#drama his standing right there would simply make him Too Relevant. not even a net gain of Info about anything really lol

[unproduciblesmackdown]

with the standard of disdain / dismissiveness / dislike towards winston effectively unabated, he should at least get to fire Looks at people like they do at or about him lol like 😒 >:\ the dislike will continue whatever he does so at least let him be openly bitchier for a start

[theprattleronline-blog]

You Hate Taylor Swift, and That’s Okay

Sage Kelley

You Hate Taylor Swift, and That’s Okay

I heard Taylor Swift’s new song the other day “Look What You Made Me Do”. The production was sparse and clean, keeping a dark sound throughout. The lyrics followed, brisk, straightforward, and pseudo-edgy, the “Look at how dark I’ve become” facade. It’s not necessarily catchy, and the vocals become a bit awkward in timing. The chorus sounds too similar to pop of the early 90’s, and the overall focus seems a bit too early-two-thousands Hot Topic. Then, the bomb hits. Or what Swift would like to consider said bomb.

Taylor Swift answers a call. “I’m sorry. The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause she’s dead.”

Dramatic drop.

I gasped, then followed with laughter. Gut busting laughter. Chuckles. “This can’t be serious?” I thought.

Apparently the internet felt the same. Despite having over 245 million views on Youtube and being number one on Billboard’s Top 100, people don’t seem to be too happy about Swift’s new “gritty” single. There are various posts on social media mocking the intensity, claiming her sell-out status, and calling her a snake. 

I'll be honest, I don’t usually keep an eye (or ear) on Swift. I get the situation. A naive country singer sells out and becomes a pop-star. She occasionally speaks out for social issues. She dates a plethora of famous men. Seems fairly cookie cutter to me. But, after a few minutes of internet crowdsourcing, I realized: people absolutely hate Taylor Swift. Articles upon articles, posts upon posts, people tearing down Swift for various reasons. This peaked my interest. How could a pop-star be so polarizing? How could some innocent blonde from Pennsylvania have record breaking singles and tours, yet be so collectively hated? I journeyed down the rabbit hole that is the Taylor Swift Chronicles and learned, it’s totally okay to hate Taylor Swift. In fact, I might have a bit of disdain towards her now as well. 

Swift’s music is a bit of a toss up. I understand that some see her as a sellout. She came onto the country music scene with hits like “Teardrops On My Guitar” and sold herself as a little country girl, lost in the post-pubescent world of love. Then she switched up her style a bit, becoming more mainstream. She dropped the country twang and acoustic guitar for synth beats and electronic drums, eventually growing into a pop artist with her 2014 album 1989. The album sold 1,287,000 copies in a week. Taylor may have sold out by switching genres, but it paid off. Her music is catchy. It may all focus around the same idea of “innocent little me hurt by a boy” but she seems self aware in that aspect. It’s what sells, and I certainly can’t hate her for wanting money, to an extent. Pop is pop, and if done without the intent of being “Popular”, and more with the intent of using the genre as an artistic platform (Prince and Michael Jackson) then it can create for amazing music. But, if only done to earn radio play, it becomes monotonous and braindead. As her last few singles show, it seems as if she’s making music for the latter. 

But wait, there’s more.

Taylor Swift’s new tour has created an issue with Ticketmaster. In order to get a better chance at tickets, you have to participate in “boost activities” including: buying merchandise, preordering the new album, promoting her on social media, and watching various videos. This is not a joke. Swift wants more money in order for fans to buy expensive tickets that will ultimately spike the overall price of leftover tickets. That is selling out. That is money hungry. Taylor’s net worth is 280 million as of August, 2017. The concept not only reeks of desperation, but seems like a bit of a “screw you” to dedicated fans. Okay, so she’s a sellout. A bad sellout. So why does everyone call her a snake?

Her most popular instance of being a snake (i.e. being two-faced and deceptive in order to maintain her image) was her feud with Kim Kardashian-West and Kanye West last year. Now, Taylor was a victim when Kanye interrupted her VMA award in 2009. She was gracious when she accepted Kanye’s apology for the interruption and awarded him with the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 2015. Then Kanye dropped the line “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous” on his cleverly named track “Famous.” Apparently, Taylor stated that she was fine with the lyric and thought it was humorous. Kim Kardashian-West went to Snapchat to post a video of Kanye talking to Taylor about the lyric. In the video, after Kanye reads her the line, Taylor says “It’s like a compliment,” and “I’m really glad that you had the respect to call and tell me about it. That’s really nice.” You can hear that it is her voice over the phone.

Here’s the snake part: Once the lyric stirred up controversy amongst Swift fans, Taylor did a complete turn-around, having her publicist state that Kanye did not ask for approval and she cautioned him on his song being seen as misogynistic. She then went to make a Grammy speech stating “There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.” She completely backtracked on everything, and despite proof of her acceptance, lied about disliking the line. 

Swift then released countless songs, “Look What You Made Me Do” included, that seem to be jabs toward Kanye. There are countless other stories of her being two-faced. Taylor Swift is willing to do whatever it takes to uphold her long-lost reputation as America’s Sweetheart. She went back and forth with her ideals in order to stay with the consensus opinion. 

In 2015 Taylor Swift filed a lawsuit against DJ David Mueller for allegedly lifting her skirt. She went on a women’s rights kick, and eventually won the lawsuit and charged Mueller a single dollar. A symbolic dollar to show that woman shouldn’t be objectified and gaslit to feel as if sexual harassment was their fault. Awesome. I can’t say anything negative about the case, and it strikes a point in Swift’s “okay with me” category, but what followed became a bit unsettling.

At this point, with her fame and fanbase, Swift began using her popularity to share opinions on women’s rights. She can easily sway opinions, and was becoming a strong leader amongst a generation. Then the election happened. Donald Trump was, well, making blatant misogynistic statements. Swift became silent. Maybe she was working on her new album, diving deep into her artistic work. But it’s not hard to send a single tweet, or post a picture that displayed her opinion. Why didn’t Taylor continue her fight for women and take a stand? How many people would be informed and moved by her opinion? She has 85.5 million followers on Twitter. And in an equally severe, but more concentrated case, when Neo-nazis began using Swift in their propaganda, she stayed silent. She has still yet to make a statement on politics, and though she posted a photo of her at a voting booth, she never said who she voted for. Surely, can give her the benefit of the doubt, but being silent usually means negative things. As someone that had spoken so clearly about her opinions before, being silent can only mean that she was afraid. She had an extremely symbolic lawsuit against sexual harassment, but didn’t speak out about the notorious groper who was clearly en route to becoming the leader of the country? This warrants a few snake emojis.

After the Kanye lyric gained negative attention, she pulled back on her approval because it’ll make her seem misogynistic. Then, she disclosed her political views because, regardless of her stance, such would provoke negative attention. Now, wants fans to spend money, simply for a chance to get her concert tickets. And finally, she continues to make enemies with other stars in order to feed her “gritty” song concepts. People like drama; naturally they’ll listen to songs about drama.

Everything lines up to one conclusion: Taylor Swift is a sellout. She’s willing to change her views, denounce her friends, and rip-off her fans to maintain her image. She takes the moral high-ground until it alienates her fanbase, and with this, she doesn’t stand for anything with concrete footing. She changed her sound to become more pop-oriented. I can’t necessarily bash this idea, for most musicians usually do the same (I’m looking at you, Maroon 5). If you’re not making enough money in your genre, switch. This isn’t uncommon in the music world, and will continue to happen after Swift. Artists will do whatever it takes to stay relevant. Some, like Kanye, use negative publicity as a means of becoming infamous. Taylor does the opposite. The victim, even in her music. She has and always will be the “wronged”. It’s all an act. It’s all to get people talking. No one needs to spend time reading countless articles about a pop singer. I’m not very happy that I just did so for hours. 

You can hate Taylor Swift’s desperation for attention and money, that’s fine. Or you can ignore these things and just like her music, that’s also fine. It’s all pretty catchy anyway. But if there’s one thing I will say, her new music is terrible, and regardless of her persona, she’s still a musician, and that’s all that matters. 

-

Illustration by Hua Chen