Senators Kept Making Delightfully Corny Taylor Swift Jokes During The Ticketmaster Hearing

The Senate Committee hearing on Ticketmaster’s business practices has concluded and the big takeaway is that the ticketing company (and parent Live Nation) has definitely damaged the music industry in the eyes of the assembled Senators. The second biggest takeaway is that no matter what party they represent, everybody seems to love Taylor Swift, whose concerns about Ticketmaster at least partly prompted the hearing in the first place.

Many, many references were made to this effect as the Senators apparently couldn’t help themselves and just had to let their corniest Taylor jokes fly. Minnesota’s Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar recounted her own experiences going to Led Zeppelin concerts in high school and expressed concerns that modern teens have been priced out by Ticketmaster.

She concluded her comments with a reference taken from Swift’s 2012 album Red, remarking, “You can’t have too much consolidation, something that unfortunately for this country… We know ‘All Too Well.'”

Meanwhile, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut (also a Democrat) went for a more recent reference: “May I suggest, respectfully, that Ticketmaster oughta look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the problem, it’s me’?” he said, quoting from Swift’s 2022 mega-hit “Anti-Hero.”

Arizona Republican Senator Mike Lee was also noted as quoting Taylor, quoting another Midnights standout, “Karma”:

For what it’s worth, even Live Nation’s own top officers had to apologize for the miserable failure of Ticketmaster’s rollout for Swift’s The Eras Tour tickets. Live Nation CFO Joe Berchtold said, “We apologize to the fans. We apologize to Ms. Swift. We need to to better, and we will do better.”

We’ll see, but for now, can we all just appreciate that people we elected are grilling the makers of a huge monopoly with the lyrics of a woman who was once reviled in the industry and is now pretty much the avatar of artists’ rights? Bravo.