thank god we aren't getting rep t.v.
taylor swift is a great artist and probably a horrible person.
My favorite memory of listening to Taylor Swift takes place in August 2021.
I was sixteen years old on the roof of my grandmother’s house with my cousins — sixteen and eleven, respectively — and younger sister. It must have been late at night because I remember lying on the pallat staring up at the clear Karachi sky, watching the moon as it glimmered overhead.
In a few days, my sister and I would return home to the United States. But in that moment, we weren’t thinking about the homesickness we tried to push down or the pain that would come from the inevitable goodbyes. We were only thinking about Lover. The four of us lay on our backs squished together with arms in the air as we sang along to every lyric on the album. We screamed them into the sky, four mouths making one off-key voice.
“And baby, I get mystified by how this city screams your name.”
Taylor Swift in “Cornelia Street."
The last time we were in Pakistan, Swift had been dropping her singles for the then-upcoming album. My cousin and I had sat in hushed anticipation waiting for every release. Two years later, we were singing the album as if we had heard its release together. As if no time had passed at all.
I grew up on Taylor Swift. She was a pinnacle of my childhood and teen years, from watching the “Love Story” music video on repeat to losing the Great Ticketmaster War to decorating a Speak Now cake with my neighbor to celebrate her rerecording of our favorite album. I’ve met some of my best friends by bonding over her music and my “taylor swift but no skips” playlist on Spotify is a whopping 9 hours and 31 minutes long (it still lives up to its name, though).
As I’m sure you’ve seen plastered all over the internet, Swift recently bought back her masters from Shamrock Capital after six years of fighting with her former record label and the celebrity manager Scooter Braun. She shared the update via a lengthy letter on her website.
“I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get to say these words: All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.”
Taylor Swift, via her website.
Now, dear reader, we’ve established the love I have for Swift’s art. But here’s my secret: I don’t really care about her victory.
Of course, I’m all here for a woman reclaiming her life's work. Swift deserves to proudly hold onto the empire she’s built. But the truth is, I’m more relieved I don’t have to pretend I’m not listening to the OG versions of the albums anyway. Part of me is truly overjoyed that I don’t have to listen to a less-vulnerable version of “New Years Day,” a worse production of “Look What You Made Me Do,” or half a dozen vault tracks that were definitely cut for the right reasons.
I’m a huge fan of Swifts music, but I don’t consider myself one of her fans. So in honor of her masters making headlines, I figured that now is as good a time as ever to add one more voice to the constant stream of internet thoughts around her.
Her work:
It’s undeniable that Taylor Swift is an incredibly talented lyricist and musician. If you’re one of those people who rolls your eyes whenever she’s mentioned and insists she makes terrible pop, I’m going to assume you’ve got some internalized misogyny to work through. 247 songs and you think they all sound the same? You should unpack that.
I will admit, I do prefer her older releases to her two most recent ones. The original Speak Now is a no-skip album. Excluding a few stand-out songs (including but not limited to: “Maroon,” “Hits Different,” “loml,” and “The Black Dog”) I rarely find myself turning up the volume on Midnights or The Tortured Poets Department.
Swift was at her best stylistically in 1989. She was at her best lyrically in folklore and evermore. Lover has heart and reputation has spirit and Fearless has energy. I’m not a big Red fan, surprisingly. But I’m getting distracted from my point.
While Swift’s discography is excellent, most of the rerecorded versions missed the mark for me. I fully respect her decision to release them as such and take her music back into her own hands, but I found that they lacked the raw emotion and evolving voice most of her original recordings carried. “Dear John”’s iconic “don’t you think I was too young?” doesn’t carry the same scathing yet-penitent pull when it’s sung by a 30-year-old woman. The iconic build-up to the chorus of “New Romantics” is lacking in production. The shaky breaths emerging out of her confident southern twang that made “The Way I Loved You” so powerful were replaced with high-polished, carefully maintained distance. The dissonance is natural; the things that she once felt so deeply are merely memories now.
“All the girls that you've run dry have tired lifeless eyes /
'Cause you burned them out /
But I took your matches before fire could catch me /
So don't look now /
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad empty town.”Taylor Swift in “Dear John.”
So, I listen to the original (or “stolen,” as most fans refer to them) versions.
Me listening to the original versions doesn’t really hurt Swift in any way. She’s made her money and then some. She’s racking in more every day. I’m glad she has them back for her autonomy, but I don’t care about making a woman with a net worth of 1.6 billion richer. I support her because of her art; if her old work is better, I’ll indulge with no guilt.
Taylor Swift is not a friend for me to stand by and root for. She’s a billionaire at the top of her industry with more money and connections than anyone needs. If we met on the street, she would not care about me. For some reason, a lot of Swifties think she would.
Her:
Swift is an artist and entertainer, but she’s a businesswoman first. She spun her wealthy family’s 11-acre farm into “just living room dancin’ and kitchen table bills,” making an image for herself as a sweet small-town girl with big dreams and an even bigger heart. The persona worked — since then, from the girlish charm of her debut to the hordes of women cheering her on at the Eras Tour, Swift’s career has been marked by the way female audiences connect with her. She’s someone they can see themselves in. Her lyrics carefully balance being deeply personal and easy for anyone to relate to. I’m one of them; so many of her songs sit so close to my heart.
She loves her cats and bakes chai cookies. She’s incredibly famous but humble even as she racks in award after award to stand at the top. She supports the next generation of artists with the biggest smile (except Olivia Rodrigo, maybe? I still want to know what happened there but I don’t want to contribute to petty rumors). Her style is sparkly and glittery but she has an edge to her too, when she wants it.
I don’t want to discredit the work Swift has put into her career — if anything, I applaud it. While it’s not just her who cultivated the persona (especially in the early years as she was pushed into the spotlight), she’s been the one maintaining it. Too few people seem to realize that crafting a public image as prominent yet nonthreatening as hers is a major feat on its own.
Part of this image includes toeing the line between political apathy and involvement. Swift has always been careful about her words around potentially controversial topics; that was a major topic in her 2020 documentary Miss Americana, complete with a weirdly catchy pop song about the political decline of our country. At the time, I ate it up. Now, as we’ve watched her carefully pick and choose her words to make sure she’s only mentioning politics in moments that directly benefit her without risking much with her audience, I don’t really listen to it.
“So every day now /
You brace for the sound '/
You've only heard on TV /
You go to class, scared /
Wondering where the best hiding spot would be.”Taylor Swift in “Only the Young.”
Swift has become the image of white feminism in my mind. I love “The Man” and “Mad Woman” as much as the next girl, and I appreciate her support of women’s reproductive healthcare access. The things she sings about are real and true to her. But the company she’s known to surround herself with and her silence around issues impacting women of color around the world speaks volumes. The feminism she supports must always directly tie back to her and her life. As far as I’ve seen, she fails to recognize the privilege she holds as a wealthy white woman (I’m not even going to go into the carbon emissions.
A research paper by Emma Kopplin of Macalester College references how despite being the first musician to become a billionaire entirely through her musical work, writing that “Swift (among all other billionaires) fails to utilize her financial success to meaningfully improve the lives of others equitably and ethically.” It’s true — the wealth she’s accumulated could go so much further than it does.
“Swift has demonstrated a pattern throughout her career: failing to make statements or take action until she feels the impact. As she began her career with a pseudo-conservative apoliticism, it was not until she herself felt harmed by misogyny and patriarchy that she decided to stand up.”
Emma Kopplin via her paper on white feminism in the music industry, linked above.
Instead, she focuses so deeply on making more. Although her decision to rerecord was certainly in part from a desire to own her discography, it was also a brilliant business move that shifted the entire industry. Less inspirational capitalist grabs for money, range from overpriced merch drops (a fleece blanket of her face for $75 comes to mind, although this is also an industry-wide issue) to releasing version after version of her albums. The latter has been an increased trend as of late; Midnights did not need a “3 a.m.” version, “Until Dawn” version, and ten remixes of “Antihero.” TTPD didn’t need a surprise album-within-the-album creating a massive collection of 31 songs from which half could have created a much stronger album on their own.
It feels like she’s begun prioritizing quantity over quantity because she knows her fans will listen regardless. So yeah, you’ll find me listening to the original versions of her songs; they feel more true.
And me:
It’s possible to respect Swift as a brilliant storyteller while criticizing her mistakes. I do think it’s unrealistic (and often fueled by misogyny) to put too much of a magnifying glass on all her actions.
Most prominent public figures aren’t good people. They can be — look at Bella Hadid and even Chappell Roan, the second of whoms’ career is in a much more precarious place than Swift’s yet she continues to stand firmly for what she believes in — but it’s rare. I don’t like repeatedly accusing her of playing the victim either because the difficulties in fame she’s outlined in “Anti-Hero” and “Nothing New” are real and valid emotions. She’s allowed to feel overwhelmed about the international acclaim she’s worked so hard to get.
Artists don’t have a responsibility to make political statements until they make it part of their image, like Swift has time and time again. With all the money she’s raking in, so much more could go toward making what comes off as empty sentiments and PR-written statements actually hold weight.
“And they tell you that you're lucky, but you're so confused /
'Cause you don't feel pretty, you just feel used /
And all the young things line up to take your place.”Taylor Swift in “The Lucky One.”
Taylor Swift is a brand with an image and the primary goal of making money. I can applaud her talent and know she isn’t innately some saint or angelic being, and I’d rather fairly criticize her than jump to defend her every move like some Swifties do.
She can be an inspiration in some aspects, but she’s not an idol. The parasocial relationships some fans build with her can vary from strange to quite terrifying to watch. And while we’re on the topic, not everything is an easter egg; I’m almost positive her team takes inspiration from the insane fan theories around her to build up her “genius” reveals.
So while I’ll keep streaming “Gold Rush” and Swift keeps rushing to gather her own, I’ll also keep myself a healthy distance away from her and other stars claiming their way into the spotlight and my wallet. And I’ll let out one more sigh of relief that the reputation vault remains sealed.
