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Tuesday, OcTOber 4, 2022
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MU_Swifties tells all during exclusive interview
Learn everything in Q&A with secret account owner
By Randi Haseman
randi.haseman@marquette.edu
Marquette Affi rmations isn’t the only niche Instagram account Marquette students know “All Too Well.”
Through memes with a Marquette spin, @MU_Swifties on Instagram has been sending us a “Message in a Bottle” since March when they fi rst posted. “The 1” and only MU Swifties joined the Marquette Wire for an exclusive Q&A interview to discuss their account, Taylor’s upcoming album “Midnights” and more.
To fi nd even more Swiftie content, Marquette University Radio is hosting a listening party Oct. 26 at the Annex for Taylor’s “Midnights” starting at 9 p.m. Visit, and you may even discover who MU Swifties is.
Since MU Swifties’ account is anonymous, the Marquette Wire granted anonymity to the account owner.
What’s your favorite Taylor album if you had to choose?
This is so easy, and it’s “1989.” I know it’s a local album. But “1989” has such a special place in my heart because it was a pivotal moment in my life, like middle school. Pop Bible – that’s all I got to say.
What’s your favorite song?
I have to give you a top three because I can’t pick a favorite. Number one is “Style,” and that’s also a local song, and I promise I’m not a local. Number two is “august.” Number three is “The Archer.” And … number four is “Getaway Car.”
How long have you been a fan?
This is a bit weird. I’ve been a fan since “Red” came out because she released “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” on my birthday. I didn’t know that back then, obviously, because I wasn’t listening to it. I became a stan when “1989” came out. “1989” was like that girl. She was doing her thing.
Have you ever seen her in concert?
No. I really, really wish I had but her tickets are really expensive. I watch online.
What made you want to start a Taylor Swift fan page?
This is back when Marquette Affi rmations had just happened, it was brand new. I remember I was talking with one of my friends about making the affi rmations page and then someone else made it. I was like “No!”
So, I decided to come up with something really niche and something that I was really into … something that my friends didn’t pick on me for, but knew about me. I was like, “There’s got to be more people like me.” And I love a meme that only fi ve people get. Those are the best memes. So, MU Swifties was born.
Were you surprised by the amount of followers that you got? You have over 350.
Yeah, I was very surprised. I remember my fi rst week I gained maybe 20, and then within the next two weeks, I had 100. I know that 300 is not that many followers, but it’s cool to know that 300 people here that get it.
What’s been your favorite post or submission?
That’s really easy. My favorite post is one that I made. I took a video of Taylor Swift in her “1989” era looking around a room very concerned. I put the Marquette fi ght song behind it. She’s looking around like “What’s happening?”
How often do you get submissions and how do you decide what to post?
Submissions happen all the time. I don’t post all of them because I think some of them, not to be mean, but they’re not as funny as I wish they were. Maybe that’s mean. I don’t know. I get them a lot. There have been some good ones that have been posted and I do tag the people when I get them.
When I think of ideas, it’s just random. I can be on Twitter scrolling like “Oh my God, this Taylor Swift meme is perfect! I’m going to put Iggy on it, so now it’s a Marquette one.” It just happens when it happens. There’s no specifi c time of the day or anything. I’m usually scrolling through Twitter and something pops in my head.
Do you think President Lovell or Shaka Smart is a Swiftie?
Oh, Lovell 100%. There’s no doubt he didn’t put any Taylor Swift on his playlist. I was a little confused there. But you know we’ll get him next time.
Shaka? I don’t know so much about Shaka. He knows probably “Shake It Off” but that’s probably it. That’s okay.
What are your thoughts on Taylor’s upcoming album “Midnights?”
She is going to give 100%. I’m so excited. The genre is the thing I’ve been thinking about the most. Because what can’t she do, but also what hasn’t she done? I think she’s going to give us soft grunge. Ok, Stevie Nicks.
You think it’s going to be like Stevie Nicks?
I feel like she’s going to mix lots of rock with lots of pop. But not rock ‘n’ roll. It’ll be chill. My initial thought was “Reputation” but “Folklore” with it, but now I feel like she’s going to give us real instruments. I think she’s going to give us a guitar, maybe a little synth.
Taylor has lots of Easter eggs and hidden messages throughout her music and social media posts. What’s one theory you have about “Midnights?”
When she released “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version),” she posted a TikTok to it. In the middle of the TikTok, it glitches. I think that was an Easter egg because she is going through a lawsuit with “Shake It Off” right now. The glitch is a prediction that she’s not going to be able to release “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” right now, so the glitch is for “Midnights.”
You’re doing a listening party with Marquette Wire’s Marquette University Radio. How did that come about and what are you planning for the event?
This happened randomly. A while back, I posted a meme like “What if MU Swifties hosted a dance party and we all dressed up and just danced?” That was a joke, but also not. Then, when “Midnights” was announced, I got a DM from MU Radio and they were like “So what if we did something?” And I was like “Ok.” That’s how it happened. I had this idea in my head but I didn’t think it would actually be even thought about happening. It’s still in the works. We’re hoping everything works out. Hopefully, it’s really good and the turnout is good as well.
How do we get Taylor Swift to perform at next year’s Homecoming?
I wish I could tell you. That’s all I wanted. If she came and spoke at my graduation, that would be great too! How do we get her to come? I don’t know. I think that if we come to the listening party, she’ll be a little bit more inclined to come visit the population of Swifties at Marquette’s campus.
Patrick Curran contributed to this report. SCAN QR CODE FOR VIDEO
Graphic by Lily Werner elizabeth.werner@marquette.edu
Students jazzed about return of live music series
Jazz in the Park comes back after cancelling two years
By Will Eikenbary
will.eikenbary@marquette.edu
It’s a cool September day in Cathedral Square Park. Gathered around a lively stage, thousands of patrons sit watching as musicians move rhythmically onstage. Music blares from the speakers around them and the atmosphere holds a frenetic sort of calm.
All the while, the sound of jazz echoes throughout the buildings of downtown Milwaukee.
For over 30 years, Jazz in the Park has been a staple of the Milwaukee music scene. Every Thursday night from July to September, a different musician or group is chosen to take the stage in a concert entirely paid for by the East Town Association, a Milwaukee nonprofi t.
After it was canceled the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the concert series returned this year in full swing, with its fi nal performance Sept. 29.
Reece Bergeron, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she heard about Jazz in the
Park from a friend and really
Photo by Sam Baughn sam.baughn@marquette.edu Jazz in the Park held its last session Sept. 29 in Cathedral Square Park in downtown Milwaukee.
enjoyed going.
“She texted me and asked if I wanted to go because I ‘seemed like someone who would like jazz,’” Bergeron said. “I was expecting ‘saxophone jazz’ and instead they had a [talkbox] that made a really high-pitched noise. I listen to more Miles Davis, 40s and 50s jazz, so this was kind of new wave but still cool.”
While the concert was different than she expected, Bergeron said she still felt like a part of a Milwaukee tradition.
“It was funny, everyone who was there seems like they go there a lot,” Bergeron said. “They all had their picnics, bottles of wine in glasses and fancy chairs set up. It’s a fun tradition, I think. It did not seem like it was the people there’s fi rst rodeo.”
The concert also appeals to those who might not be as into the music aspect as well. Bergeron’s roommate Britta Arends, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, said that she enjoyed the social aspect of Jazz in the Park the most.
“I don’t really like jazz music that much, to be honest,” Arends said. “But, I liked it because you could sit close and really pay attention or sit at the back and talk with your friends. You could make as much or as little of the experience as you wanted.”
Despite any reservations she had before going, Arends said she’d likely go to the concert again in the future.
“I would defi nitely go again,” Arends said. “You can stay weeks on campus, but I try to get out into the city every weekend. This was a great way to do that.”
Arik Zintel, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said he really enjoyed the concert because of his love for music and to get out and see Milwaukee.
“As somebody in music, all of the performers were at the top of their game for sure,” Zintel said. “It was a super fun experience. I think I’ll probably go back at some point. People should go just to get out of their comfort zones, to see Milwaukee a bit and break the ‘Marquette bubble.’”
While it might be intimidating to go to an event in the city at fi rst, Arends said it’s much easier than you might expect.
“It’s just a bus ride down Wisconsin and really chill,” Arends said. “It’s just a nice study break with your friends. [I’d say] go for it, you might as well take every opportunity you can to go into the city.”
New songs lack intimacy, depth of their predecessors
In today’s diverse music climate — between the vulnerability and honesty of Steve Lacy and the bitterness and self-loathing of Taylor Swift — it’s a travesty that the breakup song no longer mentions the telephone. As a matter of fact, the telephone used to be so detrimental to a relationship that it used to headline its own songs.
Maybe it was the obsolescence of the landline that made these ballads extinct. Or maybe it was
Graphic by RJ Siano
the music industry itself. ryan.siano@marquette.edu
There was a time when The Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” was too graphic for the ears of young teens — fast forward to today where Dua Lipa’s “Good in Bed” is a household classic for middle schoolers and “cool moms” alike.
The music industry’s modernization is benefi cial for artists since it allows them to express more unique and deep feelings through their craft. Deep down, however, I wish I had lived in a time when the telephone line was still the source of longing. Electric Light Orchestra’s 1976 hit “Telephone Line” is not only a perfect example of the villainization of the telephone but is also a beautiful song. When the song starts, it fades in with the synthetic beeps and tones of a dial-up from its respective decade, which to a modern listener may not even be recognizable. The only modern equivalent to this masterful blend of ambient sound and melody is Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License,” which ties the “door open” sound from a car into the fi rst notes of piano quite well. ELO’s leading man Jeff Lynne’s fi rst words of the song are muted and warbled, sounding almost identical to the quality of a recording of someone talking through a phone. As Lynne continues and the effect fades out, listeners have already been introduced to the topic without even hearing the word “telephone” yet instead through the audio aesthetic that is presented. The chorus of the song is not to the individual on the other side of the line but to the telephone itself. Today, so much music is able to be traced directly to an ex-lover of the musician through news and lyrics
Singing to telephones: Art form dies in modern times with artists such as Harry Styles leaving little room for the listener to imprint their own experiences on the song. In 1976, I can only imagine that many people had felt By RJ Siano ryan.siano@marquette.edu the pain of hearing ringing, ringing and ringing to no avail and cursed out the phone itself. The second verse is introduced by a desperate cry to the telephone by Lynne: “Can’t you just let it ring a little longer, longer, longer / Let it ring forevermore.” The lyricism here is poetic, which is in part due to the vocabulary associated with the telephone. In 1976, a telephone’s ring was a monotone symphony conducted just for your lonely self. Today’s more common equivalent, getting “left on read,” not only sounds less romantic but does not lend itself to imagery such as this either. The chorus, although somewhat repetitive, creates a source of pain from an individual relationship that is also relatable to millions of others: “Oh, telephone line, give me some time, I’m living in twilight.” Nearly a decade later, New Edition’s 1984 hit “Mr. Telephone Man” turned the operator into the culprit instead of the phone itself. The operator, a job that simply does not exist in 2022, becomes the receiver of pleading from the bleeding heart in this case: “Mr. Telephone Man, there’s something wrong with my line / When I dial my baby’s number, I get a click every time.” This song is less of a ballad in its construction and tells a bit more of a narrative story that the listener can maybe even laugh at. The dramatic irony in the song paints a picture very clear to the listener that someone is avoiding the calls of the singer. The verses are dialogue spoken to the operator insisting that the phone must be broken because “my baby wouldn’t hang up on me.” I would even argue that narrative style is more tasteful than some of the smearing that modern songs do to their subjects. If not tasteful, it is at the very least unique to tell a story about being in denial about a relationship’s stability due to the ambiguity of a telephone than it is to say that “I knew you were trouble when you walked in.” These songs created a new genre somewhere between
joke, but also not. Then, when “Midnights” was announced, I got a DM from MU Radio and they were like “So what if we did something?” And I was like “Ok.” That’s how it happened. I had this love and breakup — a limbo world idea in my head but I didn’t think in between where the telephone is it would actually be even thought hiding the truth from what’s really about happening. It’s still in the going on. A genre of pleading the works. We’re hoping everything telephone or operator to give us works out. Hopefully, it’s really an answer instead of accepting the good and the turnout is good as truth that lies deep down below. Although the modern music
How do we get Taylor Swift industry produces great music and to perform at next year’s allows for artists to be as specifi c as they’d like, there is a charm to
I wish I could tell you. That’s all the songwriting that existed before I wanted. If she came and spoke at everything became so personal. my graduation, that would be great Even though there may not be a too! How do we get her to come? I modern equivalent to such a perfect don’t know. I think that if we come scapegoat, I only hope that, as to the listening party, she’ll be a listeners, we take time to go back little bit more inclined to come and appreciate this subgenre that visit the population of Swifties at was made completely obsolete by the invention of the cellular phone.
Patrick Curran contributed to
