justinsentertainmentcorner - Tumblr blog

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Miles Klee at Rolling Stone:

YOU CAN’T PLEASE all the people all of the time — even if you’re as popular as Taylor Swift. Having attained a somehow higher level of mega-celebrity with her record-breaking Eras Tour and a closely followed romance with Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs (who are headed back to the Super Bowl as the defending NFL champs), the singer now faces the perplexing wrath of MAGA conspiracy theorists who have decided the league and the relationship are rigged to help Joe Biden’s chances in the 2024 presidential election. The premise is as disconnected from reality as it sounds, but it’s all the stranger given that this courtship between a pop icon and football star — both white, Christian, good-looking, wholesome public figures — should fit the all-American conservative ideal. And Swift herself long retained her mass appeal with a mostly apolitical presence on the world stage, only voicing liberal positions and endorsing a select few Democrats from 2018 onward. But it was, in part, this late entry into civic discourse that allowed right-wingers to sell themselves a narrative of Swift as a propaganda puppet, after years in which some ardently worshiped her as a blonde, blue-eyed avatar for white supremacy. Here’s the complete timeline of how the far right fell in, and out of, love with Taylor Swift.    

Pre-2016: Country Roots

Swift came up in the Nashville scene, from the age of 14, as a country singer-songwriter inspired by the likes of Dolly Parton and Shania Twain. Her debut single, “Tim McGraw,” alluded to her love of another country legend — and her early hits climbed the genre’s charts along with heartland tunes full of cowboy twang and pickup trucks. Whatever the identities of individual performers, this music has always been conservative-coded, and its biggest names have rarely shied away from an aggressive style of red-meat patriotism. Swift, of course, was a teenager singing about innocent young love: She only happened to suit the fantasy of a small-town girl next door that informs so much Americana. (And she certainly didn’t have Parental Advisory stickers on her CDs.) It was when she started to drift from these roots on Red (2012), and fully embraced electronic pop with 1989 (2014), that fans could begin to think of her as totally distinct from the traditionalist milieu of her early career. The latter’s “Welcome to New York” signaled a new, cosmopolitan life far from the backroads of country radio. In fact, a civilian Donald Trump was blasting the album’s second single, “Blank Space,” while driving around with wife Melania and son Barron, as seen in a 2014 video Melania shared on her Facebook page [...]

The ascendant alt-right, shitposters by nature, saw a chance to disingenuously claim Swift for their own, as both a secret Trump supporter and neo-Nazi. (It didn’t seem to matter that she had previously expressed her happiness at Barack Obama taking the White House in 2008, her first election.) The attempt to rebrand her had older, murky origins, including 4chan in-jokes and a Pinterest user who in 2013 went viral for images falsely attributing Hitler quotes to Swift, but picked up steam as Trump did. Andrew Anglin, founder of the white supremacist website the Daily Stormer, declared her an “aryan goddess,” while Milo Yiannopoulos, in a column for Breitbart, explained why she was an “alt-right pop icon,” noting her whiteness, blondeness, unrevealing clothes, lack of piercings, and occasional mini-scandals over music videos accused of racist undertones. It probably didn’t help that Swift endorsed neither Hillary Clinton nor Trump, leaving room for misinformation about how she secretly voted for the GOP candidate. Following Trump’s victory, some Democrats vented their frustration at Swift’s silence during the campaign, believing she could have moved the needle for Clinton. [...]

In the following months, the #MeToo movement shed light on how often sexual misconduct is dismissed or covered up to the perpetrator’s benefit, and Swift became one of the founding signatories of Time’s Up, an advocacy group for survivors, and donated to its legal defense fund.  None of this was likely to endear Swift to conservatives who had already begun to argue that #MeToo had “gone too far,” yet she continued to press the issue, gracing the cover of Time’s Person of the Year issue along with fellow “silence breakers.” And the next year, she finally waded into electoral politics, sharing on Instagram that she would be backing Democratic congressional candidates in Tennessee for the 2018 midterms. [...]

2019-2020: The Activist

By 2019, Swift’s politics were no mystery. She was openly in favor of gun-control reform, took a pro-choice stance against government attempts to crack down on abortion, gave a surprise performance at New York’s Stonewall Inn for that year’s Pride celebration, and urged the senate to pass anti-discrimination laws. Any far-right fan clinging to the notion that she harbored extremist views would’ve been in clinical denial. For the most part, conservative commentators got in the habit of attacking her as they would any other liberal entertainer with a massive platform. Ben Shapiro, for one, complained of her “abrupt and obviously pandering shift into a political wokescold.”    At last, Swift also formally denounced any admiration from the racist far right in a cover story interview with Rolling Stone. “There’s literally nothing worse than white supremacy,” she said. “It’s repulsive. There should be no place for it.” She explained that she feared a 2016 endorsement of Hillary Clinton could have backfired, since Clinton’s celebrity support was “used against her in a lot of ways.” As for conservatives who had once assumed she was on their side, she quipped, “I don’t think they do anymore.” [...]

2021-2024: Taylor Derangement Syndrome

The “aryan goddess” interpretation of Swift had been more or less put to bed by the time Biden assumed office. But the reorganizing MAGA right had little reason to single her out among the legions of professional entertainers who express their distaste for Trump here and there. She didn’t endorse candidates in the 2022 midterms, either, though she did communicate her dismay at the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Conservatives who bothered to take a swipe at her tended toward lazy outrage bait: calling her boring, overrated, or a lonely cat lady (mind you, she was in a long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn that was heavily covered by the tabloids). In 2021, Swift embarked on the formidable project of rerecording her first six studio albums after the rights to that catalog were sold to a company run by controversial music mogul Scooter Braun, and released the hit record Midnights in 2022.

It was in 2023 that American conservatism launched into an enduring freakout about Swift, her cultural dominance, and her potential influence on voters. Anyone dimly aware of the Eras Tour — an unprecedented run of sold-out stadium shows — could see she had reached another pinnacle of success, and amassed a near-cultish audience of millions who hung on her every utterance. We got plenty of think pieces on whether this was a good or bad phenomenon, with varied musings on how Swift had created her own monoculture. The sheer saturation of Taylor content was enough to irk those less disposed to her vibe — and there were gripes about that, too.

[...] The release of The Tortured Poets Departmentlast Friday, April 19, inevitably (and unfortunately) brought a new round of grousing. Sean Feucht,  the far-right “MAGA Pastor,” raised the alarm on social media, saying “half the songs” on the album “contain explicit lyrics (E), make fun of Christians, and straight up blaspheme God.” And lest you think he’s “just being religious & overreacting,” Feucht shared several apparently offending lyrics that certainly dabble in classic religious imagery, but in the most basic, writerly way imaginable. Among the most harrowing lines, to Feucht: “I would’ve died for your sins, instead I just died inside” (from “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”); “What If I roll the stone away / They’re gonna crucify me anyway” (“Guilty as Sin”); and “God save the most judgmental creeps / Who say they want what’s best for me / Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see,” from “But Daddy I Love Him,” which definitely seems more critical of Swift’s own fans than an entire religion.  And, of course, Shapiro got back in on the action as well with a YouTube video dubbed, “Taylor Swift’s New Album Is GARBAGE” and nuanced opinions like, “Can we stop pretending she’s high art?” and, “She’s so tortured that she’s worth billions of dollars for singing songs that are most appropriately sung by 16 and 17 year old girls.” 

Rolling Stone has an in-depth report on the timeline of Taylor Swift's career that led to the eventual right-wing sour grapes-fueled culture war against her, especially in the last few years or so.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Abby Monteil at Them:

The Australian children’s show Bluey is the latest object of right-wing outrage for briefly acknowledging that queer kids and families are everywhere. The season three finale of the wildly popular cartoon, which aired April 14, centered on the show’s eponymous blue heeler puppy coming to terms with her family moving into a new house amid a wedding. However, the episode quietly introduced some LGBTQ+ representation as well: Bluey’s friend, a chihuahua named Pretzel, opened up about his pet guinea pig running away and casually mentioned having two moms. “My mums told me he might come back, but he didn’t,” Pretzel said. It may be a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but hey, some kids have two moms, so why not nod to that fact in a subtle, organic way? The widely viewed show has been criticized by Australian viewers for lacking diversity so here’s hoping this brief mention of the off-screen mums is just a first step toward more representation. After the episode dropped, the show’s many adult fans flocked online to express their excitement over the moment. On IMDb, the episode, entitled “The Sign,” scored a 9.9 out of 10 average based on nearly 1,000 user ratings.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for 🥰🥰🥰🥰,” one TikTok user commented on a video about the scene. “As a gay chihuahua mum that makes me happy 🏳️‍🌈,” another wrote. Unfortunately, even a one-off mention of a cartoon character’s two moms was enough to set off conservative trolls. The Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham blasted the moment on X, writing, “I’ll be honest, sometimes the glee LGBTQ activists take at seeing the destruction of something that was once wholesome, something that championed mothers and fathers and children’s need for both, is really demoralizing.”

Aussie cartoon Bluey introduces an LGBTQ+ family for a brief cameo in its season 3 finale.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Trudy Ring at The Advocate:

Hillary Clinton and Kelly Clarkson joined in denouncing the Arizona Supreme Court’s recent abortion ruling when Clinton appeared on Monday’s edition of The Kelly Clarkson Show. The court ruled last week that Arizona could enforce a law from 1864 — before Arizona was a state or women had the right to vote — that bans abortion except in cases where the pregnant person’s life is threatened.

“Did you ever think in your lifetime that we would see that happen?” Clarkson asked Clinton. “It’s just insane to me, the thinking that went on in 1864 … it’s a very different world, we know a lot more now, that we’re going backwards.” “It is horrifying in every way,” Clinton said. “I feared it would happen, but I hoped it wouldn’t happen, and now here we are in the middle of this very difficult period for women in about half the states in our country who cannot get the care that they need, and the old law in Arizona is without exceptions, and the danger to women’s lives as well as our right to make our own decisions about our bodies and ourselves is so profound.” “And there’s another element to it which I find so troubling,” the former presidential candidate continued. “There is a kind of cruelty to it. No exceptions for rape, incest — I mean, really?” “And you don’t realize how hard it is,” Clarkson said. “The fact that you would take that away from someone [in a situation] that can literally kill them? The fact that they’re raped … by their family member? It’s just like insane to me.”

On the Monday episode of NBCU's The Kelly Clarkson Show, guest Hillary Clinton and the show's titular host Kelly Clarkson discussed how horrifyingly harmful Arizona's Civil War-era abortion ban is.

See Also:

HuffPost: Kelly Clarkson Tears Up While Recalling Pregnancy Challenges In Abortion Ban Chat

From the 04.15.2024 edition of NBCUniversal's The Kelly Clarkson Show:

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Michael Schnieder at Variety:

“The Talk” is going silent. CBS is ending the long-running daytime chat show, which will get an abbreviated final season (its 15th) this fall, before signing off for good with what it’s calling a “celebratory sendoff” in December. Rumors of the show’s end have been swirling for months, but CBS made it official to the show’s cast and crew on Friday morning. In a joint statement, CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios prexy David Stapf said, “’The Talk’ broke new ground when it launched 14 years ago by returning daytime talk to CBS with a refreshing and award-winning format. Throughout the years, it has been a key program on CBS’ top rated daytime line-up as it brought timely, important and entertaining topics and discussions into living rooms around the globe.

CBS cancels The Talk after 15 seasons on the air. The show will end its time in December of 2024.

A replacement program hasn't been announced, but following the lead of NBC sending Days Of Our Lives to Peacock in order to air NBC News Daily, I wouldn't be surprised if CBS does something similar.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Greg Owen at LGBTQ Nation:

A controversial new hate crime law went into effect in Scotland on Monday, and anti-trans provocateur J.K. Rowling jumped at the chance to test the resolve of Scottish authorities who would enforce it. “I have been DELIBERATELY DEFIANT,” Rowling posted to X yesterday in a thread pushing the limits of hate speech, as she implied trans people were violent criminals (and even axe murderers). Rowling listed numerous trans-identified criminals and public figures, claiming that each had either violated or stolen coveted positions from girls and women. The Harry Potter author swaddled her hateful comments in sarcasm under cover of an April Fools post, but then swung for the fences by misgendering the lot of her criminal subjects.

“🎉🌼🌸April Fools! 🌸🌼🎉”, Rowling bleated. “Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them.” Rowling tagged all of the transgressive posts #ArrestMe. The recently passed Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 adds to the country’s previous hate speech protections with a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or being intersex. If someone makes statements against these groups “that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive,” they could face up to seven years in prison.

The law also contains protections for free speech including for “ideas that offend, shock or disturb,” meaning that Rowling likely won’t face legal charges for her hateful thread. “In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act,” Rowling tweeted, “Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls. The new legislation is wide open to abuse by activists who would silence” Rowling and her anti-trans allies, Rowling wrote.

The issues that have consumed Rowling over four years since she started chasing clicks with her anti-trans views include the following: “eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces,” “the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes,” “the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports,” and “the injustice of women’s jobs, honors and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men.”

Reasonable people could perhaps debate these issues, but her claim that biological sex is “immutable” colors dark all of her other assertions. It is a biological fact that sex, and the gender associated with it, are fluid — the existence of intersex people proves this. Rowling’s views on the subject weren’t always so immovable. The author once wrote of empathy for transwomen, “feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence.” She also revealed a capacity for nuance, sharing, “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”

J.K. Rowling continues her hateful crusade against trans people, this time by baselessly suggesting that trans people were "violent criminals"..

See Also:

The Advocate: JK Rowling stoops even lower, mocks hate crime law & dares police to arrest her

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Cheyenne Roundtree and Nancy Dillon at Rolling Stone:

OFFICIALS RAIDED TWO of Sean Combs‘ homes on Monday, a law enforcement source confirmed to Rolling Stone, as part of a federal sex trafficking investigation. Led by Homeland Security, the raid was carried out just four months after the rap mogul’s ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie, accused Combs of sex trafficking. Helicopters and agents were seen swarming Combs’ Los Angeles mansion on Monday afternoon. Footage of the scene appeared to show some men — later identified as Combs’ sons Justin and King — detained and waiting outside the Holmby Hills house. Officials were also present at Combs’ Miami residence. Combs was in Florida at the time of the raid, according to NBC News, and officials reportedly seized his phones before the Bad Boy Records executive was scheduled to leave for a trip to the Caribbean.

A source tells Rolling Stone four Jane Does and one John Doe already sat for interviews with Southern District of New York investigators for a probe related to alleged sex trafficking, domestic violence and racketeering. More interviews are scheduled, the source said. “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available,” a Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson said in a statement. Rolling Stone has contacted Combs for comment.

Douglas Wigdor, who represents Cassie Ventura and a Jane Doe accuser, says in a statement provided to Rolling Stone, “We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.” Attorney Tyrone Blackburn, who represents two accusers, music producer Rodney Jones and Liza Gardner, tells Rolling Stone, “It’s about damn time. Sometimes justice delayed is not justice denied, so long as justice ultimately arrives.” Jones sued Combs last month for sexual assault, harassment, and not compensating him for work on the Grammy-nominated The Love Album. Gardner filed suit in November, alleging Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall took turns raping her following an Uptown Records event in 1990.

[...]

R&B singer Cassie filed a bombshell complaint against Combs on Nov. 16 alleging he subjected her to vicious beatings, sex trafficking, and rape. In her 35-page filing that started with a bright red “trigger warning,” Cassie claimed Combs punched, kicked, and “stomped” on her and forced her to have drug-fueled intercourse with male sex workers during arrangements he dubbed “freak offs.” In a statement, Combs’ lawyer said the lawsuit was a financial shakedown “riddled with baseless and outrageous lies.” (Diddy reached a private settlement with Cassie one day later.) One week later, as New York’s Adult Survivors Act was set to expire, two more women stepped forward on Thanksgiving Day with similarly disturbing claims against Combs. The second accuser alleged Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her when she was a Syracuse University student in 1991. The woman claimed Combs filmed the incident and showed the video to others in an act described as “revenge porn.” Through a rep, Combs denied the allegation. “This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be turned on its head. (This) 32-year-old story is made up and not credible. Mr. Combs never assaulted her, and she implicates companies that did not exist. This is purely a money grab and nothing more,” the spokesperson said.  

The third lawsuit was from Gardner, who said in the suit she was 16 years old at the time of the alleged assault. She further claimed that a day later, Combs turned “irate and began assaulting and choking” her until she almost “passed out” because he was worried she might divulge what happened. “These are fabricated claims falsely alleging misconduct from over 30 years ago and filed at the last minute,” a Combs spokesperson said of Gardner’s lawsuit. “This is nothing but a money grab.” In early December, a fourth accuser alleged Combs’ former Bad Boy president Harve Pierre and a third man gang raped her at Combs’ New York recording studio in 2003 when she was 17 years old. Combs has denied any wrongdoing in each case. Still, he stepped down from the chairmanship of his Revolt TV media company last year as more than a dozen companies fled his e-commerce platform. In January, liquor giant Diageo cut him loose in a private settlement under which Combs will no longer be a joint owner of the tequila brand DeLeón or have any ties to Cîroc vodka.

Two of Sean Combs (aka (P.) Diddy)'s homes, in LA and Miami, got raided by Homeland Security as part of a federal sex trafficking investigation into the rapper.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Michele Theil at PinkNews:

Trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney has received a strong show of public support from Lady Gaga after the former was subjected to online abuse over a post marking International Women’s Day last week. On Friday March 8, trans actress and influencer Mulvaney posted shots of herself and Gaga from a recent photoshoot for Haus Labs – Gaga’s own makeup brand – and captioned it with, “Happy International Women’s Day.” Mulvaney, 27, subsequently received what Gaga described as “vitriol and hatred” for daring to post a photo celebrating International Women’s Day, with some commenting that Mulvaney should not be representing women because she is transgender, and many comments misgendered both Mulvaney and Gaga.

There have long been baseless conspiracy theories about Gaga being transgender due to her longstanding support of LGBTQ+ people. On Monday (11 March), Gaga posted the same photo as Mulvaney onto her own Instagram with a lengthy caption showing a defiant display of support to the young star.

[...]

Gaga noted that she does not speak for the trans community but wanted to express her desire for “all women” to “come together to honour us ALL for International Women’s Day” and continue to do so until “all women [and people] are celebrated equally”. “May we all come together and be loving, accepting, warm, welcoming. May we all stand and honour the complexity and challenge of trans life—that we do not know, but can seek to understand and have compassion for,” she added.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga)

You go, Lady Gaga! In her Instagram post, she slams the anti-trans hatred aimed at Dylan Mulvaney.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Lady Gaga fiercely defends Dylan Mulvaney after vicious anti-trans response to a photo of the pair

The Advocate: Lady Gaga defends Dylan Mulvaney from transphobes: 'This is not backlash. This is hatred'

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Alaina Demopoulos at The Guardian:

Madelyn Ritter expected to leave the St Louis date of Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts Tour with merch – she didn’t expect to also go home with some free emergency contraception. But that’s just what she saw upon entering the stadium. There, right by the women’s bathrooms, was a table where concertgoers could donate to abortion funds and pick up free condoms and morning-after pills, also called Plan B. “We noticed it immediately,” said Ritter, who is 25 (and, as she jokes, “too old” to love the 21-year-old pop star). “I was like: ‘What’s this about?’ They told me it was free, so my sister, her friend and I all took some. I personally don’t need it, but I’m going to save it in case something bad happens.”

Last month, in conjunction with her world tour, Rodrigo launched the Fund 4 Good campaign, which aims to protect women’s and girls’ reproductive rights. A portion of sales from the tour will go toward the fund. As part of the initiative, Rodrigo paired with the National Network of Abortion Funds, which connected her with local chapters at various stops on the tour. “There are plenty of singers making a stand about social issues, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Ritter said. Abortion is illegal in Missouri. (It is only permitted in the case of an emergency that threatens the life of a pregnant person.) Missouri Republicans are also trying to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive healthcare like STI screenings and contraception in the state. Activists who staffed the table Ritter stopped by came from Right by You, a youth-focused text line that connects Missouri teens to abortion care out of state, birth control and information about their rights, and the Missouri Abortion Fund, which helps people cover the cost of an out-of-state abortion.

God Bless Olivia Rodrigo! Glad to see her taking a stand against Missouri's oppressive anti-abortion laws by giving out free emergency contraception items.

See Also:

PinkNews: Olivia Rodrigo hands out free Plan B tablets at Missouri tour, where abortion has a total ban

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Sean Rameswaram at Vox:

At the end of January, when Universal Music Group (UMG) failed to negotiate a new licensing deal with TikTok, it removed its entire music catalog from the app. Just like that, thousands of videos featuring music by artists like Drake, Taylor Swift, and Bad Bunny were suddenly silent.

UMG said it made the decision because TikTok offered to pay only a fraction of the rate that other social platforms offer. For its part, TikTok said that Universal was putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.” Some of those artists and songwriters have spoken out about the situation. “I think it’s ass-backward, and at the very least we should have known,” said Jack Antonoff to reporters in the press room after winning Producer of the Year at the Grammys earlier this month. “You got a whole industry being like, ‘You’ve got to do everything; you’ve got to do everything, and here’s where you’ve got to do it,’ and then one day it’s like, ‘Poof!’” Musicians aren’t the only ones upset about this disruption. Content creators like Jarred Jermaine, who breaks down music samples on TikTok, posted a video of himself in tears claiming that videos he created that contained UMG music were taken down. And dancer and content creator Lars Gummer told the Daily Beast that he went from “shocked” to “disappointed.”

“Most of my friends in LA are content creators, especially dance creators,” he said. “So immediately we all were angry about the decision made between UMG and TikTok.” In a recent episode of Today, Explained, digital activist and writer Cory Doctorow told host Sean Rameswaram that companies like TikTok “don’t have to care” about the disruption they cause their users. Doctorow coined the phrase “enshittification,” which he uses to describe a process that digital platforms use to lure customers in, giving them goods or an experience they can’t find elsewhere, only to make it worse for them down the line in order to better serve their business partners. “I think that the calculus that TikTok is making is that they would rather inflict pain on their customers than on their shareholders,” said Doctorow. “So whatever it is that Universal was asking, [TikTok’s] customers could live with that pain, with having the videos that they worked on for hours or days or weeks and put maybe thousands of dollars into suddenly rendered silent because TikTok decided not to step up for their interests.”

Totally disgraceful that UMG decided to pull off their songs from TikTok.

From the 02.09.2024 edition of Vox's Today, Explained:

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

File Name: The Bolter 🤍

Pre-order the new edition of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT with an exclusive bonus track for a limited time on my website now

https://taylor.lnk.to/thetorturedpoetsdepartment

📷: Beth Garrabrant

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Li Zhou at Vox:

There’s long been outrage over the Grammys’ Beyoncé snubs for the awards show’s highest honor — omissions that have infuriated fans and prominent celebrities alike.

At the 2024 awards on February 4, Beyonce’s husband, Jay-Z, became the latest to call them out, castigating the show for its history of overlooking Black artists, including his superstar wife. “We want y’all to get it right — at least get it close to right,” Jay-Z said. “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics that doesn’t work.” He became the latest of many prominent figures who’ve raised this point in some fashion, including the likes of Adele and, famously, Kanye West in the past. Increasingly, the references to Beyoncé being overlooked by institutions like the Grammys and the MTV Video Music Awards have become more common both because of how egregious they feel on the merits and also because of what they represent. Beyond serving as an insult to her undeniable talent, Beyoncé’s treatment and the specific awards she has and hasn’t won have become emblematic of the exclusion of Black art by the music establishment. They are often cited as some of the most prominent examples that capture this problem.

Why some awards matter more than others

As Jay-Z noted, Beyoncé has the most Grammys of any musical artist — 32 — but she hasn’t ever won the coveted Album of the Year award. AOTY is widely considered the most prestigious honor of the show, much like Best Directing or Best Picture is for the Oscars, and it’s often treated like the greatest recognition that the program has on offer. Beyoncé has been nominated for AOTY four times as a solo artist but has lost out each time. In 2010, she was nominated for I Am … Sasha Fierce, which lost to Taylor Swift’s Fearless. In 2015, she was nominated for Beyoncé, which lost to Beck’s Morning Phase. In 2017, she was nominated for Lemonade, which lost to Adele’s 25. And in 2023, she was nominated for Renaissance, which lost to Harry Styles’s Harry’s House.

In 2017, the year that Lemonade lost, Adele spoke about it explicitly in her AOTY acceptance speech and emphasized the cultural impact that Beyoncé’s record had had. “I can’t possibly accept this award. And I’m very humbled and I’m very grateful and gracious. But my artist of my life is Beyoncé. And this album to me, the Lemonade album, is just so monumental,” Adele said. As the most important honor of the show, AOTY sends a powerful signal regarding the cultural impact that an artist has had, making Beyoncé’s longstanding exclusion from a win in that category especially significant. Notably, despite winning 32 Grammys, she has only won one of what are known as the “Big Four” awards of the show: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. In 2010, she won Song of the Year for her hit song “Single Ladies.”

What the Beyoncé snubs represent

This history is ultimately indicative of the Grammys’ and other organizations’ much deeper problems with race. In addition to the Grammys, both the Oscars and the Golden Globes have been scrutinized for excluding Black artists. Beyoncé’s losses (and, in some cases, lack of recognition outright) in key categories underscore how Black artists have been overlooked for the most prestigious awards at the Grammys. Per a 2021 study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Black artists constituted 38 percent of all artists on Billboard’s Top 100 between 2012 to 2020 but just 26.7 percent of Grammy nominees for the Big Four awards in that timeframe. [...]

There are other reasons the Grammys have long had a credibility issue with the hip-hop community, as A.D. Carson, a professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia, wrote for the Washington Post in 2022. Jay-Z alluded to some examples of this exclusion in his Sunday remarks, describing how DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith boycotted the Grammy Awards in 1989 when they won the first Grammy for best rap performance because the show wouldn’t televise the presentation of the new award. The Grammys’ history of confining Black artist nominations to certain categories, such as rap and hip-hop, has also drawn scrutiny, Carson writes. And there have been concerns that the list of Black artists the show has chosen to elevate underscores, in his words, a “trend of respected rap artists being overlooked in favor of those who crossed over into pop music and gained the most White fans.”

Jay-Z is right: Beyoncé has been unfairly snubbed at the Grammys for the highest honor awards like Album Of The Year.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Patrick Smith at NBC News:

Country music icon Toby Keith has died, his official website and social media accounts said early Tuesday, 18 months after revealing he had stomach cancer. He was 62. The "Should've Been a Cowboy" singer died on Monday night surrounded by his family, a short statement said.

Country music star Toby Keith died at 62. During the 2000s, he started an infamous feud with Natalie Maines over her opinion against the Iraq War.

See Also:

HuffPost: Country Music Star Toby Keith Dead At 62

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Stephanie Whiteside at NewsNation Now:

(NewsNation) — TikTok users can say goodbye to songs from Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, SZA and other top artists after a dispute with the social media platform over pay. TikTok maintains a music library that allows users to add snippets of songs to videos, often driving trends linked to song lyrics. But Universal Music Group has now pulled its catalog, saying TikTok has refused to pay an adequate amount for songs. In a statement, UMG said, “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay.  The company said TikTok only accounted for 1% of its revenue despite the social media company’s increasing earnings and reliance on music to promote content creation. UMG also accused TikTok of allowing AI-generated music to flood the platform and encouraging AI-generated music in a move it called “sponsoring artist replacement by AI.”

Universal Music Group (UMG) has pulled off all of its artists from TikTok. The impacted artists include Taylor Swift, Adele, Olivia Rodrigo, S Club, Papa Roach, and The Killers, along with many others.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng at Rolling Stone:

Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift hasn’t even endorsed President Joe Biden for reelection yet. That hasn’t stopped members of MAGAland’s upper crust from plotting to declare — as one source close to Donald Trump calls it — a “holy war” on the pop mega-star, especially if she ends up publicly backing the Democrats in the 2024 election.

According to three people familiar with the matter, Trump loyalists working on or close to the former president’s campaign, longtime Trump allies in right-wing media, and an array of outside advisers to the ex-president have long taken it as a given that Swift will eventually endorse Biden (as she did in 2020). Indeed, several of these Republicans and conservative media figures have discussed the matter with Trump over the past few months, the sources say. While Swift has not yet issued an endorsement in the 2024 race, The New York Times reported Monday that Swift is a key name on Biden aides’ “wish lists of potential surrogates.” A potential Swift appearance at Super Bowl LVIII alongside her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, has already prompted the MAGA right’s culture war pugilists into a conspiracy-fueled froth about how this NFL season has been rigged to boost Biden.  Behind the scenes, Trump has reacted to the possibility of Biden and Swift teaming up against him this year not with alarm, but with an instant projection of ego. In recent weeks, the former president has told people in his orbit that no amount of A-list celebrity endorsements will save Biden. Trump has also privately claimed that he is “more popular” than Swift is and that he has more committed fans than she does, a person close to Trump and another source with knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone.

Last month, the source close to Trump adds, the ex-president commented to some confidants that it “obviously” made no sense that he was not named Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year — an honor that went to none other than Swift in December. In an email to Rolling Stone, Trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller shrugged off the prospect of a Taylor Swift endorsement for Trump’s rival. “Joe Biden might be counting on Taylor Swift to save him, but voters are looking at these sky-high inflation rates and saying, ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,’” Miller wrote. The former president has already taken public swipes at Swift because of her endorsement of two Tennessee Democrats running during the 2018 midterms. “I like Taylor’s music about 25 percent less now,” Trump said following the pop singer’s statement. 

Swift also blasted Trump during the 2020 election, accusing him of trying to “blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans’ lives at risk” following the Trump administration’s efforts to hinder mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  Meanwhile, as Trump has been having a popularity contest with Swift in his own head, others close to him —including GOP operatives, some of his 2024 staff, and Trumpy media figures — have been brainstorming different ways to go after Swift. Since late last year, these Trump allies have repeatedly discussed how to turn the culture-warrior dial up to 11, if she re-endorses Biden this year, the sources recount. “It would be more fuel thrown on to the culture-war fires,” says an official working on the Trump reelection efforts. “Another left-wing celebrity who is part of the Democrat elite telling you what to think.”

Publicly, members of Trump’s inner sanctum and social circle are already signaling Swift’s prominent position atop their enemies list — a situation that has reached fever pitch now that Swift’s boyfriend will once again be playing in the Super Bowl. [...] MAGA pundits have spent months fuming about Swift and her boyfriend — already a hated figure for his role as a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine spokesman. During a rant in November about the GOP’s losses across a string of state elections and abortion-related ballot initiatives, Turning Point USA founder and Trump ally Charlie Kirk warned that Swift was “going to come out in the presidential election” and “mobilize her fans,” adding that “all the Swifties want is swift abortion.” Fox News host and Trump buddy Jesse Watters declared Swift a potential “Pentagon psyop” and “a front for a covert political agenda” during a segment earlier this month. 

According to reporting from Rolling Stone, Donald Trump and his allies are plotting a "holy war" against Taylor Swift, especially if she decides to endorse Joe Biden's re-election bid, and Trump himself has delusionally claimed that he is "more popular" than Swift. Such a strategy would further alienate younger women from the GOP.

This is part of the MAGA Cult's tantrum-throwing war against the popular pop (and formerly country) singer, partially due to the fact that she is a vocal LGBTQ+ rights supporter and is currently dating Chiefs TE Travis Kelce (who is appearing in Pfizer commercials, further angering the anti-COVID vaxxer extremists).

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Donald Trump gripes he has more fans than Taylor Swift as GOP panics over her massive influence

HuffPost: Donald Trump Reportedly Tells People Close To Him That He's Bigger Than Taylor Swift

Vox: Why conservatives are melting down over Taylor Swift

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation:

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong thinks it’s cool that he’s a bisexual icon, especially as young people have become more open about their own sexual identities. “I like it. I think it’s f**king cool that someone calls me a bisexual icon. I’ve seen that before. I’m like, ‘F**k, yeah!'” the 51-year-old musician, who came out as bi in 1995, recently told People magazine. “Being a Gen X-er, I feel like there was a seed that got planted where it was the era in the ’90s that we came up, where men were discovering more of being with other men and being more bisexual, and coming out with that, whether it was someone like Kurt Cobain or what I was saying,” Armstrong told the publication, referencing a 1993 interview in which Cobain, the frontman for the influential grunge rock group Nirvana, discussed his own sexual identity. “It’s way more complex now, as far as sexuality,” Armstrong continued. “You’re like, ‘Wow, we’ve really come a long way.’ Even though it’s still kind of looked at as being taboo, I think people now are a lot more brave than they’ve ever been. I think people are way more open now.”

[...] Some people have questioned Armstrong’s bisexuality since he has been married to his wife Adrienne for 29 years, and they have two adult sons: Joey and Jakob. Numerous bisexuals in different-sex relationships have faced similar erasure. “Sexuality is always so much more than what the standard, nuclear-family type of way of looking at things,” Armstrong added. “But I have been married — there’s this other side of me that’s very conventional when it comes to my 30-year marriage to my wife. But I just look at sexuality: It’s not one way or the other. And if anybody ever tries to say that, I don’t think they’re really being honest with themselves.”

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, in a recent interview for People Magazine, says it's "fucking cool that someone calls me a bisexual icon."

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Ryan Grenoble at HuffPost:

“The Daily Show” has finally found a new, er old, host: Jon Stewart. The Comedy Central stalwart will return to the show as a once-weekly host throughout the 2024 election cycle, Paramount Global executives told Variety Wednesday. He will also serve as an executive producer. According to Deadline, Stewart will return Feb. 12. Other days of the week will be hosted by the show’s correspondents, including Desi Lydic, Michael Kosta, Ronna Chieng and Jordan Klepper.

Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart will make a return to his old stomping grounds to host Comedy Central's The Daily Show on Mondays during the 2024 election cycle. Stewart will also be executive producer.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Walter Einenkel at Daily Kos:

In September, Taylor Swift used her vast social media reach to post information on how people should register to vote. Swift even chose the appropriate National Voter Registration Day to create the post for her legion of fans. USA Today reports that Swift is likely to have gotten more than 30,000 people to sign up, many of whom will be eligible to vote for the very first time this November.

This is exactly why the Republican Party and the right-wing media landscape seem to have lost their collective minds about Swift. They are terrified. The level of hysteria the conservative movement has reached regarding the pop star is the kind they usually reserve for women in political positions, like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.  On Jan. 9, Fox News’ second-rate Tucker Carlson clone Jesse Watters implied that Swift’s decision to once again promote voting this past September was some kind psy-op campaign. “I wonder who got to her from the White House or from wherever,” he cryptically asked his guest, former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan. Kaplan explained that “Taylor Swift may not know she is being used in a covert manner” to sway swing voters. Watters’ deranged broadcast led Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh to go off on the Fox News host, saying the conspiracy theory was so far afield they would not respond to it so much as “shake it off.”

[...] In 2023, Swift’s Eras Tour broke global records and generated billions of dollars, while her fan base showed no signs of diminishing. This led TIME Magazine to name her their “person of the year.” That led to conservatives getting strangely outraged. Far-right influencers began floating conspiracy theories connecting Swift and Republican boogeyman George Soros. The fact of the matter is that most of the people Swift is inspiring to get involved in our political process are exactly the type of young Americans who conservatives loath. But if you are trying to get even a few of those younger voters, calling their favorite singers psychological operatives is probably going to have the same success as when conservatives’ parents and grandparents told them Elvis Presley’s hip-swinging would be the end of morality.

Just what is it with conservatives losing their shit about Taylor Swift? It is because she is dating Chiefs TE Travis Kelce, who starred in Pfizer's recent commercials encouraging people to get the COVID vaccine? Is it also because she is encouraging people to register to vote, and most likely for Joe Biden for President?