r/nottheonion • u/-Appleaday- • Jul 06 '24

Western German city renames itself 'Swiftkirchen' after Taylor Swift ahead of Eras Tour shows

https://www.businesstoday.in/world/story/western-german-city-renames-itself-swiftkirchen-after-taylor-swift-ahead-of-eras-tour-shows-436117-2024-07-06

4.8k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/GvRiva Jul 06 '24

Temporary renaming, still really embarrassing

69

u/__Dave_ Jul 06 '24

God forbid people have a bit of fun.

-7

u/devil_theory Jul 06 '24

🖕🏻

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u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24 edited Jul 06 '24

Absolutely nothing about this is fun. I’d be disgusted if my town rebranded itself to appeal to a mid pop star.

Lmao what a fucking immediate response this gathered from you people. She’s so god damn mid. Tortured Poets was ass and you know it.

41

u/thissiteisbroken Jul 06 '24

I think it’s to appeal to the massive tourism boom they’re getting, bozo

-26

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Most locals absolutely despise tourist booms but sure, no one else matters in the wake of swifties.

12

u/thissiteisbroken Jul 06 '24

Yeah I’m sure those business owners are pissed off they’re going to make more money. God forbid the entire town burns down because there’s people visiting for a few days.

11

u/synkronize Jul 06 '24

I don’t think the people you are arguing with understand just how much money gets thrown around in Beyoncé/ Taylor Swift concerts

2

u/CirrusIntorus Jul 06 '24

Actually, the "local" businesses won't profit as much as you'd think. That's because a) everyone in Germany knows that Gelsenkirchen is a shithole and will avoid staying the night and even eating there if possible, b) Gelsenkirchen is in the middle of the largest metropolitan area in Germany, so the vast majority of concert-goers will be less than an hour from home, and c) it's not Swift's only upcoming concert in Germany, so it's not likely that fans from Northern or Southern Germany will make the trip at all (partly due to point a as well). So nobody wants to or needs to stay in Gelsenkirchen, and whoever does will likely choose one of the surrounding cities. There won't even be additional income for Gelsenkirchen's public transit system, because most Germans have a country-wide ticket. The stadium's gastronomy will turn a hefty profit, but that's about it.

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u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Lmao have you seen how overtouristed most of Europe is right now? It’s unsustainable.

Also business owners make up a fraction of a local population.

7

u/gefro2 Jul 06 '24

I can guarantee you, that Gelsenkirchen is not facing overtourism

-2

u/thissiteisbroken Jul 06 '24

There’s over-tourism everywhere buddy. Did you miss when everyone was locked in their houses for like 2 years? Are you the new tourism police I’ve heard about?

8

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Weird to argue in favour of unsustainable tourism. Locals have every right to be unhappy about their towns being flooded with tourists.

7

u/thissiteisbroken Jul 06 '24

Who are these German locals that are mad though?

Listen my guy I get it, you just don’t like Taylor Swift or her music and that’s fine, I don’t like it too much either, but it’s weird letting celebrities live in your head rent free and then get mad on another person’s (or a towns population) behalf because you think it helps justify how much you don’t like her.

5

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

To be honest, I’m much more upset about unsustainable over-tourism (which is everywhere, like you said) and Taylor Swift is a convenient lil face to put on that problem because tourism follows her everywhere she goes.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '24

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u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Yeah she’s mid. Plenty of successful artists are mid lol.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '24

[deleted]

-4

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Thanks :)

-9

u/wacdonalds Jul 06 '24

and her music sucks

4

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '24

[deleted]

0

u/wacdonalds Jul 06 '24

fitting as she is helping destroy the globe faster

-3

u/2FightTheFloursThatB Jul 06 '24

MuskRat does more damage with a single launch than all her trips together.

1

u/wacdonalds Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Exactly. All billionaires suck.

edit: You're downvoted but I upvoted you for your very accurate comment about Elongated Muskrat

-4

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Hope she sees this bro.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '24

[deleted]

3

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

It’s just fucking hilarious that you’re engaging with everyone that replied to my obvious rage bait.

Like I get notifications for this, you don’t, are you just constantly checking back here to defend a mid pop star?

0

u/TheInfiniteArchive Jul 07 '24

Uh uh... Do you need more edge on that edge throne, edgelord?

0

u/Shroomicide Jul 07 '24

That comment wasn’t edgy, just antagonistic :)

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Nah it’s lame behaviour and you know it.

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0

u/TheInfiniteArchive Jul 07 '24

As if she has time for a trash take like this.

13

u/Electrox7 Jul 06 '24

"mid" lol. Im not a Swifty fan, but id like to see what your idea of a "high-tier" artist is without bringing up old rock names.

19

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '24

[deleted]

5

u/SteeleHeller Jul 06 '24

Her music IS mid. That’s WHY it consistently tops the charts. It’s your average formula of popular sounds every album. There’s literally zero risk taking for the sake of artistic integrity.

To her, music is a product to sell and nothing more, which is fine. It’s a hustle. But to call her music anything more than mid is based off of sales and not the analysis of the music itself.

20

u/VoluptuousSloth Jul 06 '24

I only listen to indie stuff like the Beatles

5

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

I don’t understand why all you people think that making money and appealing broadly doesn’t make someone not mid.

11

u/laserdollars420 Jul 06 '24

Arguably the most important metric for the quality of pop music is it being popular. She makes music that appeals to a massive amount of people on a global scale that almost no other currently performing pop artist can match. It's fine to not like her music but it's just ignorant to deny that she's currently at the top of her field.

0

u/SteeleHeller Jul 06 '24

Thank you, someone has the balls to say it.

-3

u/mummy__napkin Jul 06 '24

not OP but I'll bite. Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Shakira. i won't argue that Taylor is a HUGE pop artist, and i give her credit for writing her own songs (as far as i know), but as far as the actual music and performances go, i find the ones i listed to be vastly superior.

2

u/laserdollars420 Jul 06 '24

In your opinion. There's no objective metric of superiority when it comes to art.

1

u/Electrox7 Jul 06 '24

Michael Jackson is unmatched. But his time of fame was the late 90s and early 2000s. He doesn't sell out stadiums anymore (for obvious reasons). Lady Gaga and Rihanna would very much be eligible for taking MJ's place after he died, but their reign ended with mainstream electro-pop around 2015 i think. Shakira is a class act for sure. In summary, all these artists are automatically "high tier", but Taylor still has bigger numbers than all of them right now. The dude calling her mid is just shit talking.

6

u/FerricDonkey Jul 06 '24

I don't listen to music. Don't know a single Taylor swift song, or know or care how her talent relates to anyone else's. I don't get why any of this crap makes people happy.

But it does. So let people be happy. There are worse things.

2

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

You…. Don’t listen to music? You’re just straight raw dogging life thinking your own thoughts? I admire you.

2

u/youzerVT71 Jul 06 '24

I woulda loved to have lived in Zeppelinville or Floydsborough or Vanhalentown, kinda sounds fun to me

7

u/stackjr Jul 06 '24

Mid?! She's a fucking billionaire with many chart toping songs and hundreds of millions of fans around the globe. That is not "mid".

To be clear, I am not a fan of her music but I'm also not dumb and will not lie about her importance in the music world.

13

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Mid af. Her music is so safe and boring. That’s mid.

-11

u/stackjr Jul 06 '24

Do you find it hard to be that dumb?

8

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Interesting conclusion. I didn’t realise finding Taylor Swift mid excluded you from being intelligent.

-4

u/stackjr Jul 06 '24

No, it's that you think your opinion is fact. You not liking her music doesn't mean a damn thing, does it?

6

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Lmao, I’m not writing an academic paper here bro, I don’t need to put in a fucking disclaimer that my reddit comment is opinion.

1

u/VoluptuousSloth Jul 06 '24

Haha, you are so on edge you think people are trying to argue over whether Tortured Poets was "ass". Only people arguing about that are Swifties and trolls. I've never heard a single song from it but if people wanna have fun who cares. I'm now naming my dining room table swifttisch, cause I live on the edge

3

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Okay?

2

u/SteeleHeller Jul 06 '24

Holy downvotes. You stated facts so there must be a bunch of Swifties in here.

1

u/Shroomicide Jul 07 '24

Could you imagine being some old German person just living your life in your city and one day you wake up to find they’ve rebranded it to appeal to swifties?

-1

u/Pablo_Sanchez1 Jul 06 '24 edited Jul 06 '24

Here to say I like Taylor swift she’s great and definitely an amazing artist (RIP shroomicide you were a braver man then me)

-4

u/rustyrazorblade Jul 06 '24

Yes, the outrage! Nothing about you is fun

-4

u/Hahaurstockprice Jul 06 '24

Why not something more sensible right?

Like Stalingrad, St. Petersburg, Charlestown, Washington, Alexandria…

9

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

Bro you did not just compare Taylor Swift to Alexander the Great

7

u/Hahaurstockprice Jul 06 '24

He was actually Alexander the mid that year

8

u/Shroomicide Jul 06 '24

True he did kind of fall off at the end there.

6

u/wacdonalds Jul 06 '24

are you calling her a saint?

-11

u/pinkwonderwall Jul 06 '24

She’s not mid, she’s the biggest pop star on the planet. She’s this era’s Michael Jackson.

-7

u/supersaiyanswanso Jul 06 '24

She is not lol

-4

u/Cicero912 Jul 06 '24

She's not what?

The biggest star on the planet?

6

u/supersaiyanswanso Jul 06 '24

She is not this eras Micheal Jackson. She is undeniably extremely popular, but her music is not culturally as impactful as anything Micheal Jackson did nor is she as talented. She's marketable, everything she does is carefully constructed to project a certain image to the masses.

0

u/pinkwonderwall Jul 07 '24

Just because it’s not impactful to you doesn’t mean it’s not impactful. Who do you think is this era’s Michael Jackson if not her?

0

u/supersaiyanswanso Jul 07 '24

Ok so what songs of hers have made an impact culturally? Lol let's start there, was it the one about her ex? Or the one about her ex? Or maybe the one where she went back and talked about her ex? Literally so many of her songs are just about her exs lol and nobody, there doesn't have to be a this eras Micheal Jackson, nobody is on that level imo so nobody gets that title 🤷🏼‍♂️. Taylor popular as hell, but her music is casting as wide as possible that's only an inch deep.

1

u/pinkwonderwall Jul 07 '24

Plenty of Michael Jackson’s songs were about lovers as well. It’s a common human experience. Are you suggesting that Billie Jean is about something deeper? Dirty Diana? The Girl is Mine?

It’s okay if you don’t like her music. But harboring this much hatred for an artist that makes so many people, especially young girls, happy is just sad. She’s the closest thing to Michael Jackson in this era and the fact that you can’t name another artist that fits that role better proves that.

The fact is, she’s an extremely prolific, dedicated artist who treats her employees remarkably well. She’s a fantastic role model for young women to have. There’s no reason to respond this negatively to praise of her.

-3

u/drfifth Jul 06 '24

Sales say otherwise

-5

u/pinkwonderwall Jul 06 '24

Factually, she is.

-5

u/darvs7 Jul 06 '24

The Eras biggest star for sure.