Music is an important part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Specifically pre-existing music. Artists like Led Zeppelin, Redbone, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Cat Stevens have underscored the most memorable sequences across this franchise’s movies and TV shows in both diegetic and non-diegetic forms. These tunes can very quickly establish the tone of an ensuing movie or big set-piece while also plucking at the nostalgia of audience members. However, across countless movies and TV shows, one particular artist has never been referenced once in a Marvel Cinematic Universe production: Taylor Swift.
There has been nary a name-drop in a forgotten Iron Fist or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode, let alone a prominent shoutout in an Avengers movie, for the singer behind tunes like “Betty” and “Love Story.” The total absence of this singer in this franchise can’t help but lead one to wonder whether or not Taylor Swift even exists in this universe, as well as what kind of music the Marvel Cinematic Universe prioritizes.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Musical Landscape
The tunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are primarily supposed to evoke older time periods. For Guardians of the Galaxy, they reflect a way Peter Quill/Star-Lord keeps tethered to his Earth home. In Captain Marvel, the needle-drops are used to reinforce that Carol Danvers returns to Earth in the 1990s. The “Back in Black” tune that opens Iron Man, meanwhile, was an effective way to set up Tony Stark as a rowdy guy that wasn’t quite like other superhero movie protagonists. Even the one in-universe musical number in all the movies, the “Star-Spangled Man” set piece in Captain America: The First Avenger, is rooted in vintage musical sensibilities. The TV shows have gone down a similar route, with WandaVision most notably delivering a bevy of tunes designed to evoke theme songs of various eras of television.
The retro-gaze of these songs is part of a larger aesthetic approach of the Marvel Cinematic Universe largely channeling aesthetics of older eras of pop culture. In hindsight, this could be seen as a way of offering some insurance for making movies based on initially obscure Marvel characters. Audiences may not know who Iron Man or the Guardians of the Galaxy are, but they know these tunes or these genre hallmarks, these can function as familiar elements luring moviegoers to the theater. The default musical norms of the franchise, then, have emphasized classic artists that have long cemented their reputations as icons in pop culture.
Occasionally, modern pop music will get referenced in these movies, but only sparingly. It takes so long for a big blockbuster to go from being a script to a finished film that some pop star Iron Man or Spider-Man name-drops could be totally forgotten by the time the movie comes out. Still, Beyoncé did get referenced in Doctor Strange, with a smattering of “Single Ladies” even being heard thanks to Wong’s headphones. Megan Thee Stallion got to show up as herself in an extended guest spot on an episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. These are the exception to the rules, however, and most singers dominating the modern Top 40 charts don’t get referenced at all in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not even Taylor Swift.
Why Else Hasn’t Taylor Swift Appeared in the MCU?
Another key element preventing Swift’s presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though, is the genre she initially occupied. Taylor Swift started on the country music scene, with her origins being especially apparent in early tunes like “Tim McGraw” or “Our Song.” Her sound quickly evolved by the time the 2010s dawned to incorporate a more expansive tonal landscape. Still, even as she began to expand her artistic horizons, as late as 2012, Taylor Swift songs like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” were dominating the US Hot Country Songs and US Country Airplay charts.
A 2013 collaboration with Tim McGraw and Keith Urban on the hit country song “Highway Don’t Care” seemed to solidify that she was always going to have country music in her veins. Nothing produced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the saga’s initial few years even approached rural areas (save for a second-act detour to Oklahoma in Iron Man 3) or involved anyone with a fondness for country music. There was no organic space for initial Swift tunes like “Fifteen” to show up. Now, starting with the tunes on her 1989 album in 2014, her songs started to vanish from the country charts, and she moved towards being categorized as a “pop” artist.
A broader musical genre classification, though, wasn’t going to automatically catapult Swift into being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The same year she shifted herself to the pop charts, Marvel Studios hit box office gold with Guardians of the Galaxy. That movie and its lucrative soundtrack cemented this franchise’s fondness for vintage needle drops. Unless they had the chance to reference the gloriousness of Beyoncé, modern pop tunes were being eschewed for more unexpected yesteryear needle drops. The timing of Swift’s career oddly paralleled key moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (including how Swift kicked off her music career just two years before Iron Man launched the whole the universe) in ways that ensured she wouldn’t be showing up in this franchise.
It also has to be said that the franchise, for so many years, didn’t have room for the core fan base of Taylor Swift music. Women were only sparingly represented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for its first eight years (and issues with gender representation endured well afterward) while the saga was initially focused on older superheroes, not the teens that go to Swift concerts in droves. This isn’t to say that people who don’t identify as women will burst into flames if they listen to a few bars of “You Belong with Me” nor that listeners who’ve graduated college could never get anything out of her music. However, a large pool of Swift’s fanbase is teen girls who really relate to her lyrics, and that demographic just wasn’t the focus of initial Marvel Cinematic Universe properties. No wonder Swift has never been referenced in this franchise.
Will Taylor Swift Show Up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
With all these larger issues informing Taylor Swift’s absence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this pop singer is, for now, non-existent within this franchise. Granted, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is intended to be our universe just with superheroes (even Jeff Bridges playing Obadiah Stane couldn’t prevent The Big Lebowski from existing in this domain), so Swift could still theoretically exist out there in this universe. Just because “Lavender Haze” isn’t blaring on every radio in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania doesn’t mean Swift isn’t real in this world. Perhaps she’s always been just off-camera, narrowly avoiding directing interactions with the main Avengers, like Charlie in an episode of Poker Face.
Still, right now, one of the world’s biggest modern pop stars has been totally absent from one of the world’s biggest modern film franchises, a strange factoid reflecting two pop culture ships that have passed each other at night. While vintage James Bond movies became famous for employing the biggest musicians at the time of their release, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has opted for a different musical approach that’s ensured that this saga has never found a use for Taylor Swift. That’s peculiar since, as weird as it may sound, great superheroes and the most unforgettable Taylor Swift songs can often feel the same. That sentence may sound like the result of some A.I. algorithm tasked with writing about popular pieces of 21st-century media, but in a way, it’s true.
Characters like Spider-Man endure because audiences and readers see themselves within this masked crime-fighter and other vulnerable, scrappy Marvel mainstays like Ben Grimm/The Thing or Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. We’ve all felt like monsters like The Thing, overwhelmed with the world like Spider-Man, or pulled between so many opposing directions like Ms. Marvel. It’s challenging to confront such heady emotions on a day-to-day basis, but these colorful superheroes, in their greatest comic book and movie/TV incarnations, allow us to confront recognizably human experiences in exciting and visually colorful confines. Similarly, Swift tunes like “Fifteen” or “Snow on the Beach” help to crystallize emotions you’ve always felt but never been able to put into words before. The intimate way she sings, particularly in the Taylor’s Versions of old songs, makes it sound like she’s singing her tunes right back to you personally. You felt alone before you listened to these songs, but just putting on something like “the 1” eases those isolated feelings and makes it easier to comprehend paralyzing emotional experiences.
These pieces of art hold up a mirror to ourselves, in the process allow us to confront our foibles while clinging to hope. Given this shared quality (which is by no means exclusive to either Swift or comic books based on characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), it does become a bit puzzling that the most famous modern incarnation of the Marvel characters has never once found a use for Swift. However, perhaps that will change one day. Maybe Avengers: Secret Wars will hinge its biggest emotional scene on utilizing “The Best Day.” If recent rumors are to be believed, Taylor Swift could be joining the MCU in a different capacity. Those of us who get equally moved by seeing superheroes help people or hearing Swift harmonize about internal turmoil can only hope.
The Big Picture
- Marvel Cinematic Universe films and TV shows primarily use pre-existing music to establish tone and evoke nostalgia for audiences.
- Taylor Swift has never been referenced in any Marvel production, leading to speculation about her existence in that universe.
- The franchise prioritizes classic artists and vintage needle drops, with sparing references to modern pop music. Women and teen demographics were not initially focused on in the MCU.
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