s new recordings, especially Taylor’s partnership with singer Post Malone on “Fortnight”. When asked if the new album surpassed his favorite, João said: “No, but it’s up there at the top.”
Students have until May 1st to submit the last class project and complete the course.
