Unvaulting “Disney Plus Pop” in 2021: Romance, Melodrama, and Remembering in Taylor Swift’s All Too Well, McCartney’s Lyrics, and The Beatles: Get Back

Abstract

The congruous timing of Taylor Swift’s and the Beatles’ 2021 multiplatform media is an occasion to investigate comparable generic storytelling strategies, especially as they related to gender. Identifying the melodramatic romance of Swift’s All Too Well opens up similar dimensions of the Beatles’ media narrative, especially as articulated in Paul McCartney’s contributions to the marketing surrounding Get Back’s Disney Plus premiere on the streaming platform. More genre and Disney dynamics begin to emerge when I unravel a selection of correlations between Swift and McCartney and the Beatles. In doing so, I probe the gendered nature of mediated stories about musicians’ romances, melodramas, and remembering in 2021, a year that witnessed the ongoing coalescence of a phenomenon I term “Disney Plus Pop.”