{"id":290251,"date":"2025-10-09T21:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T21:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290251\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T21:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T21:35:11","slug":"this-tcu-professor-knows-taylor-swifts-music-all-too-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290251\/","title":{"rendered":"This TCU professor knows Taylor Swift\u2019s music \u2018all too well\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

TCU professor Andrew Ledbetter\u2019s journey as a Swiftie began when he heard \u201cLove Story\u201d on his car radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like this a lot,\u201d he thought. \u201cI think I could be a Taylor Swift fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

About a decade and a half later, Ledbetter\u2019s interest in Swift goes beyond that of just a fan. The communication studies department chair\u2019s scholarly work on the popular artist\u2019s music draws the attention of Texas Christian University students as well as other academics.<\/p>\n

Ledbetter\u2019s research stemmed from an observation that Swift\u2019s songs and albums seemed to connect to each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like she\u2019s creating this Taylorverse that people have talked about with lots of images, ideas, recurring characters, themes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He ran her lyrics through a computer program that used semantic network analysis to draw connections. The computer noted words repeated in lyrics and placed songs into four groups from which Ledbetter identified common themes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The professor found that the more shared words a song had, the more likely it was to be popular, a result he said is in line with communication theory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might think that there are some really central songs that kind of hang that Taylorverse together, and that is indeed what the analysis showed,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interesting coincidence, his analysis also found that in order for songs to be deemed connected, they had to share at least 13 words \u2014 a number fans will recognize as the artist\u2019s favorite.<\/p>\n

Ledbetter is not the only academic to take an interest in Swift. Last November, he was on a panel with other \u201cSwiftie scholars\u201d at the National Communication Association\u2019s annual convention.<\/p>\n

Universities across the country<\/a> \u2014 including TCU<\/a>, UTA<\/a> and Houston\u2019s Rice University<\/a> \u2014 have offered classes studying Taylor Swift and her work through a range of academic subjects, drawing high interest from students.<\/p>\n

Ledbetter\u2019s analysis did not include the 2024 album \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department\u201d or \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl,\u201d which was released Oct. 3. He is interested in analyzing them at some point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leading TCU\u2019s communications department and other commitments keep him busy for now. In the meantime, his past research helps him connect with his students, he said.<\/p>\n

When Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce announced their engagement<\/a>, Ledbetter was teaching his class about social media and personal relationships.<\/p>\n

A student raised her hand to break the news, acknowledging that it was interrupting.<\/p>\n

Ledbetter did not mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, thank you,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is worthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n

Republish This Story<\/p>\n

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Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TCU professor Andrew Ledbetter\u2019s journey as a Swiftie began when he heard \u201cLove Story\u201d on his car radio.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":290252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,10076,7375,3571,358,43547,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-290251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-higher-ed","12":"tag-tarrant-county","13":"tag-taylor-swift","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-christian-university","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115346364900644648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}