It’s a very important step in your music career these days to let camera crews follow you around while you talk about politics.

Beyoncé did it in Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé which documented the build-up to her 2018 Coachella set.

She was about to become the first African American woman to play Coachella, so the performance was implicitly political. She then used the platform, and her current superstar position, to create hundreds of jobs for African American dancers and musicians, who otherwise may not have ever had the chance to perform at an event that big.

She made her point and she made it well.

Lady Gaga then released Five Foot Two, which documents the events around the production and release of Gaga’s fifth studio album, Joanne, and her halftime performance at the Super Bowl.

Now, obviously, Taylor Swift is releasing a doccie:

Variety sat down with Swift to chat about the project.

Swift explained why it was time to speak up for political and social causes she believes in. Swift, a recipient of the Vanguard Award from GLAAD, realized: “To celebrate but not advocate felt wrong for me. Using my voice to try to advocate was the only choice to make.”

She continues, “Because I’ve talked about equality and sung about it in songs like ‘Welcome to New York,’ but we are at a point where human rights are being violated. When you’re saying that certain people can be kicked out of a restaurant because of who they love or how they identify, and these are actual policies that certain politicians vocally stand behind, and they disguise them as family values, that is sinister. So, so dark.”

It helps that songs like ‘You Need to Calm Down’ were released during Pride Month and probably turned a pretty decent profit. Activism is a little easier when it’s bankrolling itself.

Does she get the music-meets-political-documentary right?

I guess we’ll have to watch the thing to find out.

[source:variety]