HOUSTON — The University of Houston is the latest college to add a course on superstar singer and businesswoman Taylor Swift.
“The Entrepreneurial Genius of Taylor Swift,” will be offered next spring at UH's C. T. Bauer College of Business.
Swift has an estimated net worth of $1 billion, according to Forbes, and made more than $780 million on the U.S. leg of her 2023 The Eras Tour, setting her up to become the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time. The Eras Tour concert film recently became the highest-grossing concert film in North America, with an estimated $95 million to $97 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend.
Professor Kelly McCormick will teach the class that will focus on Swift’s expertise in marketing, fan engagement, community building and brand strategies.
“You definitely don’t have to be a hardcore fan — a Swiftie — to learn and appreciate the entrepreneurial genius that has made Taylor Swift an international phenomenon,” McCormick said.
She said the course will be "Taylor-made" for Swift fans, with each session focusing on a different album or Era of her career.
Students will also be treated to friendship bracelets, which millions of fans traded during the Eras Tour concerts in response to a single line from "You're on Your Own Kid," a song from the mega-hit album "Midnights."
There will be surprise songs -- like Swift features in her shows -- during breaks and “Easter eggs” hidden in class content because she's known to hide clues for fans in her own music videos, album artwork and social media posts.
McCormick has been a Swift fan since the early days of mega-hits “Our Song” and “Love Story” but began to see the entrepreneurship lessons in her 17-year career after attending one of the Houston stops on the record-breaking The Eras Tour in April.
“I saw the show and LOVED it,” McCormick said. “And I realized I actually didn’t know that much about her career. I became absolutely enamored basically overnight and started getting into her whole discography. Taylor is truly impressive!”
Swift also broke artistic ground in 2021 with a rerecorded version of her album Fearless, launching a series of releases of her back catalog, in order to secure ownership of her first six albums after the masters, or original recordings, were sold for a reported $300 million in 2019. The rerecorded albums, dubbed “Taylor’s Version,” have dominated music charts with each release, generating new sales and streams for songs that are up to a decade old.
That kind of success doesn’t come by accident, McCormick said, and will be the focus of the class.
“The number one business lesson students can learn from Taylor is the way she treats her fans,” she said. “She is beloved because she truly does so much to make sure they are happy, appreciated and feel like they are important to her. If every company acted that way about their customers — they’d have way more customers.”
That may also explain why Swift has 276 million Instagram followers.
UH said Bauer College is the ideal venue for the class, given the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship’s long history of ranking #1 nationally and the college’s focus on applicable business lessons.
Rice University, UT offer courses on Taylor Swift lyrics
Rice University also joined the growing list of colleges that are now offering classes on superstar Taylor Swift.
The course is called "Miss Americana: Lyrics and Evolution of Taylor Swift" and will discuss the nuances of her lyrics as well as the evolution of each one of her 10 albums.
Last year, the University of Texas at Austin joined in on the fun by offering a new course called "Literary Contests and Contexts - The Taylor Swift Songbook."
Texas State University also jumped on the trend of using pop culture to educate students by offering a class on Harry Styles.
