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And she's had to deal with plenty of them too. The two I remember recently were some guy climbing on and trying to break into her NY apartment, and some guy on

And she's had to deal with plenty of them too. The two I remember recently were some guy climbing on and trying to break into her NY apartment, and some guy on social media threatening to kill her when she performed in Australia. The story is often familiar, the stalker guys will profess their undying love for Ms. Swift and lament that they'll never be with her so they must harm her in some way. And then there's the regular crazy Swiftie fangirls who obnoxiously battle each other on Tumblr and concerts to get noticed by Taylor while despising all the people who have gotten picked to meet her. There have been numerous incidents at concerts of people jumping up on the stage and trying to grab her. I remember a few moments during the Reputation tour where she appeared very distracted between sets, snapping her head to the side as if she thought someone was about to jump her. I don't blame her for being paranoid, fans can be crazy. I think also these big ticket venues are rightly more paranoid as of late, especially since Manchester and the shooting in LA. I made this really cool (I thought so at least) wearable LED matrix tee shirt (RGB Neopixels driven by a Teensyduino and cellphone battery pack) that displayed various Taylor related animations, but was only able to get it in 2 concerts out of uhm...several that I went to (Hackers can be Swifties too ok). The rules seemed arbitrary and highly dependent on what security guard you got when entering, which did not instill me with much confidence (one guard said the LED's were fine but I could not take the battery. Well ok then, even though the battery was just a regular cellphone charger that they explicitly did allow. And several times after I had been denied I go into the concert only to see other people with light up LED signs on full display). Anyway, it's one thing for a private venue to employ these measures for security to voluntary participants who knew damn well they were surrounded by guards and had to abide by certain rules, and an entire other sinister thing for governments to arbitrarily collect this data on everyone to do god knows what with backed by the power of the state. Between you know, John Lennon and the recent sad story of Christina Grimmie, I'm very glad Taylor Swift is taking security seriously.

joshmn 8y ago
This is one of the best things I have ever read on HN. Full-disclosure: I was a very excited mid-20s adult male when Taylor finally decided to be on Spotify.
- amhouse 8y ago
  Taylor Swift fans on HN? We do exist! (1989 won me over.)
  - eigenstuff 8y ago
    Hello yes checking in, not a HUGE fan but love her!
  - EADGBE 8y ago
    My daughter won me over.
- filmgirlcw 8y ago
  Add me as another HN Swiftie! There are dozens of us!
endymi0n 8y ago
These things can be serious. In another life I was co-managing the tour of a semi-successful boy band (we couldn‘t afford any Taylor Swift sized security measures, then again the concerts were usually less than 1000 people). The breaches were egregious. One day, one of the guys came home into his hotel room exhausted after a concert and there were three nude girls in his bed. Another walked out from his shower into a similar situation and was more shocked and angry than anything else. None of this could have happened without the help of Hotel personnel. On top, all of these intruders were getting very hostile when they weren‘t being „taken advantage of“ but sent out. Being famous, even slightly so, isn‘t as nice as it seems from the outside.
- loudmax 8y ago
  > Being famous, even slightly so, isn‘t as nice as it seems from the outside. It's not that I don't believe you. I can rationally accept that what you've said makes sense. However, being on the outside, it takes some mental effort to make the fame you've described not seem extremely nice.
  - soundwave106 8y ago
    There's a level of fame, the more superstar type level, where simply walking by yourself in public is much less feasible because of the tendency to get mobbed or attract unwanted attention. This is probably the level where problems like stalkers are much more serious. I'd guess that this is the level where it isn't "as nice". You no longer can do things without considering potentially crazy fans or overly uncomfortable levels of recognition. A long time ago, I remember the difference being illustrated at a Dragoncon in the early 2000s. Guests on the fame level of, say, Babylon 5 cast members, could walk around the convention just fine. They could do standard things like, say, go to the restaurant and have a meal without being heavily interrupted. Walking around they'd maybe get some hellos and photo poses and whatnot but it didn't seem terribly intrusive. And then there was Alice Cooper, who walked around the main convention floor one day and instantly got mobbed by a huge crowd. My hunch is that Taylor Swift probably is at the fame level where she needs security of some sort merely to walk around in public. That's a negative in my mind.
wodenokoto 8y ago
> it's one thing for a private venue to employ these measures for security to voluntary participants who knew damn well they were surrounded by guards and had to abide by certain rules It sounds like you were not subjected to "certain rules" but rather arbitrarily enforced, unknown rules.

joshmn 8y ago

This is one of the best things I have ever read on HN. Full-disclosure: I was a very excited mid-20s adult male when Taylor finally decided to be on Spotify.

amhouse 8y ago
Taylor Swift fans on HN? We do exist! (1989 won me over.)
- eigenstuff 8y ago
  Hello yes checking in, not a HUGE fan but love her!
- EADGBE 8y ago
  My daughter won me over.
filmgirlcw 8y ago
Add me as another HN Swiftie! There are dozens of us!

endymi0n 8y ago

These things can be serious. In another life I was co-managing the tour of a semi-successful boy band (we couldn‘t afford any Taylor Swift sized security measures, then again the concerts were usually less than 1000 people). The breaches were egregious. One day, one of the guys came home into his hotel room exhausted after a concert and there were three nude girls in his bed. Another walked out from his shower into a similar situation and was more shocked and angry than anything else. None of this could have happened without the help of Hotel personnel. On top, all of these intruders were getting very hostile when they weren‘t being „taken advantage of“ but sent out. Being famous, even slightly so, isn‘t as nice as it seems from the outside.

loudmax 8y ago
> Being famous, even slightly so, isn‘t as nice as it seems from the outside. It's not that I don't believe you. I can rationally accept that what you've said makes sense. However, being on the outside, it takes some mental effort to make the fame you've described not seem extremely nice.
- soundwave106 8y ago
  There's a level of fame, the more superstar type level, where simply walking by yourself in public is much less feasible because of the tendency to get mobbed or attract unwanted attention. This is probably the level where problems like stalkers are much more serious. I'd guess that this is the level where it isn't "as nice". You no longer can do things without considering potentially crazy fans or overly uncomfortable levels of recognition. A long time ago, I remember the difference being illustrated at a Dragoncon in the early 2000s. Guests on the fame level of, say, Babylon 5 cast members, could walk around the convention just fine. They could do standard things like, say, go to the restaurant and have a meal without being heavily interrupted. Walking around they'd maybe get some hellos and photo poses and whatnot but it didn't seem terribly intrusive. And then there was Alice Cooper, who walked around the main convention floor one day and instantly got mobbed by a huge crowd. My hunch is that Taylor Swift probably is at the fame level where she needs security of some sort merely to walk around in public. That's a negative in my mind.

wodenokoto 8y ago

> it's one thing for a private venue to employ these measures for security to voluntary participants who knew damn well they were surrounded by guards and had to abide by certain rules It sounds like you were not subjected to "certain rules" but rather arbitrarily enforced, unknown rules.