NEED TO KNOW
- Aiden Watson, a life-long Swiftie, went viral for his put up about shopping for all 26 variations of Taylor Swift’s latest album, Lifetime of a Showgirl
- In whole, Watson spent $800 buying the totally different variations — a lot of which he acquired earlier than the album got here out
- In an interview with ipromiseyoumedia, he explains why he did it
Aiden Watson can’t bear in mind a time when he wasn’t a Taylor Swift fan.
At simply 7 years previous, the Southern California native says he was first drawn to the famous person as a result of she appeared like a “Disney princess.” As he acquired older, it was Swift’s storytelling that saved him hooked. “Her one-of-a-kind potential to make her private tales really feel universally felt makes you are feeling like your story is simply as essential,” the 20-year-old tells ipromiseyoumedia solely.
Earlier this 12 months, when Watson discovered that Swift, 35, was releasing her new album The Lifetime of a Showgirl, he couldn’t wait to get his palms on a bodily copy. A self-proclaimed collector, Watson says his pastime began with stuffed animals when he was a child and has since advanced into amassing bodily editions of Swift’s albums.
“This album had quite a bit to supply — many variants from CDs to vinyls — and relating to Taylor, you understand she’s her solely competitors,” he says. “Particularly at this level in her profession, her subsequent album will all the time be larger than the final, and sure the largest of the 12 months.”
He provides, “It feels such as you’re shopping for into historical past — and, in a bizarre parasocial means, such as you’re serving to make historical past.”
Now, weeks after The Lifetime of a Showgirl dropped on Oct. 3, Watson says he is bought all 26 obtainable copies of the album. He even posted a video about it on TikTok, which has since gone viral, amassing almost 1,000,000 views.
“Though it could appear dangerous to buy this many copies of an album you haven’t heard but (most copies I bought earlier than I heard the album), I’ve full belief in Taylor’s artistry. She’s put out 12 albums that I completely love. I’ve no motive to doubt her or the following one.”
“My favourite is unquestionably The Shiny Bug version,” he continues. “I’m completely obsessive about the duvet of her leaning in opposition to the wall, in addition to the pictures inside unique to that vinyl.”
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In whole, Watson estimates he’s spent roughly $800 on The Lifetime of a Showgirl variants. However to him, it’s greater than a pastime — it’s a inventive funding.
“All my mates make enjoyable of me as a result of I don’t really play any of the music I purchase,” Watson provides with amusing. “I exploit loads of my vinyls as wall artwork. Personally, I’d relatively spend $30 on a vinyl to hold on my wall than $30 on an artwork piece from Goal.”
“I 100% take a look at it as a enterprise funding,” he explains. “The content material I make on social media is usually Taylor-related. Most individuals assume it’s absurd to personal this many copies of the identical album — and so they’re not flawed, lol — however I knew I’d make content material of me shopping for the variants, unboxing them and exhibiting them off. And I have to say, it’s been fairly a fruitful funding.”
Wanting again, Watson says that for this period, Swift and her group constructed pleasure by launching countdowns for every variant — although followers didn’t know what the countdowns had been for at first. After the third one, he says, he just about figured it out.
These countdowns, he provides, really made amassing simpler since there was a built-in timer for when every model grew to become obtainable. “The one ones I actually needed to battle for had been the signed copies,” he says. “The web site crashed a number of instances, and I needed to wait in a checkout queue for about an hour.”
Nonetheless, Watson says that form of frenzy is his favourite a part of a Swift launch. “It appears like your complete world is united, even for only a second,” he shares. “Particularly now, when the world feels so scary with politics and wars, it’s a time to return collectively and have fun what unites individuals most — music.”
As for the album itself, Watson says his favourite observe is “Father Determine.”
“It’s such a bada– music,” he says. “It stands out to me as one other punch to Scott Borchetta — the person who offered her first six albums — and serves as a candy reminder that she’s all the time been in cost. She made him, she introduced him up. It was her and the music she made that acquired each of them into the rooms they had been in — not the opposite means round.”
He provides how though nobody from Swift’s group — or Swift herself — has ever interacted with Watson’s content material about his assortment, he admits that the thought of her seeing it “actually freaks [him] out.”
Nonetheless, he’s typically imagined what he’d say if he ever acquired the possibility to fulfill her. “I nonetheless do not know,” he says. “I can’t put into phrases how a lot she and her music imply to me. Everybody has their very own story, and mine has sadly been fairly darkish. However she makes you are feeling like your story issues. I’ve been by means of a lot in my life, and thru each heartbreak, trauma and life change, Taylor’s all the time been there — and I’ve had absolutely the time of my life combating dragons along with her.”