Taylor Swift

[ahah]

Nov 19, 2021 14:25:38 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

May 18, 2021 10:34:59 GMT -4 ahah said:

I rip on her for all the clues and desperate need for everyone to figure out who she’s talking about. It goes from self expression to self obsession.

This is just a perspective I don't get. There is so much out there about her love life that it's not rocket science to figure out who she's talking about. Fandoms can be insane echo chambers. I still don't see her encouraging people to harass her exes. She's an artist, the song is obviously based on her life and the video seems to be as well. This is not unique to Taylor Swift either, people have been trying to figure out who "You're so Vain" is about and there are a bunch of clues in that song as well. It hasn't hurt Warren Beatty or Mick Jagger to be the suspected cad in the song. People figured out that Ed Sheeran wrote "Don't" about Ellie Goudling.

This has me thinking back to a quote I saw years ago and saved: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

I have zero problems with Taylor writing about past boyfriends. They have publicists and security teams and the power of their own celebrity to protect them. It's hard for me to scratch up sympathy for Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer or any other guy she's dated.

How often did Carly Simon make videos or do interviews where she’d bring up that people didn’t know who You’re So Vain was about? Didn’t that jeep going because people wondered and she wouldn’t answer … not because she kept reminding people that she would not answer?

[Ladybug]

May 18, 2021 10:34:59 GMT -4 ahah said:

How often did Carly Simon make videos or do interviews where she’d bring up that people didn’t know who You’re So Vain was about?

She's constantly asked about it has discussed it many times, and auctioned off the answer for $50,000. There is a small club of people including Howard Stern and Taylor Swift who know who it's about. The mystery of this song is a huge part of Carly Simon's brand and she has been parsing out clues for years.

[Ginger]

For the record, I always thought Carly Simon teasing the identity of "You're So Vain" for the past 49 (!) years was really pathetic.

I'm not a close follower of Taylor, but when I heard she was attacking an ex through coded lyrics, I rolled my eyes and thought, She's going back to that? This is a regression for her.

[Beyle]

Nov 19, 2021 14:25:38 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

This has me thinking back to a quote I saw years ago and saved: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

One of my favorite quotes. I never felt better after exposing my narc. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[WestEndGirl]

For me, it’s Taylor Swift stopping her performance opening the 2016 Grammys of We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (a song supposedly about Jake) to reenact/mime a conversation between her and an ex who wanted her back. She gave the ex a British voice and said something like, “but I am busy, I am singing at the Grammys!” And the ex was supposed to be Harry Styles, who most of 1984 was about. And 1984 had several songs/videos/promo commentary by Taylor about him. He was also someone who wronged her (“All You Had to Do Was Stay”) and they only dated for like 6 weeks. That was several years ago but still.

Reputation, the next album, was supposedly heavily about reclaiming herself from people who had wronged her (snake imagery/Kim K/“look what you made me do”), the Bad Blood song and video against Katy Perry.

It comes across as so victim mentality and childish to me. I assume Lover and the new music may not be this way, which sounds nice.

[magazinewhore]

I think you mean, 1989, right, WestEndGirl?

I gotta say, I don't see this as a regression or playing the victim at all. I feel like between her performance on SNL and her films, she's cementing the reputation (no pun) her very real songwriting chops.

As someone noted, she wouldn't be doing this at all had her songs not been purchased by others. I disagree it's pathetic because she's talking about her boyfriends from her early 20s. That's just trivializing the experiences of a young woman--a far too common. So she was young or they dated a short time. That doesn't make her songs like "All Too Well" any less good.

[Beyle]

Nov 19, 2021 20:46:33 GMT -4 magazinewhore said:

I think you mean, 1989, right, WestEndGirl?

I gotta say, I don't see this as a regression or playing the victim at all. I feel like between her performance on SNL and her films, she's cementing the reputation (no pun) her very real songwriting chops.

As someone noted, she wouldn't be doing this at all had her songs not been purchased by others. I disagree it's pathetic because she's talking about her boyfriends from her early 20s. That's just trivializing the experiences of a young woman--a far too common. So she was young or they dated a short time. That doesn't make her songs like "All Too Well" any less good.

I'm in my mid-40s and some of my peers have been talking about "All Too Well," and how it resonates with them. YMMV. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't mind Taylor, but don't qualify as a fan.

[WestEndGirl]

Nov 19, 2021 20:46:33 GMT -4 magazinewhore said:

I think you mean, 1989, right, WestEndGirl?

I gotta say, I don't see this as a regression or playing the victim at all. I feel like between her performance on SNL and her films, she's cementing the reputation (no pun) her very real songwriting chops.

As someone noted, she wouldn't be doing this at all had her songs not been purchased by others. I disagree it's pathetic because she's talking about her boyfriends from her early 20s. That's just trivializing the experiences of a young woman--a far too common. So she was young or they dated a short time. That doesn't make her songs like "All Too Well" any less good.

Oops, yes - 1989!

[prisma]

I too don't mind Taylor but am not a fan. But I remember the whole episode with Scooter Braun and her being denied the chance to buy back her masters, and how enraging and unfair it seemed. (How could a guy named "Scooter" not be involved in malevolent douchebaggery?) So I'm happy for her that she found a way to outsmart the system. Good for her. Yeah, all that stuff from her early twenties is back but it doesn't bother me. And I honestly don't care about Jake Gyllenhaal having another turn in the barrel. There are blinds all the time on Deux Moi about him being a self involved ass, so let him deal with it. As was said upthread, if he didn't want past actions to come back and haunt him, he could have been a nicer person. He doesn't seem to have gotten any better over the years.

[alpierce]

Nov 18, 2021 22:16:51 GMT -4 ahah said:

Nov 18, 2021 14:14:35 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

How did she do this exactly? Did she encourage them to harass Jake?

Yes. When you’ve got fans as devoted as she knows hers are, and she centers the promotion of an album over a song she knows they know is about him, that’s exactly what she’s doing. She markets loyalty to her as being fighting her fights.

Nov 18, 2021 18:14:52 GMT -4 eveschmeve said:

To be fair to Taylor, had she been allowed to purchase her own music none of this would have to happen. The only reason it’s happening is that she had to re-record her songs so she could own them again. She’s not bringing it back up again for fun or because she really can’t stand Jake Gyllenhaal. All Too Well is considered one of her best songs, if not the best song she’s ever written, and the 10 minute version was always something she hinted at. I always find it weird that Taylor is picked on for writing songs about her exes as if it’s a very rare thing that no other musician does. No one goes around yelling about men who write songs like this, but somehow she gets singled out for criticism.

There’s no sales requirement for her to own the music, right? So she could record it all again, release it as a legal move rather than a marketing one, and she’d own it. The promotion to make the rehash a huge sales boom is about her ego, not the technicality needed to own her music.

And I don’t rip on her for writing about her exes. I rip on her for all the clues and desperate need for everyone to figure out who she’s talking about. It goes from self expression to self obsession.

Since she doesn't own the rights to the music then it's doubtful she makes much if any money from album sales anymore. I don't know what record contracts are like but I would guess that the reason she is doing this is because the owner of the rights to these recordings is making the money that Swift believes should be hers.

Think Michael Jackson when he bought the Beatles catalog. For many years the surviving Beatles did not own the rights to their own music. I believe they were eventually sold back somehow but it took a lot of negotiating