David Hookstead
Videos by OutKick
Al Michaels lit Twitter on fire Thursday night with some comments about Taylor Swift.
The music superstar teased her new album “Midnights” during “Thursday Night Football,” and Michaels stating some facts about Swift’s demographics didn’t go over well on Twitter.
“You have four sons. If you had a daughter, she’d be over the moon. I have a granddaughter who is completely over the moon right now … Nobody more popular among the teenage girl group than Taylor Swift,” Michaels told Kirk Herbstreit during the “TNF” broadcast.
He followed it up by adding Swift is a “fantastic performer.”
While we all know what Michaels said is true, some people felt the need to point out guys can also like Taylor Swift.
In fact, there were reactions all over Twitter to his very vanilla comments.
Al Michaels wasn’t wrong with his assessment of Taylor Swift and her fans.
While all people like Taylor Swift’s music, including Lane Kiffin, let’s not pretend like Swift is not incredibly popular with women. Yes, women of all ages, but definitely those that trend younger.
Her entire brand is built around the pains of relationships, growing up and experiencing life. It’s why her audience connects with her.
There’s nothing wrong with that. She’s made an absurd amount of money because of her ability to connect with people, especially women. Even look at who shows up in huge numbers to see her. There are definitely some guys in the photo below, but certainly a lot more women.
Here’s another great glance of what happens at a Taylor Swift concert. The entire front row appears to be almost exclusively young women.
Are Swift’s songs directed more at women?
If you walked into a weight room, while there might be some Swift on the playlist, probably more likely to find young men blasting Future than T-Swift. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just the truth, and I say that as someone who is a huge fan of Swift’s work.
There’s also absolutely nothing wrong with women of all ages, including teenage girls, loving Swift’s music. That’s who a lot of it is meant.
“Fifteen” is one of her most famous songs ever recorded, and it literally includes a line about her friend losing her virginity in high school. That’s not directed to the male demographic for the most part.
Furthermore, “Dear John,” another all-time Swift classic tells the story of a brutal breakup, heartbreak and manipulation at the hands of a guy.
Who do we think it’s directed at? Men or young women going through tough times? The answer is obvious and it’s the latter.
Now, let me extend a slight olive branch here to Swift’s older fans. Let’s say 30+, which is where Kiffin, myself and a couple other people at OutKick fall.
One of Swift’s greatest skills is her ability to grow with her audience while also being able to connect with people of different ages. The people who were 16 listening to “Fearless” in 2008 are now 30. Swift’s music has matured as the audience have, but she’s always retained her ability to still connect with everyone.
It’s truly incredible how talented she is.
Still, none of that means Al Michaels was wrong or said anything inaccurate. Let’s just relax, and fire up “Midnights” for the third time this morning.
Stop with posting blogs about stuff on twit it’s lazy work and not many if any here care what is happening on twit,Do hard things like working on articles.
Rather have these articles than his Wisconsin football coach search. I’m still disappointed that he didn’t break the news on the Wisconsin volleyball team! Figured he was a true Wisconsin fan!
Outkick has, how shall I say, a specific business model. They could not give a shit about winning an award for journalistic whatever. It’s clicks clicks and more clicks.
That said, I’m not mad. Outkick serves a purpose. Kinda like McDonalds. I know going in it ain’t gonna be great but I know what I’m getting.
And they don’t pretend to be something that they are not. But if Outkick is McDonald’s, what’s ESPN? Olmsted in NYC?
IMO … OutKick the website is whatever Clay (and Fox) wants it to be. Clay has been clear that he thinks “T&A” attracts readers (“clicks”) so this has become – as a commenter noted recently – “MAXIM Lite”. I’m not offended by the overt abundance of T&A OnlyFans skank pics but it seems to be ever-increasing.
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Of more concern to me is that most of the writers / contributors are glorified “fan boys” with this guy – David Hookstead – being the poster boy. Go to any partisan fan site for any Power5 or pro team and you get the same trite post-adolescent crap. … rehashing social media crap is The Worst. ……. I’m sure I am NOT a target demographic for Clay / Fox but I am entitled to my opinion and coming here is simply not as appealing as it used to be.
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Imagine waking up every day knowing
a) you will be outraged by something yet
b) not know the exact source of that outrage but
c) feel 100% secure that you’ll find something
Always curious when I see the phrase “Twitter is ON FIRE about …” …. or “Social Media EXPLODES over ….” …. or any version of such reaction about a statement someone made about something … How Many posts does it take to reach “ON FIRE” … or “EXPLODES” et al. A dozen nitwits using ALLCAPS and screaming F*** AL MICHEALS” does not equate to OMG! LOOK OUT AMERICA! ……
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At least David “The Wisconsin FanBoy” is not posting OnlyFans pics of Badger Cheerleaders in their thongs ….. yet!
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Twitter has perfected the art of arguing and being outraged about things people didn’t say.
The perpetually outraged are nothing more than a bunch of 2 year olds unhappy that another 2 year old has a toy that they don’t.
Streaming TNF on my TV yields the same fidelity of an early 1960s black & white tv…. Thought I’d change the subject.
Social media has made the U.S. soft and stupid. I mean before social media who would you wine to over Al Michaels offending you? Your dog? If you saw your neighbor outside and said “ hey man did you see what Al Michaels said about Taylor Swift last night? “ you’d get hit in the face with a garden hoe and told not to come back in my yard.
It is a sad commentary on the nation when people get so angry that an older man states the obvious, that most girls and women love Taylor Swift, with a smaller number of young men caring about her music. That the Twitter verse got upset and vented. They need to get over themselves.
Who cares if others do not like what you like? We all have freedom in the pursuit of happiness.
If you feel you have to apologise for a fact, you’ve lost the argument. In fact, it’s ridiculous to fall into the trap of debating anything with the Trollverse. Why sites still show the comments of irrelevant and inflammatory trolls from twitter, staggers me! Musk still won’t fully commit to Twatter because they won’t admit to the number of fake troll accounts designed to clog the like button! Drop them from your site and add a more diverse audience.