Research Reflection: the Taylor Swift Survey

I’ve decided to take the Taylor Swift research forward. After writing the essay on Taylor Swift and folklore, I found my mind constantly wanting to return to that space. I kept thinking about new things to add, new things to think about, new things I wanted to delve into. And so, the book idea of mythology and Taylor Swift is now a high priority for me.

I’ve decided to do research a bit different for this one. In most of my research, I prefer doing qualitative research - in other words, I prefer doing research where I deep dive details into a small quantity of people. The idea of qualitative research is in its name, quality over quantity. I may only talk to 15 or 20 people, but those people I get to know in extreme detail. But for Swift, I’ve decided to shift things a little, and instead to quantitative research. I’ll be looking at a huge amount of people more surface. Quantitative has a lot of stats and numbers.

This isn’t the first time I’ve worked on a survey, but is the first time in many years. Surveys are always a little more complicated than people think. You need to be direct, but not so direct that it’s leading. You have to ask a lot, but not demand too much of their time. You need to get numbers, but also specificity when you need. Saying, for example, twenty percent of people think this, that’s great - but why?

Its a lot of info to sort through, a great amount of data and details and considerations. And you need to make it seem effortless for the people who are taking it.

Current Status

I’m in the middle, right now, of what we call “a pilot study”. Essentially, I’ve written the survey. Looked it over and made some edits/amendments. And now it’s sent off to a handful of people who represent the larger group I’m going to research who are taking the survey, and then going to give me notes about it. I have the answers they give to look over, make sure I’m getting what I want to get, it’s easy to take, the instructions are clear, and any other issues are considered.

I’m really proud of my little survey. Well, I say little - it may not be as little as it could be. But I’m getting some interesting notes already, and feel like the survey is going well. I still need to wait for a few more responses to come in before I fully review things.

At that review stage, I’ll be looking over the notes to ensure everything is good. When I said, above, that “I’m getting what I want to get”, I don’t mean that the answers line up with my thoughts, and if not I change things. What I mean is if I’m asking a question with the intention of getting information about, say, friendship bracelets, and instead I’m getting information about Taylor’s discography - clearly, I did something wrong. This hasn’t happened to me yet - fingers crossed - but it could.

If it does, there are two ways to handle it. The first is that I need to rephrase the question. Maybe I worded something strangely or in a way that’s ultimately unclear. The second, is that I may need to re-think my approach at all. Let’s say, for example, that my question is pretty clear, people are just taking the opportunity to talk about the discography. This means that I either (1) don’t have a space to talk about this aspect, (2) no one really cares about the friendship bracelets, or even (3) the two are so intricately connected that I need to rethink how I phrased the question to either separate, or take this into account.

Obviously, as I said before, I have not had this issue yet, so hopefully I don’t have to delve too into the weeds here.

Reflection, and Looking Ahead

I have to be honest - I really enjoyed the process of putting together this survey. And even though its out with just a small handful of people, I’m finding myself constantly refreshing my page, waiting for the number of respondents to tick up. I’m already thinking about each of the answers, how that fits or doesn’t fit into things. I’m just finding myself constantly thinking about this project.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a sizeable nonfiction project since Cosplay and the Dressing of Identity. Not that the other things I’ve delved into aren’t fun, but they feel more like me trying for something, rather than just enjoying the process.

I’m really just enjoying this process. I’m giving myself over to it. I know it’s kinda different from the very nerdy things I normally do, but I don’t think it’s actually all that different. I mean, aren’t Swifties just giant nerds?

So, I’m looking ahead with a lot of hope and excitement. I think there’s something interesting here, and something really fun. I can’t wait to start digging into mounds and mounds of data. I’ll just go swimming in it.