“All the Swifties getting an A+”: UC Berkeley’s Taylor Swift college course sparks frenzy among fans online

A new course about Taylor Swift has been announced by California's UC Berkeley college. The course, which is called “Artistry and Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version,” will be launched in 2024.

The pop icon's current Eras Tour has made her a billionaire and the project’s huge success has made the course possible. It is being offered by Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. The study material explores the business success of the celebrity and her ability to create an enterprise out of her music.

Swifties (Taylor's fandom) are delighted by the news of an entire course dedicated to their idol and the announcement has since gone viral across the internet.

A fan's comment about the new course. (Images via Twitter/@PopBase)

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UC Berkeley’s Taylor Swift class will examine her ‘enduring value’

Taylor Swift is recognized for her songwriting, musical versatility, and influence on the music industry. With the Eras Tour's incredible success, it seems that academics are now ready to dip into the phenomenon of the artist's financial range and business.

The class is being offered by Berkeley’s Haas School of Business of UC Berkeley. According to NBC News, the 2024 course will be called "Artistry and Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version" and it starts next spring.

The course syllabus has stated that:

“Swift’s ability to connect with listeners is unparalleled. Through lyricism, branding, and craft, we’ll explore how art and authenticity create enduring value and a viable enterprise.”

Crystal Haryanto, an economics graduate, came up with the class and will co-teach with a current student, Sofia Lendahl. Haryanto told NBC:

“It will be a cross-section of literature, economics, business, and sociology and I think that we’re studying her impact as an artist, as a whole. I want to study her literary devices. But also how those literary devices create meaning.”

The course, which includes interactive lectures, readings, and listening assignments, will last 13 weeks.

Swifties and other netizens have given their opinion about the news:

Fans talk about the content of the Taylor course. (Image via Twitter/@PopBase)

Swifties congratulate the artist for the new Berkeley course. (Image via Twitter/@PopBase)

Taylor Swift is on a fairly lengthy list of A-List celebrities who have made it to the elevated status of having their music and careers taught as academic courses in institutions, which include the Beatles, Madonna, Bad Bunny, and Harry Styles.

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Details about the Eras Tour

Taylor Swift's record-breaking Eras Tour is on track to earn the artist an astonishing $4.1 billion, as per Time Magazine, making it the highest-grossing solo tour in history. The stadium arena experience kicked off on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona, and concludes on November 23, 2024, in Toronto, Canada. The tour pays homage to every era of the artist’s illustrious 17-year career.

Every city where Taylor Swift has performed in Eras has likely seen a boost in revenue from the hundreds of thousands of attendees who traveled from near and far and booked hotels, restaurants, and other facilities in anticipation of watching her perform.

While there’s much to say about the music, costumes, and production, the impact of the Eras Tour is starkly reflected in the numbers: a projected gross of $2.2 billion in North American ticket sales alone, and hundreds of millions of streams, as per Time.

The tour has also branched into a movie named Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which film premiered at The Grove in Los Angeles on October 11, 2023, and was released to theaters worldwide on October 13, as per The Guardian. The tickets are available at $19.89 for adults and $13.13 for kids.