Celebrities and politicians have been banned from Russia due to the ongoing war with Ukraine and the US involvement in the international conflict.
While Taylor Swift and other musicians are not on the banned list, their music will not be able to be played in the Russian Republic of Chechnya thanks to a new ruling.
What happened: Swift has broken box office records and tour records due to her popularity and huge fan base.
One country that may see a smaller fan base for Swift is Chechnya as most of Swift’s songs will be unplayable due to a new law. The new law has nothing to do with the lyrics or subject matter of Swift’s songs, but instead takes into account whether the tempo of songs is too fast or too slow.
“From now on all musical, vocal and choreographic works will have to correspond to a rhythm of between 80 and 116 beats per minute,” the Chechen Ministry of Culture said, as reported by the Moscow Times.
Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov he said the idea is to “conform to the Chechen mentality” with music in the country. Kadyrov is an ally of the Russian president Vladimir Putin and I previously had a war of words with Elon Musk for a challenge between the Russian ruler and the billionaire.
According to the report, local artists have until June 1 to edit their songs to comply with the new rules. Other global artists are unlikely to change their hits to conform to one country’s rules.
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Because it is important: A report from Politico highlights that the new rule will ban most of Swift’s songs with hits like “Shake it Off, “Love Story,” “Look What You Made Me Do” and “Bad Blood” too fast at 160, 119, 128 and 170 beats per minute (BPM), respectively. Swift’s hit “Lover” falls on the other end of the spectrum at 69 BPM.
Beyoncé will also see songs like “Single Ladies” and “Run the World” banned with songs clocking in at 193 and 127 BPM respectively. Some of Beyonce’s hits like “Halo,” “Crazy in Love” and new hit “Texas Hold ‘Em” all qualify to be played under the new rules.
Other artists who would be most affected by the ban according to Politico include Drake AND Ariana Grande.
Another song that will not be playable during the ban, but perhaps an exception will be made, is the Russian national anthem, which is played at 76 BPM.
A song that makes the cut is “Baby shark,” the hit children’s song from The Pinkfrog company. The song, which may now be stuck in your head thanks to this article, is the most viewed video on the internet Youtube ever with over 14 billion views and was the first video to surpass the 10 billion views milestone on the platform in 2022.
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