"Star-Studded Spectacle:" a Gonzo Journalism Piece

By Jake Lankford

“Two young celebrities in love and taking advantage of the media frenzy surrounding their relationship.” Photograph constructed and taken by Jake Mars using printed clippings and a tarot deck. Disclaimer: no tarot decks were harmed in the making of this article. 

Every generation, really, has their own form of the celebrity couple, but I can’t think of any that has been broadcast with such ferocity and attention as the pairing of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. The whole story is akin to a Harlequin Romance spectacle, a pop superstar falls in love with a small-town (OK, Kansas city isn’t a small town, but just roll with me on this one.) football player and it’s happily-ever-after, or some shit like that. 

Picture it: A televised wedding decked out in red, gold and white, Swift in the most ostantatious lace monster of a dress and beaming her head off while a tuxedo-clad Kelce stands next to her while the preacher recites their vows. Completing it, a whole reality show as a wedding present and the sounds, flashes of cameras filling every inch of the reception hall! 

In the energized-haze of coffee and painkillers, damn torn meniscus, I see this artificial paradise. Who wouldn’t want to be in a famous relationship? Wall-to-wall media coverage and being set for life with either enough money to retire in your 20s, or a reality show about your married life. Swift and Kelce look like they are truly in love with each other, but lets not pretend that they aren’t aware of the attention this relationship is getting them. At least on their end, the appeal of it is obvious. Two young celebrities in love and taking advantage of the media frenzy around their relationship.

But what exactly is the appeal of this relationship from the Swifties’ perspective, or a general audience member’s? Some of it is most definitely the Harlequin Romance spectacle of it all, but what else is there to it than that? What exactly has the Swifties all in a frenzy for this relationship, really? 

I gained some understanding of this on October third, a Thursday I remember clearly. Went out that morning to see "The Substance" in the movie theater (modern horror masterpiece!) and took a nap when I got home, in preparation for a wild night ahead. 

Night out with a good friend, Rachel, at my favorite bar, Ash’s Irish Pub (Olive Branch, Mississippi), to listen to some music and have a few drinks. Creaking wooden pergola over the bar and the sound of a drill and saw from outside (construction on a new facade for Ash’s). The distinctive tang and punch of red wine on my lips and tongue, little rhythmic rivulets of blood red running down the inside of the glass and wiped from my goatee. The star of the show tonight are the musical duo of Pam and Terry and they are taking requests. “Comfortably Numb” from me, six minutes of clarity. 

My attention turns towards the phone in my hand, where another star awaits. I shoot my first message to Tanya Burks, a nurse I am close friends with and a Swiftie who can answer my questions. Though she can’t type (guessing she’s at work), the three minute voice message she sends is the perfect piece of flesh to cut into and bleed dry for my masterpiece! 

“I think the reason it’s gotten so much attention is because, really, she is at the pinnacle of her success. She’s had world tours and all those things before, but this is a major, three hour eras concert. Not really ever been done before to this extent. And then she announces an album, proceeds to release it and then an hour later, releases 15 more songs for a total of 31 songs on the album. She is really, to me, at the height of her career. Also, the way that he so adorably courted her, y’know, made the comments like how he would like to date her and tried to get her number, just all the cute things he did.” Burks said. 

Her voice, sweet as a sidecar with a sugared rim, but tinned and metallic coming from my phone speaker and fighting to be heard against the echoing performance of Pam and Terry and the buzz of the crowd, a poker game on the balcony upstairs and raucous groups of friends on the ground level. 

Pause the recording. I call the server over and have her refill my wine glass. Press play again, right on time for the duo’s break.

“And then that leads into why we think it’s different. A lot her relationships, the men kind of look down on her a bit. Joe Alwyn, the one before him (Kelce), definitely did. He thought he was superior to her. Travis, on the other hand, celebrates her, he looks at her with awe, and she celebrates him too. It’s such a beautiful, sweet thing to see how playful they are with each other and how much fun they have. It’s something for us to celebrate.” Burks said. Drained my glass of wine again, so I walk over to the bar and get another refill, a glass of chilled white wine, and take my seat with Rachel at the table. 

Based on this first interview with Burks, a baseline understanding can easily be gleaned. The appeal of the relationship is one of celebration, to the Swifties, this is a long-deserved light at the end of the tunnel after years of relationships that always ended in a public breakup, a relationship that is also different because, to the Swifties, Kelce is someone who doesn’t look down on Swift, rather, he lifts her up in celebration. 

Why it’s gotten so much attention in the eyes of the Swifties? Swift is simply at the height of her career and embarking on the massive spectacle that is the Eras Tour, as well as releasing her latest album, "The Tortured Poets Department". A cocktail of one grand moment after another, colliding with a relationship that has all the marks of a fairy-tale romance, and you have one of the most discussed relationships in the public eye. At least, that’s one part of it.

More wine, madam, please give me more wine! One, two, how many more glasses of wine? I am decidedly buzzed and, as if a harbinger of chaos entered this wood-and-brick bar, my stepdad, Tom, invites me back to his place to sip on some even more fine wine! Silence of the inky night, warm as a fresh corpse’s blood, gouged eye of a moon in the sky and the sparkle of the stars, lights of a flashing camera! 

Swift and Kelce, figures atop a wedding cake, two hot young celebrities running through pouring rain to the rhythm of camera clicks, across a bridge over rippling water with all of the raindrops catching the lights, bending them, reflecting every single click and flash into a web of light that freezes moments in time! These brief moments, free of the paparazzi and reporters, they steal a kiss atop the bridge, before the pounding footsteps and white snaps of cameras send the couple barrelling down, and running through the rain once more.

A vision I had while sitting under the white-hot porch light at my dad’s place and staring at a Chrysler car parked just a few feet from the porch. More wine, more meditation on what is easily the biggest celebrity relationship of my generation. If my memory is able to serve me well, I remember a time when, once, Taylor Swift was known in the news for going through relationships like pairs of underwear and then writing songs about her exes. A spectacle of a love life, and now a spectacle of a relationship. Billionaire popstar falls in love with football player. The type of thing that is guaranteed to attract attention shift all eyes away from what came before.

Something that was heavy on my mind when the wine took me out for the night and I ended up crashing onto the couch. Keep that in mind for your next interview, Lankford, the spectacle of it all! Wake up with a slight hangover, so I gulp more than one cup of coffee and drive the 30-minute trip to Meeman. Meeting with one of my best friends, confidants, Sydney Hummel in the equipment office this clear and sunny morning. Tell me, why has this relationship gotten so much attention and become a media spectacle?

“I don’t know much about Travis Kelce, but I do know that if you put somebody like Taylot Swift in a relationship with anybody, regardless of who they are, they’re going to get attention. She’s been under the limelight for, what, at least ten-plus years with every relationship she’s been in. So if you’re going to put her with a football star, it’s colliding two different worlds.” Hummel said. 

Hummel’s point about two distinct worlds coming together is, what I would argue, a large part of the appeal of this relationship. Swifties, who had likely never watched a football game in full until Kelce began dating their idol, watching the Chiefs’ games to try and catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift in the press box. In turn, Chiefs fans are checking out her music to see the appeal. Swift’s relationships, before Kelce, have usually consisted of fellow celebrities and artists, something worth noting. 

“I think a football player is so out of the ballpark for the people she’s dated in the past. I feel all of the people she’s dated in the past have either been musicians or, like, actors, and then a football player is so different. It’s like a book, it’s like a romance book. In general, this pop star with a really attractive football player, it’s like high school. Prom king and prom queen vibes.” Hummel said.

The common thread in all of this, is Taylor Swift’s spectacle opening up and including Travis Kelce alongside her after more than a decade in the spotlight. Swift’s lack of filter in her music, alongside her constant reinvention and frequent interactions with her fans, is a cocktail that has allowed the fans to see her artistic growth and maturation in her music, music that reflects a personal life broadcast internationally for over a decade.. 

“I see Taylor Swift as a person who has gone through so much. If you’re a big Swiftie, as you see her albums come out. That’s why I loved "Folklore" and "Evermore", you can tell she’s getting a lot more emo, she’s getting a lot more darker and same with "Tortured Poets Department", you can just see her getting a lot more honest and darker.” Hummel said. 

Maturation and growth in both art and personal-life blasted, reflected through camera lenes and shot across magazine pages with the most blinding gloss, the glare of a lamp reflected on an episode of "Entertainment Tonight" and now, the beam of the sun darkening a phone screen. [FLASH!] of the cameras with every new relationship and breakup. Through it all, the Swifties have stuck with Swift and watched every moment unfold. How fitting then, poetic almost, that Swift and Kelce came together during Swift’s Eras Tour, a grand love letter to her fans and a three-hour greatest hits concert exploring all of her eras, and I do mean all of them. The culmination of a career defined by reinvention, an openness with fans matched by few other artists and every single relationship treated, all at once, as a punchline and royal wedding. A fairytale ending to a decades-long spectacle of a love life that is cemented in not just the tabloids, but also, eleven albums released over the span of eighteen years. 

Ain’t it too fuckin’ dramatic? In shorter words, Swifties are eating this up because it’s come in at the peak of Swift’s career. I stop the recording here, say my goodbyes to Hummel (though I will see her again, we work in the same building!) and leave for the afternoon, right to the same bar where my quest began– 

Ash’s Irish Pub. 

The bartender, Brittany Hale, knows me well enough to ask which wine I would like (white, please.) and she pours me a glass. I’ve known Hale since this place opened in summer of 2024, and though she isn’t a Swiftie, she is a fellow bartender who sees a lot of people coming in here. 

A common point of criticism in regards of this relationship, is how much it is being given attention and every detail is reported on like it’s an album release. Bear in mind, they aren’t even engaged yet and they have gotten this large amount of attention.“They talk about it way too much. It’s just a little much for me, I don’t care to know that much about them.” Hale said. 

Swift’s love life has always been the subject of tabloid entertainment, ever since the beginning of her career, and a lot of this coverage does feel decidedly voyeuristic at times. There are moments, the entirety of the Matty Healy ordeal, for example, that should have stayed private, or at least not made into a punchline on account of some truly disgusting behavior on Healy’s part (look it up in your spare time, not the time or place here). That same sense of voyeurism, while it isn’t as present in Swift and Kelce’s relationship, it is still impossible to ignore it with the media’s near-obsessive focus on her romantic history. 

It is also, I would argue, because of this media attention and zooming-in on how “in love” Swift and Kelce are with each other that has led onlookers, fans and some detractors to speculate if this relationship is truly different than the previous ones. I can’t answer that, spoiler alert, but this speculation does illuminate how much this relationship has been made into a real-time “will they or won’t they” sitcom storyline. Will Swift marry Kelce, or will they go their separate ways?

“I think she might have found the one. She’s showing up to all of his stuff and doing more with him, I think it is different. She might settle down and have babies, she might have little Swifties.” Hale said. 

And there it is, the answer to the question that kicked this quest off. What is the appeal of the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce relationship? It’s the romantic-novel nature, the complete left-field turn in terms of Swift dating a football player when she had previously dated fellow artists and A-list celebrities, what appears to be a genuinely great relationship after years of dating and public breakups and at the core of it all, the “will they or won’t they?” of whether they will get engaged and married. All of this coming at a career high for Taylor Swift and at a time when there are more eyes on her and her art than ever before. 

Oh, right. What happened to Hale? 

Click off the recorder and we chat for a couple more minutes. I pay for the wine ($8.00), give her a two dollar tip and return home to read more of Rimbaud’s "Illuminations", prepare for my radio show later that evening… and collapse in bed for a deep, wine nap and reflections on what the hell kind of adventure I went on… all for an article on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.