{"id":3644,"date":"2024-02-08T03:03:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T03:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/taylor-swifts-eras-are-peak-cheese-metaphor\/"},"modified":"2024-02-08T03:03:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T03:03:30","slug":"taylor-swifts-eras-are-peak-cheese-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/taylor-swifts-eras-are-peak-cheese-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift\u2019s Eras are Peak Cheese Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor\u2019s note: Taylor Swift is not performing at the 2024 Super Bowl, but you wouldn\u2019t know it for all the attention she is getting. She will be at the game, watching her boyfriend Travis Kelce, and everything she does including what she eats and drinks will likely be televised. Rumor has it she likes goat cheese. But maybe some <\/em>cheese dip<\/em><\/a> is in order?<\/em> <\/p>\n

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Say Cheese Taylor<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Welcome back to Popular Cultures, a cheese round up series inspired by all things popular and cultural. You have now entered the Taylor Swift Era of cheese, which I\u2019d be tempted to say was \u201ca long time coming,\u201d but really, it\u2019s not at all. To be fair, in the first installment of the series, in which I outlined how various cheeses are your \u201cFriends<\/a>,\u201d I did ask, regarding the possibility of a Taylor Swift Eras-themed roundup: \u201cAre you ready for it?\u201d And that was all the warning you were getting.<\/p>\n

Whether or not you wanted her to, Taylor Swift has crossed your social threshold one way or another in the past year, either via endless Eras Tour videos on Instagram, as \u201cTime Magazine\u2019s\u201d Person of the Year, or lately, coming to a football arena near you. And, if you somehow managed to avoid all of that, here she is now, invading your cheese media. <\/p>\n

\u201cCheesy\u201d is often used derogatorily to refer to an excessive display of emotion. But is that really such a bad thing? Taylor Swift proves, as many of us here know, you can never have too much cheese\/emotion. Frequently mining her own heartbreak and insecurity as the basis for emotionally expressive song lyrics, to the degree which some \u2014 but to clarify my position here, not I \u2014 may qualify as cheesy, she leveraged that cheese to the tune of a billion dollars. So who\u2019s cheesin\u2019 now, haters?<\/p>\n

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1. \u201cFearless\u201d is Mozzarella<\/h2>\n
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Fearless is Mozzarella<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, there\u2019s an album before \u201cFearless,\u201d but in faithfulness to the Eras Tour zeitgeist, we\u2019re also skipping it here. (But obviously, her self-titled debut album is cheese curds.) Released when she was only 20, \u201cFearless\u201d propelled Swift into country stardom with her upbeat and earnest approach to young love. Not to overcomplicate things by mixing popular culture references here, but at that still tender age, there\u2019s \u201cnot much of a rind\u201d on her. There\u2019s no rind at all, to be honest. Enduringly popular, however, and as America\u2019s most consumed cheese, Swift\u2019s \u201cFearless\u201d era is represented by a fresh, rindless, but nonetheless beloved cheese: mozzarella<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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2. \u201cSpeak Now\u201d is Bloomy Rind<\/h2>\n
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Speak Now is Bloomy Rind<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In \u201cSpeak Now,\u201d Tay confronted skeptics who questioned her writing ability by making an album where she was the sole songwriter. We\u2019ll call this move for what it is: blooming. We\u2019re starting to get a bit of a rind, albeit a delicate, bloomy one. The content is starting to get a little richer as well. Nostalgic, dreamy ballads and typical young love scenarios are well met with a little revenge-fantasy and self-congratulatory edge, like a whiff of mushroom funk on an otherwise buttery cheese. As this is Swift in her country music heyday, we\u2019ll look to the south for a little enriched, double cream inspiration: long live Sweet Grass Dairy\u2019s Green Hill<\/a>, a winning double cream bloomy rind from Georgia. (Silver Medal Winner 2022 NYICC)<\/p>\n

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3. \u201cRed\u201d is Gouda<\/h2>\n
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Red is Gouda<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While still marketed as country, \u201cRed\u201d is considered the Swift album where she starts to bridge her country roots with her pop ambition. A transitional cheese for a transitional album, we know all too well that sweet gouda also has the power to appeal to multiple audiences, grocery store cheese consumers and hardcore quesophiles both. Columbia Cheese OG Kristal<\/a> (NYICC 2022 Gold), a Belgian beauty, also fits the necessary wardrobe choice with its lipstick-red, waxy exterior.<\/p>\n

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4. \u201c1989\u201d is Cheddar<\/h2>\n
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1989 is Cheddar<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Consider the process of cheddaring, whereby curds are stacked and cut, and restacked and cut, etc., expelling all the whey, and you might find a parallel with how Taylor Swift remixed and refashioned herself as a pop artist, shedding her country persona and bursting into the mainstream with \u201c1989.\u201d (Also with the cheddar metaphor, at this point she is making a tremendous amount of money.) Doubling down on her complete transition from country to pop, Swift also moved to New York City during \u201c1989\u2019s\u201d creation process \u2014 hence the opening track \u201cWelcome to New York\u201d \u2014 and so in its honor, \u201c1989\u2019s\u201d Big Cheddah is one from the Big Apple: Murray\u2019s Stockinghall Cheddar<\/a>. (Not to get ahead of ourselves eras-wise, but Murray\u2019s can also be found on Bleecker Street at the corner of none other than Cornelia Street.)<\/p>\n

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5. \u201cReputation\u201d is Ash-Ripened<\/h2>\n
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Reputation is Ash Ripened<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Look what you made me do. Rising from the ashes from the media and social media backlash following Tay\u2019s feud with Kim and Kanye, \u201cReputation\u201d-era Taylor is a darker, take-no-prisoners Taylor. Not only are ash-ripened cheeses obviously \u201cReputation\u201d girlies for their goth exteriors, ash-ripening is a centuries-old process used in the preservation of milk whilst it awaits cheesemaking. One could argue that \u201cReputation\u201d was also Swift\u2019s means of preserving her sense of self by killing off her previous, squeaky-clean image \u00e0 la, \u201cThe old Taylor can\u2019t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh! \u2018Cause she\u2019s dead!\u201d Dressed in black for old Taylor\u2019s funeral, Capriole Goat Cheese\u2019s Wabash Cannonball<\/a> is giving \u201cReputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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6. \u201cLover\u201d is Alpine-Style<\/h2>\n
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Lover is Alpine Style<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the cover, \u201cLover\u201d contains some of Swift\u2019s dreamiest, cotton-candy imagery, but written as she approached 30, with nearly 15 years in the music business behind her, \u201cLover\u201d also demonstrates some of Swift\u2019s most complex, structured songwriting. And, oh hey, there\u2019s a perfect cheese for that: Alp Blossom<\/a> (NYICC 2022 Double Gold). Coated with dried wildflowers, underneath its fanciful exterior, Alp Blossom is nevertheless a bold, meaty, and savory cheese with bite, and, it must be said, excellent loverability\u2026I mean, meltability.<\/p>\n

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7. \u201cFolklore\u201d is Tomme<\/h2>\n
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Folklore is Tomme<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Released as a surprise album during the height of the pandemic in 2020, In \u201cFolklore,\u201d Swift goes indie folk, ushering in what one might call her farmhouse era. A type of French farmhouse cheese, tommes are small format cheeses typically made with skimmed milk, ideal for Swift\u2019s acoustic, stripped down approach here. Rustic and earthy with a hint of teenage-love-triangle- sweetness, Vermont Shepherd\u2019s farmhouse Verano<\/a> gets \u201cFolklore\u201d honors.<\/p>\n

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8. \u201cEvermore\u201d is Spruce-Wrapped<\/h2>\n
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Evermore is Spruce Wrapped<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the rest of us were spending the end of 2020 doing puzzles and trying to figure out what to do with our sourdough discard, Taylor Swift went ahead and made yet another album. \u201cEvermore,\u201d was somewhat of a sequel to \u201cFolklore,\u201d often described as the winter album to Folklore\u2019s summer. (Verano, above, translates to \u201csummer,\u201d by the way, lest you think I haven\u2019t taken this project way too seriously.) Nothing is more cottage-core in the cheese realm than rich and woodsy, winter-milk, spruce-wrapped cheeses such as Jasper Hill favorite, Harbison<\/a>. (\u2018Tis the damn season.)<\/p>\n

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9. \u201cMidnights\u201d is Blue Cheese<\/h2>\n
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Midnights is Blue<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Come at me if you must, but Mightnights\u2019 cover font is clearly penicillium roqueforti in color. But let\u2019s parse this out a little more, shall we, since Midnights\u2019 primary thematic element is the midnight tendency to overthink. This is the kind of stuff that keeps you from falling asleep at night, and I was never going to settle for just a simple color scheme in this roundup, so here goes: Blue cheese has sting. Midnights has sting: it is Swift\u2019s sweariest album by far. Blue cheese is also rich and sweet at its core. In Midnights, Taylor offers up some of her most mature, contented, self-satisfied lyrics. Blue cheese is also highly technical, as is Midnights: guys, she pulls off quadruple rhymes on several lyrical occasions. Not to mention \u201cAnti-Hero?\u201d It is a theme for blue cheese lovers if ever there was one. Purple Haze and Midnight Moon were also runners up for this honor, based on relevant wordplay, but for me it had to be blue, and one with songstress vibes at that: Von Trapp Farmstead Mad River Blue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Taylor Swift is not performing at the 2024 Super Bowl, but you wouldn\u2019t know it for all the attention she is getting. She will be at the game, watching her boyfriend Travis Kelce, and everything she does including what she eats and drinks will likely be televised. Rumor has it she likes goat … Okumaya devam et “Taylor Swift\u2019s Eras are Peak Cheese Metaphor”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}